Boy, Am I in a Mood

I've done quite a bit of reading about Millennials.  In fact, I used a whole slew of studies concerning Millennials while compiling my graduate capstone.  Ergo, I am an expert, and here's what I have to say about Millennials:

Stop pinning all your hopes and dreams for change on them.  I mean honestly.  Just stop.  Previous generations messed this up -- maybe they should fix it.  Because as far as I can tell, by the time the heart of the Millennial generation is old enough to run for office or hold positions of influence, we're all going to be buried under a mess of someone else's making.

Now I get it.  The point of the Internet is that we don't have to hold positions of power to change the system.  Well I'm calling bullshit. The website for Hais and Winograd's book "Millennial Makeover" has a link to a New York Times opinion piece by Timothy Egan.  In it, Egan outlines all the reasons young people, in particular, should be offended by the current political situation.  And I agree with him.  But what does he expect us to do?  Start a petition?  Tweet about it?

Now I'm not saying that my generation lacks ingenuity, that we don't care, or that we're lazy.  I don't believe we possess any of those qualities (at least not on the whole).  But what I am saying is that we're also a generation that grew up watching the shit-show that was America dealing with terrorists.  We grew up among racism in diverse communities, and we lived through school shootings and gang violence.  And you're honestly suggest that this is a generation whose eternal optimism is going to change the world?  I don't think so.

The authors of Millennial Makeover, and others who spout about the prolific powers of the Internet, are amazed at the volume of young voters who turned out to elect Obama.  They see this as a sign of things to come, as a representation of the fact that Millennials are smarter and wiser than generations before them, and that they want change and are willing to work to see it done.  But those who see the demographics of Obama's electoral turnout as game-changing are missing the main point.  Millennials showed up in record numbers to vote and volunteer because it was something they could do.  All of these studies about Millennials say that they are "open for change."  But being open for change is different than being willing to create that change.  Or, to get uber cynical, than being able to create that change.  The Democratic party provided Millennials with a candidate that young people could latch on to.  They believed that voting for Obama would make things better, so they canvassed neighborhoods and showed up on November 2nd to vote for him.  And now, a year and a half later, the world is standing by and asking "where are the Millennials?"  Well, they're where everyone else is -- sitting at home and watching the television and thinking, "God these people are assholes."

The Internet is a great tool, but that's all it is.  A tool.  And it won't change anything unless the masses are told how to use it.  And even then it's looking grim.  Anyone who's done a small bit of studying on oppression understands that the best way to oppress people is to divide them.  Get them arguing amongst themselves, and you distract them from the larger problems at hands.  And honestly, the Internet does more to polarize people than anything else.  So while Markos and all his buddies are complaining online about BP this or BP that, or pushing various articles out over their Twitter feeds, The White House continues about its daily business, pouring millions of gallons of hazardous chemicals (laced with carcinogens) into the gulf to lessen the public perception of the magnitude of the spill...without actually doing anything to solve the problem.

So do I believe that Millennials can change things?  On a good day.  Do I think they will?  Not as long as we keep electing assholes who don't want them to.  And yes, within that "we" I include the Millennials, who elected Obama but will probably do very little to hold him accountable.

And, full disclosure, I'm probably just in a bad mood because I just finished reading this depressing bit about the total governmental failures following the BP disaster.