To think that adults are much less resilient than they used to be

[louease]

First of all I'll admit that I'm on the older side of 60 so the weight of my belt onion could be effecting my judgement on this.

I see a lot on social media including here where people say they are upset at words they read on a screen, that they've been triggered, or that it should have a warning attached.

Are we making the world harder to live in by trying to make it too comfortable do you think?

That's an interesting point. Like what? And what sort of time in history do you mean by the old days.

I don’t think people thought that when the younger generation was fighting in a six year long war.

Their elders apparently thought the same about those who did end up fighting WW2.

The Lost Generation, by A A Milne (1940)

You were the Lost Generation, decadent, nerveless, slack,
(Born to the sound of the guns and of death dropping down from the air);
You slouched to your casual dates with a languorous curve to your back,
And we didn't admire your manners, and loathed the length of your hair.

We stood in front of the fire-place and eased our stiffening hocks
(We who had fought in Flanders, we had flown in France)
And damned the whole generation- you and your girlish locks!...
Poor effeminate creatures, boys who had had no chance.

We pitied you more than blamed you; what could you hope to be,
Born to the fear of war by frightened women, and then
Living your life with women whose men were over the sea?
Taught to be men by women- how could you grow to be men?

Youth of the Lost Generation, sons of the men that were.
Taught to be men by women who made you all that you are,
How could you grow to be men- who have grown to be gods of the Air,
Who have set in the skies for our nerving a flame of Faith like a star?

Each night we crouch by the fire-place, and listen with tight-held breath,
Humbled to tears in wonder, strengthened to tears in pride,
As the Youth, whom we dared to pity, makes casual date with Death,
And fired by spirit we know not, goes off on its deathless ride.

The cowardly op still hasn’t returned. Again, a tad ironic.

Did you bother reading the last six lines @ToWhitToWhoo? That poem’s an apology for underestimating the younger generation before the war began.

Humbled to tears in wonder, strengthened to tears in pride,
As the Youth, whom we dared to pity, makes casual date with Death,
And fired by spirit we know not, goes off on its deathless ride.

@ToWhitToWhoo never seen that before. Thank you for sharing it.

Exactly.

That's my whole point.

People nowadays may be underestimating the present younger generation in the same way!

I'm not sure they're less resilient necessarily, there's just different pressures now. I'd also say your average person is now less likely to suffer in silence

I agree. Few have any sort of strength or resilience. I find it hard to understand what has gone so very wrong.

@Spectacledbear67 totally agree. There is a song popular on radio 1 right now, sung by a navel gazing young woman berating her friends for not checking up on her. Does my head in. Who did she check on? Probably precisely noone. It irritates me because like you say, lots of young people are very inwardly obsessed, and less likely to have a rounded approach

You lost me at "belt onion".

Of course they are. They always do. It's always been this way. However old you are, they said the same about you.

My boomer dad didn’t fight in both World Wars just for his generation to be talked about the way some have on here. 😠

Seriously WTAF is a belt onion anyway.?

@Offensiveapprently meme from The Simpsons

It was the style at the time.

😹😹😹😹

@lazycats 🤣

@Missdotty As an auditory palate-cleanser, why not try Joe Dolce's anthem of resilience, Shaddap You Face?

tied an onion to my belt (it was the style at the time) 😅

I am 58. I speak a lot with people in their 20s and early 30s. I love them… I find them passionate, thinking and more compassionate towards others.
The world is different …. Our generation…who usually had free university education and an allowance living expenses have taken that away by voting governments in who had no regard for the health and education of ordinary people. We should be very ashamed. We have concentrated on our own interests ( largely financial) and have left their generation with a society which cares only about ourselves.

Do you think social media has played a part in this?

@BeardyButton God you're bitter aren't you? All that anger isn't good for you.

"the boomer generation luxuriated in wealth thereby ruining opportunities for future generations"

I must have missed the memo there as I have never "luxuriated in wealth", dammit. No generation has got "everything right" fgs. Most people of any generation have just got on with their lives, and have very little input into or influence on the world they live in.

Life was pretty basic for the vast majority in the 60s (wasn't that long postwar and the effects of it were still ongoing), and there were plenty of issues facing the UK in the 70s and 80s (I actually remember the Winter of Discontent, the Troubles in NI, interest rates going up to a crazy 15% and people either losing their homes or ending up with a millstone round their necks of massively negative equity - wouldn't call any of those examples 'luxuriant' personally!!). We very nearly bought a flat in North West London just beforehand that would have been a massive stretch for us financially. Thank god we decided not to.

You have to have an extremely narrow, twisted mind to castigate an entire generation. It's not as though we set out to fuck up our descendants - WTF would anyone want to do that?

As for your quotation from an American publication, it's not so many years ago that King Charles was derided as a crank for his forward looking viewers, fuck me, he must be a boomer too!!!

Every generation
Blames the one before
And all of their frustrations
Come beating on your door
I know that I'm a prisoner
To all my Father held so dear
I know that I'm a hostage
To all his hopes and fears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years

Oh, crumpled bits of paper
Filled with imperfect thoughts
Stilted conversations
I'm afraid that's all we've got
You say you just don't see it
He says it's perfect sense
You just can't get agreement
In this present tense
We all talk a different language
Talking in defense

Say it loud (say it loud), say it clear (oh, say it clear)
You can listen as well as you hear, yeah
It's too late (it's too late) when we die (oh, when we die)
To admit we don't see eye to eye

So we open up a quarrel
Between the present and the past
We only sacrifice the future
It's the bitterness that lasts
So don't yield to the fortunes
You sometimes see as fate
It may have a new perspective
On a different day
And if you don't give up, and don't give in
You may just be okay

So say it, say it, say it loud, say it clear (oh, say it clear)
You can listen as well as you hear
Because it's too late, it's too late (it's too late)
When we die (oh, when we die)
To admit we don't see eye to eye

I wasn't there that morning
When my Father passed away
I didn't get to tell him
All the things I had to say
I think I caught his spirit
Later that same year
I'm sure I heard his echo
In my baby's new born tears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years

So say it, say it, say it loud, say it clear (oh, say it clear)
You can listen as well as you hear, yeah
It's too late (it's too late) when we die (it's too late when we die)
To admit we don't see eye to eye

Hey, so say it, say it, say it loud (say it loud, say it loud)
Say it clear (come on say it clear)
Say it loud
(Don't give up, don't give in and don't look away 'til it's too late)
Say it clear

Mike & the Mechanics btw

adriftinadenofvipers Amen. From one M&theM fan to another.