I can't be sure, but I think people were a lot tougher in centuries past. Now it seems people fall apart at the slightest inconvenience. Everybody is just a big baby. Like we say at work, "Do you know the difference between an adult and a 5 yr. old? An adult is taller." Meaning people don't seem to grow up emotionally and behaviorally, and of course this isn't true of everybody all the time. It's probably because life, at least in this country, has gotten just too easy with all the conveniences and creature comforts. I'm grateful for all the ease of the modern world though.
My generation is probably 400% tougher than the kids of today.
No, your thesis is, at best, unsupported.
First of all, you need to operationalize your definition of "tough." You only offer up a vague notion that "life is too easy." But, so what? No, really. So what? Were the 10-year-olds who worked 70 hours/week in coal mines for starvation wages morally superior somehow just for the fact of their near-enslavement? Or do we consider it a moral good that we no longer abuse children in that fashion?
That concept generalizes. Yes, past generations endured physical, social, emotional, and economic hardships that few in the WEIRD (western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic) world today have ever faced. But a lot of them suffered or died because of it. Mostly, we consider it a Good Thing today that very few people die of measles, or smallpox, or polio, or cholera, or even malnutrition anymore. We consider it a Good Thing that were not sending a huge percentage of our young adult males to get butchered in warfare. We consider it a Good Thing that people mostly don't have to do dirty dangerous repetitive work and get tossed aside with no income if they get hurt doing it. Etc., etc., etc.
We DON'T KNOW if current generations are as tough as past generations because WE DON'T WANT disease, starvation, long-term economic depression, massive land wars, etc. to become a common feature of our lives again. We can't (or, at least, we REALLY shouldn't) do the experiment of exposing current generations to those conditions to see how they do.
If your fundamental complaint is other people shouldn't react so much to the (comparatively minor) annoyances and setbacks they suffer in contemporary life, well, that argument can be used to dismiss any and all such complaints INCLUDING YOURS. So, unless you're prepared to STFU about anything that goes wrong in your life short of being tortured in a concentration camp, you should perhaps cut other people some slack. Most people are doing the best they can and if they haven't learned to be grateful for what they do have...well, then they haven't learned. The fact they can't compare their troubles to their mental model of what concentration camp victims went through simply makes them human, not necessarily "soft" or "weak."
Yeah? Bring it on!
If we ever have to re-start the draft, we are screwed.
Just 400%??
I think people are meaner and more evil in the past. We have become better.
It depends what you mean by weak.
We become physically strong by exercising muscles with goal specific techniques.
We can do exactly the same for mental and moral strength.
When it comes to emotions, maturity develops from allowing oneself to fully feel all one's emotional responses to every situation.
It's when we evade the feelings, by diving into drugs or processes that distract us and alter our moods, that we fail to mature.
Maturity is not about being tough. It's about understanding, and having empathy and responsibility.
But being emotionally over-reactive is not always caused by immaturity.
It can also be caused by prolonged stress, sleep deprivation, depression, PTSD, and hormonal imbalances. These things have no relationship to toughness.
In fact, a tough attitude to emotions is more likely to promote stress and dysfunction than heal it.
Our emotions are with us for a reason. They are a guide, a compass, a thermometer, if only we can learn how to use them wisely. And to do that, we must allow ourselves to feel them and understand them.
A lot of people lack resilience. They don't know how to cope with failure.
Thriftymaid, It's not just kids and young people. Older people seem to be big babies as well. I see people in their 50's and 60's struggle with not having their way and life's ups and downs.
That's what I meant by weak Wistful Wanderer. There is very little resilience to even minor problems anymore.
Old School, I'm thrilled we don't have the misery of the past. What I meant was people have a hefty sense of entitlement and think they ought to be catered to and no minor setback should ever happen to them.
Good point, Cloud.
Some people never mature.
I think your thought processes are
I enjoyed that one. :) I has tuf some days.
My statement has to do with strength of character and will, determination, going against the grain, staying the course regardless, as well as not minding getting our hands dirty and playing tackle football.
Obviously not smart and smarter.
@TM -- I think your example of tackle football is a PERFECT illustration of the silliness of this proposition.
Ask some of the many CTE sufferers just how beneficial being "tough" by playing tackle football has been for them. "Woo hoo! I'm a functional vegetable who can't remember anything that happened 5 minutes ago, but I'm TOUGH because I played football!"
Toughness (or any of the synonyms you offered (will, staying the course, etc.)) is NOT a virtue in and of itself. It's only a virtue if applied in the service of some positive outcome.
By almost any objective numerical measure, the German military in WWII was far tougher than of the Allied forces it fought against. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't call its toughness in pursuit of domination a virtue.
@c41 -- Unless you give specific examples, your complaint still boils down to "Get off my lawn!" whinging.
People trusted in God more a few years ago, He gave them strength. But in the Bible it says that there will be a falling away before Jesus returns
no, i don't.
perhaps you could take a visit to some other places other than the one you currently frequent. i could name a dozen places somewhere near you that you could find people so strong, emotionally.. mentally, that it would astound you. and you could find this strength inside you, as well, if you ever needed to.believe me... people can grow taller, work out... and find themselves in situations that require them to be stoic beyond belief.
I didn't say there are no strong people whatsoever. I've known some strong people, but generally people just seem to act like big babies struggling with not getting their way.
Maybe because parents have been taking a hands-off approach to parenting. They let their kids raise themselves and they're just not prepared for the real world.
Yeah they are basically weak like this question
i tell people like that to grow the f up... or piss off. life's wayyyy too short.
