I don't even know what to title this...

"AMGtech - now with more recalls!" (amgtech)
05/25/2018 at 20:30 • Filed to: murica

Had a conversation with a young tech today, he’s 21. He left his pneumatic oil pump (what we use to change oil, rather than drain it, trust me, it’s way better) running for an extremely long time and I was giving him shit about it. So he jokes around and said he likes it because it reminds him of having sex because of the way it sounds.

So I say “wwweeeellll.... Have you read ‘Brave New World’?”

He hasn’t and so doesn’t get the reference or how it applies So he asks what it’s about. I ask if he’s read ‘1984'. He’s never heard of it. The conversation continues this way with a few more titles that I thought everyone would have at least heard of. Nothing. Blank stare every time. Not even ‘Catcher in the Rye’.

Ugh

What?

How?

So much disappointment in everything that allows someone to get to this point in life without knowing of these things.

DISCUSSION (43)

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/25/2018 at 20:35

am i not pnuematic enough for you?

(but hell.... between me daughter thinking working class hero is a greenday song and a few of the younger noobs at work not knowing hendrix...... i think im just a relic nowadays)

jimz > farscythe - makin da cawfee!
05/25/2018 at 20:38

the Boomers are going to just have to come to terms with the fact that their music isn’t going to live forever, no matter how much they wish it would.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/25/2018 at 20:39

Do kids even read Animal Farm anymore?

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > jimz
05/25/2018 at 20:40

lol... im not that old mate

but yeah.. true enough

Chariotoflove > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/25/2018 at 20:49

Chakka, when the walls fell...

Welcome to the dusty shelf of cultures past. You too are officially a dinosaur. I know all of those references, even though I wasn’t forced to read them in school. So much is passing into the mists that we’ll hardly be able to communicate with the young ones anymore.

Good night Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
05/25/2018 at 20:50

This one hasn’t

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Chariotoflove
05/25/2018 at 20:51

I’m not quite 32...

These are books with lessons and themes that I think everyone should have at least heard of, regardless of generation. And I thought they were required reading in lots of places.

Chariotoflove > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/25/2018 at 20:56

It’s true. There is a lot of American literature that everyone should just know because it’s part of understanding our country’s cultural history. No one should escape study of the Great Depression, for example, without reading Steinbeck.

VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/25/2018 at 20:59

Highly doubtful to me that his school had adequate funding or teachers above the indifferent pool. Also doubtful to me in an environment like that that he paid much attention.

Alfalfa > Chariotoflove
05/25/2018 at 21:04

I mean, Brave New World is like 80 years old. Orwell’s works are 60-70 years old. I blame cuts to education funding.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Chariotoflove
05/25/2018 at 21:05

Shaka...

beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/25/2018 at 21:22

I don’t think it’s a sign of the times changing.. I had to explain what a tractor was to a 23 year old who lived in a small community SURROUNDED BY FARMLAND

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Chariotoflove
05/25/2018 at 21:41

That’s how I feel about 1984 for today’s cameras-everywhere-society.

Die-Trying > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/25/2018 at 22:03

been having a lot of those conversations too....... “ grapes of wrath?..... animal farm?.......of mice and men?........catcher in the rye?.....to kill a mockingbird?......don quixote?........ANYTHING?........” ...... brave new world is just about here........ all these kids on their xoma/xanax vacations......

Chariotoflove > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/25/2018 at 22:05

Theee is a Netflix film I just watched called Anon that addresses this issue. It stars Clive Owen.

Chariotoflove > Eric @ opposite-lock.com
05/25/2018 at 22:07

Yeah yeah.

Pedant.

I have another burner, try to guess it! > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/25/2018 at 22:07

Now that really surprised me. I could’ve sworn everyone in America had to read Animal Farm and The Great Gatsby in school.

At least maybe he saw the TGG movie

Ash78, voting early and often > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/25/2018 at 22:22

The entire “Two Wheels Bad” meme about motorcycles is a reference to Animal Farm. It’s a pure classic and can be read in one sitting. Recommended.

DipodomysDeserti > Chariotoflove
05/25/2018 at 22:29

I am a teacher and know a student who wasn’t allowed to read 1984 as a school project because of the content (this is not a public school). She asked me what it was about and I told her. She came back to me after reading it on her own to express how ironic it was the the administration didn’t want her reading it. I pointed her in the direction of Farenheit 451 next.

Chariotoflove > DipodomysDeserti
05/25/2018 at 22:34

Her parents didn’t allow it, or the school?

I find it encouraging that she ended up learning something from the novel I’m spite of them. F 451 indeed.

