On Fri, May 1, 1998 at 10:32:58 (-0700) Nathan Newman writes:
>...
>What is it with the youth of today?
>They just aren't as patriotic/progressive/hard-working/fill-in-the-blank as we
>were at their age.
>
>Frankly, this sort of global analysis of a generation is offensive and most of
>you would have denounced your parents (and many of you did) when variations on
>the same statements were made.
I provided no "analysis" of local or global sort. If you want to
disagree, try not to invent things and attribute them to me.
>...
>With the lack of sympathy by folks on this list for their economic straits,
>people should not be surprised that young people may occasionally lack sympathy
>for other folks economic problems (as Maggie found in her classes).
If this is inferred from my post, it is a blatant non-sequitur. I do
in fact sympathize with the situation students are in, and am not
surprised one bit by the poll numbers.
And, yes, polls can be useful, and contrary to what Wojtek claims,
they are not necessarily "an exercise in selecting different canned
phrases" nor is the simplistic claim true that they "usually reflect
nothing more than the saturation of the 'public mind' by media
propaganda". Without further evidence, I am unwilling to condemn this
poll in particular, though it may very well be a flawed poll.
Just as with anything else, care is necessary in evaluating the
usefulness of a particular poll. In the light spirit of Doug's
original post, I gave an anecdotal offering that claimed no particular
rigor.
Bill
