The Guardian reports “If modern life is unkind to our mental health, it’s no doubt in part because so many young people fear that admission of vulnerability will affect their employment, or their relationships, at a time when their futures are already far less clearer than those of their parents.”
When I was growing up as a kid, it was right around the time the shift in the U.S. was occurring, where the unions were being dismantled and outsourcing began and competition between the U.S. and the rest of the world in our economy took off.
My grandfather retired at the age of 50 owning a home with acres of land and having enough money in the bank to live well up to the age of 92 without ever needing any government or charity assistance. He worked at A.C. Delco making spark plugs. One of my uncle’s retired on work-related disability from General Motors in the 1980’s when he was about 40. Was merely a janitor, yet owned/owns a home, an RV, a boat and can still afford to buy new vehicles every year.
Times have surely changed.
and can still afford to buy new vehicles every several years.*
Excellent point. And I think that some older people, who built up their careers in the post World War II economic boom, don’t realize how hard it is for younger people to even survive in this society now, much less reach a level of comfort and relative stability. *Of course* young people are troubled.
Just after I read your comment, I found the following article. I think it explains pretty well what happened.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/17/whats-behind-the-rise-in-income-inequality-technology-or-class-struggle/
I blame the war on fun.
When we were young we could (fun activity goes here) but they cracked down and now have “zero tolerance” ….
Older people are always telling younger people what it used to be like before everything got stupid.
8 Reasons Children of the 1970s Should All Be Dead http://flashbak.com/8-reasons-children-of-the-1970s-should-all-be-dead-323/
16 Reasons Why The Kids of the 1980s Should All Be Dead
http://toprightnews.com/16-reasons-why-the-kids-of-the-1980s-should-all-be-dead/
I was a kid in the 50’s & 60’s…and they were such fun and hair-raisingly dangerous times.
Thanks for the links with some memories.
A lot of kids simply don’t get a chance to take risks and learn from their mistakes any more.
I feel really sorry for the grandkids of some of my friends who as TEENAGERS are still not allowed to walk or ride home from school unsupervised….and this is in a very safe area.
No nicking off to have adventures with friends, no testing (and at times overstepping) the limits, and no learning from mistakes that parents didn’t hear about until 20-30 years later (hopefully).
When kids now do get a bit of freedom (mid-teens) they have NO IDEA of safe risk-taking or of listening to their own conscience, fear, or commonsense simply because they haven’t had the opportunity to develop those things.
I think kids genuinely ARE more vulnerable and stressed this century as they have not developed the skills that would allow them to be more competent because they have been hobbled from birth right throughout childhood…and then they’re expected to know stuff and make judgements and are well aware that they have no idea whatsoever of what to do.
Must be very frightening…how could it not be?
I found some more
8 Things That Used To Be Loads Easier Just 50 Years Ago
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/things-that-used-to-be-simpler_us_559ad668e4b0759e2b50e4ec
And tell a young person about how driver licenses in the past didn’t have a photo on them and they think you are lying.
I am not even that old and I can tell young people how we could do this and that without a big hassle and permits and show ID and pay a fee and bla bla bla and we could just drive down on the beach go fishing and have a party….
Over the past several decades, no matter which political party has been in power the government has continued to become a larger part of our lives. These days many people are speaking of the “nanny state” that we have created, but the reality is far worse than that. The truth is that the government has become a gluttonous, out of control behemoth that is gobbling up everything in sight and that is attempting to exert full spectrum dominance over our lives. Today, the government seems to have an insatiable hunger to watch us, track us and control us. Now they even want to feel our private parts before we get on an airplane. No matter what politicians we send to Washington D.C., it just seems to get worse and worse. Anyone who still believes that we live in “the land of the free” is completely and totally delusional.
Most young people today are just pathetic, the go around muttering “it is what it is” (the mantra for loosers) That relatively new statement that has gained much popularity. I guess because people are thoroughly “sheepified” and too dumbed down to even think of resisting.
18 Signs That Life In U.S. Public Schools Is Now Essentially Equivalent To Life In U.S. Prisons
“it is what it is” I just want to vomit when I hear people say that.
I know its alot of paste but this is why young people are more depressed and it deserves more than just a link above. We don’t want our young people depressed right ??
In the United States today, our public schools are not very good at educating our students, but they sure are great training grounds for learning how to live in a Big Brother police state control grid. Sadly, life in many U.S. public schools is now essentially equivalent to life in U.S. prisons. Most parents don’t realize this, but our students have very few rights when they are in school. Our public school students are being watched, tracked, recorded, searched and controlled like never before. Back when I was in high school, it was unheard of for a police officer to come to school, but today our public school students are being handcuffed and arrested in staggering numbers. When I was young we would joke that going to school was like going to prison, but today that is actually true.
The following are 18 signs that life in our public schools is now very similar to life in our prisons….
#1 Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has announced that school officials can search the cell phones and laptops of public school students if there are “reasonable grounds for suspecting that the search will turn up evidence that the student has violated or is violating either the law or the rules of the school.”
#2 It came out in court that one school district in Pennsylvania secretly recorded more than 66,000 images of students using webcams that were embedded in school-issued laptops that the students were using at home.
#3 If you can believe it, a “certified TSA official” was recently brought in to oversee student searches at the Santa Fe High School prom.
#4 A few years ago a class of 3rd grade students at one Kentucky elementary school were searched by a group of teachers after 5 dollars went missing. During the search the students were actually required to remove their shoes and their socks.
