We have not yet begun to shape the world: we are living in the one you created. And it’s killing us.

June 26, 2012 10:15 AM

Open Letter From A Millenial: Quit Telling Us We're Not Special. We know. (Previously)
posted by yellowbinder (46 comments total)

The entire "Boomer Vs Millenial" trope is an artificial conflict manufactured and carefully nurtured by the media.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:24 AM on June 26, 2012 [15 favorites]

I'm not quite this angry, but a lot of this rings true to me.

Mostly, I find it ironic whenever a boomer is incredulous that another generation might think itself entitled or 'special'.
posted by dinty_moore at 10:26 AM on June 26, 2012 [8 favorites]

And us Gen-Xers are sitting back and laughing at both of you.
posted by jonmc at 10:27 AM on June 26, 2012 [30 favorites]

You think you're so special that you deserve to not be told you're not special?

get off my lawn.
posted by Ironmouth at 10:27 AM on June 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

While in general I agree with the sentiment, the whole screed reads more like Blogger has Mommy and Daddy issues.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:27 AM on June 26, 2012 [8 favorites]

The entire "Boomer Vs Millenial" trope is an artificial conflict manufactured and carefully nurtured by the media.

And meanwhile the Gen-Xers just sort of shuffle off muttering, "never mind, you haven't listened to anything we've had to say since the 90's anyway...."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:27 AM on June 26, 2012 [7 favorites]

The entire "Boomer Vs Millenial" trope is an artificial conflict manufactured and carefully nurtured by the media.

Including this article. Who is this "we" and "you" of which the author speaks? Someone wants someone to stop telling someone that they're not special. Good grief.
posted by IvoShandor at 10:28 AM on June 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Want some cheese to go with that whine?
posted by doctor_negative at 10:28 AM on June 26, 2012

I find it difficult to imagine that an entire generation of people can be thought of a unified group with any more commonality than fellow animals from the Chinese zodiac. Surely comments like "If there is anything that defines our generation, it’s knowing exactly how miserably our lives have failed to satisfy you" are specific to particular parents and children and not universally true.
posted by Lame_username at 10:29 AM on June 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

I don't agree, KokuRyu, there are serious consequences to generational trends that are now becoming apparent. In short, young people today have been handed a world that was made cushy and cozy for the Boomers, who then strip-mined it of those comforts. I don't mean every single Boomer is responsible, but look at who's been in power and what they've done with it.

This:
You thought we were special because we were extensions of you.
You trained us to be the children you could brag about. Then, all of a sudden, everybody had one and we were no longer good enough, like outdated toys.
We were supposed to fulfill all your unrealized potential.
We were supposed to live your dreams.
though teetering on the edge of melodrama seems pretty accurate about how 20-somethings are experiencing the world.

As an Xer, I just shrug and mumble a "nevermind."
posted by Kitty Stardust at 10:29 AM on June 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

Bah. Jinx, Empress!
posted by Kitty Stardust at 10:30 AM on June 26, 2012

"YOU'RE TEARING ME APART!!!"
posted by Sys Rq at 10:30 AM on June 26, 2012 [5 favorites]

Listen, kids, you can stay on the lawn. In fact, I think I can pull some strings and get you guys some unpaid probationary internships with the lawn maintenance company!
posted by clockzero at 10:30 AM on June 26, 2012 [8 favorites]

The yawn is strong with this one.

sorry...that's all I got after trudging through that article.
posted by lampshade at 10:32 AM on June 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Remember when people had kids mainly because they needed free labor?
posted by jonmc at 10:32 AM on June 26, 2012 [3 favorites]

I despise these sort of generational cohort debates finger-point-a-paloozas, particularly the ideas that the fucked up state of the world at any time is the "responsibility" of the immediately prior generation, or its converse, that the current fucked up state is persisting because the current generation is lazy, coddled, self-absorbed, without "values", or what have you. Civilization isn't a goddamn Markov chain.

Disclaimer: I'm a (thin skinned?) late boomer.
posted by mondo dentro at 10:34 AM on June 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Someone just got told to get a job...
posted by Artw at 10:34 AM on June 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

This is one angry, bitter, individual.

I've got to wonder how long it took him to get permission from his cohort to speak for all of them... that had to be a huge task. (I bet he complained about THAT a lot too.)
posted by HuronBob at 10:35 AM on June 26, 2012

I'm a (thin skinned?) boomer.

Is there any other kind?
posted by entropicamericana at 10:35 AM on June 26, 2012 [5 favorites]

The weird thing is that we Gen-Xers grew up with Fred Rogers, who told us we were special day after day after day and we seemed to have turned out all right.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 10:38 AM on June 26, 2012 [7 favorites]

Civilization isn't a goddamn Markov chain.

