The more things change, the more they stay the same...

April 15, 2008 7:29 PM

I am looking for good pairs of quotes/articles/other from different points in history, which make the same observation but both think they're identifying a recent or "modern" social change.

Here's a neat example to illustrate:

"Juvenile delinquency has increased at an alarming rate and is eating at the heart of America." (judge, USA, 1946)

"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?" (Plato, 4th century BC)

Have at it, my friends!

posted by so_necessary to society & culture (5 comments total)

I was planning on giving a "today's kids are immoral" example, but then I clicked "More Inside" and saw you already did. So, I'll just add the one little tidbit that I was planning on including:

I remember reading one classical Greek writer -- I think Polybius (ca. 150 BC), but I'm not sure -- mentioning one of his contemporaries complaining about "today's kids", then observing that a writer from centuries earlier (maybe Plato) said essentially the same thing, and then concluding that people have probably been complaining about "today's kids" for far, far longer than Plato.
posted by Flunkie at 8:47 PM on April 15, 2008

Circa 2800 BC, an Assyrian wrote on a clay tablet that "Our earth is degenerate in these latter days. There are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end. Bribery and corruption are common."

And the predictions haven't stopped since.
posted by Flunkie at 9:04 PM on April 15, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

I recommend my favorite new magazine: Lapham's Quarterly. The whole point of it is to take articles from a broad swath of chronological and geographical locations in a variety of media on a specific topic and compare them. The two that have appeared so far are "War" and "Money." But it's 15 bucks an issue and may not be perfectly suited for whatever you're trying to accomplish.
posted by zeusianfog at 12:51 AM on April 16, 2008

From The Listener:

Record companies have new ways to make money from their artists’ tunes.

Music copyright owners and composers are outraged by the implications of the rapidly spreading new technology, and are responding by unleashing lawsuits to try to stymie what they regard as the illicit use of their property.

Sound familiar? It should, but perhaps not in the sense you think. The narrative above is nearly 100 years old, and it relates not to the internet but to the advent of another medium: broadcast radio. It is related on the website of the American cyber-rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

A bit half-arsed. I couldn't find the actual quote on the EFF website and haven't got the matching modern quote but I reckon within ten minutes you could have a nice pair.
posted by meech at 7:38 AM on April 16, 2008

This has been attributed to Ty Cobb:

"The great trouble with baseball today is that most of the players are in the game for the money and that's it, not for the love of it, the excitement of it, the thrill of it."
posted by tiburon at 9:05 AM on April 16, 2008