Is Today's Generation Cosseted?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2543003/Jeremy-Paxman-admits-wants-tell-Newsnight-viewers-stop-watching.html

It is according to Jeremy Paxman.

/// The presenter - whose father Keith served in the North Atlantic convoys - said conscription and National Service taught the importance of duty, whereas modern generations are ‘cosseted’ and expected to do nothing but ‘gratify themselves’. ///

[LazyGun]

Thats Paxo for you.

As to his specific comments, I would agree with some, disgree with others. Just because he is a well known broadcaster does not impart additional wisdom to his comments ;)

From the article you link to;

"‘I’m not arguing in favour of National Service, but I feel in awe of my parents’ generation who had to do that, and a bit guilty having such a privileged life. We’ve had it pretty easy and never been tested.

I would agree with the sentiment, but feel no guilt - why should we?

‘Obviously I’m not wishing war on anyone, but it might have been better for all of us if we’d been obliged to do something rather than choosing for ourselves.

- I would disagree. Where in the manual of life does it say anywhere that you have a duty? And millions of people are obliged to do something everyday - they have to work , to provide, to care for others.

'It’s difficult to comprehend today a society where people were expected to do things other than gratify themselves."

Again, its easy to criticise when you set this generation against the war generation - those who experienced sacrifice and deprivation through events larger than themselves - but we should not wish that to be the norm - and every single day I engage with plenty of people who are focused on something other than self-gratification.

I think Paxo seems a bit full of self-loathing, myself.

[youngmafbog]

Not the only thing Paxman is full of.

[jim360]

His on-screen persona is a bit annoying at times. He seemed rather less of a pompous git off-camera. As it happens, I'm inclined to think that the answer to the title question is "Yes, but this isn't always a bad thing." I'm sure that having to scrape a living day in, day out, living in a one-room house with twenty other people and no toilet, is character-building. But you can have too much of that, surely?

I think it should be possible both to be full of respect for those people who laid their lives on the line that we might have freedom, and also to be glad that I don't have to make the same choice.

[anotheoldgit]

Well laid out argument LG, thanks for going to the trouble of reading the whole article, many do not.

[Gromit]

Sounds like he is just feeling old. We are fortunate that every generation for the last 200 years has had things better than the previous generation. Being forced to do national service would suit some but not others.

Now he is in his dotage, it is easy for Paxman to reminisce. He is also looking at it from his comfortable middle class perspective. A lot of people who did not do national service are not cosseted and are having a hard time of things.

[Gromit]

I suppose if you are earning close to £1milliom a year you might start to get philosphical and begin to ponder how lucky you have been compared to say your father.
If he feels so deprived he could always join the TA or join the home guard.

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

I think what he actually means is that some of today's young are relatively their own persons, come and go as they please, do their own thing etc, etc.

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

/// If he feels so deprived he could always join the TA or join the home guard. ///

We no longer have a Home Guard and he is too old to join the TA.

[jno]

I wonder which the "current generation" is. Probably his own. Today's younger generation - those under 30ish, say - will probably have it tougher than their parents, particularly if they want to do something like buying a house.

If he's talking about baby boomers, though - yes, very cosseted. For a start, our parents gave us free health treatment and education, which we have failed to pass on to our children.

[jake-the-peg]

And very similar things were said about the young in the Edwardian period, the 'Belle epoch' and just a few years later they were fighting in World War I


I am surprised you didn't pick out the bit where he says:

**‘I’m not arguing in favour of National Service'**


Did you not like that bit?

[anotheoldgit]

jno

/// I wonder which the "current generation" is. Probably his own. Today's younger generation - those under 30ish, say - will probably have it tougher than their parents, particularly if they want to do something like buying a house. ///

While I agree buying a house these days is tough for the young these days, but so it was for the young of yesterday, many were in the forces so consequently could not also afford to buy a house on their demob, consequently they had to either 'live in rooms' or rent a property.

[emmie]

i think some definitely are, some want a life of ease whilst not doing a damn thing to earn it. it doesn't apply to all i know, but most definitely some young folks i have come across.

[anotheoldgit]

jake-the-peg

/// I am surprised you didn't pick out the bit where he says:///

**‘I’m not arguing in favour of National Service'**

I also didn't pick out a very lot of what he said, but I did provide a link so that one could read it for themselves.

[Zeuhl]

It seems each generation carries with it its own pressures and challenges

I don't envy the teenagers and 20-somethings of today with their 'targets' and 'goal setting' for the most mundane and ill-paid of jobs.

They have a lot more options than the WW2 generation but that in itself brings pressures because it requires choices to be made and then judges people on their ability to make those choices.

Conscription and National Service for example, are 'non choices' in that they were compulsory, and for some people, spending a few years doing what they were told was a relatively easy option. For others less so.

The mental health cost of telling generations they can do whatever they set their minds to, presenting them with more options than they could possibly need, then putting barriers (financial in particular) in their way, is yet to be seen.

Today's ultimate goal may be 'fulfilling one's potential' - but heaven help anyone perceived as failing to do that

[jno]

a quarter of young people - into their early 30s - are living at home

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25827061

The graph in that story shows it's a sharp rise over 15 years or so. I don't know how that compares with the postwar years, though - with housing stock damaged or destroyed - that might be thought of as a special case. The current figure seems to be caused by economic pressures.