Minds of young Canadians

Perhaps it is merely a sign of age, a longing for a golden past now lost, but I see a distinct change for the worse in bookstore service.

Competition is good and we ain't got none in bookstores, leastways in the Toronto area.
To my point -- I was looking for the most recent issue of First Things. First Things is a (generally) conservative Catholic magazine dealing with politics and culture. It takes strong (right-wing usually but not always) positions. It is always well written and logically consistent. I could not find it on the shelf so I asked staff where it might be.

As expected they had not heard of the magazine. Generally I find the staff at the monopoly bookstores have a very weak grasp on what they actually sell. They are also, at most 24 years old, but look like they're 15.

But they were game to look.

And indeed they found First Things listed -- under 'New Age' titles! Whoever listed First Things as a 'New Age' title either was totally ignorant of the magazine (it's about as unNew Age as possible) or was a merry prankster, the type to put the Gomery Inquiry Report under 'Fiction - Political Thriller' (well, maybe that was right but, whatever). Regardless the nameless clerk is probably also a late teen overacheiver.

Regardless, I wanted First Things so I asked where is 'New Age' and was told "I'm not sure but it's probably with 'Computers'".

Clearly 'New Age' should not fall under 'Computers'. First Things might, at a stretch, fall into sciences, but the clerk clearly had no idea what 'New Age' meant (or where it was). What's curious is that somebody thought a magazine dealing with religion must be 'New Age' and the clerk thought 'New Age' has to do with computers.

Remember, these children will, in ten years or so, start to take over the country. Perhaps Mark Steyn can write about the menace posted by youth -- remember, they really are going to take over.