Yes, most in my generation are shallow and passive; but that doesn't mean all are. There are some intellectuals on the fringes.
"Older people are smarter, and if you get into an argument with someone who's older, you should listen. It doesn't mean they're always right; but even if they're wrong, their wrongness is rooted in more experience."
Go back and read some of your stuff in another 5 years, and then another 5. And tally the face palms. It's a good exercise in humility, something that is often hard to appreciate as a 15 year old
Implying that the writings could only have been online?
There once was a time when we wrote on paper, with pencil and pen, or if you were really well off you had a typewriter.
(But no, they are not online as they were essays that I did for school).
If you could run the experiment the other direction, I wonder how different the results would look. That is, what proportion is "growth" and what is simply "difference".
I woke up to this around 25 or so. It was actually Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the TV series, of course, not the forgettable movie) that tripped this for me; I realized I cared far more about the characters than any campy horror show had any right to make me care, and I began to wonder why, and poke into the mechanics of how that was done. That turned out to be a longish and interesting journey.
(I know I've mentioned several media that aren't "reading" here, but it trivially applies there as well.)
1. People are really bad judges of their own insight.
2. It's quite common that what seems to be brilliant insight at the age of 15 is perceived as obvious at best and really stupid at worst when the person is 35.
Also, get of my lawn.
No doubt the pattern will continue at 25.
When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.
It's interesting to see that this is a universal experience. School gave me literature before I was able to appreciate it, and it nearly turned me off to the taste.
I think it would be cool to replace the one-size-fits-all required reading assignments with something more tailored. Some way of answering the question, “what books(s) is this person likely to get the most insight from at this point in their education?”
Then you just wait to die. Why bother trying to save this mess now?
The NSA is on the case! ;)
I don't dispute how you are now, but I promise you'll be all that and more. And that was the point of the previous poster, I believe.
I'm new to the public school system this year. I live in an area that has no shortage of gun ownership and advocacy, and, the weekend after Sandy Hook, I went to the guidance office to express worry that perhaps some connections would be made that aren't really there. (Not about me individually, but about some poor soul that would slip up and get caught in something)
I was called back to the guidance office later that day, only to be told that I was effectively suspended until I could be, and I quote, "Mentally evaluated". It was handled as a "School Crisis", and I was a "Threat to the school".
Lucky for me, my parents acted quickly enough so that the school system's psychologist could be contacted.
It turned out to be nothing.
(This is the third of four encounters like this. I'm fairly certain I have the high score for most school crises caused in a single year.)
What a dangerous and shady person I am.
School faculty have to worry about their own little mini-9/11's every day that a kid walks in worried about a problem, because how would they ever be able to show their faces to the parents again if that worried kid ended being the 1/10,000 kid that would end up bring violence to their school, and the school had done nothing?
In my experience (and I am somewhat older than you claim to be) people who declare themselves insightful, aren't. People who declare themselves intellectuals are usually full of it ("most in my generation are shallow and passive").
You may think you're bright but for now, you are just another type of stereotypical teenager with very limited life experience pretending to know things you simply do not comprehend.
I had only a few high school friends, I neither attended prom nor anther school-related party, never joined a sport-team[1]. Fast forward 11-15 years I have great friends (only a handful of whom were my classmates), am engaged to a wonderful woman, and have no dearth of hobbies.
What do I think was most important? Learning, pursuing things that were interesting to me and cultivating a passion for them (note how so many people are in a quixotic search for pre-existing passions, i.e., in a quarter-life crisis?), interacting with older individuals (they took me seriously, did not make fun of the way I dressed, did not mock my accent or my lastname, did not beat and otherwise bully me, etc...), taking AP classes as well as classes at near-by colleges (the last two activities opened my eyes to new subjects, taught me to learn, and convinced me to pursue a higher education), etc...
I regret not paying enough attention to academic subjects that I _thought_ did not interest me (in college, it turned out that they interested me a great deal), assuming that I had no chance of getting into certain colleges or paying for them, not cultivating an interest in topics like philosophy or history early enough (sticking to just computing, etc...), not participating in "nerdy" clubs (like robotics, programming competitions, etc...)
Yet on the "social" front I've zero regrets: it is much easier to make friends when you've got more in common with people then a school district boundary; dating is much easier when you're independent (not living with your parents, not reliant on a group of friends for all of your social outings), well read, educated (whether formally or self-taught), and otherwise interesting. I don't feel I've missed anything by foregoing that part of life.
[1] Caveat: if you do enjoy a sport, by all means join a sport team or play intramurally. Just don't play a sport for the sake of playing a sport or for a college resume (universities want well rounded student bodies, but they don't necessarily require that every student be "well rounded").
You might be relatively consistent in your beliefs over time, or you might be like me. Just be aware that right now you can't be certain of either.
When I was 15, I let 'mature' people stop me from believing I knew anything, and then I was introduced to 'the more you know the more you know you don't know' - its good advice for anyone who thinks they know everything. But don't ever let it stop you from doing anything, believing anything or especially exploring anything.
If you are gifted, and if you believe you are gifted, look at the future for how much more awesome you will be, but don't forget how awesome you are now.
So you can do it for him/her?
>Yes, most in my generation are shallow and passive
You seem very smart - maybe a genius. I've noticed that the smarter people are the more likely they are to denigrate their peers who don't hold the same values. And they're less likely to enjoy other parts of life due to the belief that these things are beneath them. It's not a cool attitude and it will not help you be a happy person.
Really smart people are helpful, appreciative and generally nice. The almost smart are the dangerous ones.
Just because someone is smarter or stronger than those around him, does not mean he is confident enough to not rub it in their faces. I've known plenty of intelligent people who are quite aggressive. In fact, it's a bit of a stereotype.
Older people are bare faced liars.
Why? They operate primarily out of fear. They are scared for their job, business, mortgage, possessions, status, kids (you!!), their investments, health care, etc, etc. But more than anything, they are scared for them selves.
Why? The more you have to lose, the more fear and paranoia you acquire.
The older you get the LESS wise you get. In fact, you become more bigoted, judgemental and finger pointy.
The problems in this world are NOT created by the young. Note how the world's problems get worse as average life span increases.
Only a few actually manage to avoid this. Note how they are repeatedly referenced here and other places.
The young are free to think freely because they have less to lose.
Im 40. My life is over. I see a world that is a total mess. I want you and your your generation to fix it. Not for me, my useless generation and the useless generations before me. Forget us. Do it for your selves. You see the disaster, correct? Get your generation together and create the world you need and want. Your generation , like no other generation, has the tools to do it. So, to quote bloody Nike, JUST DO IT.
Best of luck. I'll keep a look out for you.
I agree that there is a lot of potential and purity in youth, even in its follies. But I would like to point out that some people are kinda dead in spirit even when they're young, and some old people are rather lively up to the very point where they fall over and die... and urge you to not give up on yourself that easily. The very fact that you're this frustrated and outspoken means you ought not to. How alive you are is not JUST a function of your age. So stay alive, become more alive, pass it on and thanks.
For what it's worth, I've been quite impressed with your post history to-date (and today is not the first time I've taken notice).