To all the wannabes .

[benny samways]

This is a thing. And it goes deeper than just fishing.

My generation did have a curiosity for the ‘old’ knowledge. There was a link still. We knew who Churchill was or who Monty Python were, but it seems anyone born after about 1990 doesn’t have that old cultural knowledge or curiosity to obtain it.

They are bombarded with that many people in the midst of their ’15 minutes’ that there obviously cant be any room for the old stuff! There is a disconnect.

 

[Pete Shears]

It seems to be the standard excuse of the younger generation that 'It was before I was born' to which I reply 'Its called history and if you are clever enough a degree or higher qualification is available'

 

[mikench]

It's called education in general and History in particular and has nothing to do with talentless nobodies whose only epithet is " celebrity" whatever that means. In my book it means talentless two bit singers or participants in tv shows for morons.

They cannot name presidents of countries, details of historical events or anything worthwhile but know the name of the non entity in TOWIE or the X factor or Britains got little talent.

 

[steve2]

It's called education in general and History in particular

Unfortunately British History along with other subjects that we were taught about are not now part of the National Curriculum in many schools.

 

[silvers]

I would peg out Vauxhall opens,fish,then weigh in afterwards very often,lugging tackle across fields,most matches were between 80 and 140 pegs,luckily I would only usually have to peg 30 to 60 pegs...

S-kippy,I don't know who you are either and I'm certainly not young...

Alan,

I must have done the 5 years after you. **** Morris was still the booking secretary. We would split Sharnbrook and radwell ... 50-60 pegs on each and pegged out on the morning. No permanent pegs because of the weed growth.
Billy was the only of our coarse world champions whom I haven’t met. Getting in to fishing in the 80s the legends were Ivan, Kevin and Ian. Feel privileged to have been pegged next to each of them. I’m still familiar with the top match anglers, but the speci hunters are less familiar since I stopped taking the times.

 

[silvers]

I’ve also recruited to our team at work the son of the 1965 world champs bronze medal winner. He’s not an angler, but does tell the worst jokes possible .... which keeps us all smiling!
I didn’t know either fact when I interviewed!

 

[nottskev]

I'm not sure if there was ever a Golden Age when young people knew the histories of their honoured elders.... but I agree it's a different world these days. It's easy to get irritated with the ignorance of thee young, but what are they doing, except adapting to the world the oldies have created?

Many of us on here will have made our living from a specific expertise, exercised lifelong, in a world where knowledge paid. Today, the young are seeing you have to travel light, expect to see your job disappear at any moment, junk what you already learnt and be prepared to learn whatever knew stuff your employer wants. Knowing stuff, even knowing how to do stuff, has lost a lot of its value.

What's the reward these days for accumulating "just in case" knowledge? Might as well just google what you need, when or if you need it. A few decades ago, a few publications had massive angling readership and we all watched the same few tv channels. Not surprising that we shared more knowledge, whether that was who **** Walker was or who Morecombe and Wise were. Today you could watch niche youtube videos, blogs, fb etc for years and never suspect match fishing exists. Our whole way of life is reducing what we have in common, apart from being stressed, angry and confused.

Those big names people have mentioned seem to have been of a different calibre, though, and I don't think it's just nostalgia to say so. The match angling greats refined the basics - floatfishing, reading a swim, feeding and so on - to a level most of us aspire to but will never reach. Some current fashions though, seem to be less open-ended and less inspiring. Just a personal example: the commercial scene by-passed me, but every now and then I give something from that world a try. I've read up on, say, method feedering on youtube on Monday, bought the bits and pieces on Tuesday, caught a bunch of carp on it on Wednesday, then put the stuff away for weeks or months. It works, but........ But I never get fed up of trying to get bits of peacock or balsa to do what I'd like them to, even though they often won't.

 

[mikench]

I agree with your entire post Kev and I know, as a dedicated teacher, how frustrating you must have found it. Even my own kids astound me sometimes with their lack of general knowledge! Mind you they think I'm a sad so and so because I try to use as wide a vocabulary as possible, know most of the capitals of the world and the history of many past civilisations!

I'm glad when I was young that we had benign soaps, no reality tv , no social media and no cult of celebrity unless it was deserved like the Beatles!!!

General knowledge comes from reading and discourse. The former can still be had from google as well as books and the latter from getting out and meeting people!

We have too much news! Each generation reminisces about their own era and bemoans the current! I can recall my grandparents resenting the advent of pop and rock and roll usurping the big band sound and crooners. My parents hated loud heavy rock and I hated punk! Plus ça change , plus c'est la même chose innit!

 

[davebhoy]

It's called education in general and History in particular and has nothing to do with talentless nobodies whose only epithet is " celebrity" whatever that means. In my book it means talentless two bit singers or participants in tv shows for morons.

They cannot name presidents of countries, details of historical events or anything worthwhile but know the name of the non entity in TOWIE or the X factor or Britains got little talent.

