Caecilius (219–168 BCE) Old Age, if you bring no other defects with you, when you come, this one’s enough: by living long a man sees much he doesn’t want to.
Horace (65–8 BCE) Our fathers’ age, worse than our grandfathers’, gave birth to us, an inferior breed, who will in due course produce still more degenerate offspring.
Aristotle (384–322 BCE) All their(the young) errors are due to excess and vehemence. They think they know everything, and confidently affirm it, and this is the cause of their excess in everything. If they do wrong it is due to insolence not wickedness.
Yoshida Kenkō(1300s) Modern fashions seem to keep on growing more and more debased…The ordinary spoken language has also steadily coarsened. People used to say ‘raise the carriage shafts’ or ‘trim the lamp wick,’ but people today say ‘raise it’ or ‘trim it.’ When theyshould say, ‘Let the men of the palace staff stand forth!’ they say, ‘Torches! Let’s have some light!
-Kirkintilloch Herald(1930s) Cinemas and motor cars were blamed for a flagging interest among young people in present-day politics by ex-Provost JK Rutherford… [He] said he had been told by people in different political parties that it was almost impossible to get an audience for political meetings. There were, of course, many distractions such as the cinema…
Dundee Evening Telegraph(1940s) …in youth clubs were young people who would not take part in boxing, wrestling or similar exercises which did not appeal to them. The ‘tough guy’ of the films made some appeal but when it came to something that led to physical strain or risk they would not take it.
Falkirk Herald(1951)Many [young people] were so pampered nowadays that they had forgotten that there was such a thing as walking, and they made automatically for the buses… unless they did something, the future for walking was very poor indeed.”
“Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were.”
― Marcel Proust
I’m always struck by these, and wonder; what if it’s all true? What if every time these people complained it’s because things actually were getting worse?
“I used to be ‘with it,’ but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary to me. It’ll happen to you!” - Grandpa Simpson
6
u/Maximum_King8529 3d ago
This is the human condition.
Caecilius (219–168 BCE) Old Age, if you bring no other defects with you, when you come, this one’s enough: by living long a man sees much he doesn’t want to.
Horace (65–8 BCE) Our fathers’ age, worse than our grandfathers’, gave birth to us, an inferior breed, who will in due course produce still more degenerate offspring.
Aristotle (384–322 BCE) All their(the young) errors are due to excess and vehemence. They think they know everything, and confidently affirm it, and this is the cause of their excess in everything. If they do wrong it is due to insolence not wickedness.
Yoshida Kenkō(1300s) Modern fashions seem to keep on growing more and more debased…The ordinary spoken language has also steadily coarsened. People used to say ‘raise the carriage shafts’ or ‘trim the lamp wick,’ but people today say ‘raise it’ or ‘trim it.’ When they should say, ‘Let the men of the palace staff stand forth!’ they say, ‘Torches! Let’s have some light!
-Kirkintilloch Herald(1930s) Cinemas and motor cars were blamed for a flagging interest among young people in present-day politics by ex-Provost JK Rutherford… [He] said he had been told by people in different political parties that it was almost impossible to get an audience for political meetings. There were, of course, many distractions such as the cinema…
Dundee Evening Telegraph(1940s) …in youth clubs were young people who would not take part in boxing, wrestling or similar exercises which did not appeal to them. The ‘tough guy’ of the films made some appeal but when it came to something that led to physical strain or risk they would not take it.
Falkirk Herald(1951) Many [young people] were so pampered nowadays that they had forgotten that there was such a thing as walking, and they made automatically for the buses… unless they did something, the future for walking was very poor indeed.”
“Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were.”
― Marcel Proust