The Greatest Generation & Boomers to Millennials & Gen Z

[DerekC]

It is a good album, although I discovered a bit late in 2010. You seem to have a better memory of the 2000s than me though. Spent most of it terrified of nuclear/biological terrorist attacks-which the media seemed to suggest was a matter of "if/not when". Even till this day I have 9/11 inspired dreams-the 2010s were much nicer in comparison!

You should have tried the 1950s and 60s. When I was seven my class teacher kindly told us that Russia now had the bomb and a plane might come over and drop it on us any time now, with a graphic explanation of what it would do. I spent the next few years scared of every plane in the sky. And then there was Cuba! Jack Kennedy kindly made his "take your missiles home or else" speech on my birthday. Being a boomer hasn't been all roses!

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Well no, because some people feel animals' suffering more than others. It isn't massively complicated

You've just come across a stranger who has had some kind of accident and is bleeding. Which action do you think displays the most compassion....

(a) Staying and helping the stranger to the best of your ability.
(b) Running away because you can't bear the sight of blood.

In the case of the film example quoted, there is a link with compassion to the extent that someone who feels compassion is probably more likely to feel squeamish too - and I'm guessing that's what you're thinking of. To that extent, being squeamish to a certain degree may well be a good thing. But on a pedantic level, I'd still say the need to avoid the situation is caused by squeamishness rather than directly by compassion.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

You've just come across a stranger who has had some kind of accident and is bleeding. Which action do you think displays the most compassion....

(a) Staying and helping the stranger to the best of your ability.
(b) Running away because you can't bear the sight of blood.

Trust the "correct" answer isn't...

(c) Stand around and film the incident on your mobile phone and then upload the footage to a social media platform at the soonest opportunity.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Trust the "correct" answer isn't...

(c) Stand around and film the incident on your mobile phone and then upload the footage to a social media platform at the soonest opportunity.

Aargh, how could I forget that one!

 

[Bevan Price]

Oasis are heavily influenced by The Beatles, but at least the Gallaghers admitted it.

Agreed, there's plenty of really good indie bands out there at the moment but they don't get any radio airplay whatsoever. Even dedicated stations like Radio X revert to the older stuff.

That has always been the case. Except for the few short years when offshore pirate stations existed, UK "popular" radio stations have largely been interested only in what pop singles the music industry was "trying to plug" - or previous singles that had "made the charts". Even on current DAB "rock radio", any band not producing "mainstream" rock has very little chance of getting much airplay.

 

[backontrack]

You've just come across a stranger who has had some kind of accident and is bleeding. Which action do you think displays the most compassion....

(a) Staying and helping the stranger to the best of your ability.
(b) Running away because you can't bear the sight of blood.

In the case of the film example quoted, there is a link with compassion to the extent that someone who feels compassion is probably more likely to feel squeamish too - and I'm guessing that's what you're thinking of. To that extent, being squeamish to a certain degree may well be a good thing. But on a pedantic level, I'd still say the need to avoid the situation is caused by squeamishness rather than directly by compassion.

With all due respect, that's a brain-numbingly terrible analogy.

There's a difference between watching a film and helping a stranger get medical attention.

 

[najaB]

With all due respect, that's a brain-numbingly terrible analogy.

It is a good way at distinguishing between squeamishness and compassion, which I believe was the point. In the example given someone might want to do b) but force themselves to do a) because their empathy with someone in distress overrides their own desire to get away from the blood.

I have definitely come across people who have no compassion at all when it comes to humans or animals, but who also get queasy at the sight of blood.

Edit: Got a and b reveresed!

 

[DynamicSpirit]

With all due respect, that's a brain-numbingly terrible analogy.

There's a difference between watching a film and helping a stranger get medical attention.

Could you clarify in what way you think it's a terrible analogy?

Note that in the case of the film, by staying, you are (presumably) making yourself better informed, which means you'll be better able to take action to prevent other animals suffering a similar fate. To that extent, staying and watching is arguably the more helpful thing to do.

 

[Strathclyder]

Lets not forget that minority groups (BAME, LGBT etc) have a much easier time growing up now than people from such groups in the boomer generation. Society is more tolerant now (I know its not all sweetness and light by any means but you get my drift) and things like equal opportunities, same sex marriage etc are available to todays younger generations more than they were to boomers when they were young.

Beat me to this.

Being a young gay male (being born in April '96 who turns 25 in just over a month, you can either classify me as a Millenial or a Gen Z dependent on the criteria you use in this regard), I'm immensely grateful to have been able to grow up in a society that is signifcantly less likely to marginalize, discriminate and threaten my life merely for being attracted to the same sex.

