"Today's younger generation is no worse than my own. We were just as ignorant and repulsive as they are, but nobody listened to us"

Al Capp’s remark about generational perceptions lays bare the perennial cycle of adults criticizing youth. He acknowledges a shared ignorance or repulsiveness between generations, humorously noting that any objectionable qualities found in young people today also existed in his own youth. The distinction, he jests, is that his contemporaries were ignored, hinting at how every generation believes its young are uniquely misguided or troublesome. His words undercut the common narrative that societal decline is evident in the behaviors and attitudes of the new generation; instead, he suggests the supposed decline is a constant refrain, repeated throughout history.

The phrase “nobody listened to us” implies that youthful rebellion or folly is universal but also transient. As those “ignorant and repulsive” youths mature, they take on society’s responsibilities and, in turn, become the adults who criticize those after them. Capp’s humor highlights both the self-importance adults attribute to their own judging roles, and the forgetfulness regarding their own youthful indiscretions. Ignorance, mistakes, and attitudes deemed unseemly aren’t exclusive to the present but are inherent aspects of adolescence and young adulthood.

There’s also an implicit critique of generational hypocrisy. The speaker recognizes that much of the older generation’s condemnation of youth is, at best, misplaced nostalgia or a lack of self-awareness. The only true novelty might be that youthful voices today are more difficult to ignore, perhaps due to new platforms or increased visibility. The emotions, mistakes, and desires of youth have not changed fundamentally, only the world’s capacity to hear them has.

What Capp’s words ultimately offer is a gentle parody of adults’ tendency to romanticize their own youth while disparaging the next. Rather than lamenting the supposed moral decay or ignorance of today’s young people, he reminds us of the shared, cyclical nature of generational development and the importance of empathy and self-reflection.