Am I the Only Codger...

[Count Bassie]

...who misses:
Paying with cash;
Hearing musicians play interactively in songs, instead of formulaic "lines" at maximum volume (okay, not always, but I've had enough crap stuffed into my ears, and granted it's nothing new);
Being able to negotiate a deal in a store;
Being treated like a person by younger folks;
Dealing with people on the phone whose native language is the same as yours...

Am I the only one? @#&%!... I'm only 49 for crying out loud. And I'm not such an ornery, bad guy. Not really. On a good day.

[hover]

Originally Posted by Count Bassie

...who misses:
Paying with cash;
Hearing musicians play interactively in songs, instead of formulaic "lines" at maximum volume (okay, not always, but I've had enough crap stuffed into my ears, and granted it's nothing new);
Being able to negotiate a deal in a store;
Being treated like a person by younger folks;
Dealing with people on the phone whose native language is the same as yours...

Am I the only one? @#&%!... I'm only 49 for crying out loud. And I'm not such an ornery, bad guy. Not really. On a good day.

1) not really...cash is really a played out, archaic medium.
2) absolutely, but not always.
3) you mean you can't? I still do to this day.
4) not a new phenomena.
5) absolutely, but it's unfortunately a sign of "the norm" these days.

[Jim Campbell]

Originally Posted by Count Bassie

...who misses:
Paying with cash;
Hearing musicians play interactively in songs, instead of formulaic "lines" at maximum volume (okay, not always, but I've had enough crap stuffed into my ears, and granted it's nothing new);
Being able to negotiate a deal in a store;
Being treated like a person by younger folks;
Dealing with people on the phone whose native language is the same as yours...

Am I the only one? ****, I'm only 49 for crying out loud. And I'm not such an ornery, bad guy. Not really. On a good day.

49 sheesh....kids these days....get used to it....younger folks will talk to you,but not for long,and you won't be included when they go somewhere.....

sales people will talk down to you,and if you play it right you can make it work for you,or have fun when you reveal that you know they are full of it.....

speaking english was once an asset,now not so much..... audiences are awful these days,and there is no way around it i fear......

music has become wallpaper for other things and practically no one these days can listen,except for 8 second snippets on the bus.....jazz concerts are the only places you might find a respectful audience.....i can't even imagine a rock/country show without non stop yak,people on their cells,running out for beer every five minutes...... no quiet passage can exist without someone screaming....

hopefully by 49 you have enough dough for a good sound system,because that's where you have to go for any kind of listening.....

[popinfresh]

1) I only use cash.
2) Find some new bands
3) I negotiate deals quite often, unless is groceries. I generally only deal with markets, farmers markets and small stores though.
4) I'm a younger folk but treat us all the same. Age is only a number.
5) I ditched my phone to get around that one

[Thunderscreech]

Originally Posted by Count Bassie

...who misses:
Paying with cash;
Hearing musicians play interactively in songs, instead of formulaic "lines" at maximum volume (okay, not always, but I've had enough crap stuffed into my ears, and granted it's nothing new);
Being able to negotiate a deal in a store;
Being treated like a person by younger folks;
Dealing with people on the phone whose native language is the same as yours...

Am I the only one? @#&%!... I'm only 49 for crying out loud. And I'm not such an ornery, bad guy. Not really. On a good day.

1. If carry large amounts of cash with me people think I am a drug dealer
2. It is nothing new. Rock n' Roll was "noise", heavy metal was "Satan", and rap is just the big new thing. it'll go away and something worse will show up
3. My "deal negotiation" fell through when I tried to convince the guy at Best Buy that the Karmic payback of giving me a free iPod outweighed the fact that it was, you know, giving something away for free, but it didn't work.
4. I bet your parents would've said the same thing, while your grandparents laughed and remembered how terrible your parents were once...
5. An expense of Globalization, but nothing new. I bet when people whose native language was different from your father's started working at the gas station's people said the same thing

Not much of this are complaints you yourself, people have had these, in their variations and variants, for many, many years.

People do not change, only the clothes, music and hair.

Originally Posted by popinfresh

1) I only use cash.
2) Find some new bands
3) I negotiate deals quite often, unless is groceries. I generally only deal with markets, farmers markets and small stores though.
4) I'm a younger folk but treat us all the same. Age is only a number.
5) I ditched my phone to get around that one

Location: Calgary Alberta. Must be nice to be able to do that.

[Count Bassie]

Originally Posted by popinfresh

1) I only use cash.
2) Find some new bands
3) I negotiate deals quite often, unless is groceries. I generally only deal with markets, farmers markets and small stores though.
4) I'm a younger folk but treat us all the same. Age is only a number.
5) I ditched my phone to get around that one

1) Me too, but it's closing in I'm afraid...
2) I'm starting one. So there!
3) It's more and more a corporate world, and brutal by nature.
4) I find that respect for life, elders and peers to be declining. We put our old people away now, denying our children the wisdom and wealth of their grandparents. It's definitely a bad thing, and a sign of bad things.
5) Lucky you...

