Hi Brenton,

I do hope your enquiry is sincere but until such times as I discover to the contrary I will treat it as such.

It is hard to deny that we have a generation, or at the very least, a part generation of angry people within our society. It serves little purpose to interrogate the existence or effects of the “angry ones” because we are confronted by them every day.

I don’t hold them entirely responsible for their anger because I am sure they are a product of the 21st century. That said I’m reminded of the historical comments recorded that:

"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."

Socrates/Plato: Complaining of the Youth.

The big difference today is that they have a global platform to express these values, a commentariat that reinforces them and a ready supply of other peoples opinions upon which to base their adopted values.

This places them at conflict with the wider society that not only disagrees with them, but a society that creates the wealth that sustains them. Thus they have become schizophrenic, confused and angry. They cannot even begin to understand why they are angry because we have denied them the social, educational and value based skills they need to survive the 21st century.

We have systematically “socialized” every significant educational topic, they have “believed” it, they have researched it (from Google and blogs), they have become educated customers of global bulltish and we wonder why they don’t fit, can’t understand why they don’t fit and have consequently become very angry and abusive.

We have sold them the bulltish they now grasp as a defence against reality and it is failing them.

I don’t know what it will take to recover this generation of the lost.

Brenton,

I don't know why you are so put off by some of the comments.

Your article appears based entirely on negative assumptions about Abbott, nothing more than a mere rant.

If Brenton Luxton is any example of what our Universities produce then I demand a referendum to not supporting our state-run universities for one minute longer. [Deleted for abuse.]

[Deleted for abuse.]

DG,

There is a world of difference between original thought or clinging to concepts that have long been discarded by rational thinkers.

David G, ouch! You had me reaching for the Aloe Vera Gel with that one.

Generalisations and assumptions do neither truth make… nor convincing argument to change my opinion.

Don’t just tell me I’m wrong, tell me why I’m wrong, give me something to think about and a reason to change my opinion, and yes, I can and I have as I’m neither a fool, nor zealot.

You could possibly start with why this statement, “So no Mr Abbott, you do not govern for me, you only temporarily push me around. And I think you're going to have a bad time trying to do either.” does not equate to a spoilt brat’s rant of “You’re not the boss of me now!”