These Days

I just hate the phrase "these days", but I love watching people who think they know how to use it. Awhile back a friend and I discussed the Les Miserables movie. You know, the new one with Anne Hathaway as the prostitute Fantine. It's a gritty film. Neither of us were fond of the 'Lovely Ladies' scenes. My friend sighed and said, "Movies these days."
That movie is an adaptation. Of a book. Published in 1862.
Want to complain about how chivalry is dead these days?

Chivalry is for knights. Knights were younger sons of rich lords whose daddies didn't leave them any money. Knights are homeless warriors on horseback. Knights gallop around the countryside, usually armed and in a gang, until the king tells them to go kill each other.
Chivalry is an anti-rape code. We have those too.
Want to complain about gangs these days?

Next time I hear someone talk about hoodlum teenage boys, I'm going to say, "You know what I hate? Knights. Oh, and squires and pages. Training seven year olds with swords? Is that really a good idea? What if they kill each other instead of slaying dragons? I hope the Black Plague smites them."
Moral of the story: Boys, if you don't open the door for your date, thou shalt be smitten by ye olde plague.
Want to complain about a teen pregnancy boom these days?

Yeah, we had one of those when the ancien regime came to an end. And it's all the fault of those newfangled factories. Thanks to the Industrial Revolution, teenagers moved away from their little villages to work in cities. Met a lot of new people. What they did in their free time was their own business. Orphanages overflowed.
Want to complain about drug use these days?

The sixties. No explanation needed.
Want to complain about computer use these days?



This is Bill. When he was in eighth grade (late sixties) he and his friends got in trouble for cutting class to play games in the computer room. Specifically tic-tac-toe. They wrote the programming. His social life was kind of pathetic. At least he was smart enough to put himself in classes with mostly girls when he wrote the school's scheduling program.

He's now a married man. With three kids. And a house. And a job. And several billion dollars. But that's irrelevant.
If you've read many of my other posts, you know one of my core ideas is that nothing important changes from generation to generation. There are no new problems, but sometimes we find new ways to complain about them.
Pffft. Bloggers these days.