What's wrong with today's youth?

Ahhh- don't get me started on "attitude of entitlement"

What this culture is in dire need of is another great depression- something to effectively scour out the distractions- but with manufacturing bases and economies intact and functioning elsewhere, we're not likely to recover from it.

 

There is something to be said for counter culture.

All of the real activity is at the edges.

 

There's nothing wrong with today's youth that society hasn't caused and that society couldn't fix.

 

Perhaps the greatest challenge to the modern Hipster is > unless he’s got some philosophies and politics to introduce to the world, his contribution may die with his ironical T-shirt in a Goodwill bin.

thoughts at 5am from the eastern seaboard
jack

 

i kinda agree.except about the part people dont care... of course i think people care,i think its just hard cuz people think.."what if its not enough' after a war ends there is just going to be another one..thanks to america!.lol...its all your fault, not ours! e canadians rarely likes to get in the middle of things...its you ugly americans who have a bad reputation...on EVERYTHING and you always have..

 

btw. speak for yourself...i bet your an american...if things go to shit they say canada is another one of the best places to be becuase we are above sea level...errr or something like that...lol

 

I marched and worked every angle to bring about peace,respect for the earth and equal rites for all. you must be in your fourties.

 

I just watched this dvd last night and thought of this thread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_q3SP-__GI"]YouTube - Doug Stanhope - kids have no fun these days.avi

Stay Brown,
Rev J

 

It all depends on how you look at it. A lot of todays youth are getting increasingly interested in organic farming and sustainable living, and in increasing momentum. There was a lot of that back 40 years or so ago, but this time around the fashion and psychedelic substances seem to be less of an important part of it. Of course there is always a lot of sweet green to go around.

I think this movement is a very good thing (for a lot of reasons) and that we should support it/become it.

But it's true that a lot of youth today are in a bad state. It's a mixture of things, breakfast cereals, flouridated water, genetically modified and processed foods, oversexualized media, etc. but at the same time all of that acts as a huge red light for a lot of todays youth and makes them wake up.

It's not so much about figuring out why everything is fucked up--that energy is better spent fixing it, you know?

 

^^But what you have to realize is that "Organic Farming" and "Sustainable Living" are modern terms for practices that have been used for thousands of years. 40 years ago there were organic farms but they didn't call them that.

Check out:
http://stone-soup-institute.org/

This is the website for my dad's school for Organic Farming and sustainable living.

Stay Brown,
Rev J

 

I'm 21 and I dont think im like the typical youth. In fact I'm more like the hippy generation I guess. I guess I'm just mature for my age. I had problems in middle school and high school because I refused to go to school because I didnt want to be a part of the superficial culture I felt was being bred in young people. I wanted to live as a monk or help people spiritually or something.

Anyways I think the problem is that the youth are disconnected. We have been given these STUPID gadgets and grown up with it and now its like normal. And noone will rebel and stop it we all just keep wanting the latest gadget. So what that leads to is noone going to the streets everyone just complains on the internet. Its like the internet and gadgets were made to keep us contained in cyberspace instead of have us show our true colors in real life.

The other thing is we've been raised in a rather liberal culture so we're desensitized to everything. I think part of the Hippies wanting to change was their boring conservative parents. They wanted to break free from that but we dont really feel the need to break free from anything. We also don't have the draft. Global warming is not tangible so we don't know how urgent we need to act. We don't feel the need to rebel since we're so comfortable. I think we escape into video games and cyberspace the way hippies would escape into other feelings and trips with drugs.

And lately there's the feeling that nothing will change. All the young people went crazy over Obama (I voted Clinton in the primaries) yet he hasn't stuck up for what they voted for. I'm probably going to work for a corporation even though I hate them and wish I didnt have to but I have to make a living and everyone tells me that's the safest, best way. But I'm also going this summer to live in organic self-sustainable living farms.

I think alot of us WANT change we just don't know what to do! I honestly think there would have to be mass hysteria for anything to change like in Egypt. But the deficit and global warming and all these issues we're aware of are not yet as tangible as when the hippies would have their friends dying in the war. When we really start seeing signs that everything is going to shit then we will do something and get our asses off our technology! I just don't know how bad things will have to get in order for that to happen.

