I think you got that backwards there, big'un. Young people in general can't appreciate the "magnificence" of their elders, simply because they aren't there yet. There's a lot to be learned from even the simplest of your elders, just because they've lived longer and have probably seen a thing or two that you haven't. That old saw "youth is wasted on the young" is pretty much right on the nose. Older people do appreciate youth, because they had it once. But once it's gone, it's gone. It ain't never coming back. Disagreeing about popular culture is as old as the hills. It doesn't make us old folks wrong, and it don't make you whippersnappers right. IMO, of course. YMMV. LSMFT. ROWYCO.
Are there any cases where youth is not wasted on the young? Possible cases could be a child prodigy who later got a Nobel Prize (for example).
Provide evidence or be dismissed. You still think that's what I was arguing? I have made my position very clear: in art and music there is always crap and there's always great stuff. Which is which is subjective. This supports my case against the notion that civilization is in decline. In science and literacy, there is clear progress. That this same complaint has been voiced since the beginning of recorded history and we are yet to see the collapse of culture supports my case against the notion that civilization is in decline. Objective facts of history, as I noted in my very first post in this thread, show that people have been whining about the decline of cultural standards in the subsequent generation since ancient times. By doing so now you're just engaging in the same short-sighted and egotistic thought processes. This supports my case against the notion that civilization is in decline. Considering I've had to clarify my argument for you...is this the third time?... I don't think it's my ability to understand simple English that should be in question. I've never claimed that the young are exceptional, just that the notion that something is automatically better because it is older is stupid. Not if you're doing it right.
There's never been a greater variety of cultural expression easily available than there is now. On that basis alone we're pretty excellent.
I was going to post, but since you said more or less everything I was going to, let me just add: well said.
I don't know why people in this thread are insisting on creating this generational divide. There are people half my age who have seen things I haven't, and people double my age who probably haven't experienced some of the things I have.
Especially since no one here has ever said that the current cultural products are necessarily better than the older ones. Certainly not tsq, as she has already explained. Certainly not stj, since he was arguing the exact opposite. (Though I'm not sure about him. Apparently, we are either unable or unwilling to understand simple English, so we can't know either way.) So Carcazoid just picked a random sentence and used it to launch another rant about how young whippersnappers have failed the Greatest Generation or something like that. Because that's certainly new, clever, and above all actually true.
So, yeah. I'm old and stupid and don't have the patience to get past the actual gist of a long agonizing post. Thanks for making my point for me. ETA: I appreciate your magnificence.*
No one is saying that you're old and stupid. No one. Yeah I'm turning 30 in a couple weeks. It's a weird feeling, but I'm looking forward to my thirties and still consider myself young!
I'll second that. As I've said elsewhere around here, I've had cerebral palsy all my life, so bodily pain and discomfort has been a constant companion. But, since I passed 40 (three years ago), It's gotten harder to distinguish between the aches and pains caused by my CP, and those caused by the normal aging process. It's caused confusion with my doctor more than once recently.