Gonna need an explanation on this one too I think
Chuckle chuckle.
Apropos for 2024.
Of course, itâs only appropriate that âbrain rotâ is not a word.
The first recorded use of âbrain rotâ was found in 1854 in Henry David Thoreauâs book Walden, which reports his experiences of living a simple lifestyle in the natural world. As part of his conclusions, Thoreau criticizes societyâs tendency to devalue complex ideas, or those that can be interpreted in multiple ways, in favour of simple ones, and sees this as indicative of a general decline in mental and intellectual effort: âWhile England endeavours to cure the potato rot, will not any endeavour to cure the brain-rot â which prevails so much more widely and fatally?â
Well, theyâre not experts.
Iâm not sure whether Iâm relieved or exasperated that this is an age old complaint and not just a recent one
And let me tell you, these youngsters will be lured by the cheap faux-intellectualism of the printing press. Could you imagine? Reading materials authored by some purported âexpertâ?
/intense sarcasm
One of my favorite 19th C British equestrian authors (his books were pubâd 1828-1843) bitterly complained that people were becoming increasingly unintelligent.
One of my apparent ancestors* got himself in a spot of trouble for daring to publish a bible in English, the scoundrel.
*Seems a fairly safe assumption given our surnameâs ahem relative rarity
Not recent is putting it mildly.
I remember some Greek or Roman writer complaining about how the âyouthsâ donât listen to their elders, and how theyâre ruining things. Some things just never change.
Too true, man, far too true!
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.
Plato. Attributed to Socrates, but Plato was a dick who abused his relationship with Socrates to put words in his mouth, there is a reason Diogenes spent so much time pulling Plato down a peg.
As is often the case for quotes attributed to ancient authors without ever saying where they wrote them, that passage is probably neither.
Not my video, but this seems appropriate. KIDS THESE DAYS!
(i hope this upload worksâŚ)