#5 At one public school in the Chicago area, children have been banned from bringing their lunches from home. Yes, you read that correctly. Students at that particular school are absolutely prohibited from bringing lunches from home. Instead, it is mandatory that they eat the food that the school cafeteria serves.
#6 The U.S. Department of Agriculture is spending huge amounts of money to install surveillance cameras in the cafeterias of public schools so that government control freaks can closely monitor what our children are eating.
#7 A teenager in suburban Dallas was recently forced to take on a part-time job after being ticketed for using bad language in one high school classroom. The original ticket was for $340, but additional fees have raised the total bill to $637.
#8 It is not just high school kids that are being ticketed by police. In Texas the crackdown extends all the way down to elementary school students. In fact, it has been reported that Texas police gave “1,000 tickets” to elementary school kids over a recent six year period.
#9 A few months ago, a 17 year-old honor student in North Carolina named Ashley Smithwick accidentally took her father’s lunch with her to school. It contained a small paring knife which he would use to slice up apples. So what happened to this standout student when the school discovered this? The school suspended her for the rest of the year and the police charged her with a misdemeanor.
#10 A little over a year ago, a 6 year old girl in Florida was handcuffed and sent to a mental facility after throwing temper tantrums at her elementary school.
#11 In early 2010, a 12 year old girl in New York was arrested by police and marched out of her school in handcuffs just because she doodled on her desk. “I love my friends Abby and Faith” was what she reportedly wrote on her desk.
#12 There are actually some public schools in the United States that are so paranoid that they have actually installed cameras in student bathrooms.
#13 Down in Florida, students have actually been arrested by police for bringing a plastic butter knife to school, for throwing an eraser, and for drawing a picture of a gun.
#14 The Florida State Department of Juvenile Justice has announced that it will begin using analysis software to predict crime by young delinquents and will place “potential offenders” in specific prevention and education programs.
#15 A group of high school students made national headlines a while back when they revealed that they were ordered by a security guard to stop singing the national anthem during a visit to the Lincoln Memorial.
#16 In some U.S. schools, armed cops accompanied by police dogs actually conduct surprise raids with their guns drawn. In this video, you can actually see police officers aiming their guns at school children as the students are lined up facing the wall.
#17 Back in 2009, one 8 year old boy in Massachusetts was sent home from school and was forced to undergo a psychological evaluation because he drew a picture of Jesus on the cross.
#18 This year, 13 parents in Duncan, South Carolina were actually ticketed for cheering during a high school graduation.
“Back when I was in high school, it was unheard of for a police officer to come to school,”
But probably not unheard of for a teacher to grab a student and beat the living snot out of them. Or for dangerous and/or “crazy” students to wind up at the work farm, boot camp, “insane asylum”, illegally drafted underage to WWII, Korea, Vietnam. Times have changed indeed.
I cant verify for sure if any of it is 100% true, but both my father and grandfather have attested to it.
l-o-s-e-r
loose/lose
Lose vs Loose
loose [lOOs] adj not fastened or pre-packed; not tied up or confined; able to move freely; not tight, not firmly fixed; not close-fitting; careless, inaccurate, vague; dissolute, immoral; not closely woven; flabby; (of bowels) inclined to diarrhoea; l. box stable or van in which an animal can move about; at a l. end uncertain what to do next; unoccupied ~ loose adv in a loose way; play fast and l. behave rashly or unscupulously ~ loose n release; on the l. free from restraint; on a spree; ~ loose v/t untie, undo; release from confinement or constraint, set free; detatch; fire (gun); shoot (arrow); (eccles) absolve.
lose (p/t and p/part lost) [lOOz] v/t and i no longer have; be deprived of by accident or misfortune; mislay, fail to find; fail to get or win; be too late for; be bereaved of; waste; be defeated or beaten; suffer loss, become worse off; fail to hear, see or understand; cause or allow to perish; (of clock or watch) go too slowly; (refl) miss the right path; become absorbed in; l. one’s head become flustered, panic; l. one’s temper grow angry; l. one’s way fail to find the right path; l. out (US) be defeated after a struggle.
Spell check is making us illiterate. Use your words or lose them.
I too grew up in the same time period as you and have to agree with what you say here. I don’t think it’s very much fun to be a kid growing up today in the world as it is now. I used to teach high school and began to see kids in my classroom that had absolutely no idea of how to deal with adversity or difficulties. Such things were never supposed to happen to them as far as they’d been taught and knew.
Attention young people !! Unlike your parents and every generation before you, you will need registrations and applications and permits and pay fees prove your address and show 20 forms of ID and it must renewed every 6 months and what ever else we can come up with to get into your wallet and screw you over.
Wake up you stupid millennials !!!
Hi I am a millennial, they said I have to pee in a cup for drug testing wile some stranger looked at my genitals. Instead of protesting and telling them to go to hell I said “it is what it is” and dropped my pants.
You people deserve to be depressed.
Modern life has long, for the past 3-400 years, been accused of causing, and upping the rate of, “mental illness”/madness. It has even been suggested that this is because the hunter gatherer lifestyle was more in sustainable, or in harmony with nature.
The problem is should we be seeing stock market speculation, if not lottery winning, as a necessary part of contemporary life. Casino capitalism obeys only the laws of chance. Social issues are resolved through unnatural selection, either for marginalization or for promotion.
It doesn’t take much to figure that a lot of people must have their priorities wrong, on a large scale, big time. Of course, there is also (some say, always) therapy. Ka-ching, ka-ching.
