It seems to be an eternal truth that older generations think younger generations feel too entitled and don't respect their elders, the value of hard work, authority/hierarchy, or paying your dues. It was basically the complaint the WW2 generation had about the 60s/70s generation, the complaint the 60s/70s generation had about Gen-Xers, and now apparently the complaint Gen-Xers have about Gen Y. So I wouldn't worry too much about it.

The interesting thing is, it may actually be true. Those things have been in a long, gradual decline for centuries.

Doubtful. Here's Hesiod around 800 BC:

"I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly disrespectful and impatient of restraint"

Between the two hypotheses a) "society has been declining for thousands of years" and b) "older people tend towards grumpiness" I know which one sounds more likely :)

Although Hesiod's "I see no hope for the future of our people" may be vindicated by the fact that his culture no longer exists.

Perhaps cultures stagnate and corrupt over time, and complaints about youth is a symptom rather than a cause? Perhaps the collapse of a civilization every now and then is one of the mechanisms that keep human societies sustainable in the long run?

There are interesting questions here, but I don't think the older generation complaining about the younger generation is one of them. Not in and of itself, at least.

I wouldn't say that society has been declining for thousands of years, but there have definitely been long periods of consistent decline in things like toughness, respect for elders, and so on. Hesiod's time would have been one of them, because Greece was then in transition between the tough, impoverished warrior culture of Homeric times and the comparatively easy, luxurious city life of Plato's time.

Among English speaking peoples, toughness has on average (i.e. not including people who hit restart by moving to frontier areas) probably declined monotonically since around 1000 AD.

This seems to be a function of rising living standards, so that the population is never tougher than they need to be. If we assume that toughness is a desirable attribute, is there a way to toughen people up, even if they don't "need it".

That's one of the classic (Gibbon, I think) explanations for the fall of the Roman Empire: as their living standards rose, they got softer until a bunch of lower-living-standards barbarians could overrun them. Not sure of a solution, though. (It's probably also worth noting that that hypothesis isn't as popular among modern historians.)

Sure, military training tends to do that.

Wealthy societies tend to resist military training, though. I can't imagine a proposal to reinstitute the draft would be very popular in the US, and much of Europe is slowly phasing out their mandatory military service.

You beat me to it, and are more eloquent than I would have been.

More importantly, why do you care what he thinks? Just do your thing.

The other year an in-law remarked that "kids today" were unwilling to do the group house thing. I asked whether n years ago he ever imagined himself using the expression, and got laughs from his sister and wife, and a rueful one from him.

How does JC get off? Well, what are going to do? Boycott him? Challenge him to a duel? A mixed martial arts match? Regard him as background noise, a minor nuisance like a loud, smelly bus stop, and move on.

But remember this in 10 or 20 or 40 years when you are tempted to say bad things about the young of that day.

"They should make a phone that you put on a wall so you always know where it is!" -- Gen Y