Via Glenn’s link I was reminded of an unfortunate tendency:
It is the human condition that the oldest generation despairs of the youngest.
I was thinking along such lines for much of the day after watching Barack Obama’s speech in its entirety.
I’ll spare the (misleading) details of how billionaires like Warren Buffet pay less in taxes than their secretaries. Instead, check out the climax, followed by the glad-handing:
Yet these kids are not all that bad. They are young and thoughtful, full of hope about the future, and not wanting to screw up. They should not be dismissed as “brainwashed.” When I was their age (groan) I was “worse” (if that is the right word) than most of the kids today. I was a Marxist Leninist pain in the ass, and while I wasn’t brainwashed I was full of emotion — so full that I was unable to be objective in the adult sense. It took me quite a while to figure out things for myself. (And even now I still have trouble figuring things out for myself.)
It took me years to realize that I was a libertarian at heart, so I am in no position to be dismissive, or despairing.
Especially because many of these kids I would dismiss are more libertarian than I was at their age.
It is often tempting to think that young people are lacking in perspective.
Especially when you lack their perspective.
Comments
6 responses to “When I was young I lacked perspective”
At least we had ideals, if sometimes mistaken and misdirected. Now what?
Video games and porn. Student loans and grants – welfare for the indolent. Spoiled, indulgent, half-educated, tattooed and pierced wannabe savages, floating on daddy’s mortgage and health insurance, hooking up with the flavor of the month –
Buy Flavored Condoms for Oral Sex. Taste Banana, Chocolate, Strawberry, Mint, Grape and Vanilla. Its a party in your mouth with Tastee flavored condoms.
They flock like sheep to the man in the lavender automobile. And like O’Connor’s Francis Tarwater they’ll awake from the trance someday with their pants around their ankles and a burning asshole. Gullible & pathetic – except for a very few.
They’re the ones who come back with
PTSD, maimed for life with a missing arm or leg or eye, or in a coffin, having secured the poppy fields of Afghanistan for the satraps and warlords. The few, the proud, the cynical.
Better to have been a Marxist Leninist pain in the ass, Eric.
The reference above to Flannery O’Connor was hiked from a brilliant piece of foresight by Velociman in 2008. It’s worth re-reading.
http://www.velociworld.com/Velociblog/Oldvelocity/003271.html
I was a Trot. you impractical Stalinist tool. If it is good enough for Russia it is very good for the world. Besides – socialism in one country is impossible. Some country out of the plan will always try to cheat the system. Like the capitalist running dog Americans.
How am I doing so far?
As to ideals? They are good. Engineering is better. #3 son is a graduate EE now working in the industry. #1 Daughter will graduate Chem E in about a year and a half.
#2 son is doing something in Russia. We are not exactly sure what.
#1 Son is working on his art career.
M. Simon, that takes me back with a good laugh. For a minute I thought I was in Berkeley in 1968.
‘Children these days. They don’t respect their elders, they dress in rags, and their music is just noise’.
Pliny the Elder