Wow - What a lovely spread of views!.
First the acknowledgements to Sir O & Julia - nicely balanced and retsrained viewpoints. sptrawler - nice rant! (Said all that I was thinking actually) and sinner; are you Charlie Pickering?
Just my two bob - evry generation is guilty of something in retrospect. 20/20 hindsight is a wonderful thing. Even Gen Y will be taken to task on their "performance" by Gen Z and whatever follows that. I'm guessing that prawn_86 would probably have behaved very similarly had he/she been there at the time.
As for referring to us all as "hippies", you need to be aware that hippies were a relatively small minority of "long-haired gits" in my Dad's venacular! I wasn't a hippie, I wasn't allowed to be one because my Dad (from the generation before who also buggered things up a bit) operated on the 'boot up the backside disciplne" level of offspring development (something else that has all but disappeared these days; not sure if that's a benefit though?).
Sure, we can all look back now and say, gee, maybe we could have done things better. Every generation has said the same. As for the old farts controlling the votes - no, that's what democratic elections are for. Didn't say they're doing a good job, just that we all got what was voted for - but that's another thread.
It's pretty easy to look back and criticise, but maybe we should look at the good things that did happen - there were a few. Technology advances, medicine, globalisation, the internet, social welfare, workplace reforms - there are positives to all of these. Sure, there are negatives too, but nothings ever perfect, there are always improvements to be made along the way.
We bb's were handed what we were handed and we did what we did. Now it's your turn to improve what's been left to you. Most of you "young'uns" seem to think you can do much better; well go ahead and do it better!
(Just quietly, all of us parents hope that you do and we'll all be remarkably proud of you when you do). Even my Dad said that all he ever wanted was for "you to have it better than I did". Thanks Dad, I did!
All the best
First the acknowledgements to Sir O & Julia - nicely balanced and retsrained viewpoints. sptrawler - nice rant! (Said all that I was thinking actually) and sinner; are you Charlie Pickering?
Just my two bob - evry generation is guilty of something in retrospect. 20/20 hindsight is a wonderful thing. Even Gen Y will be taken to task on their "performance" by Gen Z and whatever follows that. I'm guessing that prawn_86 would probably have behaved very similarly had he/she been there at the time.
As for referring to us all as "hippies", you need to be aware that hippies were a relatively small minority of "long-haired gits" in my Dad's venacular! I wasn't a hippie, I wasn't allowed to be one because my Dad (from the generation before who also buggered things up a bit) operated on the 'boot up the backside disciplne" level of offspring development (something else that has all but disappeared these days; not sure if that's a benefit though?).
Sure, we can all look back now and say, gee, maybe we could have done things better. Every generation has said the same. As for the old farts controlling the votes - no, that's what democratic elections are for. Didn't say they're doing a good job, just that we all got what was voted for - but that's another thread.
It's pretty easy to look back and criticise, but maybe we should look at the good things that did happen - there were a few. Technology advances, medicine, globalisation, the internet, social welfare, workplace reforms - there are positives to all of these. Sure, there are negatives too, but nothings ever perfect, there are always improvements to be made along the way.
We bb's were handed what we were handed and we did what we did. Now it's your turn to improve what's been left to you. Most of you "young'uns" seem to think you can do much better; well go ahead and do it better!
(Just quietly, all of us parents hope that you do and we'll all be remarkably proud of you when you do). Even my Dad said that all he ever wanted was for "you to have it better than I did". Thanks Dad, I did!
All the best
