Isn't it relatively likely that there are more people learning Buddhism orally now than there ever have been before?

> Isn't it relatively likely that there are more people learning Buddhism orally now than there ever have been before?

Well I suppose if you mean listening to an audio-book or even reading a book constitutes learning something orally, then you might have a point.

When I say orally I mean passed down from generation to generation via spoken word. Buddhism originally had no scriptures and was passed down by word of mouth until everything was transcribed to texts.

Yeah, I meant orally as in spoken, not recorded.

There's an awful lot more people around now than there generally has been.

Aw, come on, way to miss the point. Even African American Grandmas were glued to their televisions during the Cuban Missile Crisis. They lived through the Vietnam protests, the 70's oil shock, Nixon's resignation and stagflation, and then saw the Berlin Wall fall in the 80's. As someone born in the 80's, I can only imagine the difference between what they thought and felt during 9/11 compared to me.

They (usually) have something which younger generations will always struggle with (simply by the nature of not being there), which is _perspective_ on which things are important at what scales. That isn't to say they're always (or even usually) right about everything, but their opinion should at least be valued as part of the conversation.