Disillusioned, Disappointed, Spoiled Brats
Today in Forbes, my friend and Ricochet Member Maura Pennington presents the best profile I've seen yet on my generational cohort, the so-called "Generation O" (presumably shorthand for Generation Obama, though I bristle at the notion that the current occupant of the Oval Office can singlehandedly define my generation). She writes,
School was a bubble of instant academic and athletic validation, full of prizes, accolades, awards. We weren’t just successful adolescents for getting there, we were successful there too. Look at our resumes. We’re all successes. But school has to end at some point–though many of us give the impression that it is possible to continue to “be educated” ad infinitum–and so we were foisted on the real world. What happened then? It was 2008 or 2009, the economy was a disaster and nothing we anticipated seemed to be coming our way. Experts in art history ended up folding jeans. Animal rights activists ended up at hunting non-profits. There were jobs, just not ones that matched any of our skills or interests.
We were deceived. There had been a tacit promise throughout our twenty years of schooling that good grades and meaningful activities would conspire to produce a satisfying existence. Was it the system–the teachers, coaches, parents–that fooled us or did we fool ourselves? Either way, we were gypped.
[...]
We’ve been accustomed to unsustainable standards of living, yet aren’t adapting to the reality that life just isn’t going to be the same as it was for our parents. We aren’t adapting because we don’t understand why it can’t be like it was for them. We’re stubborn in our sense of what can be ours, what should be ours, just by virtue of our having gone to those schools and being the people we are.
In our eyes, we’ve done everything right. We played sports and acted in plays even though we are not currently pro athletes or actors. Shouldn’t it count for something that we were captains of JV tennis? That’s what is most difficult to face out here in this adult world. It doesn’t matter what we did. It matters what we do, the creative choices we make to adjust, the people we have real live conversations with. Because no one is going to get a job, live in a nice place, have money to date and take vacations simply because he was president of the campus doing-good society, no matter what he’s been told. The sooner we stop demanding the world to mold to the rosy, impractical view we had as undergraduates, the better for us all.
Maura's characterization of the Millennials, or "Gen O," or whatever you want to call us is unsavory but spot on: we're disillusioned brats. How else to explain the OWS movement? The challenge–and great opportunity–for conservatives will be finding a creative way to harness the energy and restlessness of young Americans in order to rebuild the country on a new, unknown post-Obama landscape.
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Nov '10
Re: Disillusioned, Disappointed, Spoiled Brats
I have the sneaking suspicion that there aren't really that many overachievers taking part in OWS.
Dec '10
Re: Disillusioned, Disappointed, Spoiled Brats
Diane Ellis, Ed.: Today in Forbes, my friend and Ricochet Member Maura Pennington presents the best profile I've seen yet on my generational cohort(...)She writes,
While I have no sympathy for the Occupiers, I agree that there is some legitamicy to this grieveance.
Re-channeling that frustration will be difficult. We have spent our whole lives until now navel gazing. There isn't even that much energy to redirect in a lot of cases. The great achievements of our time thus far, like Facebook or the iPhone have themselves been distractions from more productive activity.
I fear a redirect may not be enough forus, and that an dramatic paradigm shift will be necessary. Something my mother told me often seems like appropriate advice or maybe a forewarning for our generation. Most people will never act, think, or hope any differently, until it becomes less painful to change than to stay the way they are.
Edited on Nov 10, 2011 at 5:34pmJul '10
Re: Disillusioned, Disappointed, Spoiled Brats
Step one: Don't shackle Yerselves with the label "Gen O."
Aug '10
Re: Disillusioned, Disappointed, Spoiled Brats
Weren't the last two officially named generations also disillusioned, betrayed by the economy, unprepared to face reality, and subject to extended adolescence? Parts of this analysis could have been copy/pasted from the sociology texts going back to Generation X.
Not that the analysis is wrong per se... but I think the idea of generational divides may be a little too 1960's. The larger cultural analysis is probably a more productive critique of where our society is heading.
As XKCD puts it, the problem we have with the MTV generation is that their kids are just like them.
Aug '10
Re: Disillusioned, Disappointed, Spoiled Brats
The only "meaningful activity" for a student is to study. All else is frivolity.
May '10
Re: Disillusioned, Disappointed, Spoiled Brats
You're young, you can still turn it around.
Oct '11
Re: Disillusioned, Disappointed, Spoiled Brats
I don't know how one goes about defining a generation, but I've certainly felt those things your friend writes about, as have others I know. How do you get into a good college? Play sports, do theater, take hard classes, get good grades. Should I take the difficult Human A&P or the goof-off Automotive Basics? Should I take an unpaid internship in my career field or spend another summer shingling roofs? Should I be in student government or get a part-time job lifeguarding at the university swimming pool? There's nothing more frustrating than when the hard choices you made in order to show off your diverse skills and which were reinforced by employers, parents, counselors, and mentors end up meaning nothing. Even if you end up on your feet, you feel like you produced something that you thought was valuable, but that no-one actually cares about.
But the solution isn't to downgrade your self-worth or head to Zuccotti Park; it's to figure out what is actually valuable and how you can provide it. Blocking out the Boomers' endless whining of "kids these days" doesn't hurt either.
Edited on Nov 10, 2011 at 6:09pmAug '10
Re: Disillusioned, Disappointed, Spoiled Brats
Diane Ellis, Ed.: Today in Forbes,
Reminds me of:
This is intuitive to those who pay attention to the world. Your friend needs to refocus her ire where it belongs.
Oct '10
Re: Disillusioned, Disappointed, Spoiled Brats
This speaks to a general lack of critical thinking or rather intuitive thinking in the choices made. To any responsible thinking soul, the choices one makes belong to you alone. Am so tired of the, Change my diaper !!! Mentality of the day. Anybody worth their salt should know a used car salesman when they see one. Short on sympathy here.
