Caitlin Barrett
“Is your generation wiser than your grandparents’ generation?”
Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the
shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we've ever known.
-Ronald Reagan
The above quote makes a very strong point about the knowledge of each generation. We
stand on the shoulders of the older generation, we learn from them and then we take this
knowledge and add more to it to pass on to the descendants. This cycle then continues allowing
for each group of successors to gain more knowledge, wisdom and create bigger and better
things. However, is one generation really more wise than the other or instead just more
modernized giving them more opportunities? We have very successfully made advancements in
medical sciences, environmental sciences and technology and are now learning things that
generations before us never knew. This does make us more knowledgeable, but does it make us
more wise? To discover which generation is more wise, you need to go deep down into the
important things that each era has done and compare it with those that the current generation has
done, and that is exactly what I am going to do. Through medical science, environmental science
and other modernized discoveries, I feel that my generation may, in fact, be wiser than my
grandparents‟ generation in the sense that we have more knowledge and put it to use to make
our world better.
1922
It is January 1922 and insulin has just been discovered. It saved a young boy‟s life and
scientists now know that there is a cure to diabetes! People used to die all the time because of
diabetes and thanks to Frederick Banting and John Macleod we no longer have to fear this
disease.
1928
It is September 1928 and Alexander Flemming has discovered penicillin! This is the first big
medical discovery since insulin which was 6 years ago! We now know that we have an agent to
fight against many different bacteria that can cause diseases in us.
2007
It is April 2007, and researchers find that diabetes is the fastest-growing disease in the world
affecting 246 million people around the world. Researchers estimate that by 2031 in Australia
alone, 3.3 million people will suffer from type 2 diabetes.
2010
It is the year 2010, and up to this point researchers have discovered that penicillin can be used
to treat many STIs such as gonorrhea and syphilis as well as other diseases such as
pneumococcal infections.
The type of discoveries being made in the 1900‟s are significantly different from those
found in the 2000‟s. We have advanced based on the information found in previous generations
and used it to progress and make new discoveries that will allow the successors to continue to
move forward and live longer, healthier lives. Without the discoveries of the previous generation
however, we would not have been able to make these discoveries. Based on medical
discoveries, my generation has more knowledge about medical sciences but our lifestyle does
not show the use of wisdom in our decisions as diabetes is just continuing to spread even if it is
now possible to live with it. Therefore, my group of descendants is of equal wisdom since the
only action we are taking using our knowledge is making the public aware of diabetes not
actually stopping people from getting the disease.
1925
It is the year 1925, and over the past 5 years they have been working on the opening of the
Texas and Persian Gulf oil fields. This is very exciting for us because this means that with all the
oil they have easy access to, we get cheap energy.
1960
It is the year 1960, and Keeling has successfully measured the carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere and is able to detect a rise in carbon dioxide which is currently at 315 ppm. He is
also able to find the mean global temperature over a five year period is 13.9 degrees Celsius.
2003
It is the year 2003, and scientists have been observing the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets
and now have a raised concern because the collapse of the ice sheets could increase sea
levels faster than what was originally thought.
2009
It is the year 2009, and scientists are worried that global warming is coming at a quicker speed
than we thought in previous years. The carbon dioxide has now raised to 385 ppm, 70 ppms
higher than 49 years before. The mean global temperature over five years has gone up to 14.5
degrees Celsius, the warmest in possibly thousands of years.
When looking at the environment, the studies in previous generations were much more
positive. As Ronald Reagan said, we are standing on the shoulders of previous generations,
therefore their decisions impact how we live today. Due to their choices in not taking care of the
earth, and then passing it on to our descendants the earth is in a downward spiral. The only
advantage we have is that with our technologies we are able to know more about what is going
on, create awareness and also solve the problem. We are now able to keep a better record of what
is happening to our earth and use it to help make a change. We are learning to change our
lifestyle to help the planet with the “green” movement. We are performing actions based on our
knowledge to improve our world which makes our generation more wise due to the fact that we
put what we have learned to use to help ourselves.
1927
It is the year 1927 and the first talking movie has just been released titled “The Jazz Singer.”
Prior to this we had films with no sound. This advance is quite a great accomplishment and will
change the entertainment and visual film industry largely with our new technology.
1930
It is February 1930, and Clyde Tombaugh has discovered the ninth planet, Pluto, named for the
Greek god of the underworld after 84 years of searching. He discovered that it is very small
because it is so far away and that it takes 248 years to orbit the sun completely. He is the first
American to discover a planet.
2006
It is August 2006, and Pluto is no longer considered a planet but instead considered a dwarf
planet, along with 44 others. Pluto was voted out of the solar system because it does not meet
the requirements of a planet such as having its own force of gravity and being much larger than
its moon(s). Now our grandparents can really say “when I was your age, Pluto was considered a
planet!”
2007
It is the year 2007, and Hollywood is now producing 603 films per year. All movies are in color
with sound. There are multiple different ways of viewing movies as well such as IMAX, DVD
and online. The film industries makes somewhere around 100 billion US dollars in a year with
the average female being paid 250,000 US dollars per contract.
Based on the advance of discoveries we are definitely more wise due to the fact that we
have the visual technologies and equipment to allow us to progress. The previous era has allowed
us to discover places outside our planet, such as Pluto, or how to add sound to video, but our
generation has taken the previous wisdom and brought it to a whole new level. The generations
have allowed us to discover more about our solar system and also earn our economy more
money through the film industry.
Overall, which is wiser? Is it the generation, as Scott Fitzgerald wrote, „The parties were
bigger...the pace was faster...the shows were broader, the buildings were higher, the morals
were looser and the liquor was cheaper,' or is it the modernized successors of today with the
technologies to change the world? In someways, they are equally wise. The future descendants
will always be more wise since the wisdom of the generation prior is passed down, however
some wisdom cannot be passed onto us but is instead there for us to learn on our own. We do
not have to rely completely on those before us for our wisdom as they pass us down knowledge,
some wisdom is in our own hands to discover and then pass on further. In all reality, every
single generation at some point was more wise and soon our children will be more wise than us.
So in conclusion, my generation is not wiser than the generation of my grandparents‟, but, is of
equal wisdom. With all of our new ideas and discoveries, we no longer have to stand on the
shoulders of the previous generation, we can stand on the shoulder of the world allowing more
wisdom to be shared across the globe. As BBCs ad for „superpower the internet‟ states, through
discoveries like the internet, we are working together to shape our future. It is not up to one
generation, it is up to us all to pass on the wisdom from our generation to make the next better.
As George Orwell said, „Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that
went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.‟
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