LastFirstMI is my name > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/25/2018 at 22:38

They don’t get Seinfeld references either. “There’s no learning here” indeed.

This generation, like every single one before, is definitely the worst and will be the end of civilization as we know it. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/63219-the-children-now-love-luxury-they-have-bad-manners-contempt

DipodomysDeserti > Chariotoflove
05/25/2018 at 22:47

The school wouldn’t let her. Her parents grew up in the Soviet Union so they probably had no idea what it was (irony increases).

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > DipodomysDeserti
05/25/2018 at 22:52

You’re a hero.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > I have another burner, try to guess it!
05/25/2018 at 22:53

I asked him and he thought it was a kids book. Then I described it and told him it was metaphorical and the confused look on his face was priceless, in a sad way.

Berang > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/25/2018 at 22:53

TBH, only read It Can’t Happen Here this year. Read 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 when I was in HS. Still need to read Brave New World .

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard
05/25/2018 at 22:54

Wut

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > LastFirstMI is my name
05/25/2018 at 22:54

Technically this tech and I are the same generation.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely
05/25/2018 at 22:55

Upper middle class in a good area with caring parents. He had good grades and graduated high school with honors.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Berang
05/25/2018 at 22:56

I haven’t read ‘it can’t happen here’, and there are a lot more I need to read. But some of these are so basic I just can’t fathom how people haven’t even heard of them.

Berang > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/25/2018 at 22:58

The social commentary of Harry Potter is more interesting I guess.

DipodomysDeserti > farscythe - makin da cawfee!
05/25/2018 at 23:02

Greenday? Everyone knows Working Class Hero was written by Dutch Oi! band, Evil Conduct.

Greenday wrote Basketcase.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Berang
05/25/2018 at 23:09

OMG AND THE HUNGER GAMES OMG SOOOOO GOOD!!!

Tristan > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/26/2018 at 00:32

These situations make me feel awful for bringing children into... this.

dsigned001 - O.R.C. hunter > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/26/2018 at 02:43

How? Is 1984 not part of the curriculum anymore?

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > dsigned001 - O.R.C. hunter
05/26/2018 at 03:04

No idea

VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/26/2018 at 04:02

This is interesting- it’s like a puzzle now. Although there is a correlation between property values and school quality, maybe English wasn’t his preferred subject, or the teacher that year was simply shit? Some people simply aren’t literary.

Future Heap Owner > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/26/2018 at 05:33

Wait what

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > DipodomysDeserti
05/26/2018 at 05:41

cheers for that... love me some oi for breakfast :)

basketcase never hurts either

WilliamsSW > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/26/2018 at 08:13

Hey! Why read Brave New World when you already live there?

And it took another Oppo’s reminder for me to get the connection - maybe it’s time for me to reread it...

boxrocket > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/26/2018 at 09:41

I’ve read all those, but I haaaaated “CitR” (I don’t even bother writing the full name). I also first read it when I was about 9, and then had to read it again in junior year of H.S. I also strongly disliked “catch-22", as - to me - it seemed like un-sober ramblings that were kludged into a narrative that was trying far too hard to be clever.

I get how he could have not read them. My next-oldest brother (I have several) despises reading. If ot can’t be communicated to him in video, graphic, or verbal form (and even the verbal can be a bit off, since he’s partially deaf), he doesn’t much care to learn it.

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely
05/26/2018 at 11:45

You’d think he would’ve at least heard of them

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > boxrocket
05/26/2018 at 12:44

Catcher didn’t do it for me either but it’s such a common one...

Catch22 in the other hand, I get what you mean and it certainly doesn’t need to be read to get the idea, but I enjoyed it nonetheless even if it was repetitive.

Not reading them sure. But not hearing of any of them!?

VajazzleMcDildertits - read carefully, respond politely > AMGtech - now with more recalls!
05/26/2018 at 18:22

If there’s one thing I learned about the education levels of this country, it’s to never make assumptions about what people know. So if he doesn’t know, ok, he doesn’t know. He should eventually know, though.

I have seen very smart (and shit tons of dumb) people not know things I consider basic items of learning. Ignorance actually can be excusable - I missed all of John Hughes’ movies and I’m not ashamed to admit it, and I didn’t read 1984 in class or otherwise - wasn’t offered - and our school got the Color Purple banned because “indecency.”

It’s what you do with that ignorance that I consider the real litmus test of character. Do you learn and fill the gaps as you go along, or do you consider it irrelevant? Unless you’re Sherlock Holmes and have a vested interest in keeping a hyperfocus on a singular topic, maintaining pride in ignorance is in my perception HERESY .