Newt Gingrich, Real Change

[GregoryPalamas]

Has anyone read Newt Gingrich, Real Change? I haven’t yet but I think I will. I heard the very end of a speach he gave at the American Enterprise Institute yesterday broadcast on CSpan. Among his many fascinating proposals was the proposal to end the socially and personally damaging category of “Teenager”. I’ve thought about this for many years. It began in college when I noted how useless a life many of my college acquaintances lived. They had many trinkets but no purpose. I thought then that maybe it wasn’t so bad that my Dad taught me to work simply as an expected contribution to the family from the age of 11 or 12. I actually felt sorry for these lost young adults. So what I had to work 40-60 hours per week to put myself through college. I, not my wealthy inattentive parents, like these poor souls. Not that may parents were perfect but I always knew that I was needed. Many people I knew never had that sense that they were needed.

Then I reflected on the fact that David was a warrior when he was a young “teenager”. Some suggest that he was 14. Then Mary the Theotokos was only 14 when she was pregnant with Jesus. Also, we kept running into people at various events who had become millionaires at a relatively early age. Most testified that they had a business already by the age of 15 and some as young as 10. I’m certainly not yet a millionaire, not yet but getting close. It has taken a while and it certainly is not liquid and we drive older cars and live in a tiny house yet if we live to retirement we won’t starve. Yes, it wasn’t so bad that I’ve had to work most of my life. I won’t always.

Back to Gingrich…

He says that “teenager” is a late nineteenth century invention. Before then a person was either a child or an adult. We have created a category of absolute uselessness and wonder why so many people between the ages of 13 and 22 get into trouble. Why would anyone find purpose in standing around doing nothing for ten years?

I agree with Gingrich. Look at all of the wasted lives we create as a society. In the Church we confirm kids at 13 and wonder why so many disappear immediately after. We tell them that we now expect them to start taking on adult responsibilities and then send them off to high school to be bored to tears and actually do nothing that even comes close to “adult.”

Then there are the young adults who throw fake blood on parishioners on Easter Sunday. We have 14 year old people becoming “baby daddies” and grown men who don’t have enough drive to get their lazy butts over to a bus garage and rescue their neighbors from Katrina. We have created an enormous nightmare.

Has anyone read Gingrich’s book?

CDL

 

[sheila0405]

I think you would do well to read St Augustine. His Confessions really touches on what goes on in the hearts and minds of young people. He is a Catholic, a Doctor of the Church, and has more credibility than Newt Gingrich.

When I read St Augustine’s story, I found that commonality that binds us together as people. He lived hundreds of years ago, but his life experiences are relevant even today.

Find some good Catholic writers to read as you continue your search for the Truth.

 

[GregoryPalamas]

I think you would do well to read St Augustine. His Confessions really touches on what goes on in the hearts and minds of young people. He is a Catholic, a Doctor of the Church, and has more credibility than Newt Gingrich.

When I read St Augustine’s story, I found that commonality that binds us together as people. He lived hundreds of years ago, but his life experiences are relevant even today.

Find some good Catholic writers to read as you continue your search for the Truth.

I teach theology and so am familiar to a degree with this blessed saint. Could you be more specific? What does St. Augustine teach us in this area?

CDL

 

[Sabda]

I teach theology and so am familiar to a degree with this blessed saint. Could you be more specific? What does St. Augustine teach us in this area?

CDL

I have also read his confessions and highly recommend it. St. Augustine shows that kids in that age group have always struggled with pretty much the same type of things. When I read his account of his life I remember being amazed that I could relate to so much of what he was thinking, feeling, and doing at that age simply because I had similar experiences.

 

[vz71]

You can remove the title, but you will still end up with the same group of people.

The problems with many in that age group have to do more with society in general then with a title.

 

[rwoehmke]

The first clue to my attitude about Newt Gingrich was that I left the Republican party to become an Independent when his star started rising.

 

[mary_bobo]

Has anyone read Newt Gingrich, Real Change? I haven’t yet but I think I will. I heard the very end of a speach he gave at the American Enterprise Institute yesterday broadcast on CSpan. Among his many fascinating proposals was the proposal to end the socially and personally damaging category of “Teenager”. I’ve thought about this for many years. It began in college when I noted how useless a life many of my college acquaintances lived. They had many trinkets but no purpose. I thought then that maybe it wasn’t so bad that my Dad taught me to work simply as an expected contribution to the family from the age of 11 or 12. I actually felt sorry for these lost young adults. So what I had to work 40-60 hours per week to put myself through college. I, not my wealthy inattentive parents, like these poor souls. Not that may parents were perfect but I always knew that I was needed. Many people I knew never had that sense that they were needed.

Then I reflected on the fact that David was a warrior when he was a young “teenager”. Some suggest that he was 14. Then Mary the Theotokos was only 14 when she was pregnant with Jesus. Also, we kept running into people at various events who had become millionaires at a relatively early age. Most testified that they had a business already by the age of 15 and some as young as 10. I’m certainly not yet a millionaire, not yet but getting close. It has taken a while and it certainly is not liquid and we drive older cars and live in a tiny house yet if we live to retirement we won’t starve. Yes, it wasn’t so bad that I’ve had to work most of my life. I won’t always.

Back to Gingrich…

He says that “teenager” is a late nineteenth century invention. Before then a person was either a child or an adult. We have created a category of absolute uselessness and wonder why so many people between the ages of 13 and 22 get into trouble. Why would anyone find purpose in standing around doing nothing for ten years?

I agree with Gingrich. Look at all of the wasted lives we create as a society. In the Church we confirm kids at 13 and wonder why so many disappear immediately after. We tell them that we now expect them to start taking on adult responsibilities and then send them off to high school to be bored to tears and actually do nothing that even comes close to “adult.”

