Disturbing truths about the newest generation

[Reaganfan]

My father told me about his memories of November 22, 1963. Now to many younger Americans, that date has absolutely no meaning what-so-ever. Of course, it was the tragic day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. My grandfather told me years ago how he saw my then-eight year old father crying infront of the television as coverage of the slain President unfolded.



That afternoon, my late Grandfather, along with my father and his brother and my Grandmother got into their pink 1960 Lincoln to drive around their northern Ohio neighborhood. The only reason was to go for an afternoon drive. Just cruise around the community to see how things looked that fateful afternoon and to clear their minds. Of course, everyone was gripped with sadness.

While driving, they passed the local bank. A police officer was standing outside the bank holding a shotgun. Perhaps it was for no reason other than moving a shotgun from a building to a car trunk, or perhaps there was a minor local matter. Regardless, it was something completely unrelated.

Upon seeing the officer holding the shotgun outside the bank, my then-30 year old Grandmother said to my family, "Maybe they think he's in there..." meaning Lee Harvey Oswald, who was in Dallas, Texas over 1,000 miles away.

My grandmother had no concept of geography. In her mind, "Dallas, Texas" might as well have been 20 minutes down the road.

I find that so many people I know, friends and co-workers, some even older than me, are the exact same way. We'll have the television set on a weather forecast showing our Cleveland area radar and the map might then switch to a blank map of the state of Ohio. "So where are we on this map?" I respond, "A little south of Cleveland." They look puzzled. "Where's Cleveland on this map?"



I cannot recall not knowing geography in my head. When I hear about Alaska, I know where it is on a map. When I hear about Madagascar, I know it's next to South Africa in the Indian Ocean.

I've recently run into grown adults who didn't know what Hiroshima or Nagasaki were. I told them they are Japanese cities that were destroyed by the United States when we dropped nuclear weapons on them to end World War II. I then wondered, do they even know the significance of nuclear weapons? Is a nuclear bomb to them no different than an old fashioned stick of dynamite? Do they realize that for nearly 50 years there was a looming threat of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States?


Kansas City, 1983 following the U.S.-Soviet nuclear war via "The Day After"

A year ago on the Fourth of July, I asked a very sweet and pretty 18 year old girl why we celebrate the Fourth of July and she couldn't tell me. She said, "Why?" I told her to celebrate our Declaration of Independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776. She responded with an uninterested, "Oh."

I'm willing to bet that all they hear was, "To celebrate our BLAH BLAH BLAH from BLAH BLAH BLAH on July 4, 1776." (which I bet even the date throws them off since anything pre-1999 seems prehistoric to them).



Writer Mark Bauerlein's book, "The Dumbest Generation" made a fantastic point with an excerpt about 1776:

"Think of how many things you must do in order NOT to know the year 1776 or the British prime minister or the Fifth Amendment. At the start, you must forget the lessons of school-history class, social studies, government, geography, English, philosophy, and art history. You must care nothing about current events, elections, foreign policy, and war. No newspapers, no political magazines, no NPR or Rush Limbaugh, no CNN, Fox News, network news or NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. No books on the Cold War or the Found, no biographies, nothing on Bush or Hillary, terrorism or religion, Europe or the Middle East. No political activity and no community activism. And your friends must act the same way, never letting a historical fact or current affair slip into a cell phone exchange.

It isn't enough to say that these young people are uninterested in world realities. They are actively cut off from them. Or a better way to put it is to say that they are encased in more immediate realities that shut out conditions beyond-friends, work, clothes, cars, pop music, sitcoms, Facebook. Each day, the information they receive and the interactions they have must be so local or superficial that the facts of government, foreign and domestic affairs, the historical past, and the fine arts never slip through. How do they do it?"

Am I wrong to find this disturbing? What are your opinions on it?

[LastVoter]

I'm drunk and what is this?

[Ebowed]

If this ignorance is a feature of the newest generation, why are you pointing to your grandmother and 'grown adults' lacking basic knowledge of geography to demonstrate it?

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Naso, you don't have to remind us what is wrong with you. We already know.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Naso, how old are you?

[Lief 🗽]

Mike Naso: Writes a post complaining about the current generation; Begins it with an internet meme.

[Simfan34]

Most of what was said here is true.

[batmacumba]

True or false, this is the stereotype of the average American and this is not new at all. And this perception comes from a country which educational achievements are far from being a pride of mankind.

[Simfan34]

True or false, this is the stereotype of the average American and this is not new at all. And this perception comes from a country which educational achievements are far from being a pride of mankind.

This also. We pride ourselves on the twin evils of folksiness aka ignorance and informality aka sloppiness. America has been exporting its cultural degradation abroad for decades. One of the worst is casual Fridays which have become causal everydays.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Every generation of teenagers is idiotic. Just as the dumb teenagers of the 1950's are being idealized today, the media of the 2030's will idealize today's teenagers.

[Хahar 🤔]

Most of what was said here is true.

hahahahaha

[Torie]

Naso, maybe you just run with the "wrong" crowd. Anyway, what folks said about my generation when we were young was far worse.  

Having said that, I think there has been an overall decline in literacy.

[Keystone Phil]

"WHAT A BULLY WANNABE!"

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I'm in the same boat as Naso, though I'll admit the idea of the next generation being dumber has existed for quite a while. I personally am an elitist thanks to the ignorance (or perceived ignorance?) of others. Don't worry though, soon power will be restored to the hands of those who truly deserve it.

