Competitive Thickness Amongst The Young

[Falcon]

An astonishing - in a terrible way - tirade. You don't know many young people, I take it. It's maybe just as well.

It took me until the 4th paragraph to realise it wasn't satire

[bfcjg]

I think the young are very technically astute with computing phones etc and things like common sense and fact based knowledge suffers. My kids think I am thick if I have to ask how to sync a phone with a computer or such like so its relative.

[Hipper]

I once knew a history graduate who didn't know who fought at the Battle of Waterloo.

Blimey that is thick.

It was of course between Millwall and Huddersfield.

[Pstotto]

As a society increasingly based on mob rule, as a bathetic attempted battering of the middle classes for an elite and an underclass society model with no effective censure of poor political policy, the remit of 'everyone look up to the low down' and the glorification of gangsta rap and street violence, means teenagers are having to adopt the language of the gutter for self-protection, as the UK tattoos up to say we're as tough as you are and the girls box and do weights whilst the immigrants ape the sophistication of Western values with cheap suits and turbo cars.

The middle no classes of the Beckhams and the Rooneys are the chav heroes of tabloid readers on Chesterfield sofas etc. whilst 'it's more power to you' if you can order a pizza whilst watching SKY.

[aggi]

Human beings are regressing quickly, in another 1000 years they'll be dragging their knuckles across the floor.

I was reading about a local Bevin Boy being honoured yesterday. To imagine a 14 year old working, no grafting down a pit, under any circumstances, is laughable.

When I was a teenager and drinking in the pub at 16, fighting was a pasttime. You would never dream of starting on the generation before us, as they were hard as nails. Every generation since has got weaker, mentally as well as physically. I know there are always exceptions, but on the whole the youth of today are pathetic.

They are a generation brought up with full knowledge of their rights, no interest in their responsibilities. Computer games till God knows what time , little exercise and even less fresh air. Red Bull making them hyperactive, but nothing to focus that energy on except the key board of their mobile.

Schooling fell down because of sats and the withdrawing of the cane. Discipline is essential to learning. It only takes one arsehole to disrupt a class and everyone suffers. School sports days cancelled, because nobody is allowed to be a loser. So everyone loses. Teachers more concerned with school inspectors than the pupils. Successive Governments watering down exams in order to appear to be improving education. It's a load of ********.

This country gets it wrong in so many ways, because the politicians can't see the wood for the trees.

I can't be the only one who read this and thought it was a slightly more coherent than average post from pstotto.

[Pstotto]

'Incoherent' as a critique, usually means that the intellectual breadth and scope and level of the written content is beyond the limited I.Q. of said reader.

[Foulthrow]

I once knew a history graduate who didn't know who fought at the Battle of Waterloo.

And there was a man on pointless recently who chose for the final round, "Cold War Politicians" - because he had a history degree, and a PhD in cold war politics. He didn't know a single UK foreign secretary or US secretary of state.

Wait? What?

How on earth did he manage to write his thesis without coming across these names?

[Foulthrow]

I would expect any history graduate to know the basics of his subject. Just as every other graduate should know the basics - a pure mathematician should know what the binomial distribution is, an organic chemist should know the properties of water, a French linguist should know how to find Paris on a map.

As for the PhD - how can any institution justify giving a PhD on cold war politics to a man who doesn't know any cold war politicians other than presidents and prime ministers?

What are the 'basics' of history then? I don't think it works like that. I mean I could have a fair old stab at explaining a fair amount of 20th century British history but wouldn't know a Plantagenet if you slapped me in the face with one.

[Lancasterclaret]

I'm a history graduate

Swedish history 1500-1721 - no problem, even after twenty years

World War II , crusades, Modern Japanese up to 1945, Russia, Athens, Sparta, Rome, Carthage - alright

Uk foreign secretaries or US secretaries of state of the 20th century? - not a hope

There is hell of a lot of history to learn!

[Rowls]

Until Gove’s reforms starting in 2010 there was a shocking lack of emphasis on acquiring knowledge on our curriculum.

