Am I the only one here who.....

[Mayner]

Looking back at my family history to the 1880s the two things that stand out is that each generation went through a phase of youthful rebellion, (made their own decisions sometimes in the face of opposition from those in authority (sometimes parents and religious) ) and each generation worked through life's up and downs to bring up the succeeding generation. One interesting pattern on both sides of our family is women from old Irish families marrying men of English and Scottish ancestry (widen the gene pool?), though I changed the trend and married a woman of Viking/Germanic ancestry who is equally strong minded.

As a kid I remember a priest working himself into a lather during a sermon the World was about to end. He could not tell the difference between the sexes with boys and girls wearing long hair and similar clothing.

Parental opposition to a cousin going-out with a girl they considered low class, the couple eloped and have stayed together for over 50 years and are now great grandparents, but are at heart still a 60s couple.

Another cousin considered a failure in a family of high achievers became a left wing political activist and surprised his surviving brother and sister with the turnout of political dignitaries (all sides of the political spectrum) at his funeral.

We cannot judge succeeding generations by our own standards or without looking in the mirror.

Edited March 16 by Mayner

[DJ Dangerous]

5 hours ago, Galteemore said:

That’s one thing we don’t lack. Values are everywhere - everyone has them. But it’s an economic term: values have no hard or fast standing and can change. And we all value things differently….

What we increasingly lack are virtues, I think.

 

I think that you've just hit the nail on the head, albeit slightly evasively.

Values don't need to be monetary or economic, but it may very well be that as people get richer, and quicker, they find it more and more difficult to value anything from a non-monetary perspective.

And the inability to value things goes hand in hand with diminishing virtues.

Then we spiral downward, vanishing virtues and values, into vices and vitriol.

 

1 hour ago, Mayner said:

We cannot judge succeeding generations by our own standards or without looking in the mirror.

 

Boom, love this! Absolutely perfect, for almost every challenge we come across, whether generational or interpersonal.

So easy to forget in the moment, yet so crucial!

[spudfan]

Don't do Facebook, or social media. I have an e-mail and I go on line to talk about toy trains...

[Mayner]

9 hours ago, spudfan said:

Don't do Facebook, or social media. I have an e-mail and I go on line to talk about toy trains...

A lot of the crap on Facebook/social media is relayed by the older generation, have a relative in their 80s form the States that only posts Trump/Republican Party propaganda and conspiracy theory stuff, while our 14 year old simply chats with their friends and shares selfies and artworks on social media. Populist politicians tend to appeal to the age group or people that feel "that they have been left out" by main stream politics leading to Brixit in the UK and quite reactionary governments in this part of the World. This in turn leads to increasing discontent among an upcoming generation who feel that they have been let down by their parents and grandparents generations, interesting ties in the next 15-20 years!

We use facebook to chat between family in gthe States and New Zealand but ignore most of the postings.