Agree with your comments entirely.

<<< But the disadvantages are no passion >>>

Can you remember when we were young?
When Vietnam came along we got onto the streets and brought it to an end.

Today's youth just watch Iraq / Afghanistan, and sigh.

Sad.

Very sad indeed .... for to have no emotion and passion is really to have no soul (and thus no real life)

I agree. I'm 36, my brother is 27, and if you had asked me 10 years ago if I thought there was a "Generation Gap" between me and people his age, or people 10 years older than myself, I'd have said a resounding "No". However, there does seem to be a dividing line and that seems to be a "before and after" people born circa 1987/88. Whether it's the education system, or 21st Century media saturation, or the internet, or a combination of all these and more is open to question, and of course in generalising and I know there will be exceptions, BUT there does seem to be a definite "difference". Maybe a superficial society in superficial times has bred an entirely superficial channel-hopping-mind generation, and perhaps this is down to social engineering. They're easily led, easily distracted and easily pleased. I shudder at the thought of what it would be like to have been born around 1988. To have known no decent musical movement. To have been only 8 or 9 when Bliar came to power and Diana died (along with societies balls). To have had everything (porn, music, games, "news") at ones fingertips since around 11 years of age, yet always too much to properly digest. They seem to speak a different language - and it isn't one that particularly makes much sense.

He were a great baker, were my dad. Got up at crack ot dawn etc etc.

They seem to have a good attention span when it suits them. Teachers have a lot to answer for: there were always kids who couldn't read or write very well, but at least they knew in their heart of hearts that it was a failing; this generation regard it as bullying if anyone points out the difference between 'they're' and 'their'. Schools are producing a generation of cocky relativists.

I'm an incorigable snob and would like the class system to come back (then I know who I am really fighting)

Although I'm happy for Becks and Posh, Peter Andre etc to make a great living I find that that today's yoof are the most boring generation I've seen in my life.

When everyone aspires to be like them we know we are in trouble.

We are entering the age of anti-intellectualism.

Nu Labour sums up the tragedy of British society-business triumphed over all else and if you can show me the differences between then and the current lot I'll eat my up-market hat which I'm wearing to the Spring races this Saturday.

It's all Margaret Thatcher's fault. In a way she was more of a Stalinist than anyone-wanting all society to vanish and everyone to become city robots.

Dumbing down means that the generations in schools since 97 have gradually had the value of learning eroded.

See my post on the "State within a State" about the way in which the levers of power have been taken away from the ruling Government. They now exist outside of the Government.

The Fear agenda is to make us all feel powerless. In the 80s we all felt we could change the world - that we mattered. Live Aid - and every generation before that had that feeling.

Today we have generations who as children have been told on a daily basis that there are terrorists out to kill them and that all adults are potential paedophiles waiting round each corner ready to rape them etc.

Can we blame them for lacking any passion for life ? and for seeing very little value in anything ? They are being manipulated every day via the media AND education system into being "slaves" . That is why they all Qd up for their Swine Flu jabs in mid summer even though there was no real evidence of illness anywhere that was serious. They are what ICKE would call SHEEPLE.

Society is now divided along these lines - those of us who still speak out ( we are a minority who they seek to deride and rubbish ) and those who "follow" the SHEEPLE - who are possibly as many as 60% of the population - but we cant be sure because it is possible that most people KNOW what is going on but refuse to speak out.

We need to see kids within the larger picture.

Not just young people but across the entire spectrum I feel people are shallower, less considerate, less in tune with the very rock we sit upon. Having said that I still believe the younger generation will make a much better job of the hash that has been made by their ancestors and which they have inherited.

What saddens me painfully is the way they are constantly manipulated by the media, and then in turn the media turn on them and announce they are the reason for 'broken britain'. For every lout I can show you 25 (at least) beautiful young people who will go on to start digging us out of the pit of despair we are currently in.

As some of you may know I have given picnics a bad name in this area. I can't even buy pate anymore without receiving odd looks, and forget a french stick...the police tail me for an hour if I buy a french stick... but I can honestly say it is the elders of this town whom view me with great suspicion and distaste (I live in a large village), wereas the younger folk are forever charming and as far as they are concerned bygones be bygones.

It is the elders who are to blame for the rut we are in. Older people still start wars, still inflict pain and misery and destitution on their fellow man, still live by the rule book set out by their grandparents and their great grandparents and their great great grandparents (nearly did a Monty Python there).

Might I suggest some of you talk to 'goths'? They are the most delightful, most warm human beings you are ever likely to meet. I know three such people, and we have the greatest laughs whenever I am with them. Which is rarely I admit.

I disagree with JK...some young people are superficial...but the ones I know are not. They are quite brilliant and can see straight through the media.

"As some of you may know I have given picnics a bad name in this area. I can't even buy pate anymore without receiving odd looks, and forget a french stick...the police tail me for an hour if I buy a french stick... "

funny-you are sooo right about Goths. They have them here and they really are the sweetest people !

You say "Since I think the species will shortly be ending, this may not be a problem."
Are you able to predict a time. 5 Years, 25 years, 100 years, less more? Should I be worrying about the holiday I've booked next summer, or about my pension in 5 years time? Will my grandson complete his eductaion (He's 6)? and will my other grandchild even start school (She's 2)?

I suspect, Dixie, the species called the human race will be extinct by 2050 (I shall be 106 if I survive that long) but possibly even by 2020.

I never paid much attention to the loonies with sandwich boards in my youth but now, with global warming, storms, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, diseases and the complete lack of common sense and lateral thinking in humanity about communication and politics, I actually feel The End Of The World (as we know it) Is Coming...

JK2006 wrote:
I suspect, Dixie, the species called the human race will be extinct by 2050 (I shall be 106 if I survive that long) but possibly even by 2020.

I never paid much attention to the loonies with sandwich boards in my youth but now, with global warming, storms, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, diseases and the complete lack of common sense and lateral thinking in humanity about communication and politics, I actually feel The End Of The World (as we know it) Is Coming...

Go and have a sausage roll, JK. It'll all seem better.

Are you trying to hasten my demise Pru? Every Gregg's delight wipes ten years off my life expectancy.

I find that as I get older religion becomes more important.

When I was younger I sneared at the organised religions (as most do) but on further consideration you have to accept that most major world religions are remarkably similar in core content - is this just a major con-incidence ?

Take a look at the injustices of the Middle East, and then tell me the world will not end there (as the Bible predicts) ?

JK2006 wrote:
Are you trying to hasten my demise Pru? Every Gregg's delight wipes ten years off my life expectancy.

Go on, TREAT yourself!