We’ve got another half a generation of young people who haven’t been given, shall we say, “the facts of life”.

Not their fault and it won’t affect their actual IQs too much but they are at a cultural and social disadvantage to those of us who possess far more knowledge.

[evensteadiereddie]

Not at all convinced, Rowls.

[randomclaret2]

I blame the current crop of mediocre teachers. With the odd exception Political Correctness trumps everything for them.

[deanothedino]

They are a generation brought up with full knowledge of their rights, no interest in their responsibilities. Computer games till God knows what time , little exercise and even less fresh air. Red Bull making them hyperactive, but nothing to focus that energy on except the key board of their mobile.

Just following the example set by their parents who drive the car to their corner shop.

[Hipper]

I'm a history graduate

Swedish history 1500-1721 - no problem, even after twenty years

World War II , crusades, Modern Japanese up to 1945, Russia, Athens, Sparta, Rome, Carthage - alright

Uk foreign secretaries or US secretaries of state of the 20th century? - not a hope

There is hell of a lot of history to learn!

Accepting your point, anyone interested in European history at any time since 1800 should know about the Battle of Waterloo surely?

[SammyBoy]

I'm a history graduate

Swedish history 1500-1721 - no problem, even after twenty years

World War II , crusades, Modern Japanese up to 1945, Russia, Athens, Sparta, Rome, Carthage - alright

Uk foreign secretaries or US secretaries of state of the 20th century? - not a hope

There is hell of a lot of history to learn!

As a fellow History grad I can second the idea that it is a much narrower degree than popularly thought, as you probably need to be a savant to study the entire history of humanity. Some students even focus on local history, I recall a bloke on my course did his dissertation on the social/economic history of post-war Leicester.

[GodIsADeeJay81]

I'd debate that having common sense is a sign of intelligence also but each to their own.

I know some incredibly clever people who appear to have virtually zero common sense.

[Pstotto]

I presume that was before King John was discovered buried under a car park.

One of the problems now is the re-writing of history to fit current political agendas. As far as I remember, that wasn't part of school education.

In the 20th C until the end of the 70's, modernism was still the central ethos of a society with an intent on some sort of progression.

Now it seems to be regression. In the arts, it's a disaster. Where once it was generally the genuine talented who got into art school, now it is for prisoners to do on parole on the recommendation of their duped prison psychologist, it's just a dumping ground for social miscreants, aided and abetted by the mob mentality of Banksy and his bathos and vandalism.

There are programs on BBC4 of the African Benin bronzes (primitive cartoon figures) claiming parity with Michelangelo on the basis that all human endeavour and expression is equal in value, equating anthropology with aesthetic skill.

40 years old Trabants for all media workers and flats on rough council estates in Glasgow and see how long their 'everything is equal' mandate lasts.

The women artists, the curators and museum directors are pushing the female aspect, i.e. the story of themselves and their socialization as the story of art.

The societal malaise comes right from the top, starting with high culture and and Fine Art. To topple that is the goal and the rest will follow.

It comes from post-modern socialist ideology and anti-Christian remits, including the Chinese cultural machine and their bid to de-centre the West.

The 'turn on, tune in and drop out' calls from the 60's counter culture have done so much damage, literally as an nihilist adverse movement against Western civilization on the back of LSD, Cannabis, Legal Highs from China and the reverse opium war that our politicians have succumbed to, in the toilets of Whitehall.

Ad to this,the media-sexual confusion aimed particularly at the younger generation struggling with their identity, with regards to the pushing to the fore in our media of a very small section of society with sexual intentions at odds with the majority of the populace, AS the folk claimed to be at the vanguard of human and social progression, all of whom brook no argument to their bitch culture remit, as the totalitarian state by proxy bullies the rest with social minorities uber alles under the auspices of ironically, Christian virtue, philanthropy and altruism.

Society is now back to front and upside down according to a perverse notion of egality and equality by letting those not qualified to do so, have their go.