Woah I wrote alot lol

 

I'm part of todays youth wether I want to be it or not. All we care about is money, looks and call of duty. No one cares about what happening over seas, if it doesn't effect them, more so they dont think it does, they dont see the problems of war, most of the people i know are for it. We're a horrible generation. I know.
But hey, theres a few of us that care what happens. Myself being one.

 

Yes, you did, which is refreshing to see in this "twit" age (pronounced "tweet" in Spanish). Also, your perspective seemed right on to me - you seem to have a handle on where the problems lie.

Ironically, what happened in Egypt was an old style protest working with the gadgets of the electronic age. May have been the first. (But nothing smells as sweet as a memiograf machine cranking out flyers )

Ppl like you give me hope that activism is not dead - that the spark of world consciousness is still smoldering. Of course you will have to compromise to exist. I have "worked for the man" most of my life - still am, tho my focus has been human services organizations. You can find "right livlihood" within the system.

Thanx for posting.

 

I agree, and I am also 21.

Another thing is lack of knowledge. Knowledge is power.

Ask anyone my age about the constitution, history, almost anything important and 95% wont know.

But ask them about jersey shore or some other bull shit and they can go on forever.

Another thing is modern technology. Even though is makes life easier, it is overshadowing the importance of unity as people, not over facebook. It also keeps people from looking into themselves to solve problems. We rely on a mouse with an "easy button" for everything.

 

phew, I finally made it through the whole thread!!! arty:
Wow, this thread has been going on for 5 years

Everyone on here definitely made some good points. It's how this generation was raised, so it's partly the parents fault. I really believe something needs to be done, and most of us young folks don't know where or even how to start!! Also, many people that say they're hippies are only in it for drugs/fashion. Posers are always a problem and when you have posers then you don't have a really good group to get the activity done.
I agree with Shale that things are chains and can create a personal prison.

I just can't believe I read all 20 pages of this :svengo:

 

I quite disagree with you people who feel usurped by tech.

"fight the ocean, and you will drown, brother"-the truth (grand theft auto:san andreas)

You've got to harness it for your own designs. The problem is how tech is used, not THAT it is used.

If you want to change how people think and behave, you would do better to get a good handle on tech and psychology than to bitch and moan on a counterculture forum on the INTERNET using a COMPUTER that tech is messing things up.

Technologies are morally neutral until we apply them. And their moral polarity can be later altered by different application. If you don't like it, FIX it.

 

What's wrong with yesterday's youth? Look at what strange adults they turned out to be.

 

Here's the typical path of yesterday's youth:

Born in the 40s/50s
60s: peace and love is the answer
(young and full of passions and rebelling against their strict parents)
70s: overuse of drugs and hedonism
(frustrated not being able to stay forever young, hippies indulge in hedonism)
80: money money money and profit
(having given up on drugs and becoming parents, they adopt materialism to spoil their kids rotten)
90s: Health and new age spiritualism
(ageing and realising they have wasted time earning money which doesn't make them happy)
00s: Anything and everything goes
(not realizing all they have done is adopted a bunch of useless trends, they are all mashed together)

Every decade a "new answer to life" came up, which was promptly disposed of in the rubbish bin when it turned out to not make them happy. The only thing that has persisted is the obsession with clothes and image. Those that stayed true to the 60s theme were probably closest to the truth, but these were very few.

 

I quite agree with you. Technology is not what's wrong with this generation, it's how they're using the technology, how much they're using the technology, and how they're taught to use it. Computers and such can be a fantastic tool for planning uprisings or revolutions. None the less, how we're being taught to use it is that it's ok to overindulge and be plugged in 24/7. It does add a bit of social retardation (I should know, I go to a "technology" high school)

Yes! :biggrin:

 

Why are we so? The science of commercial/subliminal advertisements is at its peak currently. Through the ignorance of our peers as well as their greed are generation has been forcefully transformed by this science through governmental/corporate control and regulation of mass social media. Everything within are current life’s is branded with adverts. And subliminal messages aimed to target are subconscious thought. The music industry can be seen to play a large role in this too. As the majority of music nowadays is self/ego focused and or completely lacking of rational thought and as we should all know music effects the subconscious witch effects how you think. I have taken many courses for social media/advertisements and it's astounding how far this science has advanced. Basically we are being cultured into something without our consent nor even are knowing. It sucks but it’s life.