What is wrong with Gen Why?

Image from here

There is something wrong with kids nowadays. Why can't they be more like us? Why don't they know how to behave?

Gen Yers are the 'me' generation. The 'go on - you deserve it' group. The 'I am unique and special' bunch. They expect to be treated like they're the centre of the universe, and who says the sun doesn't revolve around them anyhow? They're lazy. They take days off, and are always on the phone to their friends...or texting...or facebooking...or...doing the latest something with them that I haven't yet caught up with. (Can anybody tell me what Google Wave is? I really do want to understand. Jillian tells me I need to look it up myself, but I want somebody to take me by the hand and lead me through it. Slowly.)

Gen Y continually challenge the way things are done and reckon their way is better. They're always asking 'Why'. That's why they're the 'Why' Generation, silly.

It is funny, isn't it, how every generation believes that their parents don't understand them. Then they grow up and they can't understand their kids. It's a cycle...

Oh how profound I'm sounding, how deep. But I digress. I can't help it. It's my age. Now, where was I? Ah yes, thank you. A cycle.

What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

Is there anything of which one can say,
"Look! This is something new"?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.

Ecclesiastes 1: 9-10

Perhaps we oldies need to remember what it was like to be misunderstood in our own youths. We need to remember what our parents' generation said to us. We need to remember, also, that our way is not the only way.

Let's look at what past generations of parents have said about their kids:

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now 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.

Gen Y? Nah. Sounds like it though, doesn't it? This was actually attributed to Socrates by Plato back in somewhere around 440 BC.

Speaking of Plato, he wasn't too pleased with the youth of his day either:

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?

Hmmm. Obviously young people in the 4th C BC had some issues as well. Or maybe Plato had just had an argument with his son. Maybe.

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 disrespectful and impatient of restraint.

Gen Y? Nope. This one was said by Hesiod, back in the 8th Century BC.

Let's try another, shall we? I'm thinking these are rather cool. Hope you are too...

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.

Who wrote that, and when do you think it was written?

Okay, I'll tell you. I can tell you're bursting to find out. That's another characteristic of Gen Y, you know. Instant gratification. On that I'm rather in agreement though especially around Christmas, although I don't approve of it in young people. Only in me. Oh yes, the quote. It is an extract from a sermon preached by Peter the Hermit in 1274 AD. Relatively recent in the scheme of things really.

Ya know, perhaps we had better start thinking of the younger generation as 'different'. Perhaps instead of complaining about them we should look at them through new, fresh eyes as something wonderful, something exciting, something unique. They're always going to be there after all, getting older, more mature - if not more sensible. We may as well accustom ourselves to their ways early. It's not many years from now that they'll be the ones tucking us into our beds at the Generation Y run Nursing Home. Perhaps we'd be better off if we have become reconciled to their idiosyncrasies by then.

My favourite quote is this. It was written by G. K. Chesterton:

I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid.

Ah yes, he was a wise man. A wise and funny man was our Mr Chesterton. He even laughed at his own jokes, so he must have been.

I wonder if he was misunderstood by his parents?