Then there are the young adults who throw fake blood on parishioners on Easter Sunday. We have 14 year old people becoming “baby daddies” and grown men who don’t have enough drive to get their lazy butts over to a bus garage and rescue their neighbors from Katrina. We have created an enormous nightmare.

Has anyone read Gingrich’s book?

CDL

I have not read the book. If the talk you are speaking of was the one in which he said he was going to make some politically suggestions, I heard it and it was worth hearing again. If I knew how to link it to the forum from C-Span, I would.

 

[mary_bobo]

The first clue to my attitude about Newt Gingrich was that I left the Republican party to become an Independent when his star started rising.

This talk had nothing to do with the Republican party. Sorry you are not open to hear pragmatic things from a historian.

 

[ribozyme]

Has anyone read Newt Gingrich, Real Change? I haven’t yet but I think I will. I heard the very end of a speach he gave at the American Enterprise Institute yesterday broadcast on CSpan.

Back to Gingrich…

He says that “teenager” is a late nineteenth century invention. Before then a person was either a child or an adult. We have created a category of absolute uselessness and wonder why so many people between the ages of 13 and 22 get into trouble. Why would anyone find purpose in standing around doing nothing for ten years?

I agree with Gingrich. Look at all of the wasted lives we create as a society. In the Church we confirm kids at 13 and wonder why so many disappear immediately after. We tell them that we now expect them to start taking on adult responsibilities and then send them off to high school to be bored to tears and actually do nothing that even comes close to “adult.”

Then there are the young adults who throw fake blood on parishioners on Easter Sunday. We have 14 year old people becoming “baby daddies” and grown men who don’t have enough drive to get their lazy butts over to a bus garage and rescue their neighbors from Katrina. We have created an enormous nightmare.

Has anyone read Gingrich’s book?

CDL

Newt Gingrich… that names makes me shudder… American Enterprise Institute? That makes me recoil like a vampire exposed to garlic or a cross.

But this problem isn’t unique problem for the United States of America. The Japanese have to deal with hikikomori (people do not leave their home and remain isolated) and parasite singles (people who live with their parents until they are 30). One can argue that those adults fail to mature properly too.

 

[kalt]

Has anyone read Newt Gingrich, Real Change? I haven’t yet but I think I will. I heard the very end of a speach he gave at the American Enterprise Institute yesterday broadcast on CSpan. Among his many fascinating proposals was the proposal to end the socially and personally damaging category of “Teenager”. I’ve thought about this for many years. It began in college when I noted how useless a life many of my college acquaintances lived. They had many trinkets but no purpose. I thought then that maybe it wasn’t so bad that my Dad taught me to work simply as an expected contribution to the family from the age of 11 or 12. I actually felt sorry for these lost young adults. So what I had to work 40-60 hours per week to put myself through college. I, not my wealthy inattentive parents, like these poor souls. Not that may parents were perfect but I always knew that I was needed. Many people I knew never had that sense that they were needed.

Then I reflected on the fact that David was a warrior when he was a young “teenager”. Some suggest that he was 14. Then Mary the Theotokos was only 14 when she was pregnant with Jesus. Also, we kept running into people at various events who had become millionaires at a relatively early age. Most testified that they had a business already by the age of 15 and some as young as 10. I’m certainly not yet a millionaire, not yet but getting close. It has taken a while and it certainly is not liquid and we drive older cars and live in a tiny house yet if we live to retirement we won’t starve. Yes, it wasn’t so bad that I’ve had to work most of my life. I won’t always.

Back to Gingrich…

He says that “teenager” is a late nineteenth century invention. Before then a person was either a child or an adult. We have created a category of absolute uselessness and wonder why so many people between the ages of 13 and 22 get into trouble. Why would anyone find purpose in standing around doing nothing for ten years?

I agree with Gingrich. Look at all of the wasted lives we create as a society. In the Church we confirm kids at 13 and wonder why so many disappear immediately after. We tell them that we now expect them to start taking on adult responsibilities and then send them off to high school to be bored to tears and actually do nothing that even comes close to “adult.”

Then there are the young adults who throw fake blood on parishioners on Easter Sunday. We have 14 year old people becoming “baby daddies” and grown men who don’t have enough drive to get their lazy butts over to a bus garage and rescue their neighbors from Katrina. We have created an enormous nightmare.

Has anyone read Gingrich’s book?

CDL

I saw most of that speech. He’s an excellent speaker. Will I read his book? I don’t know. Who is he to tell others how to live, when ghe couldn’t manage his own family life.

I agree with what he says, but will I support a cheater with my money? Not likely. I haven’t seen a movie by that actor who was caught with the prostitute. His name is on the tip of my tongue…
But who wants to remember his name, anyway.

I don’t know if NG is right about the teen years. I think he was talking about kids’ working as young as 9, btw. Anyway, I know that the complaint about “kids today” is as old as the first elderlyish generation. The complaint hasn’t changed. The specifics might be different, but the complaint is amazingly constant and funnily contradictory. Kids today - don’t respect their elders, are lazy, need to grow up faster, need to slow down (they’re way more adult than we were at that age. We were much more innocent.), think they know everything, know too much, are hooligans, are chickens, don’t care about anything, care too much about things, have it too easy, are too obsessed with grades in school, don’t care enough about education. care too much about appearance, don’t care enough about how they look.

It just goes on. The generations change, but the complaints are the same.

I think that NGs comment only shows that he’s officially entered geezerhood.

 

[rwoehmke]

It just goes on. The generations change, but the complaints are the same. I think that NGs comment only shows that he’s officially entered geezerhood.

Wasn’t there a quote from Cicero or some other Roman Orator along the lines of Gingrich’s polemic on todays “teenagers”? Ya, we got trouble right here in River City and it’s called p-o-o-l and that spells pool.