Just remember that no generation deserves a shit patch as you put it.
No one deserves it, everyone gets it. If I sit and cry in a hole about how unfair it is,I'll get fuck-all. Better for everyone concerned if I pick meself up, and get on with it.
My father is an English teacher, and regularly quotes poetry at me (A quote for every occasion!). And when I was a child, I had to learn "If" by Rudyard Kipling. The applicable phrases to this thread are:
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
It's sound advice (the poem was orginally written for his son, Jack, who was killed in the trenches in WWI at a very tender age). And the conclusion of the poem:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
I don't think that needs much explanation.
Let's hope science and engineering regains its importance politically and economically to provide good R&D funding and lots of innovation. Trouble is, that requires politicians from a wide range of backgrounds and real jobs.
PS I mean real innovation, not "innovation" with fantasy fairy money in the financial "industry".
What industry? We got a talk at the beginning of the course, talking about all the "brilliant" things the UK did in the Aero sector. Us, who in the 50s and 60s had technology that was outstripping the Americans with their enormous R&D budgets. In the UK, the most noteworthy thing we do (apart from that paper lion, BAE) is building wings for Airbus. Not designing - BUILDING. The greatest aero companies are now assembling wings for a French commercial company.
The UK manufacturing industry was terribly mis-managed really. Triumph, Ariel, BSA, all gone bust because they didn't think of updating their product. And they're symbolic of the rest of the industry.
I watched an interesting documentary a few days back on Youtube (originally on the history channel) about motorcycles. Harley-Davidson nearly got run out of the market by the Japanese, however, the company refreshed itself, and came out with truly new tech for the bikes. Like 'em or loathe 'em, at least they're still going. The documentary:
Personally, the minute I have my degree, I intend to high-tail it across the Atlantic, and get work in an American firm. To quote Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits:
"I used to like to go to work but they shut it down
I got a right to go to work but there's no work here to be found " ~ Telegraph Road