It a tough one to get your head around but it’s just modern life - my niece is studying law at Oxford and she loves the kardashians, in a non-ironic non-rebelling against her upbringing way

She just likes that sort of thing

 

[davebhoy]

I'm not sure if there was ever a Golden Age when young people knew the histories of their honoured elders.... but I agree it's a different world these days. It's easy to get irritated with the ignorance of thee young, but what are they doing, except adapting to the world the oldies have created?

Many of us on here will have made our living from a specific expertise, exercised lifelong, in a world where knowledge paid. Today, the young are seeing you have to travel light, expect to see your job disappear at any moment, junk what you already learnt and be prepared to learn whatever knew stuff your employer wants. Knowing stuff, even knowing how to do stuff, has lost a lot of its value.

What's the reward these days for accumulating "just in case" knowledge? Might as well just google what you need, when or if you need it. A few decades ago, a few publications had massive angling readership and we all watched the same few tv channels. Not surprising that we shared more knowledge, whether that was who **** Walker was or who Morecombe and Wise were. Today you could watch niche youtube videos, blogs, fb etc for years and never suspect match fishing exists. Our whole way of life is reducing what we have in common, apart from being stressed, angry and confused.

Those big names people have mentioned seem to have been of a different calibre, though, and I don't think it's just nostalgia to say so. The match angling greats refined the basics - floatfishing, reading a swim, feeding and so on - to a level most of us aspire to but will never reach. Some current fashions though, seem to be less open-ended and less inspiring. Just a personal example: the commercial scene by-passed me, but every now and then I give something from that world a try. I've read up on, say, method feedering on youtube on Monday, bought the bits and pieces on Tuesday, caught a bunch of carp on it on Wednesday, then put the stuff away for weeks or months. It works, but........ But I never get fed up of trying to get bits of peacock or balsa to do what I'd like them to, even though they often won't.

The Facebook ethic of “work fast and break things” has a lot to answer for. The company ethic that is.
Facebook and other tech companies, with their huge stock market valuations are becoming the new standards, their business models are the new ideal

My year 6 son is having his second round of mock sats this week. Teachers haven’t got any choice in it, they’re victims as much as the kids are.

 

[davebhoy]

Sorry, I realize I don’t really post (although I do lurk) and I’ve jumped into a thread with both feet!

 

[nottskev]

No need to apologise. Interesting point about the new business ideal. It seems a knee-jerk across politics these days to say we need to reduce bureaucracy etc..... but I think there's a lot to be said for it! The big bureaucratic organisations were inclusive - aiming to give people jobs and a stake in things, as opposed to reducing the workforce to machines, robots and a few lucky humans. They also inspired more loyalty and trust - something the here-today-gone-tomorrow labour market is notably short on. And the tiers of management in them meant that the diktats from the top were modified by the realism of people down the chain - unlike now, when the lean, mean, centralised management email their wondrous new policies straight into our inboxes and expects us to act on impossible demands immediately. Those in favour of slaying bureaucracy have yet to tell us what we're all going to do when the jobs are automated or shipped abroad.

As for your son and his Sats, the replacement of education with fatuous testing regimes is pitiful, and I feel sorry for anyone, child or adult, subject to them.

 

[mikench]

My wife used to work for ICI which then became Zeneca and then AstraZeneca ! It had its headquarters in fabulous countryside near Alderley Edge! Staff were well paid( 3000) and there were bistros restaurants, lakes and even a pub in the grounds! There were sports facilities on site, nature rambles were organised in lunch hours and one could even go fishing!

Small wonder that staff were loyal, hardworking and happy! People didn't leave they stayed there all their working lives. There was a generous final salary pension scheme. The company was loved and profitable producing blockbuster drugs and carrying out important and ground breaking research. No more!

The whole thing has been denuded and belittled and is a shadow of what it once was! The pension scheme is no more, the staff no longer loyal come and go, new drugs are hard to come by and are often bought in at an experimental stage . As she and dozens of her former colleagues will say the bloodsuckers arrived. Time and motion, extra layers of management and cutbacks on benefits , sucked the lifeblood out of the company. I dare say this tale has been replicated across many companies. Instead of keeping the workforce happy the emphasis is on statistics, share price and dividends to shareholders. The fat cats get fatter and richer.

At a large City Law firm where my eldest daughter worked all fee earners( 2000 or so) received an email to the effect that if anybody was able to leave the office before 10.30 pm, they had spare capacity and needed to advise their immediate boss! Unbelievable and, as far as my daughter was concerned, the last straw!

Maybe in this modern day hell a love of the Kardashians and celebrity, provides a release for a while! I'm glad I'm retired. I joined a profession but left a job.

 

[davebhoy]

Unfortunately the online world sometimes just adds to the anxiety.

Fishing should be part of the national curriculum!

 

[mikench]

Not a bad idea! Certainly teaching kids how to relax, resist peer pressure, ration social media and gaming and to enjoy being kids should be.

We live in a crazy world! We ban adverts for cigarettes and then allow adverts for all sorts of online gambling. It makes no sense but even worse when restrictions are proposed the bookies winge that they would affect their profits. What must kids think.