It’s Official, I may be old

Sitting here in the early morning at work. I overhear things being said by co-workers. I’ve come to realize that with the 20s crowd I have absolutely no idea what their “important” issues mean.

The stuff they think is important is either something I’d consider totally irrelevant or something that I have no clue about at all.

Have I become so disconnected?

Is this what my  grandfather felt like? (No wonder he contented himself with “You kids, get off my lawn!”)

The news is all the same, many of the issues are completely alien and increasingly I find myself quoting Rhett Butler.

“Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn!”

It’s not like I’m actively pissed off or anything, it’s just that I have no common ground. I do think that a lot of these people are spoiled little brats and that they could all benefit from a good spanking.

Oops, there is is again. Oldness!

I find myself wondering how we, as a society came to this place. 

Some would say it’s our overly permissive society. Others might say it’s the lack of discipline in our families, schools, and country. Still others would say it’s a combination of all of the above and would add that this is some kind of backlash against racist, misogynistic, patriarchal, society.

Although the latter is probably just a boilerplate comment that is tagged at the end of anything that isn’t right these days.

I like the old Southern way of describing issues with people, “That child ain’t right”

In the old South, often a child could be “Made Right” with the application of a switch to the behind, and a good dose of hellfire and damnation from the minister’s pulpit on Sunday morning.

We don’t do that anymore. 

Perhaps thoughts like these are further evidence that I’m old.

When I was much younger than I am today, I had hope and optimism. I thought we as a people and planet were heading toward a future of enlightenment and unprecedented cooperation. I honestly thought that we’d all learn to live together and that in our unity we’d achieve amazing things.  It wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility back then, that by now we’d already have colonies on the moon and Mars. Nothing we could imagine was beyond our reach. 

When the Berlin Wall fell, I personally saw it as a bit of proof that the old paradigms were coming to an end and that we might have world peace, and prosperity would naturally come to all of us because we’d harness the collective intelligence and will of everyone on our planet.

I was naive and overly optimistic.

I didn’t factor into my calculations that humans aren’t always able to look at the big picture. I was optimistic because I was at the cutting edge of technology. I saw our increased connectedness as a means to unite us all and make sure that we all advanced into a bright shiny future.

I laugh at my naivety now. Once again I failed to recognize that the lowest common denominator is more often the dominant force in our world.

I guess Some Things NEVER change.