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Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS

Blaming the Younger Generation

One reads now and again of unruly, uncontrolled – dare one say raucous? – young people. Consider this heartfelt lament:

Furthermore, during the last thirty years customs have changed; now when young…get together, if there is not just talk about money matters, loss and gain, secrets, clothing styles, or matters of sex, there is no reason to gather together at all. Customs are going to pieces. One can say that formerly, when a man reached the age of twenty or thirty, he did not carry despicable things in his heart, and thus neither did such words appear. If an elder unwittingly said something of that sort, he thought of it as a sort of injury.

This new custom probably appears because people attach importance to being beautiful before society and to household finances. What things a person should be able to accomplish if he had no haughtiness concerning his place in society! It is a wretched thing that the young men of today are so contriving and so proud of their material possessions. Men with contriving hearts are lacking in duty. Lacking in duty, they will have no self-respect.

Do you find any of this a compelling description of our times? I’m not in the least convinced this applies to us, but then I’ve omitted one word from this complaint: samurai. The first line begins, in full, “Furthermore, during the last thirty years customs have changed; now when young samurai get together….” (Emphasis mine.)

Samurai’s in the original because the passage is one of the sayings of Yamamoto Tsunetomo, an early 18th century samurai (and later Buddhist priest). Hundreds of his observations form the Hagakure (Completed 1716).

If Tsunetomo’s concerns were somehow contemporary to you, then you’d be a three-centuries old Japanese man. If young people were truly that bad, back then, we’d have descended into utter ruin by now.

I well understand that young people might have been horrible three hundred years ago, improved since, and then regressed more recently, but I’m wholly unconvinced.

More likely, in each age, elderly and increasingly cranky men conclude, falsely, that the younger generation is going to seed, and there’s nothing to be done about it except complain.

The next time someone complains about youth run amok, and all society going to pot, remember that you’ve heard all this before…at least as far back as early eighteen-century Japan.

Cross-posted at Daily Adams.

Daily Bread for 5.20.13

Good morning.

Whitewater’s week begins with scattered showers and thunderstorms, partly sunny otherwise, with a high near 84, and south winds at 10 to 15 mph. There’s an even chance of rain.

The weather west of us has been far worse:


On 5.20.1873, a famous garment’s inventors receive a patent for their creation: “San Francisco businessman Levi Strauss and Reno, Nevada, tailor Jacob Davis are given a patent to create work pants reinforced with metal rivets, marking the birth of one of the world’s most famous garments: blue jeans.”

On this day in 1991, a treaty dispute between the Ojibwe and Wisconsin ends:

On this day, the 17-year legal battle between Ojibwe Indians and the State of Wisconsin over 19th-century treaties involving rights to hunt, fish, and gather timber was put to rest. Dating from 1974, the suit originated after two Ojibwa were cited for spearfishing in off-reservation waters, and led to numerous racially-charged confrontations when subsequent court decisions validated Ojibwe spearfishing rights.

The court rulings split resources evenly between the Ojibwe and non-Indians, and rejected Ojibwe claims for money to compensate them for years of denial of their treaty rights. The chairmen of six Lake Superior Ojibwe bands explained the decision not to appeal as “a gesture of peace and friendship toward the people of Wisconsin,” while Wisconsin Attorney General James Doyle cited the risk of jeopardizing the state’s “many significant victories” in the battle if the state were to press forward. The history of treaty negotiations in Wisconsin, including the texts of all treaties and contemporary accounts by both Indian and white participants, are on the Treaty Councils page of Turning Points in Wisconsin History.[Source: Capital Times 5/20/1991, p.1]

Google’s looking for a name: “What is another name for the hourly time signal or GTS first broadcast by the RGO in 1924?”

Recent Tweets, 5.12 to 5.18

Daily Bread for 5.19.13

Good morning.

Sunday will be partly sunny with a high of eighty-three, with southeast winds 10 to 15 mph.

In the Washington area, the bug-phobic are having a hard time:

On this day in 1675, legendary explorer Jacques Marquette passes away:

1675 – Fr. Jacques Marquette Dies
Fr. Jacques Marquette (1636-1675) died on this date in 1675 near Ludington, Michigan, at the age of 39. After the famous voyage down the Mississippi that he made in 1673 with Louis Joliet, Marquette vowed to return to the Indians he’d met in Illinois. He became ill during that visit in the spring of 1675 and was en route to Canada when he passed away. His diary of the trip is online in our American Journeys collection.

From Google-a-Day, a bit of history: “What was the charge of the 1807 indictment by the man who was chosen as Vice President on February 17, 1801, by the House of Representatives after thirty-six ballots?”

Daily Bread for 5.18.13

Good morning.

We’ll have a partly sunny Saturday, with a high of seventy-seven, in Whitewater.

Dog’s are man’s best friend. but there are limits to their amity. Sometimes their patience runs out, and this is what that looks like –

Today in 2004, a Diamondbacks pitcher does great things at 40:

On this day in 2004, 40-year-old Arizona Diamondbacks lefthander Randy Johnson becomes the oldest pitcher in major league history to throw a perfect game, leading his team to a 2-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves. A “perfect game” is when a pitcher faces a minimum 27 batters, recording 27 outs.

On 5.18.1964, a school boycott in Milwaukee:

1964 – Milwaukee Students Participate in First School Boycott
On this date, the 10th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, students from Milwaukee schools participated in the first boycott of the city’s public schools, a critical moment in civil rights and desegregation movements in Wisconsin. Two months earlier, in March 1964, the NAACP, CORE, and other civil rights organizations formed MUSIC — the Milwaukee United School Integration Committee. Its purpose was to implement mass action to highlight the issue of educational inequality. For two years, sit-ins, picketing, prayer vigils, marches, and boycotts had raised public awareness about segregation but failed to move the school board to action. In December of 1965, Wisconsin civil rights activist and attorney Lloyd Barbee filed a formal desegregation suit in federal court on behalf of 41 black and white children, eventually decided in their favor in 1976. [Source: Rethinking Schools].

Google’s looking for info about oil in Europe: “Who drilled the first European oil wells in 1864?”

Friday Poll: Summer Blockbusters

Here’s a poll of films that their studios hope will be summer blockbusters. Perhaps, perhaps not. I’ll guess Star Trek, Man of Steel, and Pacific Rim will be huge. What do you think (and what else is on the horizon that I’ve missed)?

Poll (multiple answers possible) with trailers below —


Star Trek: Into Darkness

Lone Ranger

Man of Steel

World War Z

Pacific Rim

Daily Bread for 5.17.13

Good morning.

Friday brings showers and thunderstorms to Whitewater, with a high of seventy. The end of the week offers 14h 42m of sunlight, 15h 48m of daylight, a moon in its first quarter, and two minutes more light tomorrow.

It’s the anniversary, from 1954, of the U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. Fifty-eight years later, America’s highest court set aside at last a separate but equal doctrine as applied to public schools.

On May 17, 1673, a great adventure begins:

1673 – Jolliet and Marquette Expedition Gets Underway
On this date Louis Jolliet, Father Jacques Marquette, and five French voyageurs departed from the mission of St. Ignace, at the head of Lake Michigan, to reconnoitre the Mississippi River. The party traveled in two canoes throughout the summer of 1673, traveling across Wisconsin, down the Mississippi to the Arkansas River, and back again. [Source: Historic Diaries: Marquette & Joliet, 1673]

Google-a-Day has a question of architecture: “The north end of what footbridge is very near the magnificent baroque cathedral that is famous for the dome added by restorer Christopher Wren?”