The text is a commentary on how older generations tend to criticize the new ones for their habits, tastes, and behaviors, and how this has been happening since ancient times. The text gives examples of how things like music, books, newspapers, video games, and the internet have been blamed for corrupting or harming the youth, and how the older people often forget that they were also young and rebellious once. The text argues that changes are not necessarily bad, and that the fear of the new is caused by nostalgia and resistance to adapt. The text also suggests that memory is selective and tends to idealize the past, while ignoring the problems and difficulties that existed then. The text concludes that every generation has its own challenges and opportunities, and that none is better or worse than the other.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. The text is about the generational gap and how older people tend to criticize the new generations for their music, clothing, technology, etc.
2. The text cites Socrates, Seneca, Thomas Bangalter, Robert Burton, Thomas Beddoes, William Smith, G.J. Houchens, Israel Zangwill, Marcus Aurelius, Percy Boynton and others as sources of historical examples of this phenomenon.
3. The text argues that the fear of change and the nostalgia for the past are the main causes of this attitude and that memory is not reliable in remembering the past objectively.
4. The text also claims that all changes bring good and bad things and that the brain needs new stimuli to mature and that the new generations are not worse than the previous ones culturally speaking.
5. The text uses humor, irony and rhetorical questions to make its point and to challenge the common assumptions about the new generations.