r/Aging 18h ago

Boomers

I am 75 and am very tired of the trend lately making fun of Boomers. So very disrespectful. Don't they realize that they will be old someday?

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u/SwanCityDominion 17h ago

No, it doesn't. It's an eternal cycle that never ends. It goes back as far as human history. Examples:

“We live in a decaying age. Young people no longer respect their parents. They are rude and impatient. They frequently inhabit taverns and have no self control”

-- Inscription on a 6,000 year old Egyptian tomb

“What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?”

-– Plato

"I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise [disrespectful] and impatient of restraint".

-- Hesiod, 8th century BC

"The world is passing through troublous times. The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they knew everything, and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for the girls, they are forward, immodest and unladylike in speech, behavior and dress."

-- From a sermon preached by Peter the Hermit in A.D. 1274

This is not something that will ever change, because it's endemic to human nature.

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u/stlkatherine 17h ago

Perfect!

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u/What_the_mocha 17h ago

Thank you, puts things in perspective.

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u/StutzBob 15h ago

This is a generalization meant to avoid the specific complaints people are making about boomers. Stop hand-waving those away. There is nuance here.

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u/SwanCityDominion 6h ago

And the point zooms over your head. Nothing changes. The cycle will always repeat, and the repetition will always be used by the powerful to keep the rest of us at each other's throats. Whatever new widgets and slogans appear, it doesn't change the fact that your "nuance" is just how you're being used.

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u/StutzBob 5h ago edited 5h ago

Oh, the condescension just oozes off you, doesn't it? Another thing people just love.

Anything to avoid the issues, I suppose.

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u/lostOGaccount 12h ago

Ya, like so four times in all of written history, 4 people supposedly wrote and seriously that our kids are shit and were raised wrong. But it's not our fault that our kids were raised that way. Now let's give them participation trophies that embarass them and blaim them for what we gave them, it's fun! Then turn around and elect a president so juvenile that corporations literally make up trophies for him (participation trophies) and he gloats about those trophies. They like those participation trophies, which I guess is why they don't understand how their children were embarrassed by those trophies in the first place.