A random Assyrian clay tablet
According to Smithsonian Magazine, an Assyrian clay tablet from 2800 B.C. bears a gloomy inscription describing how the Assyrian youth were ruining civilization.
“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,” the tablet supposedly reads.
The inscription is reminiscent of another that, according to Newsweek, was unearthed in the Sumerian city of Ur (located in modern-day Iraq and founded in 3800 B.C.), which says, “If the unheard-of actions of today’s youth are allowed to continue, then we are doomed.”
Source: “OK Boomer” Is Just the First Salvo of a Larger Generational Showdown (note: currently Slashdotted)
This is much too good to check for truth — it trumps my go-to example of Cotton Mather bemoaning the decline in virtue of the new generation, one full of Antinomians and Unitarians, by 4500 years or so.
