Actually, that's probably a bad title. I was watching some Monty Python the other day (I believe this particular episode was filmed in the late 60's) and they had a fake newscast where the newscaster was remarking how there had been a recent surge in potty humor, and how this was going to bring down society (obviously this was satirical). The thing that struck me is that now, more than ever before, we have the OPPORTUNITY to go back and review opinions of an earlier time and prove that things were generally no more or less civil/well-behaved/etc.I came across this in a recent discussion forum:
- The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they allow disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children now are tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers. This quote was used by the Mayor of Amsterdam, Gijsbert van Hall, following a street demonstration in 1966, as reported by The New York Times, April 3, 1966, p. 16 -Anon., widely mis-attributed to Socrates
- I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words. When I was a boy, we were taught to be discrete and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise and impatient of restraint. - Hesiod
- The world is passing through troubling 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. - Peter the Hermit, attributed, probably apochryphal