Monday 27 August 2012

Young people are bad. And can't spell.

If you find that you are in a position of power but feel inadequate about something, you should point the finger at people who are not in a position of power and explain why these people are inadequate.

This works for everything from what  you might call 'bad spelling' or 'standards' to 'morals', 'behaviour', 'politeness', 'respect for authority'.

You in your position of power might well think that  you're bad at spelling, have low standards, bad morals, don't behave very well, aren't very polite and on occasions have no respect for someone who you think is in a higher position than you.

This makes you ashamed.

Ashamed is an uncomfortable place to be.

So, best way to feel better is to tell others that they are the ones who are bad.

This has the advantage of keeping you in your position of power, as it asks of people to turn on each other and blame each other for their situation, rather than blame you.

The best people for blaming are young people.

That's because 'young people' is a phrase that is so general to be meaningless. There is no general 'young person'. So by blaming 'young people',  you enlist the part inside anyone older than 'young' who has ever been jealous of any young people anywhere, who has ever felt that they didn't have enough fun when they were young, or who has ever felt that they didn't do enough of something when they were young. And after all there is a massive industry telling us that  the only way to be beautiful and desirable is to be young. So, it is quite easy to feel jealous.

Then it's your job to turn that jealousy into nastiness and blame. This way you encourage people to think that young people aren't really having a better time than you had or that you are having now. Young people might be having fun but they are bad.

And if young people are bad, then society is going down the pan.
.....................

Nice try.

The chaos and disasters of war, poverty, racism, exploitation, oppression weren't created by young people. They were created by older people in power. Powerful older people.

Best to say that young people are bad and maybe they won't get angry with powerful older people.

Maybe they won't even notice.

So, just to be clear:

young people are bad. And can't spell.