Yes, I know things are far from picture-perfect and there's a lot of room for improvement/further progress to be made, but we've come a long way in a fairly short period of time. With that in mind, I'm just as grateful to those in the LGBTQ communuity who hail from previous generations who laid the foundations, lived through the sort of ignorance, bigotry & violence that my nightmares are made of and tirelessly fought & sacrificed to enable future generations of LGBTQ folk to live a better life. I know it may seem like all of us gay Millenials/Gen Z-ers are entitled, ignorant, 'don't know the day we were born' etc, but take it from me, not all of us are.

TL;DR: yes, what we have now isn't perfect, but what went before was quantifiably worse. On balance, I know which I'd rather have.

 

[backontrack]

Note that in the case of the film, by staying, you are (presumably) making yourself better informed, which means you'll be better able to take action to prevent other animals suffering a similar fate.

Not really. If you know an animal's going to be killed, it's the same thing; if it affects you enough to not want to watch it, that may well make you keener yet to take action.

Gen Z aren't weak or squeamish, and I'm sick of words with these negative connotations being thrown around, to be quite honest. It's all a little coded and sinister. (In truth, much of this generation has been exposed to far more graphic things on the internet then our predecessors would care to realise...)

 

[najaB]

In truth, much of this generation has been exposed to far more graphic things on the internet then our predecessors

Gen Z - sees graphic things on the Internet.
Their great grandparents - fought WW2.

Every generation has its cross to bear.

 

[backontrack]

Gen Z - sees graphic things on the Internet.
Their great grandparents - fought WW2.

Every generation has its cross to bear.

Of course, but the point still stands, doesn't it?

When Gen X and Millennials used the internet, it was more akin to Tim Berners-Lee's original idea of an information-oriented interface. Nowadays, I'd hate to be just 3 years younger, because you get exposed to all sorts of lurid stuff at a young age. That's my point - that 'squeamish' isn't fair, that there's plenty for us to be squeamish about if we wanted to but not wanting to watch animals die just isn't the same thing.

The internet didn't start with Gen Z - we do have predecessors. "Yeah but war" isn't a real response to the argument I'm making.

(Another point would be that previous generations weren't offered the choice to not watch the film, in that scenario. I wonder how many would've availed themselves of it?)

Many people who look down on Gen Z looked down on the previous incumbent young generations. It's not about the characteristics that make this generational cohort distinct; it's about resentment of the young regardless of these factors. Barbs similar to 'they're squeamish' will certainly have been used to criticise past generations, too.

 

[AlterEgo]

I think the role of social media has a lot to do with the increasing divisiveness in society, including the labelling of other age groups as "not us".

That started in the sixties with the postwar boom in young people. Have a look at the scene in the Beatles film A Hard Day's Night where the Beatles irritate an older man and mock him "it's his train, ya know".

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Gen Z aren't weak or squeamish, and I'm sick of words with these negative connotations being thrown around, to be quite honest. It's all a little coded and sinister. (In truth, much of this generation has been exposed to far more graphic things on the internet then our predecessors would care to realise...)

When Gen X and Millennials used the internet, it was more akin to Tim Berners-Lee's original idea of an information-oriented interface. Nowadays, I'd hate to be just 3 years younger, because you get exposed to all sorts of lurid stuff at a young age. That's my point - that 'squeamish' isn't fair, that there's plenty for us to be squeamish about if we wanted to but not wanting to watch animals die just isn't the same thing.

The impression your posts are giving is that you've interpreted my comment correcting you from 'compassion' to 'squeamish' as an attack on young people and somehow taken offence. It really isn't. And it also has nothing to do with fairness. As far as I was concerned, I was simply correcting an inappropriate and misleading use of the the word 'compassion'. I couldn't care less about the ages of the people involved, but I do care about accuracy and about not making something out to be what it isn't.

Look at the definitions of the words, using the https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/]Cambridge Dictionary.

Compassion: a strong feeling of sympathy and sadness for the suffering or bad luck of others and a wish to help them
Squeamishness: the fact of being easily upset or shocked by things that you find unpleasant or that you do not approve of

There is nothing in the definition of the word compassion that captures walking out of a film because you find the shots of dead creatures in it unpleasant or upsetting. On the other hand, that action matches up pretty well to the word squeamish.

There's really nothing wrong with being squeamish. I can be a bit squeamish myself. In fact, I recall a biology lesson at school in which the teacher brought in a dead mouse and proceeded to dissect it in front of us in order to teach us about anatomy. Guess who the only person in the class was who was too squeamish to watch... And before you ask, yes, I was - as far as I can recall - perfectly happy to own that I was squeamish. I had no interest in trying to pretend it was something different. And I don't understand why you seem to think that saying that someone is squeamish amounts to an attack on their character - it isn't.

But there is something very wrong with making out that something isn't what it is in order to - apparently - make a certain group of people look good. I'd urge you to consider that.