What else is it?
posted by DU at 10:38 AM on June 26, 2012

Is there any other kind?

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU IMPLYING, BUDDY?!!
posted by mondo dentro at 10:38 AM on June 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

This isn't really worthy of an FPP*, but would make a great addition to the one about whether American kids are spoiled or not.

There was also a piece in the New Yorker today about how American kids are spoiled/entitled and if we'd just raise our kids like the French/natives in Peru, bootstraps bootstraps hard work
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 10:39 AM on June 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

The weird thing is that we Gen-Xers grew up with Fred Rogers, who told us we were special day after day after day and we seemed to have turned out all right.

You were the ones who made heroin and suicide cool, right?
posted by Sys Rq at 10:39 AM on June 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Things were so much better a generation ago when we had the Vietnam War to teach kids about their place in society.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:39 AM on June 26, 2012

eh, you know what? we really have fucked the current graduating classes. I mean, my generation didn't inherit the best job market in the world or anything (I'm 32) but these guys got positively shit on. There are too many college bound kids, no one's opening up new colleges, tuitions are sky high, student loans are both harder to get and harder to pay back, jobs are more scarce than they were when I was graduating, a degree means less, the list goes on and on.

if someone 10 years younger than me is screaming his or her head off pissed at what's been made for them, I can't exactly blame them.
posted by shmegegge at 10:41 AM on June 26, 2012 [8 favorites]

The weird thing is that we Gen-Xers grew up with Fred Rogers, who told us we were special day after day after day and we seemed to have turned out all right.

Yeah, maybe that was because we also learned early on that authority figures were there primarily to bullshit us.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 10:41 AM on June 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Meh. I'm a Millennial.

I see two issues here. One: I think there is total validity to the assertion that my generation is the "object" of someone else's subjectivity. We aren't in power but we are constantly labelled, meaning the prevailing definition of what it means to be part of this certain generational cohort is dictated by some other group. We are not the masters of our destiny because our parents are still running the show.

But on the other hand? This open letter is just whiny shlock. It smacks of what someone in a co-dependent relationship says. "I can't leave him! He won't let me!" If you don't like that someone has labelled you whiny and needy, it doesn't do a great deal of good to whine about needing a new label.
posted by jefficator at 10:41 AM on June 26, 2012 [4 favorites]

There was also a piece in the New Yorker today

that is the post to which the quoted comment refers
posted by elizardbits at 10:41 AM on June 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

I despise these sort of generational cohort debates finger-point-a-paloozas, particularly the ideas that the fucked up state of the world at any time is the "responsibility" of the immediately prior generation,

The average age of a senator is 60 (the oldest ever) and the average age of a member of the House is 55 (the oldest in more than a century).

-- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15348258/ns/politics/t/grayest-congress/

You keep telling yourself that, mondo dentro.
posted by Talez at 10:42 AM on June 26, 2012 [6 favorites]

Boomer vs. Millenial... really, I don't understand how this is NOT entirely artificial. My parents are Boomers, they got married the weekend of Woodstock. I'm 38, I have a kid in day care, not high school. Who the hell are these Millenials who are just now graduating who have Boomer parents? The answer is precious few, really. This is about the people who were 30-somethings about 20 years ago, the post-Boomers, the ones who are sandwiched in between the Boomers and people my age, the ones who spawned the vast majority of the kids graduating from high school right now (and really, I am on the tail end of this group myself - plenty of people I graduated with have kids at high-school age or thereabouts).

The only thing that can be really generalized here is that the people in charge of the country right now basically fucked it for ALL of us. You aren't special, Millenials. Gen X has been fucked harder and for longer than you, so suck it up and start helping us try to fix it already.
posted by caution live frogs at 10:42 AM on June 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

Who the hell are these Millenials who are just now graduating who have Boomer parents?

it's not that they have boomer parents. it's that boomers are currently in control of much of the government and workforce.
posted by shmegegge at 10:43 AM on June 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

This link would be much better as a comment in the original post. It is the same discussion, no? I suppose I'll just FIAMO ...
posted by mrgrimm at 10:44 AM on June 26, 2012

The bitter irony of the complaints about Millenials is that they have absolutely no power in our society - no jobs, and a potentially bleak future supporting an ageing population. And yet there is a constant stream of reports and essays complaining about how self-absorbed they are.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:46 AM on June 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

You keep telling yourself that, mondo dentro.

Isn't this age stratification always there. Isn't it a trivial consequence of the mere fact of aging?
posted by mondo dentro at 10:46 AM on June 26, 2012

So... Which generation was it that caught Prosperity Doctrine, bought as many houses and cars as possible despite lack of financial base, and fucked the economy? Because screw those guys.
posted by Artw at 10:46 AM on June 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

What is it with Generation X and their need to constantly shout about how they're Generation X and don't care?
posted by troika at 10:46 AM on June 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

The entire "Boomer Vs Millenial" trope is an artificial conflict manufactured and carefully nurtured by the media.

