There are good things about getting older of course. One I like is the rapidly reducing number of people attributing the fitness I have worked hard on for decades to my youth. There are also bad things about getting older too, one I hate is the number of people, many younger than me, who look back on 'their day' with rosy tints. The world has never been perfect and it never will, it just changes.
One thing that sparked this is the way people talk about music of set eras as great and modern stuff as meaningless and soulless, or of course my favourite, less moral. There has been pop music for as long as there has been music and I'm sorry but if you don't see an immoral message in 'If you can't be with the one you love, Love the one you're with' there isn't a lot of hope for you.
Every type of music changes over time, there is classic and nu metal, because it's far too cool to be spelt new. Some of the classic stuff is pure musical excrement, and even some of the bands who have produced it have stated so in later years. How many of us haven't looked back at work we used to do with a sense of shame? Some of the new stuff is as bad but some of it is truly awesome and you can clearly hear the inspiration from the older stuff.
The message changes because time changes, strangely there are no songs about the war in Vietnam anymore, because most of the bands weren't even born when it ended, but there are plenty singing about the new corruptions etc.
There are of course classic themes that will always endure, topics that haven't changed much, desire for love, sex, good times and of course some that are simply setting out to be hilarious, with varying levels of success.
It is quite strange to think that this is now a long time ago but there was a period of pop songs in the UK that seemed to be going for having the word sex in the title and as the adage goes they were selling well. Someone who is now likely middle aged too announced to me that you wouldn't have been able to listen to music with such crude lyrics years ago. I introduced her to a few examples of how wrong she was from the metal genre and resisted the temptation to tell her what her gaping mouth should be used for, in fairness not difficult I like people who can count above their IQ.
My grandfather seems to have been responsible for my earliest realisations that the world wasn't perfect in any era, now it looks as though I am set to follow his example.
I remember him upsetting several his age when I was a child. One class example being when someone was getting him to agree that they didn't have trouble with all these illegal drugs when they were younger, she seemed less than pleased to have the fact this was because they were all legal back then pointed out.
I find it interesting to watch people talk about the way things were so much better when they were younger, who so evidently haven't a clue what was happening at that time. Watching people criticise the, in all fairness, ridiculous fashion of displaying the waist band of underwear while having the trousers draping past the feet. However the usual criticism is about the visibility of the underwear. I remember being a child during the punk era when there were a few people wearing see through trousers, one couple in particular would have assisted any struggling bulimic with how low slung their buttocks were, so by comparison G-string and see through trousers from the old days is nowhere near as tame and inoffensive as the flash of waistband from recent times. Fashion is always ridiculous, that's the whole point, if you don't want to look cool copy me, I never have.
Crime and violence. The all time classic, because of course the fact we know the majority of crime is committed by people under 25 is only from this generation, we haven't gained this knowledge by looking back over decades of data. The youth of today are very similar in most ways to the youth of my day, my parents day etc. In fact the truth is that per capita there are less youths being involved in crime than there was in my youth, and it has been attributed in part to one of the very things that has been blamed for violence for years. Video games are the way a lot of people interact now and they have friends who they only know through their games consoles. It is not practical to be indoors playing and outdoors creating trouble so many mis-spent youths are now being mis-spent in front of the TV with a controller in hand.
My grandfather told me about the way the police were encouraged to let things slide a lot just after the war (WW2) because they needed people working not locked up. Then years later when crime was getting to be an issue the government cared about again they had to start arresting people. Lo and behold the post war crime figures are really low and a bit later skyrocket, the world didn't change just priorities. He even admitted himself that he was fortunate to have noticed others getting locked up for being in fights before him to give him time to start using restraint, otherwise he would have been one of them.
There are many parts of this which confuse me. One is the increased use of 'never did me any harm' or 'character building'. Even bullying has been put down as character building, and yes it built characteristics into me, but fortunately I have worked those out since so the harm has been undone. The question I tend to ask when I hear the 'did me no harm' argument is 'Did it do you any good?' Most either look dumbfounded or snap to answer yes before they have had chance to engage their brains. Many things that have built my character have definitely caused me harm and there are a good number I wish hadn't happened. Some were my choice and show that sometimes getting what you want is not a great idea. Truth is we have things happen to us and will have to deal with them after, wishing they never happened doesn't undo the harm, it isn't that easy, especially if you don't accept there may have been harm.
One of the more fundamental is how rapidly people forget how much they hated people talking to them as second rate citizens because they were the youth of the day. I see people now seeing a group of teens messing around in a group, laughing and being loud and assuming they are automatically trouble as per tabloid media. Truth is some are, but the largest majority aren't. They are often hanging around in groups because of the fear we are drip fed telling them they need to for safety, so they are as scared of elders as elders are of them. They get loud because that's what happens when large groups get together. Unfortunately some of these groups get so fed up of being treated like thugs they start acting like them, making it a bit of a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Voluntary amnesia goes further still of course and the respect people hated being demanded instead of earned by their elders is now something they don't understand why they aren't just getting.
There are a few things I have seen become abolished or introduced that people criticise now as if they were the key to ultimate peace, harmony and perfection.
Corporal punishment. Because of course who wouldn't be brought into line by a swift whack with a piece of bamboo? Well me for one. I was one of many unpopular kids at school who realised there was a bit of temporary celebrity to be gained from taking a whack without reacting too much, so we would do just enough to get the beating we could stand without too much hardship for playground bragging rights. By the time I was attending school I was at one of the last remaining to have this so it was only part of my education until I was 9 years of age, when we moved to a new area and therefore a new school. The secondary school I was near when I was a lot younger stopped using it after some pressure but the people who had received the beatings before this would boast about the way they had damaged the teacher issuing this's car etc. for revenge. This was while they weren't big enough to hit back against full grown adults, a few who found they suddenly were found themselves excluded from school when they struck back against what was in fairness a legalised armed assailant. Fair to say corporal punishment is a great way of building hatred, animosity or getting noticed by your peers, not even remotely a useful form of punishment to instil discipline.
Lack of technology. I grew up before mobile phones were common, in fact it was quite something to have a home phone and for reasons I never got, most people kept them in the hallway. So people get all nostalgic talking of days when we didn't feel the need for children to have mobile phones in case we need to get hold of them or vice versa. Of course this is them forgetting the sheer panic if the child was late because they had missed the bus and had no way to contact them. My mother used to issue me with 2 10p coins and strict instructions to call her if I was going to be late. Of course sometimes I was nowhere near a payphone and this wasn't practical, on those occasions she would have worried. Technology has it's faults when used badly, spam mail etc. but I am glad my son has a mobile phone and knows how to quickly call us if he needs to. We had a call from him on one occasion because he was in a game of hide and seek we didn't know about in a large outdoor park and we had no idea where he was. Having heard us shouting for him he called us to say he was OK just hiding. This may seem daft but it worked, we were all happy because he was fine and able to continue playing.
I often wonder if there isn't more than a little bit of jealousy behind the rosy tints. Wonder how the world looks through the green mist of envy and rosy tinted glasses. I know my son gets life better than I did, I have worked hard to ensure this is the case and intend it to remain so. He still has to work for things but he was born to my wife and I at a time when we were as ready as we could be and truly wanted him, which makes a massive difference. As with all children he would like things we can't or won't give him, but unlike many he is not being fed nonsense about how our day was so much better, we show him the good and bad so he knows it wasn't better or worse just different.
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