1% Gained 82% of 2017 Wealth Created

[Smitty-48]

once you're a parent, they got you, they got you by the balls then, children are simply ransom, which will force you to dance to their tune.

You're not wrong about this.

The Lost Generations are sandwiched in the middle, we're not full generations we're only half generations, War Babies/Depression Babies born between 34' and 44", Generation X born between 66' and 76', and for neither, was there any domestic bliss, my fathers parents were abusive alcoholics, my parents were Beatniks who got divorced and left to me to my own devices, free rein as a Latchkey Kid, so we didn't have the same view of parenting, as the Happy Days Boomers and the Helicopter Parented Millenials.

[Smitty-48]

See, the whole reason the Millennials were helicopter parented, is because of us, Generation X, we were the ones from the broken homes who lived by our own devices as Latchkey Kids, and so it was thought that was the reason why we were so cynical and ambivalent, so with our little brothers and sisters, they were going to make things right, they weren't going to let that happen again, so no free rein for them, it was total lockdown for the little dearies, lest they go astray from the plot like us.

Basically the idea was that we were forced to grow up too soon, given too much free rein way too early, so the pendulum swung hard the other way.

[Smitty-48]

I mean, were talking about parents here, they do everything in a panic, first they panicked about over controlling their kids, then they panicked about not having any control at all.

[Speaker to Animals]

The chicks had their pegasus trapper keepers. I usually went with transformers or something like that, if not a plain color.

Trapper keepers are the shit.

What?? I never saw that one.

[Smitty-48]

And my father by the way, was both, two marriages, two mothers, one GenX kid, then two Millenials, and it was two different fathers, my father was the "hey man, it's all cool, do as you like" Beatnik, my brother's father was the "hey, let me do that for you, you might hurt yourself messing around with that" Helicopter Dad.

And I'm a poster boy for GenX, and my brothers are classic Millennial poster boys, bet dat. So much so that the faultlines between the generations is amplified, UltraGenX and UltraMillenials, don't get along.

[Fife]

The chicks had their pegasus trapper keepers. I usually went with transformers or something like that, if not a plain color.

Trapper keepers are the shit.

What?? I never saw that one.

I don't remember a Dukes trapper keeper, but there was bunch of middle school Dukes swag, like in that picture (I never really like trapper keepers myself -- slick, glossy card stock too hard to draw on and mostly fagotty images on the other than plain trappers -- plus I always preferred three-ring binders, starting in middle school through current year.). At my age, we ramped up from Steve Austin Sasquatch and Evel Kneivel swag up to the Dukes and Magnum PI pretty quick. Thomas Magnum c. 1981 or so was the end of all that kind of stuff for me, but what we had up til then was outstanding.

[Okeefenokee]

Tonight's reading was the DOI, so I can't wait to see what I learn tomorrow.

Okay, here's some arguments for why democracy wasn't real democracy.

• majority rule is tyranny, and democracy isn't tyranny
  
  representative gov't benefits groups, and that's not what democracy is about
  
  voting isn't democratic

I shit you not.

I wonder more about what sort of education a person who says Greeks allowed everyone to vote or that democracy made Athens militarily superior, has? Not a BA, MA or, god forbid, a Ph.D in history, surely? What was their education and degree, the professor (or lecturer, anyway) who made that claim?

As for the rest: Majority rule can be tyrannical if it's a direct democracy, that's what representative government was meant to curtail, after all. And technically, voting itself is part of democracy, but they also vote for leaders in Iran and China. The cardinals vote for a new pope, too, but the Vatican State isn't a democracy. The middle statement that representative gov benefits groups, and that's not what democracy is "about", is right if they're referring to democracy being about what the entire "demos" or people want/need and how to benefit the demos. But it's a wide stretch to say that supporting, say, working class voters over the 1%, isn't "what democracy is about". Sometimes, society needs balancing out. That can involve political interests supporting one group over another.

So, those three parts aren't nearly as insane as they sound. Although, coupled with the idiot claims about ancient Athens, I imagine they read something else into those three points than I do.

He's playing loose with terms.

He said they believed, just as we do today, in democracy for all.

He said they believed, just as we do today, that extending franchise would bring a better society.

He said they understood that their democratic system made them militarily dominant.

At no point was it clarified that reality contradicted these statements.

/shrug.

[DrYouth]

I was Gen X...

Classic free range, hung out with the latchkeys... my parents were around but seemed unconcerned about my whereabouts.
Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller, Simple Minds, Depeche Mode, Beastie Boys,
Tapered pants and safety pins...
Grew up on Dukes of Hazard, MASH and Magnum PI

My older sibs were tail end boomers... hippie influenced, disco dancers... bell bottoms etc.
Thew grew up on left over 60s music, Super Tramp, The Police, Happy Days, All in the Family and Welcome back Cotter
Both of them are as self centred as any millennial.

[K@th]

I'm on the cusp - '66. I consider myself gen X. I also consider my brother, '63, to be gen X.

Problem with generations is there is no exact year. I have far more in common with peeps born in the mid-late 50's than I do with kids who were born in the 80's.

[C-Mag]

A lot of this generational stuff probably has to do with your parents ad much as when you were born.

I'm right in there with ya Kath and Dr Youth. It was a great time to be a kid. I see my older siblings as more self centered too.