There are many adages from a by-gone era that need to be resurrected for the benefit of today’s youth.

One is that “you cannot put an old head on young shoulders”.

The cult of youth and the pandering to youth and their opinions, on the principle that they are the leaders of tomorrow, has a flaw in it. Truly, they will be the next generation but that does not prove that we should pander to them. Rather we should educate them because, by definition, young people have not yet attained to a balanced view of life in order to suggest solutions. This lack of balance can produce cultural vandals vying for attention.

The young

The youth of today are being short-changed. They are living in fear of climate change and nuclear war. Our educational system fails them, teaching them grievance and fear, while failing to teach them Christian hope and self-worth, leading to mental health issues of anxiety and depression.

Older readers may remember the following adages that we were taught when we were young, but I challenge you to find them repeated in public life at present. Since beginning this list, I have added a few useful ones which may occasionally crop up in public discourse.

1. Look before you leap.
2. Count to ten.
3. Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched.
4. Don’t believe everything you read in newspapers (useful for social media).
5. All that glitters is not gold (useful for our celebrity culture).
6. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing (particularly relevant to the young).
7. You are just a poor loser (useful for those who cannot accept the result of electiions).
8. Let bygones be bygones (could be useful for cancel culture).
9. Live and let live (useful for woke supporters).
10. Out of sight, out of mind (could be useful for cancel culture).
11. You can please some people some of the time but not all the people all of the time.
12. He is a Jack-of-all-trades and master of none.
13. “Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me”, is not true but it is useful for introducing perspective to young people’s thinking.
14. You won’t miss the water till the well runs dry (about lack of foresight, very common in political circles where short-termism prevails Pro 22:3 and Pro 27:12).
15. There are none so blind as those who will not see (prejudicial closing of one’s mind to unwanted information).
16. “If the cap fits, then wear it” (useful for those who are easily offended).
17. “Be thankful for small mercies” (useful for this ‘grievance politics’ era).
18. “Honour to whom honour is due” (useful for levellers who pull others down to their own level).
19. “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” (useful for young people).
20. “playing the race card” is possibly no longer politically correct and so it has disappeared.
21. “Jack is as good as his master” (applied to those who think that they are better than they are).
22. A Jack-of-all-trades but master of none (for those who have not concentrated on anything).
23. “Count your blessings” (useful for grievance politics), and “be thankful for small mercies”.
24. A just war (ever since American interventionism, the ‘just war’ concept has fallen off the agenda, but relearning its principles will be useful for assessing current international conflicts).
25. “Ban the Bomb” – the young are more worried by climate change than by the dangers of nuclear war.
26. “A stitch in time saves nine” (useful for public affairs, to check statements before others waste their time correcting them after they are made). Spey Viaduct inspection then its collapse.
27. “the tail should not wag the dog” (useful for minorities thinking that they are majorities). After two years, I have eventually heard this [at 20:24 hrs], coming from an old head.
28. “the milk of human kindness” (which our “dog eats dog” society needs to relearn).
29. “it takes two to make an argument” (for those who want to blame others for ‘beginning’ the argument; “a soft answer turns away wrath” Pro 15:1).
30. “the exception that proves the rule” (useful for the current gender confusion).
31. “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason” Pro 26:16 (useful for discussion, describing those who are too lazy to do the necessary research yet give vent to their opinion in heated debate, such as about the 2020-2021 coronavirus pandemic or the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian war or the 2023 Gaza-Israeli war). Jesus asked: “Who made Me a judge over you?” A useful comment when we ought to reserve judgment.
32. “you cannot teach an old dog new tricks” (useful for people who are set in their ways).
33. “The grass is greener on the other side of the fence.”
34. “Give them an inch and they will take a mile” (useful when dealing with campaigners; appeasement).
35. “Magnanimous in victory and gracious in defeat” (for poor losers).
36. “My word is my bond” is no longer heard as there is so little trust in public life.
37. “Empty barrels make most noise” would be useful for modern debate, but it is never heard now amidst the angry exchanges of modern protests and social media activists.
38. “wolves in sheep’s clothing” is never heard nowadays, possibly because there are so many of them in politics and in pulpits.
39. doing “a double take” – re-reading or needing to clarify what has been written or said when it is not clear. This is rarely mentioned because poor discussion is so common nowadays that one would be referring to it very frequently.
40. “Give a dog a bad name and hang him” is a proverb that aptly applies to some political prisoners and which gossippers may wish to consider.
41. “A rolling stone gathers no moss.”
42. “Catch me if you can.” The UK Labour Party is making so many changes in its first five months in office that it is difficult to keep up with them all.
43. “keeping up with the Joneses” is almost obsolete in this consumer age where people are encouraged to buy and to buy.
44. “the devil finds work for idle hands”. The devil keeps his existence well-hidden but there is now so much evil that people are re-examining [at 23:24 hrs] the source of evil.
    
    • Some useful ones that occasionally crop up.
45. the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
46. absence makes the heart grow fonder.
47. it is not what you know that matters, but whom you know.
48. It is not only who you are but what you stand for that counts.
49. “He/she is playing the race card”; this might now be a non-politically correct statement so that it is no wonder if it is no longer heard in public life.
50. “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.” (useful for ‘virtue signallers‘). 20 Feb 2023: beginning to be applied to Prince Harry and Megan; and now 2 Oct 2024 to UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for his criticisms about “freebies”.
51. “Three strikes and you are out.” Nowadays, one slip-up is enough to bring down the wrath of social media activists.
52. “one needs to earn respect.”
53. “One should respect the office rather than the person in the office.”
54. “to cut one’s nose to spite one’s face” should be applied to grievance politics.

Aesop’s Fables are probably not politically correct by today’s opinions, along with multitudes of earlier authors who are cancelled by this ‘woke’ generation, so that the collective wisdom of the ages is not available to our rising generation. A whole generation of youth would do well to learn about The Boy who Cried Wolf, The Hare and the Tortoise, and many other examples of ancient wisdom. “Let not him that puts on his armour boast like he who takes it off” 1K 20:11.

In debate, one should pay attention not only to what a person says but also to what they do not say. However, this requires a broad knowledge of a subject, showing why a young person’s opinion is likely to be unbalanced and why one needs to become a zugologist.

As for decision-makers, whether they are politicians or whatever, newbies need to learn quickly about unintended consequences, the most recent example being Kwazi Kwarteng’s ‘mini’-budget, which had the unintended consequence of his being sacked as the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer for not foreseeing the unintended consequences in the market.

Updates:

9 Nov 2021: Jordan Peterson blames the Universities for our current wokism.

21 Dec 2022: Nigel Farage in GB News today quoted “people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones” concerning the hypocritical protests about the Football World Cup in Qatar. It must be over two decades since I heard this quoted.

11 Mar 2023: Neil Oliver on GB News tonight reminded us of the Boy that cried Wolf and discussed truth and lies, and the loss of trust when lies are exposed.

16 Dec 2024: another rare appearance of “crying wolf”, applied to using extreme language [at 18:53 hrs] like fascist and far right. What language does one use when real fascists appear?