Is it just me, or is the Beloit College Mindset List sort of genuinely stupid? Not the idea behind it — which is basically, “let’s make everyone over 18 feel really old,” which I guess has its place — or even some of its cultural observations, but in the overall execution, its awkward phrasings, and its general failure to be anything like actually funny.
I was much more taken aback by Mike Sterling‘s observation that Neil Gaiman’s “Dream Hunters came out ten years ago, apparently. How old does that make you feel?” Surely that couldn’t be right…but damn, it is. It’s one thing to realize the cultural artifacts of your childhood are now old; it’s quite another to realize the things that seem like they happened just yesterday actually happened a decade ago.
I realized recently that I have (remarkably well-polished) stories about capers I was involved in that run back for almost 20 years.
This makes me feel older than almost anything–except maybe that part in “Theme From Flood” where they sing “it’s a brand new record for 1990”.
I think one of the major problems with that list is the use of “always” and “never,” almost as if the people they’re talking about couldn’t conceive of anything being different before.
Also I like how many are things no High School student would even know about: “#53 The Royal New Zealand Navy has never been permitted a daily ration of rum. ”
Or others that are hardly general practice: “#55 98.6 F or otherwise has always been confirmed in the ear.” Actually most thermometers are still oral. Just a few months ago I was recommending to some friends that they look into an “Ear Thermometer” for their new-born, and they had trouble finding one.
One of my favorite ones of these things (I don’t think it was Beloit, not sure) I read a few years ago that said:
“They have always known that in the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime; and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders.”
it’s quite another to realize the things that seem like they happened just yesterday actually happened a decade ago.
That’s been happening to me a lot lately, and it’s both disconcerting and depressing. And I keep remembering how, when I was young, I’d laugh at my mother for referring to things that had happened before I was born as if they were recent… I don’t want to be my mother!