Re: Hey Farml, Rob, David and All..

"FarmI" <ask@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 be given> wrote in message 
news:47fc2c75$0$13287$5a62ac22@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> but this is the common western refrain. everyone seems to think their
>> own country is uniquely going to the dogs and all young people are 
>> useless, but i am continually having to point out that people have been

>> going on about this for (literally) millenia, everywhere.
>
> Course they have, but nothing Charlie or I have said refutes that. 
> charlie and I are just keeping up the traditio, and to prove how
tolerant 
> we are, we've even read your post, whippersnapper.

i may be a whippersnapper, but until you old fogeys (i.e. baby-boomers)
came 
along, in the olden days i would have been considered middle-aged(!!!) so 
there!!!!!!!!!
actually, in the real olden days i'd have been dead already, years ago. 
there's a sobering thought.

> We didn't blame young people for the economic ills of the world for 
> instance, but I do think we can blame then for being so demanding, so 
> selfish and so unrepentant.

i used to be demanding, selfish and unrepentant. AND i thought the world 
owed me a living!!!!!!! (and for good measure, everything was all about me

and what i wanted). it's a bit embarrassing to think about now. naughty 
young'uns of the present will repent in time, don't you worry ;-)

 2 examples - that idiot teenager in Melbourne
> who held the party while his parents were away (Cory someone) and the 
> idiot kids who rampaged through the school in Sydney in the last few
days 
> with baseballl bats.   By the age that these kids are, they should be
able 
> to figure out the consequences of their actions.  The fact that they
can't 
> seem to do that is not a 'good thing'.

erm, it takes us a long time to actually figure out consequences, i think.

into young adulthood at the earliest, in most cases. some people really
are 
unusually mature, but i suspect that's, like i said, unusual.

your first example is actually a good one - that child was only 
participating in a time-honoured tradition of the it's-all-about-me age 
group (being selfish & irresponsible & creating havoc) - but he was aided
by 
new technology (technology invented by, run by, and mainly used by,
adults). 
then more adults calling themselves (somewhat disingenuously) "the media" 
beat it up into a storm in a teacup. ffs, he is an unintelligent and
boring 
boy who will most likely be ashamed of himself within a few short years. 
he's lost more than he could ever hope to gain - possibly he'll be paying 
for it his whole life. but, that's life. :-) did you read the recent
re****ts 
about how teenage boys actually don't have normal brains? i mean, we all 
know that instinctively, but it's actually true. most of them come out of
it 
no harm done, thankfully. i am horrified to think of a few incidents where
i 
did the MOST ridiculous, selfish, & potentially deadly things, due to lack

of thought, and i was a Good Kid, even!! and i do really mean just a
handful 
of incidents such as anyone would get up to, but still. i just was lucky 
nothing really went wrong. this is common. probably more common though
that 
most kids don't really get up to anything much - mostly it's just colour &

movement & if anyone does suffer for it, it's only themselves; they learn,

they move on.

the second example i'm less sure about, and it's actually much more 
disturbing (anyone who wants to see "what it's like on the inside (jail)" 
deadset has a screw loose. that's not normal. (if he wants to know what
it's 
like inside, he should have watched the excellent american series "oz" on 
sbs - that would turn ANYONE straight! :-) i would point out though that 
kids who have genuine, large problems always have common threads involving

being let down by adults (whether their own family, or the community at 
large perhaps in this case, seeing as how the kids are immigrants from an 
oft-maligned ethnic group.) i would point out that almost every recent
study 
published re social cohesion & those types of problems almost always make 
the remark that the last 10-12 years has been particularly disastrous (any

clue there, do you think??! ;-) social cohesion is just about the most 
im****tant thing. it just is. teenagers, amusingly, often think they are 
im****tant & in charge of things & that everything's all about them, but
that 
is absolutely wrong. by the time they realise adults are in charge, adults

run everything, & everything's all about adults, they are already adults 
themselves (that's how they come to realise the truth.) as adults, we have
a 
massive obligation & sometimes we let other people down.

having said that, charlie would no doubt opine that an incident of 5 teens

going mental in a school with bats is nowhere near as bad as teens going 
mental with guns in schools now averaging every 4 months and with deaths 
involved, as is happening in the u.s., or nowhere near as bad as a
majority 
of children of a nation having been roped into a militia & killing 
people/being kept as *** slaves/both, as has happened in a handful of 
african countries of late (etc). it helps to keep our perspective, what.
we 
are extremely lucky in australia, although we work to make our own luck, 
which helps.

 the peasants won't even rise up because the peasants are
>> the worst of all!!
>
> Because the peasants have been trained to 'want it all' perhaps?

bingo!

>> fwiw i pretty much agree with farmie about the ****, although i am 
>> ignorant & she is magnificent.
>
> Snort!  Where did you get that strange idea?  What ARE you growing in
your 
> garden?

well, magnificent is a very strong word, but take it where you get it :-D

> If you are a VERY good girl and keep calling me magnificent, I might
just 
> bring you a ute load one day :-))

ooh, your choice of what's for afternoon tea!
kylie