Every now and then, we hear someone say that the troops today are not what they were when we were young, that they lack a certain quality or that they don't have the same kind of appreciation for the job that we did. At one point or another, we've probably all said something like that, but why? Why do we repeatedly hear disparaging remarks from good firefighters about the next generation of firefighters? What are we really looking for in a good firefighter?
Are today's firefighters really different, or could this mindset have something to do with just being human and the normal evolution of one's ability to assess and reflect in relation to accumulated wisdom and knowledge? George Orwell, the author of 1984 and Animal Farm, had this to say: "Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it."
A lot of very intelligent people have said about the same thing. Take, for example, the following quote: "Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers." Socrates said this 400 years before the birth of Jesus!
If you are a current subscriber,login hereto access this content.
If you would like to become a subscriber, please visit ushere.