[Count Bassie]

Originally Posted by Thunderscreech

1. If carry large amounts of cash with me people think I am a drug dealer
2. It is nothing new. Rock n' Roll was "noise", heavy metal was "Satan", and rap is just the big new thing. it'll go away and something worse will show up
3. My "deal negotiation" fell through when I tried to convince the guy at Best Buy that the Karmic payback of giving me a free iPod outweighed the fact that it was, you know, giving something away for free, but it didn't work.
4. I bet your parents would've said the same thing, while your grandparents laughed and remembered how terrible your parents were once...
5. An expense of Globalization, but nothing new. I bet when people whose native language was different from your father's started working at the gas station's people said the same thing

Not much of this are complaints you yourself, people have had these, in their variations and variants, for many, many years.

People do not change, only the clothes, music and hair.

1) I never carry large amounts of cash- if I do, no one sees it.
2) With you there...
3) Atta way! I always face off with The Man whenever possible...
4) It's worse. My experience.
5) At least they were people, and you could see them and talk to them. They had to adjust to your culture- they were your neighbors.

I agree that people have been made of the same stuff forever. My complaint isn't really about people, it's about our culture- it's changed in some progressively bad ways. I blame- get this: Unchecked capitalism. Corporate colonialism of every piece of available real estate in the world. Sound crazy? Maybe it does...

[popinfresh]

Originally Posted by Count Bassie

1) Me too, but it's closing in I'm afraid...
2) I'm starting one. So there!
3) It's more and more a corporate world, and brutal by nature.
4) I find that respect for life, elders and peers to be declining. We put our old people away now, denying our children the wisdom and wealth of their grandparents. It's definitely a bad thing, and a sign of bad things.
5) Lucky you...

1) I feel for you bro. I've been living in a van for a while, so fuel and food is the only thing I pay for, makes it a bit easier
2) Good for you!
3) I don't believe so, corporate world only exists when you let it. I don't believe in it, I don't support it, I don't want it!
4) Of course it is, it is what we're 'meant' to do. Those in control of our society are making sure we do not value our own lives, until the point we don't mind handing them over. However, in this day and age we've reached an important shift in conscious awareness, in which younger minds in particular have the ability through internet to access much more free information than ever before.
The lack of respect is nothing other than fear, something we must always remember in day to day lives. Fear of our neighbours, fear of our peers, fear of our governments, fear of other countries, and most importantly, fear of ourselves. Fear however isn't a human emotion and something we should not feel
5) Anyone can ditch their phone, heheh

[popinfresh]

Originally Posted by Thunderscreech

Location: Calgary Alberta. Must be nice to be able to do that.

It's not bad, it can be done anywhere though!
I'm currently out on the East coast of Canada, I keep on going by busking, working small jobs here and there if needed, giving and receiving through others. Not an expensive life, but a rich one

[Count Bassie]

Originally Posted by popinfresh

1) I feel for you bro. I've been living in a van for a while, so fuel and food is the only thing I pay for, makes it a bit easier
2) Good for you!
3) I don't believe so, corporate world only exists when you let it. I don't believe in it, I don't support it, I don't want it!
4) Of course it is, it is what we're 'meant' to do. Those in control of our society are making sure we do not value our own lives, until the point we don't mind handing them over. However, in this day and age we've reached an important shift in conscious awareness, in which younger minds in particular have the ability through internet to access much more free information than ever before.
The lack of respect is nothing other than fear, something we must always remember in day to day lives. Fear of our neighbours, fear of our peers, fear of our governments, fear of other countries, and most importantly, fear of ourselves. Fear however isn't a human emotion and something we should not feel
5) Anyone can ditch their phone, heheh

Okay, response to 4) here is where I'm going, pretty much. And fear is a response to an imposition by some enemy... and yes, an illusion. Fear is crap.

And 5) I can ditch my phone, and be almost summarily out of work. Unfortunately to keep bread coming in and the roof from becoming the bank's, one needs to pay Caesar...

But I appreciate your take on it all!

[popinfresh]

Originally Posted by Count Bassie

Okay, response to 4) here is where I'm going, pretty much. And fear is a response to an imposition by some enemy... and yes, an illusion. Fear is crap.

And 5) I can ditch my phone, and be almost summarily out of work. Unfortunately to keep bread coming in and the roof from becoming the bank's, one needs to pay Caesar...

But I appreciate your take on it all!

4) Yep, except we have no enemies! There is an interesting documentary called Kymatica which is a sequel to another by the name Esoteric Agenda. It does well at explaining fear coming from false ego, xenophobia.

5) I can definitely understand that one

[Count Bassie]

Originally Posted by popinfresh

4) Yep, except we have no enemies! There is an interesting documentary called Kymatica which is a sequel to another by the name Esoteric Agenda. It does well at explaining fear coming from false ego, xenophobia.

