Teenagers can be a pretty caustic and ungracious bunch. Surely you receive some pretty obnoxious e-mail?
Sure enough. And sometimes I get that precocious e-mail with a tone smacking of sarcasm and bravado letting me know in no uncertain terms that they have seen through the bullshit of the adult world. I read somewhere that smart adolescents are desperate to prove to the world that they’re in-the-know — nobody’s pulling the wool over their eyes! They prefer the comfort of sarcasm to the self-exposure of choosing a belief and risking being proven wrong or feeling left out. This can be annoying. Any argument which I respect opposing some action or idea should proffer an improvement on it. It is not enough to say, “It is all sucks!” A person should ground their argument in a larger world view which has a rational alternative to what is not presently ideal. Too many teenagers don’t do this, in my opinion. Unadulterated teenage angst and sarcasm can be very irritating. It is the very heighth of sophomorism. Q: But you are simply pooh-poohing youthful enthusiasm and idealism! Maybe they will b
