Have you ever experienced being told by someone older than you that the past better and more glorious than the world that we are living in now? Have you ever been told that the world is continuously degrading, as if it was this generation's fault that the world turned out this way and not theirs?
A simple argument with someone way older than you can show you this point. They always talk about the supposed golden past, and how they are supposedly better than the people of today. It irks me to no end why they would like to compare generations versus generations when nobody else does it like them.
This resistance to change--this attitude of conservatism--is very unnatural and very backward. The world is a world of continuous change. Nothing is permanent. In fact, change is the only thing permanent in this world. To say that these changes are not necessary is far from the point. The issue is not whether it is necessary or not. The issue is that changes do happen, and we'll just have to accept them.
All generations of human beings that come to this world have their own sets of problems that they have to address. For this generation, it's the issue of terrorism and climate change. Perhaps for the older generations it is the Cold War, while for those are even much-older, it may be the likes of the World War that are in front of their footsteps. It does not matter which problems are worse, or which should have been easily addressed. The fact is that we all have problems and we have to help each other succeed in overcoming them. Life seems to be in an eternal chaos, though a lot say it is night. Disturbances do happen.
So the next time someone tells you that their generation is much better, just tell them to help you the problems of today's world. We're all part of this problem. We're living in only one world.
