Awesomeness

[OSUViking 505]

 

I disagree. We still have personal choice.

 

 

And it's hard to make strong, intelligent personal choices when your environment either discourages them or makes it difficult to realize they are even there.

[OSUViking 505]

What I got from Bware's most recent post is that the key to fixing the problems of this generation is good parenting. That point kind of puts the blame on our parents' shoulders. I'm not one to say the entire previous generation is to blame for the problems of our own, but your point is hypocritical to assert that fixing our own problems in the next generation is as simple as good parenting when that could have helped our own.

[BwareDWare94 723]

What I got from Bware's most recent post is that the key to fixing the problems of this generation is good parenting. That point kind of puts the blame on our parents' shoulders. I'm not one to say the entire previous generation is to blame for the problems of our own, but your point is hypocritical to assert that fixing our own problems in the next generation is as simple as good parenting when that could have helped our own.

 

No. Far as I'm concerned our parents were fine, but as we adjust to what's available in our world, we can make educated choices that might aid our children in avoiding some of the things we suffered from. Our parents weren't born into this virtual world, so how could they have prepared for it? Our parents did just fine, considering the technological advances they had thrown at them in a very short period of time.

[BwareDWare94 723]

 

 

I disagree. We still have personal choice.

 

 

And it's hard to make strong, intelligent personal choices when your environment either discourages them or makes it difficult to realize they are even there.

 

 

So our environment prevents us from making smart financial decisions, such as not purchasing every new thing imaginable, and tells us it's OK to have mountains of credit card debt?

 

And that's just one of our problems. We need to find a balance between blaming prior generations and blaming our own. The environment provided isn't great, but we suck, too. Maybe everyone at this site are prime examples of our generation avoiding self inflicted hardship, but when I hear about my old college classmates going on unemployment because they can't get a job in their field, I laugh. Sometimes you have to work outside of your field. Sometimes you have to settle. When I hear about someone really struggling because they spent a lot of money they didn't have, I laugh. When I hear about people who get behind the eight ball because they "lived life and traveled a lot" well before they were financially able to do so, I laugh.

 

We are capable of avoiding these decisions. It's a simple as using your goddamn head.

 

Both our generation and prior generations are guilty when it comes to the cause of our current hardships. Let's stop pointing fingers and start accepting accountability.

Edited November 30, 2013 by BwareDWare94

[Sarge+ 3,436]

Us accepting our own responsibility does not excuse the failings of the past nor does it diminish the impact of said failings on our current situation.

[RazorStar 4,025]

People are terrible regardless of the generation.

[seanbrock 1,684]

Our generation isn't the only generation that has been taken advantage of be predatory creditors though in this poisonous lending environment though. The laws that were in place to prevent banks from taking advantage of people before have been stripped down to nothing. It's effected the entire economy, not just our generation and our generation certainly aren't the only American's buying every new gadget that hits the market. It's the result of years and years and decades of propaganda and marketing campaign's that have been aimed at making American's more consumerist by using mass psychology techniques first pioneered by people like Frued, then Bernays and Lippmann. This has been happening for over a hundred years now. Corporations and our government having been trying mold people's minds into accepting policies that are not in our interest without having to beat the submission into us but rather by controling our minds and our impulses. I've read a lot of books on this manner and none of them were published before the 1940's.

 

Put a couple books on your reading list "Propaganda" by Edward Bernays and "Public Opinion" By Walter J. Lippmann. Trust me, it's scary stuff but we're not lying and the generations before us are just as much victims of it as we are really, we're just more engrossed in it than they were.

[BwareDWare94 723]

Our generation isn't the only generation that has been taken advantage of be predatory creditors though in this poisonous lending environment though. The laws that were in place to prevent banks from taking advantage of people before have been stripped down to nothing. It's effected the entire economy, not just our generation and our generation certainly aren't the only American's buying every new gadget that hits the market. It's the result of years and years and decades of propaganda and marketing campaign's that have been aimed at making American's more consumerist by using mass psychology techniques first pioneered by people like Frued, then Bernays and Lippmann. This has been happening for over a hundred years now. Corporations and our government having been trying mold people's minds into accepting policies that are not in our interest without having to beat the submission into us but rather by controling our minds and our impulses. I've read a lot of books on this manner and none of them were published before the 1940's.

 

Put a couple books on your reading list "Propaganda" by Edward Bernays and "Public Opinion" By Walter J. Lippmann. Trust me, it's scary stuff but we're not lying and the generations before us are just as much victims of it as we are really, we're just more engrossed in it than they were.

 

I'll add those to my Amazon cart, but I was in no way implying that we were the only generations engulfed in credit debt. My bad. I could have clarified that. I think a lot of us know many older folks who have had massive credit debts as well.

[seanbrock 1,684]

 

Our generation isn't the only generation that has been taken advantage of be predatory creditors though in this poisonous lending environment though. The laws that were in place to prevent banks from taking advantage of people before have been stripped down to nothing. It's effected the entire economy, not just our generation and our generation certainly aren't the only American's buying every new gadget that hits the market. It's the result of years and years and decades of propaganda and marketing campaign's that have been aimed at making American's more consumerist by using mass psychology techniques first pioneered by people like Frued, then Bernays and Lippmann. This has been happening for over a hundred years now. Corporations and our government having been trying mold people's minds into accepting policies that are not in our interest without having to beat the submission into us but rather by controling our minds and our impulses. I've read a lot of books on this manner and none of them were published before the 1940's.

 

Put a couple books on your reading list "Propaganda" by Edward Bernays and "Public Opinion" By Walter J. Lippmann. Trust me, it's scary stuff but we're not lying and the generations before us are just as much victims of it as we are really, we're just more engrossed in it than they were.

 

I'll add those to my Amazon cart, but I was in no way implying that we were the only generations engulfed in credit debt. My bad. I could have clarified that. I think a lot of us know many older folks who have had massive credit debts as well.

 

I'd recommend on reading some stuff on B.F Skinner too. The whole picture really starts to come together when you read up on these guys.

[OSUViking 505]

 

 

No. Far as I'm concerned our parents were fine, but as we adjust to what's available in our world, we can make educated choices that might aid our children in avoiding some of the things we suffered from. Our parents weren't born into this virtual world, so how could they have prepared for it? Our parents did just fine, considering the technological advances they had thrown at them in a very short period of time.

 

 

 

Technology changes. It's possible that when I have to start worrying about the decisions my own children are making, I will not be skilled with the new consumer technology. Our parents couldn't prepare us for tablets, smart phones, and gaming consoles. But what is to say that we can prepare for what lies ahead of us? You may not realize it in your own posts, but you are piling a lot of blame solely upon this generation. I'll reiterate: I DON'T THINK OUR PROBLEMS ARE SOLELY BECAUSE OF PREVIOUS GENERATIONS. However, to imply that we can fix or prevent our own problems through parenting when our parents failed to do that is to suggest that our generation is at fault. Our parents couldn't prepare for what was ahead, sure. It's a bit ridiculous to assume that we will, as well.

 

I really think this comes down to a case-by-case basis. Some parents adapted to the technology, and some didn't. Some children were able to make intelligent decisions, and others weren't provided with the means to make them. Some of them even ignored the means by which they could have made intelligent decisions. This isn't the fault of solely our generation or the previous generation.