Monday, December 29, 2014

A generation of imbeciles.

The following link was sent by a loyal reader with the comment:
Nothing they use can be "fixed" when it breaks. Never fix anything? No understanding of how anything works. No problem attack skills. No initiative. No capacity for improvisation. Learned helplesness. Totally dependent. Good Democrats to the bone.
Young people are 'lost generation' who can no longer fix gadgets, warns professor.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Related to me by a park ranger:

The new candidated/interns were scheduled for a week of training at a park. The group fell basically into two categories: the environmentalists/biologists/politicals vs. the outdoorsmen/ex-military/scout types. Most arrived Sunday afternoon to find the park restaurant closed, and nothing else open within 30 miles. Guess which group was fretting & wringing their hands, while the other arrived with water, set up a tarp shelter, built a fire and started cooking?

III N TN

P.S. Hats are good!

Greygrandpa said...

When I was a kid, we could fix the TV by pulling the vacuum tubes out and taking them down to the tube tester at the drug store and fix the car with a little common sense. Now you need a computer and a set of cards to trouble shoot a TV. The car takes a proprietary computer and special expensive software to troubleshoot your car.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm....

A self absorbed generation who can't fix the things they need to survive and depend on others to provide....

I believe they are called "Eloi".

Anonymous said...

The comment accompanying the link is dead on, and I say that being in the generation cast that way. I'll often have guys in their late teens come help me work at the house, every now and then someone late in the 20's and the question I always get is "How did you learn to do all this stuff?"
It isn't even as complicated as electronics. Simple things like hanging drywall or framing a wall, they have no idea. I can't imagine what they would say when I am working with electronics or machining.

Learned ignorance is going to make things very difficult.

Anonymous said...

I'm a 57 year old female and my grandfather was my hero. The guy was a AA machinist, and a plumber by trade and could fix anything at home. I keep two pictures of him above our workbench at home. At 78 he drilled out a broken E-Z- Out out of a broken head-stud in my 350 Chevy block after I broke it removing the head. He saved my life. Taught me so much and then I studied and learned more about hot-rodding and fixing things in general. That's why we can survive the elite's bulls^%* and the young (who haven't been paying attention) will die.

skybill said...

Hi Mike,
In the back of my truck, got "Duct Tape" (the mil-spec "good stuff"), wire, tie-wraps, rope, cord, a bunch of Mil-C-5040, T/III 550 cord, and what-all!! Amazing what I have fixed with "550-cord!!" Then there's my "Tool Box" just a 16" one tray tin box but when the lid is up,"The Shop is OPEN!!" Oh, I forgot,....."My Knife!" Got a 4 1/2" folder "and" a 3 blade "stock" knife in sheaths on my belt also a 2" mini in my pocket along with a few coins and a couple of expended .45 and 9mm rounds!! There's also a dozen of those lipstick size LED flashlights all over. One day when I was still workin' final assy. QC for Sunpath, Warren, this Brit. comes over to my table and asks for a "Torch" so I go into my tool box, pull out this "Butane Pencil Torch" I have, fired it off and was getting ready to explain how to adjust the flame when Warren freaked a bit and said,"I meant Flashlight!" (that what Brits. mean by "Torch") "Well you said 'Torch' so I have one!!" Well, what ya' wanna' fix?????
Got Gunz???? (also Tools!),
III%,
skybill-out
PS, Got "MAN CAVE!!!!!!!"

Merle said...

True enough - and they can't spell nor use proper grammar either!

Merle

Anonymous said...

Had an unfortunate accident only damaging my car. Front wheel completely shattered and gone, to the point of running on the front disc. I call service as I can't get the front jacked up enough (factory jack only) to put on the spare. Service guy shows up and fiddles and farts around with no success and finally calls someone in management on his end. I hear him saying he can't get the jack, etc, etc and finally I get fed up listening to his whining to whomever, grab the jack and proceed to jack the car up and give him directions until the spare is on. I turn 50 in a few days....God help this country!

Anonymous said...

Couldn't be more obvious than in ham radio.
Today's hams are nothing more than licensed appliance operators who know ZILCH about how anything works beyond plugging in a power cord and microphone.
They can however spout off the make and model numbers of every radio in an HRO catalog....with ease.

Many can't or won't even cut a resonant dipole....they have to purchase one that someone else built. I'd say its shameful, but they apparently have none of that either.

Anonymous said...

I'll tell you what it is, its sad as hell. Kids today can barely wipe their own ass let along drive a nail. The ones that are learning are in their 30's.

Anonymous said...

If our children don't know these things, how does the fault lie more with them than with us?

Anonymous said...

As an under forty kind of guy, I can only offer this rebuttal; I once asked my Old Man how to change the oil in my car. He in turn asked me if I had 20 bucks. I replied that I did. He then directed me to take that 20 bucks to the local Walmart for the oil change. In the years following that conversation I have not taken it upon myself to learn. That is certainly on me.

As the song goes, teach your children well. I am certainly trying with my own but am certainly playing a game of catch-up. Who knows how much knowledge was lost from the pre-convenience days before refrigeration, bountiful electricity, modern medicine, etc? Whose fault was that for dropping that obsolete but necessary ball?