Life's Lessons

Though the quote "The counts of the indictment are luxury, bad manners, contempt for authority, disrespect to elders, and a love for chatter in place of exercise," is often atributed to Plato, Socrates or other ancient men of knowledge, a student, Kenneth John Freeman, published the quote for his Cambridge dissertation in 1907. Freeman did not claim that the passage under analysis was a direct quotation of anyone; instead, he was presenting his own summary of the complaints directed against young people in ancient times.

The words he used were later slightly altered to yield the modern version. In fact, more than one section of his thesis has been excerpted and then attributed classical luminaries. Here is the original text:

"The counts of the indictment are luxury, bad manners, contempt for authority, disrespect to elders, and a love for chatter in place of exercise. …Children began to be the tyrants, not the slaves, of their households. They no longer rose from their seats when an elder entered the room; they contradicted their parents, chattered before company, gobbled up the dainties at table, and committed various offences against Hellenic tastes, such as crossing their legs. They tyrannised over the paidagogoi and schoolmasters."

Likely in every generation throughout history and in every culture there is turmoil in families as the children attempt to break away from their parents to forge their own lives. There is also cruellty among our peers as we grow as depicted in some parts of the following video. Please view this video with your full attention. I believe this was filmed in Thailand with English subtitles. After you watch this, please feel free to comment on our Faceook pages.