Forging the Other: The Badmouthing and Disrespecting of Youth

[RadiationTherapy]

What happened to the teenager in SC is unacceptable. However, throughout the discussion on several different sites, I have seen so many comments about how this child may have been behaving prior to the incident. The comments - since no one yet knows the actual situation - tend to dissolve into generics about "young people today" and how they are so "entitled, undisciplined, special snowflakes, useless, lazy, potentially violent, potentially thieving, uninterested in world, consumed with electronics" and so on. The comments may also include remarks about how useless parents are these days or implore us to "think about why there is an armed officer at the school to begin with" *hinthintpoorpeoplehint*

All of these generic negative comments, stereotypes, and unearned labels results in what some in the social sciences call "othering." That is to say that in one's mind and through media and echo chamber reinforcements, a group of people becomes less than human. This is often a precursor to violence or oppression toward this group. I am concerned that the casual and regular shit-talking about younger generations is polluting our vision of them and transforming them, in some eyes, into "others." This can translate into some people believing that the "others" "deserve" some level of violence or oppression. I hope we can reconsider how we and the media portray young people on a day to day basis.

As a 13 year university employee I have worked thousands of hours with hundreds of students. I also went through undergrad and grad school while in my thirties. I have a very positive outlook of the young people I have worked with and I continue to feel good about them generally. I am worried about how much vitriol I hear from media outlets and the older generations in general. I hope we can all see each other as fully human.

[OneGrassRoot]

1. Huge K&R n/t

[Bettie]

2. I tire of hearing

about how terrible these kids today are. Disrespectful, uncontrolled, and the way they dress, the music they listen to.

Same things were said about my generation, my mother's generation, my grandmother's generation....older people always idealize their youth and decry the latest group of young people.

We're all finding our way and kids are pretty much like they have always been, even though the technology is different.

[Rex]

3. Great OP!

I alway look at issues like what happen to that young girl as a failure by the teacher and the staff. Did anyone take a few minutes to ask her WHY she was in such a mood? Call up a student to teach class (okay maybe a little early for that but still) for a bit and have a one on one conversation with the student. Just 5 minutes probably would have turned that situation around.

From what I understand she was new to the school and maybe was feeling like an outsider. The teacher could have tried many other things, before calling in a cop. That should never happen imo.

[RadiationTherapy]

15. There is no "why." There is only "comply."

But I really appreciate and agree with your one idea on how to handle this situation. Being sensitive and trying to communicate with someone as they move through a moment seems far more useful than setting one's self in opposition. Especially for teens who are eager to butt heads and have probably been shut down by many other adults in their past.

[Rex]

16. Well it worked for me and I didn't have to call in the VP or cops.

So in theory it should work for anyone else having problems with a stubborn student. And again I have to disagree with you about 'complying'. Did the Founders comply with the British orders of fealty to the Crown? Of course not, this countries history is based on rebellion and standing up against tyranny. So should we arrest students for passing notes in class? That is equivalent to what the young girl did on her phone. Do we admit we live in a police state, just one that is watered down to the individual level? Are we there yet?

Knee jerking a situation always spirals out of control and ends up a mess. 5 minutes of one on one time can make all the difference in the world. None of this had to happen, but the adults were too busy ignoring the problem just so they could make it worse.

IMO.

[RadiationTherapy]

19. I suppose I have gotten a bit "bumper stickerish" about "only comply"

but I still contend there has not been a significant cultural revolution in this nation to last a significant period of time. The American Aristocracy separating from the British did not change the culture in terms of aristocracy. Civil rights is a different matter in my mind - those were legal changes, but the culture of racism/sexism, of course, endures. There was the workers' revolution in the 1930s, but just a few decades went by before unions were turned out and weekends and 40 hour weeks are merely calendar markings now.

[Rex]

20. I agree and further some of the gains we made in the past century seem to be lost in this one.

Like for example in 2015...we seem to be fighting the Civil Rights movement all over again.

[world wide wally]

4. They just substituted body slamming for spanking over the years

[Pacifist Patriot]

5. Denegrating youth goes back to Socrates and beyond...

“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.” ― Socrates

But there seems to be something a bit different about it these days that I haven't been able to quite put my finger on. I suspect you may be right. It does come across as somehow more threatening than whinging.

I too have a lot of contact with teenagers and if one is going to generalize, I find most of them charming, curious, accepting, bewildered, respectful, funny, etc.

[Lizzie Poppet]

9. I blame the interwebz!

Not an entirely facetious comment, actually...

[RadiationTherapy]

12. If the people who work with our children have the opinion that our children are "spoiled"

(another term I despise because it implies a permanent state of ruin) then I imagine those people will treat those children more poorly than someone who deals with each child and each episode separately.

I would bet a nickel this cop thought "here we go again" as he went in the room. He had preconceived notions of how she might behave and how he would handle it. He went in and fulfilled his own prophecy.

[ryan_cats]

6. I

I am flattered you read my posts.

What the SRO did merits criminal charges.

...uninterested in world, consumed with electronics" and so on

What was the delicate flower doing again?

In my day, the only people who could get away with that behavior were the football starters (when they were winning) as normal students couldn't get away with using smoke signals during class.

[RadiationTherapy]

10. I do not think I have read your posts or noticed them particularly.

My examples are from comments across several sites.

[Snobblevitch]

7. I agree that the vast majority of our youth

are good people who are a credit to their generation. That does not mean that there is a sgnificant percentage of them are what I would term as 'ferel'.

[RadiationTherapy]

13. So basically the same as any group in any time in any culture ever?

[Lizzie Poppet]

8. Talking shit about "kids these days" probably dates back to the beginning of human speech.

Today, as always, most of the negative comments apply only to a portion of them. Is such talk more justified today? Difficult to say if there are more "problem children" in today's society than in the past.

[RadiationTherapy]

14. There are certainly more ways to share the exploits and anecdotes of those who are troubled.

But that is the case for all ages.

[niyad]

11. k and r

[LanternWaste]

17. When someone tells us "today's youths are too entitled/pampered/troubled"

When someone tells us "today's youths are too entitled/pampered/troubled" or its corollary, "the older generations got us into/started/were the cause of this mess...", my first reaction (never acted upon, thankfully) is "here's your 'Stupid' sign, you irrational idiot. Wear it in good faith"

[daredtowork]

18. Problem of sell out youth and the troll generation

Until recently, I associated youth with social justice and activism. I supported their struggle against flex schedule mcjobs and epic student loans.

I'm close to giving up on the milennials now.

They have turned their social media skills into cheap opportunities for paid trolling. They think they are driving change by calling older people names, and they dis those who are actually doing the work as "social justice warriors". They think they are bein all Machiavellin about aligning with the rich, so they dis the poor.

PD James wrote about the cruel selfishness of the last generation of youth. Perhaps that vision of the future is already here.