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Reflections on turning 50.

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posted on Sep, 3 2015 @ 03:15 PM
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I'm not sure if this is a rant or simply an observation.

I am 50 tomorrow, Friday 4th.
I'm a well rounded sort of person - been around the block, done and seen lots of things that most people would never have the opportunity to nor even the desire to.

I still like to live life to the full and do so on a fairly frequent basis.

But I've always been a passionate person.
When I was younger I didn't want to change the world....I wanted to smash it to #ing bits.

And that passion still burns fiercer than ever.
Sure it's tempered with my life experiences, but it's still there burning away with an intensity that will never fade.

Now that brings me to one of the saddest reflections I could have.
What the frigging hell has happened to the youth of today?
Never have I witnessed such a bunch of passionless, inane, insipid and bland twats in all my life and all my travels.
They seem devoid of independent and reasoned thought, lack any sort of creativity and are soulless.
And they are so weak and mothered, it's truly pathetic to watch and listen.
Grow a pair? How can they, they've been neutered.
Man up? How can they when everything 'manly' is demonised and frowned upon.
Smash the system?
Challenge authority?
Question the accepted?
Bollocks!

A cliché but true nonetheless - they wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes 20, 30+ years ago.

I could literally rant on for ages, but what's point? I'm sure you get the drift of things.



posted on Sep, 3 2015 @ 03:23 PM
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It's easy.
Their parents told them they were special and gave them a trophy for showing up.



posted on Sep, 3 2015 @ 03:24 PM
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a reply to: Freeborn


Happy Birthday for tomorrow mate!!!
I think it's the media, internet... many, many distractions that we just didn't have years ago.
There are a lot of young passionate, politically minded people but maybe not as many as there were.... there are still plenty though.

I think just generally the level of debate, discourse and general interest in issues has dwindled and and has been diluted by the distractions I mentioned.
You'd think with the country in the **** it is, that it would be MORE people politically active and so on.



posted on Sep, 3 2015 @ 03:24 PM
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SSRI's are a key ingredient in making recent generations the 'suck generation' of all time.

Any hint of discontent or not following the rules and you are diagnosed with ADD or ADHD and Bang, Adderall, Xanax, Zoloft….

Question authority, arrested in third grade….

Dont agree with the pre-programmed snipe spewed in common core, see above.

…oh, and everyone gets a medal.



posted on Sep, 3 2015 @ 03:25 PM
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a reply to: Freeborn

Bro, I'd wager our parents said the same about our generation. It's the nature of the beast. Society continually changes, us old fart don't..... easily.

Oh. And if you want to know what starts giving out in your 50's it's your bladder(at least 4 whizzes a night) and your mind. "What was I just thinking about?"



posted on Sep, 3 2015 @ 03:26 PM
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Nice one you old twat.



posted on Sep, 3 2015 @ 03:32 PM
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a reply to: Freeborn

Happy birthday in advance Freeborn, quick comment for now, more to come in response tomorrow, but that makes you just about a year and a half older than me so bear that in mind with my comments to come..... I hope you have a great day and night tomorrow.



posted on Sep, 3 2015 @ 03:42 PM
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Happy Birthday for tomorrow!

It's a crazy world and we are surrounded by it's beauty and horror, it's sorrows and joys. Take one day at a time and make it the best that you can. Inspire others. Smile at people, you never know what kind of day they are having and you just might make a difference in their lives. Getting old isn't easy, but you are never alone.




posted on Sep, 3 2015 @ 03:45 PM
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a reply to: Freeborn

Yeah, well don't you go changing - make sure there's one manly role model for them to look up to.


Happy birthday!






posted on Sep, 3 2015 @ 03:58 PM
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Happy Birthday!!! Just too bad you weren't born one day later, the 5th is an awesome day to celebrate



posted on Sep, 3 2015 @ 04:00 PM
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Thanks for the reply's and birthday wishes.

Was supposed to have been going to Hamburg or Dusseldorf for the weekend with friends but various passport complications and other issues put paid to that for the time being.....probably go in a month or so.

Still, there will be quite a few 'sociables' sank over the weekend.

blup, it may be the conspiracy theorist in me but I think a part of it has been the general dumbing down of society.
Our education system certainly doesn't encourage critical thinking or challenging the accepted norm.

What happened to youth cultures?
There hasn't been any significant youth culture since the early Rave scene.
The youth of Britain were always at the forefront of new thoughts / movements etc - Teddy Boys, Mods / Rockers, Punk, Glam, Skins, New Romantics etc - they all challenged accepted norms and they all originated with working class youths.
We have nothing for the last 20 - 25 years.
They were all UK youths giving the V sign to society and creating something new, something that was there's.
All those youth cultures had a massive influence on mainstream culture.

Now everything originates on the High Street or with major corporations with the added influence of the media etc.

Nobody encourages the 'youth' to question anything and they seem to lack the passion or vision or anger to actually question anything with any real intensity.

I've spent a lot of my life in pubs and clubs - as a customer, as a doorman, as a bar owner and as a barman.
I still travel around the UK a fair bit and I get to meet and talk to lots of young people - by and large most of them are cracking people....but they tend to lack any great passion about anything.

Maybe it's me and I am getting old?



posted on Sep, 3 2015 @ 04:01 PM
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Freeborn,

Being a whole 50ish myself, you and I are both old enough to remember stuff like walking a couple blocks to school and home again all by ourselves, without some helicopter parent deciding for our parents that it was too dangerous.

