What complaints about daily life did people have about the youth? (ancient, Romans)

[User1771]

I sometimes hear things like:

"Our youth today are obsessed with video games and the internet and they aren't going to learn how to socialize!"

"People keep on looking at their damn phones!"

"Our children don't go out side and play like they did back in the day!"


What complaints did people have about daily life in earlier civilizations?

[30to66at55]

"They dont keep their swords sharp enough"

"The children never take out the chamber pot"

"They always ask for more gruell"

[timberline742]

"They're too lazy to churn butter anymore"

"They don't polish their shoes! They look like orphans"

"They have no respect for the sabbath, they're cavorting all the time"

"They don't leave room for the holy ghost when they're dancing, it's disgraceful"

"Grog no paint mastadon good, waste ochre"

[kevxu]

I remember reading that at one point Romans were complaining that it had become a fad for youths to copy the dressing styles of barbarians.

This has probably been an on-going complaint, and only the barbarians referred to changed.

[belmont22]

Originally Posted by kevxu

I remember reading that at one point Romans were complaining that it had become a fad for youths to copy the dressing styles of barbarians.

This has probably been an on-going complaint, and only the barbarians referred to changed.

Yup. Now parents complain about their tattoos and gauges. :P

[j_k_k]

1970s:

• We dressed like slobs, and would never straighten up enough to get proper forty-year one-employer careers, thus were doomed to ask people if they wanted fries with that.
• We drank and smoked dope, and would all end up on acid and heroin.
• We got pregnant (or got someone pregnant); this would be the end of all hope.
• We listened to KISS, which meant the downfall of civilization for certain.
• We listened to Ozzy Osbourne, which was the fast track to Satanism, human sacrifice and unspeakable sex practices.
• We were being lured by evil cults, backward Satanic messages in music, and other predatory influences. All of which would get us for sure if we didn't watch out.
• We wasted all our time in arcades, becoming vidiots.
• We wasted all our time with our Ataris, becoming home vidiots, rather than playing challenging games like Kick the Can and Tag.
• We stayed up late to watch dirty movies on cable, which would encourage us to have sex.
• We knew little and cared less about the past, even though everything in the past was better.
• We sucked in comparison to our parents' Beaver Cleaver idylls, from an era without social ills.
• We wanted jobs, cars and freedom way too soon; next thing you know we'd be making our own decisions.
• We had no use for real quality music, like Conway Twitty and Frank Sinatra; all our music was crap.
• We wanted our ears pierced at 14 (if female), or at all (if male); they couldn't decide which was worse.
• We had no patience, drive or ambition; we wanted everything, right now, just because we existed.
• We were selfish, immature, impulsive and did dumb things, which our parents had never done.
• We were no longer being paddled in school, which would be a long-term disaster.
• We were starting to suggest that interracial sex wasn't evil, clearly taking no thought for the poor children and what they would suffer.
• We caused disposable marriage, which would wreck for all time the family unit.
• There was no chance we would grow up, raise kids and say all the same baloney about them, because clearly, we would never sober up, straighten up and wise up in time to realize the utter rightness, truth and wisdom of our parents, much less plan families. So except for accidental pregnancies, our fecklessness would actually stunt the national growth of the United States in spiritual, demographical, political and cultural ways. We were even worse than the hippies half a generation before, as at least the hippies had causes (however misguided and utterly wrong) while they were tuning in, toking up, dropping acid, having love-ins and be-ins, and setting personal hygiene back to the 1600s.
• Naturally, all this was our fault, though such a feckless generation would never accept personal responsibility for ruining itself in spite of the ancient wisdom of our elders and betters.

In hindsight, I look back and find it all amusing. Especially when it lets me heckle my own generation for all the disrespect it heaps on the millenials--which my generation raised.