There is something about this generation of youth (specifically the 11 to 25 year olds) that is terribly different from any other generation in history.
Sure, every clump of "the younger generation" has thought they know everything, have thought their parents were dumb, and have assumed every brilliant thought that their generation has embraced has sprung new-born from their incomparable brains. This one is different.
Yes, this one has been told from the moment they were born (even before they were born, if mummy had a set of headphones to apply to her belly and a microphone to broadcast through them) that they were magnificent, stupendous, astonishing, and amazing--for doing nothing. Even for doing bad, they got praised or at the very least sympathized with. And while I can agree that this is hugely harmful in a way that no generation has ever had to overcome before, there is still a very nasty, very powerful distinction that makes this generation even more different.
It is our culture. The worship of children and the supreme magnificence of these spoilt brats is everywhere. Yes, your parents are idiots. No, don't listen to them. You have something to discuss, you go to your friends, never to your parents. You have a thought, don't mention it to your dad, he's a buffoon anyway. Don't tell it to your mom, she's busy shopping and she won't even look around to see what you're talking about. Telling it to any other adult is unthinkable, so it isn't mentioned, except in the case of senile old grandparents (always in their 90's if the voices are anything to go by, even though REAL grandparents start at 50) who validate the kids. Being outrageous is cool and when our senile grandparents are outrageous (and thus validate our outrageousness), that's extra cool.
Kids are magnificent and wonderful and always right and know best, above anything their stupid parents could imagine. This is in the culture. It's in their movies, their books (what few they read, they read because it's about teenagers who are smarter than the stupid adults, viz Hogwarts and all the wizarding books or all the vampire books), it's in their music. Worst of all, it's in everything they watch in their TV, not just in the trashy, unintelligent sitcoms aimed at teenagers but in the ads aimed at every kid from infancy on.
We have to get it out. But that would require Generation X, the worst parents ever to hit the planet, to get off their rear ends and start telling their children that there IS a right and wrong, there IS a good and bad. That their bad behavior will be punished, that ingratitude is unacceptable, that manners matter, and crapping on adults is right out, even if they're not your parents.
The older movies are full of bad guys, and one sure sign of a bad guy is he tells some person over fifty years of age, "Shut up, Old Man." Well, back in the Thirties it was a sign of an evil heart. Today, though, it's just standard behavior.
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