my imagination or did i wake up in the wrong time

[Widebrim]

I needed to read this thread again today.
I do believe the one factor in yesterday and today is drugs. This one factor has to of had the greatest negative affect on the last few generations. Makes me incredibly sad to speak to people I know or knew over my lifetime that drugs have robbed them of the whole persona of who they used to be. There may of always been drugs back into centuries ago and I do know about opium and stuff but I refuse to believe the numbers were as high way back as now.

I only state this here now as like Feathers this little faux community does help at times.

Yes, even though drug addiction has been a constant pariah on the hill of civilization (read the 18th century work by deQuincy, "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater"), it was not as widespread as it got in the latter 20th century. In the 1950s, that which was somewhat limited to musicians, "intellectuals," and laboratory assistants, had by the late '60s become common to the kid on the street. The result was, to paraphrase your statement, the robbing of a whole generation's innocence and persona.

 

[Foofoogal]

Thank you. See what I mean. Someone gets it.

 

[John in Covina]

There were some drug problems in the past, such as the good old opium den which was part of most major cities, and private addictions to stuff like laudnum was prevelant because you did not need a prescription. Still there are people today, like what happened to a number celebs, even Rush Limbaugh, where prescription drugs used for pain relief became an addiction.

Hard to imagine that type of despairation.

 

[Matthew Verge]

There's a quotation attributed to Socrates that might be the one you mean:

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."

Or this, attributed to Hesiod:

"I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly disrespectful and impatient of restraint."

I think you hit the nail square on the head right here. Every generation thinks the youth of their day is hell-bound. I once read a paper that quoted a person from every century saying the same thing.

I've been told I was born in the wrong time, and I've been asked many times when I would be born if I had the option. The answer is easy; June of 1985. All periods are great and poor in their own way, and it's usually only in retrospect that we see this. I love the time I live in.