by Curt Kovener
You’re bent out of shape with the way things have gone and continue to go in government? You’re anxious because the future you thought was supposed to be so secure and comfortable for you, now doesn’t look so appealing? You’re disappointed with the condition of society: moral turpitude, crime & lack of punishment, too much taxes and not enough government service, young people disrespectful of authority and their elders, common sense manipulated to justify others’ actions?
Well, cheer up. You aren’t the first to experience those feelings. Most of our ancestors thought their world was going to heck in a handbasket also.
It’s interesting listening to the concerns, complaints and whinings about today’s American life coming from every generation. Here we have seniors who have been eye witnesses to incredible changes in technology. They have literally gone from a horse & buggy era into the space age. They were here when the automobile gained in popularity, then air travel, then computers and all of the far ranging offshoots of the microchip.
Our working adults are putting in more hours, being more productive and claiming to be stressed out because there is a feeling that they shouldn’t be having to be working as hard as they used to. Their perception of the promised good life seems to be slipping from their grasp and they are frustrated by that possibility.
And our youngsters, for all of the griping we heap on them, are among the most technologically advanced generation to date. (Until the next one comes along.)
I can remember my days at CHS when if you were the most proficient typist in typing class (which is no longer taught in high school. Keyboarding comes along in elementary school now), you got to use the one and only electric typewriter. I never got to use it. The rest of the class and I banged and pounded on the old Royal manual typewriters.
Computers were talked about then but were a far off dream and filled a room to do simple tasks. It wasn’t until Steve Jobs in the 1980’s that they became more personal and useful to everyday life.
I recall 9-volt battery powered, cigarette pack size calculators selling for more than $100 when they first came out. Now, much smaller credit card size versions are given away as business promotions. And calculator apps are found on our smart phones.
But if you think the world is self destructing, you aren’t alone. More than 400 years ago a discouraged Egyptian priest wrote, ‘Our earth is degenerate in these latter days. There are signs that the world is coming to an end. Children no longer obey their parents.’
And even back 2,000 years ago, the Greek philosopher Socrates lamented, ‘The children now love luxury. They have bad manners and contempt for authority. They show disrespect for elders and love chatter in the place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their household. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up their food at the table, and tyrannize over their teachers.’
My parents’ generation lived through mine, and if history is an indicator, we will survive the next generation… complaining all the way.
