Lexa BlackDec 27, 2022
OkazuYuri

In response to someone whining about "kids today" on another site, I dug out this quote again:

"Our Earth is degenerate in these later days; there are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end; bribery and corruption are common; children no longer obey their parents; every man wants to write a book and the end of the world is evidently approaching.”

It's from an Assyrian clay tablet. circa 2800 B.C.E.

Humans don't change, only technology does.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ten-notable-apocalypses-that-obviously-didnt-happen-9126331/

Ten Notable Apocalypses That (Obviously) Didn’t Happen

Apocalyptic predictions are nothing new—they have been around for millennia

Smithsonian Magazine
Dec 26, 2022 at 2:47pmWeb
Show threadScottinSoCal 🇺🇦 🕊 🏳‍🌈Dec 26, 2022
@EricaFriedman But did the Assyrian elders tell kids about their time walking to school, barefoot, in the snow, uphill both ways?
Show threadMostlyTatoDec 26, 2022
@EricaFriedman The technology gets more intelligent, but the people don't get any wiser.
Show threadHeather D. BakerDec 26, 2022
@EricaFriedman Hm that article doesn't cite its source, but there were no Assyrians in 2800 BC, and this tablet doesn't ring a bell. 🤔
Show threadThe Mïghty KräckenDec 26, 2022
@apkallatu @EricaFriedman here's the oldest known reference to the quote, on page 493.
https://archive.org/details/popularsciencemo82newy/page/492/mode/1up?view=theater
The Popular science monthly : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Biography index

Internet Archive
Show threadThe Mïghty KräckenDec 26, 2022
@apkallatu @EricaFriedman the quote itself has popped up in several places since then evolving along the way. There has never been a verified sighting of the original writing, so you're most likely right to be skeptical.
Show threadHeather D. BakerDec 26, 2022
@Klaxun @EricaFriedman Thanks, that’s interesting
Show threadSeth L. SandersDec 26, 2022
@apkallatu @Klaxun @EricaFriedman Good old Naram Sin from 3800 BC!
Show threadHeather D. BakerDec 26, 2022
@Sethlsanders @Klaxun @EricaFriedman Yeah, Naram-Sin the famous Assyrian!
Show threadSeth L. SandersDec 26, 2022
@apkallatu @Klaxun @EricaFriedman excuse me according to the earliest English language source he was a *Chaldean* (a famous culture of fortune-telling fish-men from the 4th millennium BCE)
Show threadHeather D. BakerDec 26, 2022
@Sethlsanders @Klaxun @EricaFriedman Sure - but by the time of the modern article that sparked this conversation, he had morphed into an Assyrian!
Show threadMartin RundkvistDec 26, 2022
@Sethlsanders @apkallatu @Klaxun @EricaFriedman He just keeps getting older and better!
Show threadThe Mïghty KräckenDec 26, 2022
@EricaFriedman I just saw your bio, and it looks like I'm not just preaching to the choir, but to the preacher!
Show threadjoene 🏴Dec 27, 2022
@Klaxun @EricaFriedman Fake news is also from all times. 😉
Show threadDavid Jalbert 🦥Dec 26, 2022
@EricaFriedman People are just stupid, no matter from what generation they belong. All of them! And I do include myself as well in this generalization 😛
Show threadThe Mïghty KräckenDec 26, 2022
@EricaFriedman hmm, write a book to bring on the apocalypse ...
Show threadRobert DeWolfe 🌹Dec 26, 2022

@EricaFriedman

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

Socrates

Show threadJohn BeresfordDec 26, 2022
@EricaFriedman "every man wants to write a book" claims an Assyrian, writing on a clay tablet, roughly 2500 years before books were invented. Hmm... 🤔
Show threadUrban Futurist DemocratDec 26, 2022
@EricaFriedman Good line. Urban legend unfortunately, citable only to other legendists going back a hundred years https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/10/22/world-end/?amp=1
Quote Origin: Ancient Tablet: The World is Speedily Coming to an End. Everyone Wants to Write a Book – Quote Investigator®

Show threadFifthcolumnblueDec 26, 2022
@EricaFriedman If children always obeyed their parents, human society would never advance
Show threadMsDrMQDec 26, 2022
@EricaFriedman Love this. The Get Off My Lawn of antiquity.
Show threadCharlotte OdoyleDec 26, 2022

@EricaFriedman

That was great! Tyvm✌️

Show threadAndy WaschickDec 27, 2022

@EricaFriedman Humans haven’t changed… yet! But, technology amplifies our stupidity and the consequences therefrom. The more powerful the tech, the more amplification. The greater the consequences, the more people might change.

As the pace of our superpowers continues to reach towards asymptote, we’ll be in strange new territory that, if we don’t destroy ourselves, will perhaps finally teach us something new.

Show threadTofu GolemDec 29, 2022

@EricaFriedman
It's especially offensive today.

I'm gen X. When I was a teenager, it was possible to support oneself on a minimum-wage full-time job.

We had it so much easier than kids these days. We're the spoiled and entitled ones, not the kids, and the Boomers are even worse about that than we are. We created this economy that redistributed so much wealth to the wealthy, and now we're blaming the primary victims of the economic changes we made.

Show threadOliver LukačovičJan 4, 2023

@EricaFriedman A hoax, pretty sure

https://mikeblyth.blogspot.com/2011/11/did-2800-bc-assyrian-tablet-complain.html?m=1#!

Did “2800 B.C. Assyrian Tablet” complain about decline of civilization?

“The Earth is degenerating today. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and...