We Generation

Kids of today, huh? Long-haired layabouts with their pop music, hardly know they're born. Don't even have to wind their own gramophones. A spell in the army would teach them a thing or two. We had it tough in my day...

Or:

Nothing's been the same since Drodbar invented the ban-dan-bladder-stiddle. (The credit eventually went to Gorbly since, although his invention was identical and had probably come after Drodbar's, everyone agreed that 'wheel' was a far better name for it.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGgHT6lSgpc

And then of course there's:

Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, eat a lump of freezing cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down t' mill, and pay mill owner to let us work there, and when we got home our dad would slice us in two wi't' breadknife and dance about on our graves singing "Hallelujah."

FTSE has taken all the best comments I see. Obviously I need to start getting up at eight at night.

Of course everything was better in the olden days. In fact I don't actually believe that,

but...

No risks taken when you're small and and more flexible than frangible means you take the wrong risks when you're not.

Admit it, we have all been desensitized by the violence we see every day. 2 power-ups on your shoot-em-up and you live to kill another day.

Wii is kack! For fuck's sake play tennis, don't fucking waggle a bit of plastic in front of a screen you cunts!

Sorry, you two are barking up the wrong tree here.

I know exactly what you're saying ewan but if you get hurt in the playground your parents can sue the council. If you walk to school you run the risk of getting molested or beaten up. And some of those strangers are really, really strange.

I walked to school, alone, pretty well from the first day I went to school. It made me the man I am today, which is why I can't recommend it to anybody else.

We're all weaklings these days. Given the workload (and no such thing as weekends) of the average foot soldier in the Roman army, can you imagine how tough they must have been? They might not match today's soldiers in weaponry, but in hand to hand combat they'd flatten them!

You're right in what you say Ewan, but fears about the softness of the following generation are nothing new, and no disasters yet. People brought up on the Wii will re-make the world to suit what they know. None of us (apart from Ray Mears and a handful of Maasai herdsmen) is capable of living in the natural world any more. It's just the substitution of one artificial environment for another. People are very good at that.

Oh for goodness' sake!

I know children who walk to school play on bikes and read books!

And I have scars on my knees from falling off my bike doing stunts!

And I have only ever played a Wii or its like under blackmail conditions!

You never really know what you're capable of until you do it. If you could see me now, shovelling coal like a true miner!

J x

p.s. excellent poem, Ewan! You got the lingo down, blood!

I think the point Ewan is trying to get across is you can not develop good motor skill with a wii computer game.

I whole heartily agree my nephew is great at wii tennis beats the pants of me, but hopeless at the real game where I win with ease and I, am no great tennis player.

A simpler argument has been brewing in the world of marital arts for some time. Bruce Lee called people who practiced kata (forms) which are movements without application against opponent "dry land swimmers" as they never test their combat skills. However some people like to practice kata for health benefits such as my mum who practices tai chi for health benefits and have no interest in fighting.

There are also so benefits too learning how too model movement in a safe environment, in surf lessons they first teach you the pop up (the basic move to stand on the board) on dry land before you practice in the ocean and in judo and aikido the first thing they teach you is how too fall(because you will get thrown).
Movements only become safe or dangerous dependant on skills and conditioning. In surfing you can ride giant waves and in Judo grapple all out with top black belts, this only becomes a problem if someone thinks they can do this with out any training. They will be in for a rude awaking

Have you seen the film or read the book "into the wild" it deals with this every subject of modern man facing nature. It,s also one of my favorite films