We weren't practically bubble wrapped in protective helmets and padding just to ride a bike.

We celebrated Valentines, Halloween and Christmas in school without worrying that someone would be offended. In my class was a girl from a religion who didn't celebrate holidays, so her parents kept her home from school on those days. There there was no reprisal or lawsuits over it.

We didn't have to watch every word we spoke because the PC police would get offended or our parents get in trouble over it.

We didn't have reality TV, or the culture of celebrity worship (at least not to the level it is now), and the constant barrage of media available online 24/7.

Boys used the boy's bathroom and locker room, girls used the girls bathroom and locker room. There was no one telling our parents or teachers to use gender neutral terms and transgender as almost unheard of.

Officer Friendly come to our classrooms and told us that the police are there to help us. Would any of us really, truly trust a fully armed police officer today?

Back then, the thought of our phone conversations being listened to by "them" was fantasy, not the reality it is now.

I agree with you, Freeborn. I realize every generation thinks the one following it is going right down the dumper, but the kids scare me too these days. They don't dare do anything without fear of offending someone, being accused of racism or sexism. Unless they troll on social media and spew positively vile things and hide behind a screen name. MSM exposes them to sex, violence and fear, gender lines that have been clear cut for generations are now blurred. I'm not a sociologist. What's really to blame? The nanny state? Political correctness? The internet? I really fear that we've turned a corner and can never come back.

You have a good birthday Free Born. Lift a beverage of your choice on me!



posted on Sep, 3 2015 @ 04:04 PM
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originally posted by: intrepid
a reply to: Freeborn

Bro, I'd wager our parents said the same about our generation. It's the nature of the beast. Society continually changes, us old fart don't..... easily.

Oh. And if you want to know what starts giving out in your 50's it's your bladder(at least 4 whizzes a night) and your mind. "What was I just thinking about?"


What sort of de blether you have?

The rest I agree with, like standing at the door trying to remember if you are coming in or going out!
I don't know why the OP is on a rant, 50 for me was a great era, a time to start throwing out the bullshiite, I'll be 70 next August..if still around that is, and spent a deal of that time as a hard drinking, non-sleeping rock musician and enjoyed every minute of it, but seldom got social angry.
I don't see too much wrong with youngsters today, I see more wrong with trollish/controllish media, that they need to wade through, and the doom and gloom merchants, mostly talking the brown stuff.
Some are canny enough to see through it all, others are not so canny, and sometimes that can be tragic.

edit on 3-9-2015 by smurfy because: Text.



posted on Sep, 3 2015 @ 04:06 PM
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a reply to: intrepid



Oh. And if you want to know what starts giving out in your 50's it's your bladder(at least 4 whizzes a night) and your mind. "What was I just thinking about?"


I think I reached that stage a year or two ago.
A piss a pint nowadays.....and I have quite a few pints!

My parents 'didn't understand me' because I wanted to question and challenge everything.....I don't understand 'kids today' because they DON'T want to challenge and question everything.



posted on Sep, 3 2015 @ 04:07 PM
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a reply to: Freeborn

I seems to be generally assumed that the connectivity the internet provides is somehow inherently a good thing. When I look at today's youth, I sometime question that sentiment. While it has brought some good into the world, we as a collection of societies, have been given a new, untested and extremely powerful tool that did not come with a user manual. We may possibly be not wielding this new tool in a responsible manner.



posted on Sep, 3 2015 @ 04:07 PM
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a reply to: Freeborn
Happy birthday! I think that one contributing factor is the fact that they're hooked into all these electronic devices and game systems and don't really experience real life as much as older generations that didn't have them.



posted on Sep, 3 2015 @ 04:08 PM
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50? You kids need to grow up sometime. I almost remember 50.



posted on Sep, 3 2015 @ 04:10 PM
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Happy birthday to you mate!

I feel the same sometimes, but then when I realize that we all sort of went through that certain "phase", I kind of forgive them a bit.. Just a tiny bit though.. not a lot.

There are certain specific crowds that just turns me bananas. For instance, like these extreme douche bags:


Believe it or not, there are plenty of people like this everywhere...

These, among other specific crowds, are the ones that makes me wanna get into Molecular Biology so that I could invent a specific virus that wipes out this part of the gene pool...



posted on Sep, 3 2015 @ 04:12 PM
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a reply to: smurfy

...................thread jack alert...........

Are you nearly 70? There is no way in a billion, million years I would have guessed that from your posts (which are pretty spot on, most days!)

Maybe you're right then, Freeborn. 50+ is where it's at.

Have another



posted on Sep, 3 2015 @ 04:15 PM
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a reply to: Freeborn

I am in 30s now and I don't think those in teens or twenties are brain dead.

I think that people are becoming so disconnected from each other in a physical sense that we don't come into contact anymore like we used to.

I mean here we are typing away on computers.

Everyone is separated from everyone else. Most of the time if you talk to younger people you'll find out that they have many passions and interests that are important to them. They may not be important to me but then again I am already past the age of being a rebel. I am not longer a part of whatever it is that stirs the current 18 year old horde.

I think your interests, passions, and opinions change and evolve as you get older. But I don't think the current youth are anymore idiotic than the youth of any other generation.

I mean.

Milli Vanilli.





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