Have you ever heard the saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same??”
In the episode “The Big Departure” from the show Dragnet, Joe Friday, played by Jack Webb, gives a memorable speech that can easily apply even to today’s teenagers.
The younger generation frequently thinks that nobody understands their struggles. In comparison to the life in the previous decades, they don’t take the time to appreciate all the privileges they have now. Instead, they choose to look for problems and reasons why life is more difficult for them than it was for their parents and grandparents.
The show aired in January 12, 1967, and revolves around Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Bill Gannon, his partner. They face daily challenges at work and deal with critical questions, such as race riots, LSD, you name it.
In this episode, several teenagers are dissatisfied with the system and decide to steal the resources from the local stores. Their intention is to form a separate country on an island, under their own management and rules.
Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Bill Gannon deliver an argumentative speech that leaves the teenagers speechless.
The scene is settled in the police station and begins with the teenager telling the police that they don’t understand how or why the world is so “unfair”.
“Maybe we do, son”, responds Sergeant Joe Friday and continues, “Don’t think that you’re the first generation that’s felt dissatisfied. They all have, you know?”
He proceeds by telling him that previous generations didn’t have half of the privileges the teenagers from that time had. The sergeant tells him that poverty is a standard way of living in many places around the world.
“More people are living better right here than anywhere else in the world”, he says. For that reason, their complaints about irrelevant things in comparison to the real world problems, are not really making the officers feel sympathy for these teenagers.
His partner joins the speech and lists all the things his generation had to do when they were teenagers. He explains they had to deal with different illnesses, such as diphtheria, scarlet fever, whooping cough, and others. The problem and fear were justified and yet again, they were tougher and braver.
At that time, Sergeant Joe Friday tells them that everyone has their own rights. The same way they do and claim them, someone else does as well. If one part doesn’t respect the rights of the other, nobody is going to respect theirs either.
“Don’t try to build a new country, make the old one work”, he says and closes the speech, leaving the teenagers with many things to think about.
One comment says, “This is relevant for EVERY generation. Even the ancient Greeks wrote about spoiled kids coming in the generation after them.”
The other view notes, “Things are just as bad now. I mean, we are still selling Apples on the corner. Many people line up and have to wait for days just to get a new Apple!!”
The sarcastic comment above is directed at the part where the Officer talks about his generation selling apples and being dissatisfied about it; while the kids today are waiting in line for the new iPhone but for some reason, they are dissatisfied as well.
Watch the video and you will notice that this speech suits today’s generation perfectly:
