Generational Conflict in the Twenty-First Century
My partner recently forwarded an article to me from HuffPost Highline by Michael Hobbes about the tragedy of graduating as a Millennial into a post-Great Recession America. The piece is downright depressing, as it's title, FML ("F#@% My Life" for the uninitiated) suggests.
Hobbes begins by describing the heaps of criticisms lobbed at Millennials on a daily basis. The mainstream news media and YouTube are full of washed-up 90s comedians, sleazy cable news pundits, and business 'consultants' ready to condemn an entire generation of young adults. The message is that Millennials are lazy, whiny, entitled snowflakes with no discipline, the result of intergenerational spoiling, video games, liberal professors, or whatever flavor of the week boogeyman is to blame. If you believe the news, as Hobbes points out, Millennials killed all that is good: "cereal and department stores and golf and napkins and lunch" included. (And that's just in the last two years!).
As a late Gen Xer, while not identifying as a Millenial, I never understood the rush by others in my generation (and most certainly the Boomers) to chastise young adults. Putting aside the fact that older generations have complained about the young since time began, Millennials are perhaps the least deserving of this contempt than any other generation in modern history since World War II.
As Hobbes explains, the problems facing young adults are not, if fact, due to laziness or personal failings on the part of Millennials, but structural disadvantages baked into the political and economic system itself. Hobbes piece is peppered with troubling statistics detailing just how much things have changed for young people over the last 30-40 years. The economy simply does not function the same as it did in 1972 when Boomers began graduating from college in droves. The cost of entry (be it getting a job, purchasing a home, going to school, or starting a family) are simply much higher, and the barriers much more challenging.
Like it or not, Millennials are waking up to the world that has been left to them, and they are not happy. I recently finished reading the book A Generation of Sociopaths by Millennial Bruce Gibney. The book looks out upon the dreadful state of affairs left to his generation, with its warming climate, growing public and private debt, unfunded entitlements, and crumbling infrastructure, and clearly lays the blame on one generation in particular: the Baby Boomers.
I will not rehash Gibney's arguments here. Suffice it to say, I think some of his fears are overblown (I take little issue with public debt), while others are explored too little (the problem of capital wealth disparities). I also don't agree that the Boomers are sociopathic, but do agree that their political and economic legacy has been a mixed bag, to put it mildly. His book is worth a read (especially as a member of Generation X or the Baby Boomers) for Gibney's sheer willingness to address these generational issues head on.
Young adults now clearly see how public disinvestment, flattening tax schemes, corporate hegemony, and political corruption have systematically disenfranchised and disadvantaged them. As Millennials begin to take the reins of political and economic power over the next decade, they will seek to reverse these trends. Older generations will be expected to fall in line, and help to right these wrongs, or get out of the way and let the younger generation take the reigns. Whether or not we as Gen Xers and Boomers will be willing or able to assist in this transformation is beside the point. Change is coming. The question is only how much generational strife there will be along the way.
What do you all think? Let me know in the comments. Thanks, Steemit!
// Mydknyght