Edited on Nov 10, 2011 at 6:30pmMay '10
Re: Disillusioned, Disappointed, Spoiled Brats
That's small potatoes. The lights are going out on Western democracy. Our generation is blessed to be confronted with some earth-shaking challenges. Present day-to-day chores are important, but we will really have an opportunity to prove ourselves when employment and home ownership become the least of our problems. The coming elections don't have a snowball's chance in Hell of saving Western civilization.
"Generation O" is just stupid. Liberals can name it whatever they like. We don't have to take their labels seriously.
Mar '11
Re: Disillusioned, Disappointed, Spoiled Brats
Somehow, in all the effort to see to it that everyone had a high level of self-esteem, everyone was a winner, and no child was left behind, the guidance councilors seem to have dropped the ball.
I can just hear mine from high school: "So, you're planning on a double major of Aggrieved Group Studies and Theoretical and Applied Navel-Gazing. An interesting choice, but just how do you see that translating into a paycheck?"
Back then, it wasn't just guidance councilors, of course. Parents, aunts, uncles, clergy, neighbors, random strangers -- everyone seemed to have an opinion, and everyone believed in sharing. That was a good thing too -- it kept me thinking about it until I arrived at something I liked and something I was good at that people would pay me for.
That said, the market stinks, and that makes the frustration worse. Hang in there!
Get off my lawn! :)
Jan '11
Re: Disillusioned, Disappointed, Spoiled Brats
Until the hundreds of OWS understand that the life one lives ultimately depends on how much effort they put into it, they will remain benighted. Politicians, some few well meaning, some greater number for selfish reasons, have literally taught these young people that lifestyle is not necessarily related to any effort they make in achieving it.
If the thought of entitlement was removed from OWS arguments, they'd all go home - where they live in comfort through the labor and generosity of someone other than themselves.
Oct '11
Re: Disillusioned, Disappointed, Spoiled Brats
Percival
Somehow, in all the effort to see to it that everyone had a high level of self-esteem, everyone was a winner, and no child was left behind, the guidance councilors seem to have dropped the ball.
No doubt. One of my much younger friends was complaining about the nerve - the nerve! - of her grandma asking her what she planned to do with her poetry degree. It's sorta like the football scene in Forrest Gump where he runs out of the stadium because no-one tells him he should stop. Hard work is necessary, but not sufficient in itself.
There's such a strong push to follow a credited career path. A good friend of mine just left his career in engineering to run the family farm. I'm glad he went to college, because I got to know him, but I wonder if he would have been better off just staying with his wife and making a life back home.
Percival
Get off my lawn! :) · Nov 10 at 7:06pm
Hey man, it's all cool, just playin' a little hackysack on the land you took from the Indians, daddio, can ya dig it?
Edited on Nov 10, 2011 at 7:32pmApr '11
Re: Disillusioned, Disappointed, Spoiled Brats
Louis CK's take on 20-year-olds and jobs. (Somewhat CoC non-compliant...it is Louis CK, after all! But Diane, be sure to watch it before you censor me--it's just awesome.)
Mar '11
Re: Disillusioned, Disappointed, Spoiled Brats
Thinking back on all the guidance I got, I remembered going to the Bookmobile with my mom. I was maybe 6 years old at this point, and Mr. Brown the Bookmobile driver seemed to have the ultimate job. He drove from place to place, parked, and sat reading books while people browsed, then checked them out when they were done.
"He probably doesn't make very much money" she observed.
This was my first intimation that one day the gravy train was going to end, and I had better get busy figuring out what I was really going to do with myself.
Apr '11
Re: Disillusioned, Disappointed, Spoiled Brats
Almost all "millennials" I've worked with have been insufferably huffish. They really believe credentials - from classroom work alone, mind you - entitle them to immense respect and deference. They believe that experience is a mentally crippling disadvantage. They offer stale but sweetly trite ideas, as though no one had ever thought of them before. They posses an unlimited belief in their own originality and brilliance.
The "millennials" are a generation unable to learn from others. They will learn for themselves the way the world works. It will be learned the hard way.
Jul '11
Re: Disillusioned, Disappointed, Spoiled Brats
The trouble is, its not just millennials who feel entitled. Its also boomers and every generation after. The refusal to call the boomers on their tomfoolery has caused their, historically unique, sense of entitlement to germinate and take root in every generation since.
Dec '10
Re: Disillusioned, Disappointed, Spoiled Brats
This dovetails nicely with an idea I'm kicking around about a bubble in the American dream much like there was a tech bubble, a housing bubble, etc. Perhaps the American dream was over hyped and over sold to those who could not afford it, and now even those who have done everything to earn it are finding the market for it in shambles. It's just a random thought, but there is some truth to the saying that not everyone gets to be a rocket scientist.
Apr '11
Re: Disillusioned, Disappointed, Spoiled Brats
I wish I agreed with you. Sadly, an involvement in radical politics can be well remunerated, and at least some of the organizers in this can look forward to comfortable, smug lives of relative ease.
With luck, we'll get a majority conservative enough, and for long enough, that we can see those people putting in the time for later quasi-governmental political jobs for NGOs see their bets fail to pay off. It's the only way to fix the terrible incentives that stop them from becoming hedge fund managers, or something else useful.
Apr '11
Re: Disillusioned, Disappointed, Spoiled Brats
The American Dream isn't always of you getting to live the good life, though. It's also John Adam's hope that through his hard work, his sons' life might be more civilized, and his grandsons' more civilized yet. It is arguable that there was a little false modesty going on there, but the point still holds, perhaps a little better for those ordinary men who are not Founding Fathers.