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SUBJECT: KIDS TODAY...POSTED: 31/05/01 BY: SAM
Kids today…………..or why I think national service could be a good idea
The problem with kids today is that they've got no idea where their going. when leaving school most teenagers have absolutely no clue about what they want to do with their life. So many kids end up either goin to college and doin a course which is totally wrong for them or not goin to college at all and end up regretting it later.
Lets use me as an example. I left school not really knowing what I wanted to do so I signed up at college for 2 years of maths and science, mainly cos that's what my dad had done before me and I'd got decent gcse grades in these subjects. After about 6 months I realised that it wasn't for me and I really wasn't bothered about passing them (keep in mind I had the mindset of ya average 17 year old at the time which I'll explore in more depth later). So lets just say I did my best to not have to go anymore, from just not turning up to bein out and out hostile to some of the tutors. I was eventually thrown out of my pure maths a level for makin several rather loud comments regarding the tutors sexuality and competence to teach in front of the rest of the class (which was strange as most people will tell you that I'm one of the most live and let live people around when it comes to people sexual preferences). So after that I floated around wasting my time till the course ended and then found myself out in the big bad world with no clue of what to do with the rest of my life. So I went into retail and after 2 years of that decided I didn't think much of serving the public (havin discovered than 90% of the time, the customer is always wrong) but I didn't mind the paperwork side of things so I applied for an office job as a data input clerk. Once I was a data inputer I decided that this was boring with a capital B so I moved into accounts, took some college courses and found that I wasn't too bad with figures. And in the accounts dept of one company or another I have been ever since, moving my way up from clerk to assistant to manager.
Now im gonna take this example and try to use it as a point by point illistration of what I'm tryin to show, which is that kids today, and in general, don't have it that easy.
During their mid teens is completely the wrong time for kids to be making whats probably the important decisions of their lives. Their bodies are full of hormones changing their personalities and body shapes into something unrecognisable as the little timmy and veronica you all once knew. Their priorities are radically shifted from dolls and pop groups to lust for the opposite sex coupled with new and confusing emotions which they have no idea how to handle yet. How many of us have looked back on our teenage choices and cringed. Wouldn't it be great if we could go back to a desicion we made and smack ourselves silly before we screwed up our lives (teen pregnancies being the big one but I'm gonna leave that issue for anther day) mind you, making mistakes is how we learn and grow as people, apparently, but you have to ask yourself why the young you had to make the same mistakes so many times before you finally learnt.
Ask any parent of a teenager what their delightfull offspring has recently become and I bet the first words out of their mouth is "rebellious", "difficult" or "sullen", either that or "right" "little" and "shit". Come on everyone, hands up if you were a difficult teenager (no lying, you at the back). Why were we all difficult? Cos that's what being a teens all about. The imorrtal reply to the question "what are you rebelling against" can be and has been muttered by every teen "dunno, what've you got?". It's a battle of wits between you and the "establishment" the ultimate quest to "stick it to the man" even if there is no "man" to stick it to. How often have we seen over privileged white kids with loving parents turn into ghastly little bastards who cry "its so unfair" in a Kevin and Perry stylie? Its just gotta be done, hey, I did it, my sisters did it, my friends did it and I can bet years from now when I've got kids the little shits'll do it to me
As kids we feel indistructable, almost godlike with our simplistic view of the world, its only thru experience that we start to see our place in the universe and the pure insignifigance of our lives. Lets face it, how many people in history are indispensable. I'll tell ya…none. They're all insignificant in the grand scheme of things. "but" I hear you cry "what about Einstein?, faraday?, hawking?, even Hitler in his own way" well my little lambs, its time to face the truth, even these people are irrelevant in the long run. What if Einstein hadn't have come up with his e=mc2 revelation…well to be honest if it was about time for this conclusion to be reached then someone would eventually wake up in the night yelling "eureka" or "I've got it" or "shit, why didn't I fink of that before". It may have taken another year, decade, century to happen but hey, the universe had managed a good 6.4 billion years with out it so far so another century or five couldn't hurt. Even if the first cave man had gone out and invented the plank instead of the wheel we'd have caught up eventually. So no wonder we have all these screwed up students (especially philosophy students) if they're just starting to realise what the worlds really about and that their not the center of the universe. I mean what a shock, one day you are the be all and end all of everything and the next your as inconsequential as belly button fluff in a monsoon. (Of course some people never grow out of thinking they're the centre of the universe, they usually end up in management or something) perhaps this explains the recent rise in killings performed by students hmm, "run folks, little timmys just figured out the meaning of life and now hes got a gun"…hehe
I do apologise, I'm supposed to be supporting my argument for national service and I'm getting off the plot. so anyway kids are feeling lost and don't know what to do or where their place in society is so I propose we ship them all off to the armed forces for a coupla years so they can "find themselves" and if being stuck in a same sex dorm for 2 years being watched by drill instructers night and day doesn't help you "find yourself" then nothing will. Even if these kids realise that their main purpose in life is to get out and stay out of the army (or prison, organised religion or any other lifestyle structured by a higher power) at least that's a goal. Whilst in jail…er sorry , the army theres the opertunity to be taught a trade as the army keeps sayin in its adverts, its not just about running around goin "bang bang" with guns (theres enough kids doing that already)
I know this idea may not be practicall in the long term, and we could well end up with a military full of prize pussies and god help us if theres a war while little timmys doin his service but its an idea none the less. Can't shoot me for tryin can ya.
v1.0 14/10/00