For at least 1,000 years, the struggle has continued.
It is a struggle that has united children across cultures, religions and national borders. It has seen multitudes of victims, who have shaken their heads in befuddlement and despair. It is an unusual struggle, one in which each of us has participated, until we slowly, unknowingly, turned traitors and crossed the battle lines. It is the struggle of children to be, and to remain, unintelligible to grownups.
In Japan, the fight has raged for a millennium — Sei Shonagon's "The Pillow Book' includes references to wakamono kotoba (young peoples' words). Yes, even 1,000 years ago, there were conniving young types bent on confusing, confounding, even intentionally repelling the adult population.