1. None of us read the news. This one is either fixed already, in that we read lots of other stuff that is just as important (movie reviews, the back of DVDs, blogs, Twitter, whatever). Or it is completely unfixable (until there is better news, we don't care to read it. It's full of politicians and war and famine, we want to know stuff like where Noel Fielding is RIGHT NOW and how to hack our phones to get unlimited video calls. THATS news.) The only other option: Give us 10 years to be miserable enough to care.
2. Most of us are wankers. It could be supposed that most of any generation are wankers. But we sure are more vocal about it. Bet my dad knew some wankers. Bet they didn't run around at night with baseball bats and knives breaking shit up and threatening people. The only real solution to this is what I like to call 'Overdue Abortion'. I think you can guess what that is.
3. None of us can write. Well, ok, in the hopes of EVER getting a job, I guess one or two of us can. The rest needed a school system not quite so enamoured with making us 'feel good about ourselves' and more enamoured with TEACHING US. It's too late for them. Save the young ones while you can. I was recently told by my subject librarian at Uni that the Dissertations and written work he sees from Scottish students is streets ahead of our English and Welsh peers. I thought english was taught the same way everywhere. Apparently not. Handwriting wouldn't go amiss either, although I hear they're banning pens in school soon, health and safety, y'know, a raging tween could kill someone with that kind of sharp implement.
4. We all think we're the Shiznitz. This is the schools fault, in part, and also the fault of our parents and TV. TV has given us false impressions of what success means. It has made improbable and unattainable dreams seem as though they are only at the end of our fingertips. Schools are encouraged to seek out every child's 'inner talent', when it may well be they just don't have one intrinsically based in their body. This is stopping young people from realising that sometimes, you have to WORK to be good at something. And, they also fail to mention, "There will always be someone better than you at what you do." Why should we teach children to have self esteem that will be crushed the instant they step into the real world? Teach them a craft, something they can build on for the rest of their lives, and eventually they will grow self-esteem to match their talents rather than overshadow them.
5. We use words like Shiznitz. I actually like the word, it sounds great and it's fun to say. But I know I sound like a dick when I say it, not least because I'm a wee Scottish white girl. And I know it makes all 'adults' within a certain radius cringe. And yet I don't want to fix this problem. We all have our little flaws. Shiznitz lives on.
6. We are more at home staring at a screen than sitting in a park. The simplest way to fix this would be that if that Y2K bug magically turned up 10 years late. But I doubt that'll happen. I'm at a loss on how to fix this one really, especially as I haven't been in a park for over a year myself, but there must be a way. Advertising! I'll get right on that.
7. We have little to no concept of the horrors of our history. Sure, we all got taught WW1 and WW2. Perhaps more than that in England (I was taught the Jacobites and the Highland Clearances, I actually know nothing about 1066). The only thing that really struck me was our class trip to the battlefields. The walls of Ypres with their engravings of name upon name, the countless matching headstones, so lovingly maintained (at a stark and sad contrast to many British cemeteries) is what really hit it home for me. I think every child should be taken there at least once, when they are of an age to understand death and war in it's entirety, and preferably before they are bought Call of Duty or any other gratuitously violent war game.
DEVVO!
8.We really don't care. About anything. Ourselves, the Future, the Planet... I think we have all subconsciously resigned to the fact this world will probably end, in our lifetimes. 2014 anyone? I think this stems rather depressingly from the efforts of generations previous - they tried everything, have been for ages, and now that all channels are exhausted they expect US to tidy up this mess? Global Warming, War, Famine, Live 8, etc etc - All these protests and what did they achieve? Little to nothing. So, revolutionary as I may be in mind, my body has better things to get on with. And those things were your fault anyway. So you bloody fix them.
9. We have no sense of responsibility for our actions. This links to 2 and 3, although perhaps speaks more about people a little younger than me. If schools will continue to teach children that it's 'not their fault' and punishes them by taking stars off a chart rather than say, keeping them in at Lunch on a snow day (oooh, that's cold.) They will never learn anything about being responsible. Stars mean nothing. Well, in my house they meant pocket money, there's probably some law about teachers handing out cash in class. If a parent buys a kid £80 shoes and he wrecks them, then gets bought another pair, what is that telling the child? You can break anything and I'll fix it? How about that guys face? Not so easy is it...
10. We all think everyone is interested in everything we think all the time. See above and below for evidence. Or Facebook, Twitter, blah blah. So, I went to the shops. Does the whole world need to know? probably not. But if I were to say so on my facebook page, no doubt someone will 'like' it and someone else will comment 'Me Too!' and then it's deemed 'NEWS', and appears on everyone I ever knew's homepage, as if they give a fuck. They might be people I haven't seen since school, or relatives who really do NOT need the details of saturday night made available to them. So I TRY to make my status interesting. Lots of the time it's still not. I don't really know how to Fix that... hmm.
Well, sometimes you gotta end on a downer. Peace Out...
Rubes.
Oh... i wrote a big reply to this and then it didn't post.
ReplyDeleteIt was basically disagreeing with point 10. You don't blog or update your status because you think everyone wants to hear how interesting you are. It's for yourself. It helps clarify ideas, get things of your chest, bring structure to our meaningless lives. Like a diary.
You carry on blogging even though I might be your only reader, or one of few. There's the proof.
As for all the other points, suffice it to say that when society gives people freedom, some are bound to waste it and make plenty-o mistakes. But it beats the fascist or nanny state doesn't it? Depends on your views. But the ones who aren't wankers, can write, do know their history, etc. tend to reap the rewards. So that should incentivize the whole thing.
And of course people think they're the shizniz. It's an individualist society - a competitive one. If you think you're no good, then an employer won't either. I hate to say it, but you gotta sell yourself don't you? And yes the schools are somewhat responsible - but what's the alternative? Tell kids they more than likely won't get their dream job and train them up for boring office jobs? No... it's a self-fulfilling thing, tell them they can make something of themselves and a couple might. It's playing the odds. Plus self-esteem isn't something you develop in the classroom - the playground maybe... but it's more at home.
Rant over, your turn again.
Ahh opinions are wonderful things. I am an idealist trying to be a realist, haha. Thanks Tom! (and yes you are my only follower... yet!)
ReplyDelete