An eternal argument to not do anything about it. Cause, if a problem doesn't exist, then you don't have to take responsibility or fix it, right?
And the first statement is balatnly incorrect. Show some proof that every generation complained about the youth from the beginning of time. I'd argue that the trend of complaining only became more prominent in the more recent history, given the more extreeme changes in the society.
People have always complained about a troublemaker here and there. Thing is, there's more and more of them recently.
No, it's because it's more reported. The world is a lot smaller than it was even fifty years ago. There have been rebellious youth since the beginning of society, and the older generations have complained about it (such as in that list Flipside put together). Yet, they had no need of pulsing painful sounds through their children's heads to fix it. Every civilized culture has had some way of passing on its morals and shaping its younger generations to replace their elders--some of "those damned kids" Socrates complained about were Plato and Alexander. You're grasping at straws and throwing out desperate declarations of "ARGHHHHH THOSE DAMNED KIDS WON'T PULL UP THEIR PANTS, SO I SHOULD BE ABLE TO BEAT THEM WITH A TIRE IRON UNTIL THEY FIGURE OUT WHAT'S GOOD FOR THEM!"
Any proof that it was common and that he was not just an exception? No? Thought so.
No, because, surprisingly, Zhou China, Persia, and Greece were too busy inventing the canal system, the anchor, and linear perspective to spend their writings *****ing and arguing about "ARGHHH THOSE DAMNED KIDS!"
It's become more apparent in recent history because:
A) We've had more free time to devote to studying it.
B) We've had more resources to devote to analyzing it.
C) The world's population has expanded from 100,000,000 to 6,000,000,000; and with the rapid advance of technology and the availability of the printing press and mass communication we've been able to see more and more people complaining about ARGHHH THOSE DAMNED KIDS! Like you, for instance.
I'm still waiting for an ounce of proof other than rhetorical nonsense from you that justifies your "ARGHHH THOSE DAMNED KIDS NEED TO BE PADDLED AGAIN!" approach to raising youth.
Ahh...note that that isn't what I said.
They speak of the general qualities of young people - like being rash, inexcperienced, full of themselves, energetic, etc...
Those are not complaints directed at their upbringing or lack of proper behavior.
But those are the exact qualities which lead to youth behaving inappropriately!
Why do you think Christianity preaches restraint and reserve? Why do you think every significant philosophical doctrine of the great civilizations said "Golly gee, to be a good person and contribute to society, you can't be a rash, thickheaded, ignorant clod"? It exists! People have been fixing it for thousands of years! The fact that you see it today doesn't mean we've failed--rebelliousness is a natural part of youth. But people get over it! Society raises its youth to be the new generation of rulers, thinkers, scientists, and intellectuals--and they don't have to do it through beating them either! That's what the educational system exists for.
