Serious stuff here, Gordon ....even the beer and girls part has an edge

However, if those were your teenage years ....you are far too young for me... lol

 

 

hehe - fraid so, Jen! I was 16 or so when the Berlin wall came down. But, yes - with no outlet to express, much energy was instead poured into simply having as good a time as possible on a very basic & superficial level.

 

That was the problem, Maria! The adults weren't worrying about it, apart from at a superficial conscience salving level. No-one was, not really.  Lots of moralising and at the same time being force fed the "money is all" creed. A few of the kids were worried and questioning, but, so many of my generation bought into it that we didn't really have a voice. And now look at the financial state of things...

 

Sorry I didn't mean for this poem to get so heavy. Oops!

 

Gordon

Great rhyming combinations throughout this fabulous comment on the seventies/eighties in particular, Gordon, and it's not so heavy as factual and so true of those rapidly changing times.

 

I'm a bit older than you...and...you got it right! Lots of younger folk had started to take an interest in the world as a whole in the sixties too, but noone was listening  and as you rightly say...it has all finally come home to roost both politically and financially, I just don't hear the shouting out in protest anymore, (rebel that I am )

so I totally enjoyed all aspects of your challenge piece, Zy

There are two major problems nowadays ...one is general apathy, because politicians don't seem to listen to anyone anymore, and the second is that today's youth have not been taught to think for themselves, on the whole.

Whoops ...that's me on the bandwagon, too ....

 

Thanks, Zy. I honestly didn't plan on writing this - I'd started writing a nice light-hearted piece on skooldays, but that reminded me of modern studies class and that brought back my actual thoughts/feelings from the time ...

 

It struck me then and now that there was SO much potential in that era to improve so many things all over, but... all anyone wanted to do was make a bit of fast cash out of it?! Such short term thinking... Such a waste. And no-one wanted to know... It was frustrating then, and in hindsight, even more so.

 

So... nothing wrong in being a rebel!

 

Glad this grabbed you, Zy.

 

Gordon

It's a good job the Berlin Wall wasn't made of chocolate.

Seriously, though, I was 15 when it came down, so I remember it well.

As far as the politics of the day went, I was one of the worried kids who questioned things. We really didn't have a voice back then. Things are just getting worse now.

Hey, climb aboard, Jen! (I don't feel quite so bad now!)

 

You're dead right on apathy. The politicians don't have to listen, though - because only a distressingly small percentage of the population ever bother themselves to vote.

 

And thinking for yourself is not encouraged - as I understand it,  the curriculum is now geared towards teaching how to pass the exam rather than any real knowledge or understanding of the subject.

 

Oops - done it again!

 

Gordon

Are you sure, Lynn? Did you not suspiciously get an 8 billion ton load of chocolate fragments for your 15th birthday?

 

But thanks for chipping in, it's re-assuring to know that I'm not mis-remembering!

 

Gordon

I was going to make that observation about the curriculum, but I know there are some teachers out there who manage to get around the rigidity, whilst still covering the ground

This could run and run ....

Ditto that, Jen. (my mother was a teacher, as are a couple of good friends, so I can appreciate what yoga they can and do have to go through to get round the strictures)