All dinosaurs - stage left

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Dr. O

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denny
Yesterday at the airport the pilot of a banner towing 152 showed up to preflight his plane... Tall, clean cut, pleasant, early 20's...
One of the usual suspects made a comic comment about, "Gonna tow a banner for Al Sharpton today?" - a reference to Rev. Al bringing his show to Detroit 90 miles South of us...

The young guy looked a bit puzzled, "Who is Al Sharpton?"
"For 64 dollars, what was Twana Brawley." I replied in my best game show voice, quite proud of my quick wit... I got a blank look and a shrug in return... He did not recognize either alliteration...

It became immediately apparent that a significant part of the history that shaped what is America today is a blank slate to his generation... The usual suspects quickly changed the conversation by asking what he was towing today and he forgot about our cryptic (to him) comments...

He had a smart phone and an Ipad with him, whereupon he checked DUATS (ignoring the WeatherMation machine just to his right), pulled up the VFR chart for his flight on the Ipad, then called and filed his flight plan into restricted airspace over the football stadium... After a bit more conversation he waved and was out the door...

Now this young man is a winner... He has achieved Airman's Certificate with commercial privileges and is flying for a living... We know he is reasonably smart... Yet he knows zero about recent history from the Selma March to today... Whether this is good or bad on balance, I am unsure...

The bad is he does not know contemporary American history that has shaped our laws and our social conventions...
The good is that he does not have all the baggage that old fools like me who lived through the Cold War, Cuban Missile Crises, the Selma March, and everything that followed it lug around...

We dinosaurs have our attitude as to how the world should be.. As we shuffle off to our reward, stage left, his generation will neither recognize our vision nor care as they go about reshaping the country to their wants :hairraise:
 
yea, but I think it's a good thing.

The sooner we forget about Al Sharpton, the better. There was a time when we thought white people of different hair color were weaker then others, and I am sure the movement to end that had its champions.

When those campions won, is when we were at a point in life where we couldn't even understand why we needed them in the first place.

I am sure if if you saw a black man and a white woman kissing on the street, you would probably not care, but you would note that there was a color difference. You might even feel proud of yourself that you didn't care.

your 20 something friend probably wound't even recognize there was something to be proud of. Just two people kissing.
 
Dr. O said:
Now this young man is a winner... He has achieved Airman's Certificate with commercial privileges and is flying for a living... We know he is reasonably smart... Yet he knows zero about recent history from the Selma March to today... Whether this is good or bad on balance, I am unsure...
:hairraise:
Click to expand...

It is sad. Approximately 30 percent of my coworkers were not born yet when I started the job. Their lack of real-world knowledge and sense of entitlement is making retirement look better and better.:mad2:

And yet I still love going to work.:)
 
It's interesting how it all works: My dad was born about the same number of years after WWI as I was after WWII, and as my kids were after VietNam. We each look at those events much differently.
 
The world has changed... As the town doc I saw a fair number of the school kids every day... One of my usual shticks was around Armistice Day.. As the 11th got closer I would chat about what the school was doing about Armistice what they thought of the War To End All Wars.. When I started my practice in the 70's every kid knew about Armistice Day... It has been at least 15 years since I quit asking... All I would get were blank looks... When I asked about a Minute of Silence at 11 AM I would get told that religion was forbidden in the school <sigh>
The ignorance of these kids on this subject is simply a reflection of the ignorance of their barely ten years older teachers... The blind leading the blinder... Yet, they can recite every word of gangsta rap and ef the cops...

Am I pessimistic because I am old or did pessimism make me old?
 
Dr. O said:
Am I pessimistic because I am old or did pessimism make me old?
Click to expand...

Because your old.

Most people would think the US is going down hill, and it's a less safe place to live then 20 years ago.

Not true at all. The US is getting safer. These "kids today" are less likely to kill, rape or steal from you, then there parents were.

http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm
 
Mafoo said:
Because your old.

Most people would think the US is going down hill, and it's a less safe place to live then 20 years ago.

Not true at all. The US is getting safer. These "kids today" are less likely to kill, rape or steal from you, then there parents were.

http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm
Click to expand...
And, sadly, correspondingly less likely to be able to spell.
 
