Localmanjames - please don't confuse history ( politics) with a social phenomenon (opt-out mentality of the new generation).
In the past, poor and uneducated people worked their butts off for a living, they hold 2 or 3 jobs to support a family. Those fortunate enough to go to schools will also work part-time in the evenings and weekends for extra money to pay for their textbooks and household expenses. The 1930's -60's generation value thrift and hardwork. This was the pattern of immigrants who settled in foreign countries, too.
Farmers get up at 4.30 am to milk cows. Crop farmers work in the fields all day long. The young ones are not interested in farming now citing boredom and too much manual work, they'd rather move to the city with night clubs, cafes and cinemas. From a 90% agrarian economy, the percentage has gone down to 30-40% in most agricultural countries.
Wars, strikes and race riots ( to name a few) are often instigated by a few red-necks who are combative and power-hungry. They manipulate the masses for their own gains. At least, the young adults of that time, can be bothered to wake up from their beds and fight for their cause. Whether or not they were misled, at least they cared enough to want to do something to improve their lot.
Today's middle-class and upper class youth ( 40-60%) can't even wake up in the morning or be on time for lessons /work. Their usual wake-up time is between 11.00 am - 3 pm. They spend their time playing computer games, hanging out at shopping malls / buying brand-named goods, checking their smartphones periodically and chatting on social networking sites up till early hours of the morning. Some admitted that they go to bed around 4-5 am. Do you think you can count on them to start / run businesses or even do volunteer work in the future?
Ngee Ann Polytechnic introduced a strict policy to correct latecoming. If they are late by 15 minutes, they're considered absent. This applies to foreign students as well. The same tardiness is evident in tertiary institutions in other countries, too.
The London riots involved idle youths. According to friends who knew the neighbourhood - they were surprised that overnight these so-called smiley friendly youths became vandals, joining in with their peers.
In the past, many young adults went on job-hunting sprees on their own. Todays' youth are not that interested - their parents had to nag them, without much success. Parents are concerned that they cannot count on their children to pay the bills. With rising costs in housing and standard of living, these young ones will not be able to support themselves, let alone their aging parents.
Sorry I don't agree. The discrimination against the AA, 'white only' policies in USA/CAN/ANZ, and even the prosecution of the Jews in Germany, could not have occurred if the majority of citizens in those countries did not support the policies, as the USA, Canada and Australia etc back then were already full democracies.
If the Americans were staunchly against the discrimination of AA, there was no way those policies could have been enacted the first place. Well, later they became fiercely against it, but once again it was mostly the younger generation of that time that supported the emancipation of the AAs, and only after MLK went on his campaign, and MLK got shot later of course.
The laziness and entitlement attitude you talk about has nothing to do with age, but it has something to do with wealth. Believe me, there are plenty of young people in third world countries who are ploughing the field from 6am to 6pm every day. Just walk to any construction site in Singapore and take a look at the young expatriates and some of the young locals doing back-breaking work there.
Yes it is true the young first generation Singaporean who came down from China in the 1800s and young first gen American who boarded the Mayflower by signing a work contract will wake up at 6 am every day, not because he wants to, but because he is a labourer/farmer and has no choice but to do so.
He will also eat scraps for meals but not because he has some high-minded ideals to save food and pollute less of the world, but because he is an indentured servant.
Just stick around at any of the hospitals in Singapore and you will see how ridiculous some of the old people are. Even on their deathbeds, they will tell the doctor to buzz off, pull the drip needle out of their arm and they then proceed to make some herbal tea to cure them of their cancer. Or buy some stones with 'magical properties' which will magically heal them. Or if you are talking about lazy people who are unwilling to educate themselves and work hard/smart but instead daydream about becoming rich their entire lives, just walk into any Tote (betting) shop in Singapore and take a good look if the young or old make up most of the regular gamblers there.
The immigration policies which existed in some countries were designed to manage immigration much like Singapore does with such enviable success.
In Europe today the abandonment of all immigration controls will inevitably result in confrontation because so many immigrant groups have failed to integrate which has forced political leaders to declare multi-culruralism was a failure.
Perhaps it was the political correct practice of encouraging ethnicities i.e. languages, customs, traditions followed by immigrants in their mother country, but this only served to isolate ethnic groups further and was an obstacle to integration. Today we have ghettos and no-go areas.
Too often I hear a "whites only" policy, but this clearly was not so, because in Australia for example, there were Italians, French, Portuguese, Greeks, Lebanese......
Perhaps young people can't be fussed because they know if they bust their chops for a lifetime they will never pay off the mortgages which over the past 5 years have become necessary to "rent" a dog box.
And those who journeyed to the New World on the Mayflower were not servants, they were pilgrims.
Now, give me 7 numbers 1-45.
