You scoff at our decisions
Because they are not the ones you like
You criticize our choices
Because you believe you know best
You crow about your experience
Because you refuse to be told no
You swear that you took no help with us
Because your parents were always underfoot
You remind us of the damage that we do
Because you never made mistakes
You tell us about the horrid future that we build
Because you are the parental prophet
You pout and curse when refuse your path
Because you are the most mature around
We tell you thank you, but please go away
Because we are not as stupid as you think
Legends of Windemere 
Great stuff Charles! Pretty much explains why I don’t put a lot of energy into the notion of human progress. The other irony is that the older I get the more I realize I don’t know. Although it can be tempting to look upon youth as just a wee bit idealistic or its opposite, fatalistic. Perhaps grouping generations together as we do through the structure of schooling creates more distance between the generations than in agrarian cultures where everyone needed to be out in the fields?
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I think it deals with the changing world. Eventually, you hit a point where you can’t afford the time and money to keep up with the changes. The younger generations have more time and fewer bills to hold them back, so they come off as frivolous and foolish. Although, it’s probably a combination of several factors including the two we mentioned.
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Good point! Then there’s that feeling of being a saturated sponge.
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generation gaps… reminds me of Turgenev’s “Fathers and Sons”
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I have to admit that I never heard of it. What’s it about?
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up there with Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy for social commentary… takes place in Russia at a time when Royalty is on the wane and Nihilism (The belief in nothing, and the pre communist political upheaval between generations.) is on the rise. It’s under two hundred pages and it examines how the old guard and the next guard see the world through opposing views…
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while the times they are a different the issues are much the same…as generations clash…
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The clash of mentalities. Seems to be a running theme through history.
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Fantastic poem on the generational experience. My kids didn’t think I “Got it” until they were actually grown, then they told me I “Had it” all along….could of fooled me.
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Could be that they lost it or had the older version of it. It seems to change every ten years. I stopped bothering to get it. I’m happy to have any ‘it’ these days. 😀
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Amen…so it was, so it is…and so it will be.
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Until the end of time.
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Yep…so they tell me 🙂 I’ve been fascinated by Amen since I learnt that it meant: and so it is or so be it…otr truely.
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I always thought it meant ‘we agree’ or ‘us too’.
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Nah…just went to look it up to be sure I wasn’t wrong…I learnt about it…oh 30 yrars ago and in Italian:”così sia”…or so it is…here’s the wikipedia link…it’s originally from Hebrew: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amen
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The ‘verily’ and ‘truly’ makes sense considering how often we say it after prayers.
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basically…more or less the same…
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of course over all those “yrars” who knows what’s happened 😀
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yrars?
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made a typo in my last statement…so I jested on it 😉 should have been years…it’s 11:00 here and I’m on my net book…tiny keyboard and make more typos.
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Tiny keyboards and I don’t mix either. Glad I have a nice-sized keyboard.
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I usually do too…I actually have a normal key board for this as well…but difficult to use in my easy chair… 🙂 I’m off for a snooze…have a nice evening!
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Sleep well.
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In one of the first decoded Sumerian tablets (circa 5000 year old) were presented worries about future when the old generation will be replaced by their kids that are so irresponsible and only trouble making. The point is that instead of exploiting so old/trivial topics more interesting/challenging would be focusing our attention on truly uniting us subjects. For example, it was fascinating for me to see so many young and old people actively participating in the Occupy Movement about two years ago. Similarly it would be interesting to explain so big now support for Mr. Snowden among younger and older members of our society having legitimate doubts about respect for truly democratic rules in our present social systems. Beside easy political topics we can also find deep moral/philosophical/religious issues that can stir similar engagement of all generations.
So, go Charles go on deeper waters as you definitely know well how to swim and navigate!
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Thanks. It does seem big events combine the generations. I think a real trick is to get people of different generations to accept that everyone does things differently.
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I experience it daily. The conflict of ideas among different generations is expected but sometimes, I feel if the older generations would keep up with time and try to change their mind set, little by little with the time, there wouldn’t be need of any such arguments. And also, if the younger generations would also be patient with them and try to make them understand their opinions, rather than trying to impose them, it would definitely be a better alternative.
I guess this is a normal part of every day. There is anyhow one thing or the other where such conflicts emerge. One thing that bugs me is when the older people, in order to emphasize on their maturity implies that the younger ones are just kids..
This is a messed up comment, I hope you understand what I am trying to convey over here.
Good job with the poem.. 🙂
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I think I get it, but one must remember something. At one point, the older generation was the younger generation. Anachronism shows up at some point because you simply can’t figure stuff out or don’t see a reason for it. It’s the idea that they got buy without something, so the younger generation should be able to do the same.
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Very true..
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The great divide gets bigger with each generation.
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Does it? I never really noticed, but I can see that.
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