The Country IS going downhill, but it is because of a set of protracted historical and economic variables set in motion way before these young people came into the picture. They have little to do with the difficulties they were handed out at the onset of their working lives. Blaming the decline of America on the people who inherited the mess and then citing their behavior and their perceived attitude from the perspective of a man/woman who already had their shot in life is the very exemplification of anachronistic thinking.

You old farts had historical part ownership in the socio economic policies that shaped the mess we're in as well. Look, there is little any one individual young or old could have done to stem the systemic offshoring of jobs in the 70s, the mass influx of women into the labor market and the advent of telecommunication technology/advents in microprocessors , in said period. Those were all big ticket drivers in the first historically relevant occasion where the United States in aggregate did NOT have a labor shortage. No more westward expansion to absorb and foster the immigrant population growth that carried our net 150 YEARS of generational prosperity and upward mobility. Today we are saturated and unwilling to politically grab the bull by the horns and invest in the re-education of American average joe to compete in a quantitative-skill aggressive economy, never mind our political lack of a backbone to become export oriented and essentially stiff the Chinese. The dance was over in 1970 when wages began being paid in credit as a result of firms ability to finally set market price. The rest is history.

I'm only 30 years old and I can articulate that point; so much for young apathy and lack of work ethic. Stage left is right (no pun int.). Just be glad you're not having to deal with the proposition of living in today's labor market for young people, and the personal recognition that in aggregate, our lives will see a diminished quality of life than that of our parents, for the same good ol american bootstrap effort. No continuity of paycheck, no homesteading, no pensions, no health care, I digress. Nothing to be paralyzed about, but I know my parents are sighing relief to their graves over that private recognition. Boomers didn't have it that bad.

So the kid didn't know who Al Shaprton was. Boo hoo. The kid is too busy running on the hamster wheel most inherited, trying to get ahead on a sinking ship. At least he's working.... banner towing? And do you really think he's getting ahead? The kid is effed, not as a function of his work ethic, but he's still effed. One day he'll count his chickens and bemoan the fact he worked twice as hard for half the chickens, submit to a stoic perspective on his lot in life and you all will still call him a whiner. Meh....
 
notsureifserious.jpg


You're concerned that he doesn't know who Al Sharpton is, really???

If he truly does not know who Al Sharpton is....maybe the world isn't as bad as I thought it was.
 
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I like younger people... I find them a breath of fresh air. All the old farts, are just that... Old and impotent.... most of them sit on their porches an bark...
 
jmp470 said:
I like younger people... I find them a breath of fresh air. All the old farts, are just that... Old and impotent.... most of them sit on their porches an bark...
Click to expand...
Get off my lawn.
 
Dr. O said:
The young guy looked a bit puzzled, "Who is Al Sharpton?"
"For 64 dollars, what was Twana Brawley." I replied in my best game show voice, quite proud of my quick wit... I got a blank look and a shrug in return... He did not recognize either alliteration...

It became immediately apparent that a significant part of the history that shaped what is America today is a blank slate to his generation...
Click to expand...
What were the long-term ramifications from this case to the American social climate, economy, or political situation? An outrageous instance, yes, but did it have the sort of effects that later generations should be expected to study it? Out of a 300-page book on 300 years of American history, how much should be dedicated to the Brawley case? This this case more important to understanding American society than the Carol Stuart murder?

Ron Wanttaja
 
I'm 40 and I don't get the Twana Brawley refrence either. Nor do I know who Selma March is. I do know about the Cuban Missile crisis, cold War and Al Sharpton. Go figure.
 
Dr. O said:
The world has changed... As the town doc I saw a fair number of the school kids every day... One of my usual shticks was around Armistice Day.. As the 11th got closer I would chat about what the school was doing about Armistice what they thought of the War To End All Wars.. When I started my practice in the 70's every kid knew about Armistice Day... It has been at least 15 years since I quit asking... All I would get were blank looks... When I asked about a Minute of Silence at 11 AM I would get told that religion was forbidden in the school <sigh>
The ignorance of these kids on this subject is simply a reflection of the ignorance of their barely ten years older teachers... The blind leading the blinder... Yet, they can recite every word of gangsta rap and ef the cops...

Am I pessimistic because I am old or did pessimism make me old?
Click to expand...

How are teachers supposed to find time to teach history when they have to cover so many other desperately important subjects like AGW and feminism and animal rights?

Dan
 
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