The New Generation

The other day I was talking to someone who asked me what my biggest worry is. Now most people who would say it’s taxes, the tea party, gay rights, gun control, women’s rights or something other in the political sphere. It may shock you all to hear this. It’s not. It’s this current generation.

Shocking, isn’t it? Well, maybe not so much. Now please, don’t misunderstand me. I get that this whole generation aren’t idiots. And really, if they are, it’s more or less because what we, as a society, idolizes idiots at his current time. Why, I have no idea. René Descartes said “Any community that gets its laughs by pretending to be idiots will eventually be flooded by actual idiots who mistakenly believe they are in good company.” Or to put it simply for those who don’t know French Philosophers, Stanisłan Lem (who is a noted author of science fiction and shockingly also a philosopher) said “I hadn’t known there were so many idiots in the world until I started using the internet.”

And again not everyone on the internet is an idiot. But they seem to flock to it and proudly let their stupid flag fly. We are dealing with kids who don’t understand what vowels are. That’s right, the basic concept of A,E,I,O and U being different from the rest of the alphabet is an alien concept. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

We have kids who don’t understand that the Titanic was more than just a made up ship for a James Cameron movie. Which, in all fairness to James Cameron, probably pisses him off too. Cameron is known to be a stickler for facts. And keeping his historical movies as true to history as he possibly can get it. At the opening for the movie of Titanic he served the exact same caviar that was served on the Titanic. Everything he did and went into that movie was to honor not just that ship, but the people and the era they existed in. And what thanks does he get? “Am I the only one who didn’t know the Titanic was a real ship?” Are you kidding me?

We also seem to have an upcoming generation who fails to grasp the basic sense of time. Hard as it is to believe, there is more to this world then just your personal time line. Shocking! But this year with the Olympics we saw people who could not grasp that the Olympics are around 3000 years old. How is this possible because we’re living in the year 2000? Yes, 2000 CE (Or AD for those who don’t care about religious connotation.) We are talking about something that started back around 1012 BCE ( Or BC, whatever) See, here’s this funny thing, civilization is more than 2000 years old. And a good chunk of people in the United States don’t believe that the earth is older than 5000-9000 years old. It has to do with the bible and somehow dinosaurs (Who lived MILLIONS of years ago. See the world survived without you before this) are here because it’s a trick by Satan. Sarah Palin, a one-time contender for the VP position and the queen of idiocy, called them the Devil Lizards based on this belief. Look, if Pat Robinson can admit that the earth is older than this and you can’t argue with science.

Now I sincerely hope this all just jokes and trolling, but I don’t think that’s the case in most things I’ve heard and seen.  And that is even more terrifying. We have a generation of kids coming up who just don’t give a damn. They don’t want to learn and so they don’t.

I had this same discussion with a friend of mine. And while I acknowledge that as kids, none of us wanted to be at school. As young kids we wanted to be out and play and as teens we just wanted to sleep (At least that was me) and school was just an annoyance, we had parents who made us go because they understood we needed a good education to move forward in this world. And while parents today understand that as well, they do their kids homework, yell at the teachers when their kids don’t do well and practically live their children’s lives for them in every academic sense.

There is a fair and balance approach to this situation. And it was what I had. When I failed, it was my fault because I was responsible to learn what was needed and had to study. Don’t yell at the teacher while your child can’t spell a simple sentence.

And really, that’s a point I find so amusing to one degree and annoying as hell to another. We complain that immigrants need to learn English because this is America, damn it! Well how in God’s name are they supposed to learn it when our own kids can’t spell it? They can’t even speak it half the time.  How does “dis hoe b h8n on mi cuz of mi swag” Translate into anything worth knowing? It doesn’t. Again, I’m not the best at spelling, but I at least attempt to try to spell it based on what I think it is with clues from sounds and other similar spelling words (Not always a sure bet it’s spelled right but it’s  a damn sight better than mass butchering of language I typed above.)

This is the generation that is pushed into higher education due to parents who really have the best intent but find their kids are more or less idiots because they idolize idiots. People like Paris Hilton and the Jersey Shore crew are held up and loved while there are intelligent people are more or less shoved under the title of “nerd” and tossed away while they can help stimulate those little grey cells, as Hercules Peroit says.

And this is also the generation that will be moving into the positions of power. In politics and cops, into places where an IQ over 60 is needed.  And these kids are capable of so much more! They are able to think and be smart but they chose to be stupid because we as a society have embraced the idiots who are rich as somehow a success story. Some people who don’t have a college or even and high school education but managed to make something out of themselves and lives are an inspirational. But we can’t hold up ever idiot who are rich because they must be a role model. No. They aren’t. Paris Hilton is rich because her family is. And she dropped out of high school because she never will have to worry about money. But to encourage people to be like her because she’s stupid and rich is a massive mistake. And to even have a child who wants to be like her should be an embarrassment.

What we need to do is not just encourage kids to learn but to let them learn. We need to allow our kids to not just do their own homework, but to let them fall down because they will learn to pick themselves up again. They will learn to watch where they are walking. But we cannot neutralize their childhood and stress that they need to get into an ivy league school. We cannot continue to encourage kids to worship idiots.

Because it is bringing in a generation who can’t tell that America was originally a British colony. That the English language is just that, the Language of England. That we have rights that extend to all (Guess what, at the age of 14, your freedom of speech is protected but you don’t grasp the full understanding of what it means. When you do, come back and talk to me.) It states in the Declaration of Independence “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain, unalienable, rights that all men are created equal.  And among these rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” But it seems to be that most of our current generation just seem to think these were always around (like the internet) and don’t get the mayflowers, the puritans, the American colonies or the real fight for these rights. It’s kind of like people don’t get the main principle we fought for in the civil war. Because let’s face it there’s never one reason we fight wars. But the abolition of slavery was the big reason. And it’s more or less seen as an annoyance. And to make things better, there are those (And no, not the Iranian president) who thought that the Nazi’s are just a story.  Millions died and they are reduced to a story. Or to PETA a marketing gem, but more on that in another post.

We need to teach this generation things that, we as Americans, should know. But it’s not just Americans. Oh no! A recent article showed that 50% of kids in Germany didn’t know that the Third Reich was a dictatorship. Yes, I get you don’t like that part of your history. It’s like us and Slavery. A BIG black eye on your national history but, at least in my school, it was taught and it was taught with a respect to human life but also what we did. It wasn’t “Well, we didn’t know better and so we did this.” No it was “We, as a nation, one time had slavery. Today we know this isn’t right and our local history had many people fighting for equal rights for slaves as well as all people. But this is what happened.” (I live in the North East in America and we had allot to do here with not only rights as to Slavery but also the woman’s vote.)

And yes, I know in Germany, displaying any recognizable Nazi symbols or signs can be severely punished (Which is how 88 came to be. H is the 8^th letter of the alphabet. 88=HH=Heil Hitler. Ah, Neo Nazi’s and your creativity) but they should know that the Third Reich was a dictatorship. Abraham Lincoln said “those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Teach your children where you went wrong and they won’t follow (And if they do, it will be small in numbers if you also teach them humanity and compassion)

To you, the youth of this country, I want you to stop worrying about the labels you will incur if you actually use your mind. For as Dr. Seuss said “Say what you mean and mean what you say. For those who mind, don’t matter. And those who matter, don’t mind.” You need to be able to take your life by the reigns and work toward your future and prove me wrong. Prove you are capable of more than being mindless, tech addicted parasites. I know there’s potential in all of you. So go and show the world just what you are capable of.