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Twain's Advice to The Youth is delightfully funny [1]. "Always obey your parents, when they are present. This is the best policy in the long run, because if yo
by zvmaz 3y ago
Twain's Advice to The Youth is delightfully funny [1].
"Always obey your parents, when they are present. This is the best policy in the long run, because if you don’t, they will make you. Most parents think they know better than you do, and you can generally make more by humoring that superstition than you can by acting on your own better judgment."
[1] https://learning.hccs.edu/faculty/emily.klotz/engl1301-13/course-readings/advice-to-youth-mark-twain/view https://learning.hccs.edu/faculty/emily.klotz/engl1301-13/co...
- danhau 3y agoWell that put a dent in my respect for Twain. Obeying your parents, the more experienced humans, is generally the better advice. There are exceptions of course. I wonder if Twain had particularly difficult parents, hence his view.
- mandmandam 3y agoTwain was smart enough to know most teenagers will never listen to someone that says "Your parents are more experienced humans and you should obey them". Those rare kids that would listen to such advice have plenty of people telling it to them anyway.
- btilly 3y agoHe was just trying to present the advice in a form that would be believed by his audience. As for his audience, he likely assumed that they were like him when he was young. "When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years." Twain is an interesting character. But he shouldn't always be read in a straightforward manner.
- I_am_uncreative 3y agoWhat amazes me is how things really haven't changed. Teenage angst has always been a thing.
- hotnfresh 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorist (Let it be known I intended to respond with this link before I knew who they had as the representative image for the article)
- JasonFruit 3y agoMark Twain, for all his qualities, was a humorist.
- stana 3y ago"Age is no better qualified for an instructor as youth, for it has not profited so much as it has lost. One may almost doubt if the wisest man has learned anything of absolute value by living." Henry Thoreau
- flashgordon 3y agoS/parent/boss and s/youth/employees and dang this still applies!!!
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]