The younger generation.

[Faustus]

A few of the chaps down my local were having a chat the other night, you know how it is, putting the world to rights etc.

One of the contributors was complaining about today's younger generation in the West not having any fire in their bellies the way we did in our younger days.

I asked him what he meant by that statement. He said well think back to the sixties and seventies and even the fifties. There were protests almost every weekend about one thing or the other. There was CND with Ban the Bomb, Greenham Common, Workers Rights, world poverty, you name it and the young were protesting about it.

This drew more people into the conversation wth many agreeing. A few remarked that although probably an over generalisation today's young people appeared to be more insular and self-obssessed, more concerned with getting material things like the latest iPhone, clothes, other gadgets etc. rather than having a social concience. Many would prefer to play the latest computer game than take to the streets in an effort to change anything.

What do others think - did this group have a point?

 

[Kamerad]

And the generation before said the same about them.

 

[olivier renault]

Bunch of hippies.

 

[Dave]

We're too busy trying to earn enough money to pay off your generation's generous pension schemes to protest

 

[aslco]

Protests about the Iraq war, student fees, anti-capitalism "mask" marches and interaction with the Scottish referendum would suggest otherwise.

However, it is pretty true that today's people are more self / body concious, but i don't think that means they engage less with issues. Social media actually increases awareness of world wide issues.

I think more people feel let down and disengaged with politics nowadays as they've realised what a farce our voting system is and how hard it is to change things. I expect a big swing in voting behaviour once the "newspaper reading" generation leaves us - thank goodness.

 

[Kronos]

We're too busy trying to earn enough money to pay off your generation's generous pension schemes to protest

Are these the pension schemes that the brokers take massive fees each year for 'administration?' And successive governments have pledge to do something about but of course do nothing?

 

[mmj_uk]

Has your friend been reading Brave New World?

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Postman added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us.

 

[Derek W]

The younger generation do have fire in their bellies, well in the streets when they're rioting, shooting or stabbing each other etc

EDIT

Also

 

[Deleted member 66701]

I don't think that's the case at all.

I attend a lot of rallies and most attendees are of the younger generation. It's just that it doesn't seem so as there is a general agreement in the media to not give these rallies/assemblies any print or air time, so it seems like they just don't happen. I attended a lot of the rallies in Scotland during the independance run up and most of the people there were younger as well.

When I worked for HP and was Chair of the Union branch, it was alo the younger members that turned up to the meetings, manned the picket lines, came up with the good ideas etc. For every person over 30 recruited, we'd recruit 2 under 30 (although that might have something to do with HP's obsession of sacking older workers and replacing them with cheaper grads).

 

[pitkin]

We're too busy trying to earn enough money to pay off your generation's generous pension schemes to protest

Surely you're all trying to earn enough money to pay off the huge debts you've built up by having the latest smart phone every other year, numerous other items of electronic gadgetry, a 2 year old Ford Mondeo you bought as a first car for £7000 and your child maintenance because you all got married and had kids too young.

Or is that just my kids?

 

[craptakular]

Youngsters do protest but its all about the latest celebrity craze now and getting a boob job on the NHS and free council house.

Our country is dying under the weight of socialism and the selfie.

 

[Dave]

Are these the pension schemes that the brokers take massive fees each year for 'administration?' And successive governments have pledge to do something about but of course do nothing?

The "massive fees" tend to be a percentage of what's in the percentage, as is the compounded interest. You could invest it yourself if you don't want to pay someone else to do it for you!

All the older chaps at work chastise the grads for not putting enough into the pension pot - they are all on ridiculous final salary schemes whereas we are on an absolute bare minimum pension. Factor in ridiculous rents (also going to the older generation . . .) and the student loans then there's not much left over to chuck in. An engineer who is retiring next year is moaning as his pension will put him into the 45% tax bracket. My heart bleeds for him

Surely you're all trying to earn enough money to pay off the huge debts you've built up by having the latest smart phone every other year, numerous other items of electronic gadgetry, a 2 year old Ford Mondeo you bought as a first car for £7000 and your child maintenance because you all got married and had kids too young.

Or is that just my kids?

Apparently so I used to have a Mondeo, but it was an 8-year old one that cost about £2k!

 

[MookJong]

Free market capitalism won, this generation don't remember the Cold War or a time when alternative theories on how to run a society existed.

This combined with the rise in consumer goods and services means that young people are less likely to be bored and start questioning at the society that live in.

Imagine never knowing the world before 9/11, the Internet and mobile phones.

 

[Kenai]

It's just that it doesn't seem so as there is a general agreement in the media to not give these rallies/assemblies any print or air time, so it seems like they just don't happen.

I think this point has a lot of merit, every time I have been to London recently there have been swarms of young people with banners, signs and megaphones etc. but I generally have to do a lot of digging around to find out more about it, as they're virtually never front page of BBC coverage, or even a page on the BBC at all.

I think a lot of it is just ignored these days but it's still happening on the ground, I guess readerships are bored of it now.

 

[Cosimo]

Bunch of hippies.

Great whilst the sex, drugs and rock n roll lasted. Now we're running the show.

 

[Efour]

Imagine never knowing the world before 9/11, the Internet and mobile phones.

9/11 is still around but they call them self 7/11 now i think

 

[easyrider]

Our country is dying under the weight of socialism.

No it's dying under the void of the rich and poor divide... Conservatism doesn't work.

 

[Caged]

I think it's foolish to cast aspersions on a generation of people without taking into account the world they grew/are growing up in. The argument seems to be "we did this thing 50 years ago when we were young, why aren't people the same now?".

 

[Nitefly]

Has your friend been reading Brave New World?

*snip*

That was actually quite poignant - I liked it.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

We're too busy trying to earn enough money to pay off your generation's generous pension schemes to protest

While it would be awfully decent of you if you were sticking a few bob a week into my private pension fund, I suspect you're talking about the state pension which I opted out of in 1988.