I want to take up the cudgel for the younger generation of Americans who are going to inherit the nation from us old folks.
So very often I hear from those who lament today’s young Americans. They aren’t this or that; they rely too much on this or that; they are selfish; they are unmotivated; they are self-centered.
Well, if that sounds familiar, it should.
It’s the same kind of thing our parents said about us — and to us, for that matter. Their parents said the same thing about them. On and on it has gone … forever. My parents, especially my dad, bitched out loud about “today’s youth,” telling me that those of my age weren’t worthy of taking over the country he would leave behind.
I don’t recall challenging him in real time as he griped at me. I can’t tell him today what I have learned about myself and my generation, as he is no longer with us.
What’s more, I have noted already on this blog about the wisdom uttered by an ancient Greek philosopher, Plato, who griped five centuries before Jesus’s birth about how young people didn’t show proper respect to their elders.
I am leery of doubting the great man’s view of his world. I just know that generations of human beings since the beginning of time have said those disparaging things about young’ns, only to be proven wrong as the “next generation” comes of age and manages to keep our society forging forward.
I remain quite confident that today’s young people will be able to take the baton from us old timers and will lead the United States to its next level of greatness … however it will define itself.