The other day, I somehow ended up in a “discussion” where everyone was blaming “millennials and GenZ” in one form or another for ruining everything this group of industry veterans held sacred. Claiming this next generation has distorted morals, no social skills, and no work ethic. 

Listen, I grew up with hair down to the middle of my back, wearing clothes that looked like I shopped at a shelter and rocked feathered earrings. You should also know this was when only “women had long hair and earrings,” and my family wasn’t poor despite my homeless fashion statement. Throughout my teens, I played in bands with friends who adorned similar looks and attitudes. I can assure you my first-generation, hard-core Italian blue-collar family was not pleased with my choices and shared those thoughts with me daily. 

The odds of anyone believing I would grow into a stable contributing adult were about zero. Today, besides the hair (God’s choice, not mine), I look the same. Outside the world of frontline production, I am still nonconventional in appearance, yet I’ve proven to be highly stable and achieved a fair amount of success in life. 

Somehow, today’s “hooligans” will grow, become successful, and complain about the generations that follow them. And over and over it goes. 

In researching my beliefs, I uncovered quotes, some going back to ancient Athens. These quotes reveal that the cycle of bashing the next gen was already set in place.

Here are a list of just a few:

 “[Young people] are high-minded because they have not yet been humbled by life, nor have they experienced the force of circumstances… They think they know everything when they actually know nothing and are always quite sure about their thoughts.” 

Rhetoric, Aristotle 

4th Century BC 

“The beardless youth… does not foresee what is useful, squandering his money.” 

Horace 

1st Century BC 

“Our sires’ age was worse than our grandsires’. We, their sons, are more worthless than they; so in our turn we shall give the world a progeny yet more corrupt.” 

Book III of Odes, Horace 

circa 20 BC 

“Modern fashions seem to keep on growing more and more debased … The ordinary spoken language has also steadily coarsened. People used to say ‘raise the carriage shafts’ or ‘trim the lamp wick,’ but people today say ‘raise it’ or ‘trim it.’ When they should say, ‘Let the men of the palace staff stand forth!’ they say, ‘Torches! Let’s have some light!'” 

Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness), Yoshida Kenkō 

1330 – 1332 

“… I find by sad Experience how the Towns and Streets are filled with lewd wicked Children, and many Children as they have played about the Streets have been heard to curse and swear and call one another Nick-names, and it would grieve ones Heart to hear what bawdy and filthy Communications proceeds from the Mouths of such…” 

A Little Book for Children and Youth – Being Good Counsel and Instructions for Your Children, Earnestly Exhorting Them to Resist the Temptation of the Devil, Robert Russel 

1695 

 “Whither are the manly vigour and athletic appearance of our forefathers flown? Can these be their legitimate heirs? Surely, no; a race of effeminate, self-admiring, emaciated fribbles can never have descended in a direct line from the heroes of Potiers and Agincourt…” 

Letter in Town and Country magazine republished in Paris Fashion: A Cultural History 

1771 

“The free access which many young people have to romances, novels, and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth…” 

Memoirs of the Bloomsgrove Family, Reverend Enos Hitchcock 

1790 

 “…a fearful multitude of untutored savages… [boys] with dogs at their heels and other evidence of dissolute habits…[girls who] drive coal-carts, ride astride upon horses, drink, swear, fight, smoke, whistle, and care for nobody…the morals of children are tenfold worse than formerly.” 

Anthony Ashley Cooper, the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, Speech to the House of Commons 

February 28, 1843 

“A pernicious excitement to learn and play chess has spread all over the country, and numerous clubs for practicing this game have been formed in cities and villages…chess is a mere amusement of a very inferior character, which robs the mind of valuable time that might be devoted to nobler acquirements … they require out-door exercises–not this sort of mental gladiator ship.” 

Scientific American 

July, 1858 

 “Never has youth been exposed to such dangers of both perversion and arrest as in our own land and day. Increasing urban life with its temptations, prematurities, sedentary occupations, and passive stimuli just when an active life is most needed, early emancipation and a lessening sense for both duty and discipline…” 

The Psychology of Adolescence, Granville Stanley Hall 

1904 

 “We defy anyone who goes about with his eyes open to deny that there is, as never before, an attitude on the part of young folk which is best described as grossly thoughtless, rude, and utterly selfish.”

1920’s 

The conclusion is everybody CALM DOWN!

We all need to learn to accept new ideas and “styles” while respecting the traditional methods previously set in place, in doing so, all our professional lives will become more accessible and more productive.

We are two sides of the same coin. Technology is moving industry change faster than ever before. Both sides must embrace the change and learn the best methods to apply it. Youth will be native to adapting to this tech, and seasoned professionals with years of practical application will know how and where to use it. We are the human equivalent of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, two very different ingredients that make an awesome product together.