[Хahar 🤔]

I'm in the same boat as Naso, though I'll admit the idea of the next generation being dumber has existed for quite a while. I personally am an elitist thanks to the ignorance (or perceived ignorance?) of others. Don't worry though, soon power will be restored to the hands of those who truly deserve it.

You seem like a very pleasant person.

[All Along The Watchtower]

I Naso threads.

[Oakvale]

Naso's post is just Naso and I can largely ignore it, but Simfan and Cathcon's weird affected "elitism" is a bit much.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I'm in the same boat as Naso, though I'll admit the idea of the next generation being dumber has existed for quite a while. I personally am an elitist thanks to the ignorance (or perceived ignorance?) of others. Don't worry though, soon power will be restored to the hands of those who truly deserve it.

You seem like a very pleasant person.

Thanks, man.

[politicus]

My father told me about his memories of November 22, 1963. Now to many younger Americans, that date has absolutely no meaning what-so-ever. Of course, it was the tragic day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. My grandfather told me years ago how he saw my then-eight year old father crying infront of the television as coverage of the slain President unfolded.


That afternoon, my late Grandfather, along with my father and his brother and my Grandmother got into their pink 1960 Lincoln to drive around their northern Ohio neighborhood. The only reason was to go for an afternoon drive. Just cruise around the community to see how things looked that fateful afternoon and to clear their minds. Of course, everyone was gripped with sadness.

While driving, they passed the local bank. A police officer was standing outside the bank holding a shotgun. Perhaps it was for no reason other than moving a shotgun from a building to a car trunk, or perhaps there was a minor local matter. Regardless, it was something completely unrelated.

Upon seeing the officer holding the shotgun outside the bank, my then-30 year old Grandmother said to my family, "Maybe they think he's in there..." meaning Lee Harvey Oswald, who was in Dallas, Texas over 1,000 miles away.

My grandmother had no concept of geography. In her mind, "Dallas, Texas" might as well have been 20 minutes down the road.

I find that so many people I know, friends and co-workers, some even older than me, are the exact same way. We'll have the television set on a weather forecast showing our Cleveland area radar and the map might then switch to a blank map of the state of Ohio. "So where are we on this map?" I respond, "A little south of Cleveland." They look puzzled. "Where's Cleveland on this map?"

I cannot recall not knowing geography in my head. When I hear about Alaska, I know where it is on a map. When I hear about Madagascar, I know it's next to South Africa in the Indian Ocean.

I've recently run into grown adults who didn't know what Hiroshima or Nagasaki were. I told them they are Japanese cities that were destroyed by the United States when we dropped nuclear weapons on them to end World War II. I then wondered, do they even know the significance of nuclear weapons? Is a nuclear bomb to them no different than an old fashioned stick of dynamite? Do they realize that for nearly 50 years there was a looming threat of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States?

A year ago on the Fourth of July, I asked a very sweet and pretty 18 year old girl why we celebrate the Fourth of July and she couldn't tell me. She said, "Why?" I told her to celebrate our Declaration of Independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776. She responded with an uninterested, "Oh."

I'm willing to bet that all they hear was, "To celebrate our BLAH BLAH BLAH from BLAH BLAH BLAH on July 4, 1776." (which I bet even the date throws them off since anything pre-1999 seems prehistoric to them).



Writer Mark Bauerlein's book, "The Dumbest Generation" made a fantastic point with an excerpt about 1776:

"Think of how many things you must do in order NOT to know the year 1776 or the British prime minister or the Fifth Amendment. At the start, you must forget the lessons of school-history class, social studies, government, geography, English, philosophy, and art history. You must care nothing about current events, elections, foreign policy, and war. No newspapers, no political magazines, no NPR or Rush Limbaugh, no CNN, Fox News, network news or NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. No books on the Cold War or the Found, no biographies, nothing on Bush or Hillary, terrorism or religion, Europe or the Middle East. No political activity and no community activism. And your friends must act the same way, never letting a historical fact or current affair slip into a cell phone exchange.

It isn't enough to say that these young people are uninterested in world realities. They are actively cut off from them. Or a better way to put it is to say that they are encased in more immediate realities that shut out conditions beyond-friends, work, clothes, cars, pop music, sitcoms, Facebook. Each day, the information they receive and the interactions they have must be so local or superficial that the facts of government, foreign and domestic affairs, the historical past, and the fine arts never slip through. How do they do it?"

Am I wrong to find this disturbing? What are your opinions on it?

1. You guys really dont know how to talk to girls Why ask a hottie a question like that?

2. I generally  agree with your sentiment. Westerners are better educated than ever before and yet the bulk of the population in our part of the world seems to be increasingly ignorant about basic knowledge of society, history and the world around them.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Naso's post is just Naso and I can largely ignore it, but Simfan and Cathcon's weird affected "elitism" is a bit much.

Why do people find it such a strange concept?

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

1. You guys really dont know how to talk to girls Why ask a hottie a question like that?

You have to excuse him. He doesn't have an experience with classy European girls.

[Mr. Morden]

1. You guys really dont know how to talk to girls Why ask a hottie a question like that?

You have to excuse him. He doesn't have an experience with classy European girls.

He really should take a class on this from The Professor.

[All Along The Watchtower]

I should start a thread titled:

"Disturbing truths about previous generations."

[Eraserhead]

So Mark Bauerlein expects the likes of Rush Limbaugh to teach young people about things like the Fifth Amendment? Good luck with that, Mark.

[opebo]

what folks said about my generation when we were young was far worse.