Re: Millenial is a sample of the commodity sub-type 'generation'. The problem is a superb marketing campaign drawing commodity types into conflict with each other to perpetuate 'creative destruction'.
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 10:46 AM on June 26, 2012

I grew up thinking I was all special sauce. But it turns out, special sauce is just diluted French dressing.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:47 AM on June 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

My parents are Boomers, they got married the weekend of Woodstock.

Most people don't get married before age 23. And especially not before age 6.

"A baby boomer is a person who was born during the demographic Post-World War II baby boom between the years 1946 and 1964"
posted by Sys Rq at 10:48 AM on June 26, 2012

Hi. I'm a "millenial", I guess. I'm 26 - my parents were both born at the "tail end" of the boom, but my parents are actually considerably younger than a lot of my peers', so there's a considerably cohort of people out there who are in their 20s but have parents born in the 50s.
posted by JoeBlubaugh at 10:49 AM on June 26, 2012

the whole screed reads more like Blogger has Mommy and Daddy issues.

No kidding. Take a look at the rest of the blog. The entire premise is the author's revolt against what she labels the "Christian Patriarchy Movement," though if this is any sort of indication, she's yelling mostly about the Quiverfull people, which Wikipedia estimates number in the thousands. So to say there's "Mommy and Daddy issues" would be putting it mildly.

Thing is, I know a lot of homeschooling families--I was homeschooled myself--and lemme tell you, the Quiverfull people are considered weirdos even by most homeschooling families. It's a fringe movement of a fringe movement. So calling it the "Christian Patriarchy Movement" dignifies what is really not all that big of a deal, culturally speaking. It can certainly seem that way if you're raised in that community, but the fact is that it's a remarkably small community. Wikipedia estimates that there are "several thousand" people that identify with the movement. The Department of Education estimates that there were around 1.5 million homeschooled students in 2007, up from 850,000 in 1999, which ought to put things in some perspective.

I saw similar sorts of things with some colleagues of mine from graduate school who went to Bob Jones University for undergrad. They were increasingly upset about their experiences and the school administration, but they mostly came to realize that there's just so much more going on out there that what BJU in particular and ultra-fundamentalist Baptists in general do with themselves isn't actually that big of a deal. Making just a few, very minor changes can take one light years from there, metaphorically speaking, while not even leaving the realm of conservative Christianity.

So if I were to say anything to the author of this particular post/blog, it'd be this: yes, we know you had a terrible experience growing up. We get that. But seriously, woman, get beyond yourself. What you experienced is not the sum of human experience, or even American experience, or heck, even conservative Evangelical Christian experience. Recognizing that your family was weird and growing beyond it seems a lot healthier than fixating on your particular community tradition as the Root of All That Is Wrong With America. One would think that going to college and enrolling in a Ph.D. program would have brought some sort of perspective about that, but apparently not.
posted by valkyryn at 10:50 AM on June 26, 2012

The weird thing is that we Gen-Xers grew up with Fred Rogers, who told us we were special day after day after day and we seemed to have turned out all right.

You were the ones who made heroin and suicide cool, right?

Yeah. We also took an old DARPA experiment used primarily by academics and turned it into the Internet.

You're welcome.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 10:50 AM on June 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

The only thing that can be really generalized here is that the people in charge of the country right now basically fucked it for ALL of us.

Ummm, no. It's taken generations to fuck things up. If you're looking for a starting point, I'd go back to 1968 and the election of Richard Nixon, or perhaps four years later, when he was RE-ELECTED WINNING 48 OF 50 STATES (or was it 49?). In 1972, I turned 13. I am classified as a baby boomer. Please explain what I could've done differently.

Oh, and by the time I graduated University, guess what? Worst economy since WW2. In fact, some stats (unemployment rates etc) are worse for then than they are now. Though there has apparently been a change in how such rates are calculated.
posted by philip-random at 10:51 AM on June 26, 2012

erm - "considerable cohort"

Also, I have yet to meet a millenial who worries all the time about whether we're special or not. This seems to be a preoccupation of older people who worry that we're not working hard enough or suffering enough for their liking. We really just want to get on with the lives we want to live, and we don't understand why y'all are still worrying about whether we should let a transwoman identify however they like.
posted by JoeBlubaugh at 10:52 AM on June 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

Yeah, maybe that was because we also learned early on that authority figures were there primarily to bullshit us.

Every generation figures that out, even the Millenials.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 10:52 AM on June 26, 2012