Thin skinned millenials need a spanking

Sky News ^ | 11th April 2017 | Sam Kiley

[naturalman1975]

Heads bowed, they stood in silent respect on the pavements of Wootton Bassett and tossed roses onto the hearses carrying soldiers who fell in Afghanistan.

This week, London was stilled and many moved to tears as the last post was played on a bugle over the casket of PC Keith Palmer.

After the attack on Westminster, in which he gave his life defending parliament against a knife-wielding lunatic, flags were at half-mast while mountains of flowers marked the spot where he and others died.

These are moments when the British agree, as a nation, to "Silence the pianos and with muffled drum" so that they can "Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come" as WH Auden put it in a poem that was given global fame in the achingly sentimental Four Weddings And A Funeral.

But why? Has the United Kingdom surrendered to a form of mawkish mass sentimentality? Has everyone become an actor in mass moments of theatrical reverence? That, in the end, signify nothing?

No.

It's worse than that.

The country comes to a standstill to honour those who have been killed defending it because, these days, people of that type are so rare, so exceptional.

Britons are no longer made of the stuff that is written in granite on the memorials to two world wars on every single village in the country.

Indeed they're not even made of the stuff of those dead young men before they went to war. The ploughmen and labourers, and miners led by youth from the middle and upper classes tempered and toughened in the forges of public school.

[naturalman1975]

To understand some of this piece, it's important to know that in the United Kingdom, a 'Public School' does not have the same meaning it does in the United States - the closest equivalent term I've seen in America to its meaning is 'Prep School' (although that term means something different again in Britain) - the private schools that have historically catered to the families of the wealthy and powerful. In Britain, these schools used to be famous for an ideal of 'muscular Christianity' and producing men who were ready to lead and serve at the same time. Tough men. Strong men. Some of these schools still do this, but more and more don't.

We're raising far too many wimps who aren't equipped for the real world. Not just in the UK, but an example is helpful.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“We’re raising far too many wimps who aren’t equipped for the real world.”

Agreed. I count my Blessings each and every day that I have REAL men in my life.

[Tzimisce]

So the oldsters flooded Britain with murderers and thieves and now it’s the kids fault?

If you don’t like the kids, look in the mirror. That’s where they’re learning what they know.

[Always A Marine]

Hear! Hear! This is a great article because it is tragically true, and on both sides of the Atlantic. "Mawkish mass sentimentality" and "mass moments of theatrical reverence" describe our pathetic and now-frequent displays of national whimpering. And this:

"Britain's problem is that the outside world is made of sterner stuff... These are resilient people. Tough people. People who don't curl up and suck their thumbs when the going gets tough. And they want what we have - someday they'll come and get it too."

So it is throughout the dying, post-Christian West.

[Always A Marine]

So the oldsters flooded Britain with murderers and thieves and now it’s the kids fault? If you don’t like the kids, look in the mirror. That’s where they’re learning what they know.

It's not just Britain, and it's not just mass immigration. Weak people will always be conquered and ruled by stronger people. It is a matter of character and will, and the collapse is just a matter of time.

[Tzimisce]

I just find it interesting that a weak generation is doing all these horrible things and blaming the kids.

I agree that the kids are creampuffs, but they’re learning how to be them by watching the adults.

[Gene Eric]

>> We’re raising far too many wimps

The reality is a reluctance to foil the Left’s indoctrination.

Subsequent generations must be prepared to avenge the Left’s destruction.

[naturalman1975]

Whether it’s the kids’ fault or not - and I agree, how kids turn out is in large part the result of how they are parented and educated, so the adults who raised them are to blame - doesn’t matter as much as acknowledging and fixing the problem. Without a time machine, we can’t go back and fix what was done only what is done from now on.

[Chad N. Freud]

Did the author and editor not understand that they ruined a perfectly grammatical piece of writing —

“Silence the pianos and with muffled drum / Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come”

— by making it ungrammatical:

“Silence the pianos and with muffled drum” so that they can “Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come”

??