Well, time to go on the rant. I apologize for my absence, like the other half of the nation; I had to visit a dentist on Saturday and I still feel pain in my jaw. As you already know, the people hit us very badly in the mouth by their punch on the Election Day!
We were talking about the dumb traits of the current generation of Iranian students and how mentally weak, irresponsible and self-victimized they have become.
Read on to find out the rest of the dumb traits:
Trait #4: They have no ambition and drive
With the exception of a select few, today's generation is content to piss daddy’s money all over, waste all the semester’s time “hanging around” and “staying out” (again translation of Farsi terms), have the “bookworm” friend’s copied lecture notes and only pass courses by their extraordinary boot licking skills. They have no drive. Unless you force them to do something, they won’t do anything.
No one wants to do unglamorous jobs; nobody wants to get his fingernails dirty. Going three days with only few hours to sleep to finish an optional project, or working for a small company or research lab on very low wages (even for no money) to learn and practice and then have something to offer later ,traditionally been rituals for moving up the academic ladder, is now forgotten even is considered a sin. Going through the important subjects’ course books (and a few other books besides it) many times and solving the advanced problems which my generation called “chewing books” for making a name for yourself and getting recognized by the influential faculty members is now subject to ridicule.
Now today’s students will not change the schedule of their trips to Caspian Sea’s marvelous beaches not to say anything about working on a project days and night continuously and more importantly relentlessly for 6 months.
Worst problem? They don’t give a damn that they are as ambitious as my grandfather’s donkey.
Who is to blame? Islamic Republic? Television? Viagra? Anything or anyone who produces instant results?
Trait #5: They have no respect for authority
I myself have no respect for the so-called professors who cannot solve a simple equation or don’t know the difference between channel coding and source coding. (they are only mathematics after all, like one of the jerk-professors in my undergrad school told us once).
The problem arises when the professor or the TA know their job very well and you start bad-mouthing them because you are too lazy to catch up on the course.
He is the professor and you are not so shut up and go back behind your desk. Even when the professor’s knowledge is too obsolete and in the final exam he gives problems that only prove his stupidity and lack of knowledge do as my friend did: Correct the problem, mention the theory behind it and hope the jerk understands it and give the solution to the modified and corrected problem. How can you not respect that friend of mine and be fond of those little brats?
They talk back, they talk out of line, and they talk more useless than my Aunt. You are not the one supposed to have opinions on the subjects that should be covered. The other day I wanted to break a kid’s legs (both not just one) who was bitching about the Statistics and Probability (a first-year course) syllabus and why it doesn’t include “non Gaussian estimation”.
The people who teach you things deserve the highest respect even the very class room you sit in everyday deserve some respects because it’s an academic environment.
Maybe I am old and have old-fashioned ideas. But I never stretched my legs even behind the family’s table the way they stretch their legs to the front chair in the classrooms.
Trait #6: They watch rubbish movies, worse they listen to crappy music.
They are not able to appreciate classic masterpieces like Dr. Strangelove or Citizen Kane. If you do a survey on their most liked movies I bet it will be either the bawdy American Pie or the lewd Basic Instincts.
Today’s youth seem to be intrigued more by Harry Potter and Pretty Woman than by Vertigo. Tom Cruise is a pervasive sensation, while the most liked actress is largely determined by her bra cup’s size.
Ask them about Al Pacino or Robert De Niro, the answer will be something like: fine actors but not as good as Tom. Marlon Brando and Cary Grant? Don’t know them very well. Sir Laurence Olivier? The Australian prime minister, isn’t he?
On the music they listen to (or worse they argue about for hours each day):
A little more Sinatra and a little less Bach sonatas, or whatever of that sort, will go a long way. Have you listened to the garbage the youth listen to these days? Some “song” called “incest” or “sodomy” which make you believe Sodom and Gomorrah are still in full swing.
No one is inspired by that crap. It’s repulsive, it makes me sick. Worse, they argue music shouldn’t be inspiring even not necessarily be melodic!
I don’t do drugs and I don’t drink. The only times however I find myself in the desperate need of “getting high” or being heavily drunk is when I accidentally hear the garbage they listen to. After all, one must have a means for forgetting what he hears.
It’s scary where our youths are heading toward. When the trend is like this in our university which has one of the finest and most prestigious engineering disciplines in our country how things are going on elsewhere? What sort of future is awaits our country?
Well I think my rant is done. I made my peace.
