Is it the best album ever, or did you just hear it first between the ages of 14 and 24?

Join the discussion at https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antlerboy_has-the-world-changed-or-have-i-changed-activity-6993473796162637824-qUpT

• Many of the ideas in this post are stolen from tweets, which I now cannot find to reference

Are they the best mentor in the world, or did they just give you a kind word and help your career when you started?

Do young workers have weird expectations, interact all wrong in meetings, or are they looking at you funny because you have outdated assumptions?

Do your cultural references fall on deaf ears, or are you *really* not aware that that’s ableist language?

Does ‘nobody want to work anymore’ or has that been a trope since at least the start of the 20th Century? Is everyone losing their sense of humour — or did they just move on?

Are your children experimenting with fundamental dangerous drugs, music, politics, and social mores — or did you forget they’re ‘beyond your command’?

Are the ‘franchise properties’ of your childhood being *absolutely traduced* in that new, disgustingly ‘woke’ movie which is going to poison the well forever and *completely misunderstands* the *entire basis* of the canon… or are the commercial owners of the franchise just looking for a new audience?

Does all politics suck now (yes!!!) or do you just see it from a different perspective (oh….)

Are your words of wisdom being ignored, or do they just not make sense at the moment?

Is your particular identity group suddenly being ‘squeezed out’, or are things just getting a bit more open?

Do people mention that the classic book you recommended was old-fashioned? Remember that you felt the same way when you read it thirty years ago!

Does your favourite sitcom feel a little bit uncomfortable now?

Have your iconic references gone so far down the road of railing against the world and modern civilities, or being exposed for their sex crimes, that you no longer feel comfortable worshipping them?

Are they really going too far, this time?

In short¸ are policemen — sorry, police officers — getting younger these days, or are you just getting older?

Also, have you picked a noise yet to make when you stand up and sit down? Because if you’re not careful, you’ll get stuck with the default…

In the 1992 art-flick ‘Another Girl, Another Planet’ by Michael Almereyda, a rich man hires a Tibetan Lama to sit with him while he’s dying. After the body dies, the brain keeps going for a few seconds, and hearing still works. The lama leans over and very clearly and loudly says in his ear ‘you’re dead, Frank!’