5) I can definitely understand that one

4) I don't know that I agree... I don't think something like this is conceived just by 'errant' chemistry. It's not intellectual, it's provoked! I do think that some things are simpler than we are used to thinking, some things are more complex...

[Thunderscreech]

Originally Posted by Count Bassie

4) I don't know that I agree... I don't think something like this is conceived just by 'errant' chemistry. It's not intellectual, it's provoked! I do think that some things are simpler than we are used to thinking, some things are more complex...

It's not so much errant chemistry as it is the environment. Kids grow up seeing TV shows of nothing but people yelling at each other. They just parrot what they see on TV, because people are letting TVs raise their kids. I thought that anyone, after seeing The Cable Guy, would think that was a bad idea.

[Count Bassie]

Originally Posted by Thunderscreech

It's not so much errant chemistry as it is the environment. Kids grow up seeing TV shows of nothing but people yelling at each other. They just parrot what they see on TV, because people are letting TVs raise their kids. I thought that anyone, after seeing The Cable Guy, would think that was a bad idea.

But it's what's in the environment. Life is spiritual as much as it is physical, emotional, what-have-you. Things are caused by other things. You are right, but it goes further down. What/who moves the levers, makes the tv show...

[Count Bassie]

Originally Posted by Jim Campbell

49 sheesh....kids these days....get used to it....younger folks will talk to you,but not for long,and you won't be included when they go somewhere.....

sales people will talk down to you,and if you play it right you can make it work for you,or have fun when you reveal that you know they are full of it.....

speaking english was once an asset,now not so much..... audiences are awful these days,and there is no way around it i fear......

music has become wallpaper for other things and practically no one these days can listen,except for 8 second snippets on the bus.....jazz concerts are the only places you might find a respectful audience.....i can't even imagine a rock/country show without non stop yak,people on their cells,running out for beer every five minutes...... no quiet passage can exist without someone screaming....

hopefully by 49 you have enough dough for a good sound system,because that's where you have to go for any kind of listening.....

I'm not the only codger! Heh. And we're not codgers, see, but after you've seen a bit you get a picture. Having a standard helps you have a well-focused picture. I'm seeing standards drop, and that's my complaint.

[Pilgrim]

Originally Posted by Count Bassie

...who misses:
Paying with cash;
Hearing musicians play interactively in songs, instead of formulaic "lines" at maximum volume (okay, not always, but I've had enough crap stuffed into my ears, and granted it's nothing new);
Being able to negotiate a deal in a store;
Being treated like a person by younger folks;
Dealing with people on the phone whose native language is the same as yours...

Cash, direct deposit, check, it all spends the same.

I play surf, no max volume needed - if I don't like the music or the volume, I don 't go.

I've never lived where you could negotiate a deal in a store - except a car dealership.

Younger folks often look up to me, and I don't have much trouble identifying with them. A lot depends on how YOU approach them.

Yeah, I get frustrated with tech and service folks who have English as a second language. But I've also had some good experiences with those folks...and bad experiences with native English speakers.

My advice: start looking for the glass to be half full, not half empty. I'm 60 and I don't see as much downside as the OP does.

[Simo98]

Originally Posted by Count Bassie

...who misses:
Paying with cash;
Hearing musicians play interactively in songs, instead of formulaic "lines" at maximum volume (okay, not always, but I've had enough crap stuffed into my ears, and granted it's nothing new);
Being able to negotiate a deal in a store;
Being treated like a person by younger folks;
Dealing with people on the phone whose native language is the same as yours...

1 Paying with cash happens all the time.

2 Eh, look harder.

3 I work Retail. EVERYONE negotiates a deal, its flipping rediculious, I had someone haggle on a two dollar beachball the other day.

4 No, but I do get sick and tired of being mistreated by older people because I am a "Younger Folk", as well as been patronised and associated with the "youth of today" as if they are all the same.

5 Ill give you that last one

[SnakeKappele]

You are not alone man.

I'd say more but I don't want to catch crap from some young punk.

[Count Bassie]

Originally Posted by Pilgrim

Younger folks often look up to me, and I don't have much trouble identifying with them. A lot depends on how YOU approach them.

'Caps'? Am I called up short? And no, it doesn't necessarily depend on me... also I didn't give any context.

Originally Posted by Pilgrim

I'm 60 and I don't see as much downside as the OP does.

I'm not sure it's strictly a chronological thing. What you 'see' doesn't have to be age-related.

[Count Bassie]

Originally Posted by Simo98

1 Paying with cash happens all the time.

2 Eh, look harder.

3 I work Retail. EVERYONE negotiates a deal, its flipping rediculious, I had someone haggle on a two dollar beachball the other day.

4 No, but I do get sick and tired of being mistreated by older people because I am a "Younger Folk", as well as been patronised and associated with the "youth of today" as if they are all the same.

5 Ill give you that last one

1) I'm talking about trends, the bigger picture of consumer business.

2) Nah, sick of it... even though I do occasionally find something interesting. I'm starting a band.

3) Great!

4) That's an older problem... or you can blame your friends! Lol!

5) Gracias.