Bashing Millennials

Bashing Millennials seems to be a growing sport. I think bashing the next generations is a long time honored tradition. So it is nothing new. Is it deserved? How is such behavior helpful? Can we do better?

I'm a Gen Xer. What in the hell did we do other than become good, well behaved, consumers and watch the world burn via CNN? We did not create the current mess we find ourselves in. No, we made it worse with our demand for monster SUV's, fresh meat, High Fructose Corn Syrup and opioids. I'm sure somewhere along the way we did a few useful things. We did give the world Beavis and Butt-Head, perhaps the finest cinema ever produced. We did NOT survive the Great Depression, storm the Normandy Beaches or even fight for Civil Rights like those before us. Nah, we got into internet porn. Given our track record, we should spend a little less time bashing the next generation we are passing this shit show on to.

No the kids are not perfect, endlessly staring into the glow of an electronic screen large or small, ordering food online for delivery because going out is... well hard. And going into six figures of debit to study theater may not be the smartest thing. But they do get some stuff right.

I think they are much better Hell raisers than we ever were. Occupy managed to at least change the conversation from debit and austerity to the 1% and gross income inequality. I think rather than failing it morphed into new movements. Black Lives Matter is still going strong and depends on young people. And then there is March for Our Lives. Kids are growing tired of being shot to death just for going to school. While my generation was day dreaming of Hummers back in the day, youth now are starting stuff like Zero Hour fighting for climate justice.  There are more good things going on with Millennials. Just look around.  

So to all of us older types, maybe stop bashing and jump in and help? Oh and if you are fortunate enough to grow old, these will be the people taking care of you. Have we done enough to earn care in our old age? No. But it is not too late. We are in this together. So give the kids a little applause and guidance (if they ask for it). It seems to me they are doing a good job of leading the way.        

                

American Language of Conflict, Violence and Discord

George Carlin

My favorite comedian, George Carlin, once said, "...The words you use say a lot about you." The language that permeates out culture is full of conflict, violence and discord. I think we have always been this way but it has gone off the rails in the last few decades. One of George's bits is when we don't like something we declare war on it:
The War on drugs.
The War on poverty.
The War on obesity.
The War on AIDS.
The War on cancer.
The War on terror. 
...and on an on.
Now, we have a war on facts and a war on reality itself. This does not sound like the language of a peace loving people. Even in sports we find similar war like language.

Teams don't play each other. They go to war, battle and fight! Some of this is to  build TV ratings, sure. But it is normal language. It even shows up in golf. "Tiger and Rory dual in tie breaker!" Football is all about war as George explains here (along with a little on baseball). The language filters down to the high school level if not lower. Acts of sportsmanship are an anomaly in the age of me me me all the time.

We talk about business and economics in the same way. Competition, trade wars, know your enemy, court / legal battles, tactics and strategy. It too filters all the way down from nation-states to coworkers. My coworkers (teammates?) are also my closest competition. As an old friend told me in regards to to the workplace long ago, "...trust no one." The workplace can truly be a jungle. If you a part of a sales force, you know this. Who's on top, who's on the bottom? It all too often feels we are on our own, me versus the world. If I'm lucky, I have "job security." This seems to be getting worse with time. Don't look to politics for answers. Here the language of conflict, violence and discord knows no bounds.

It is now a daily occurrence that our reality denying president insults, lashes out, trades barbs with, dehumanizes and tears down another world leader or group. That's what we get when a so called "TV Reality Star" is allowed to become president. He lost the popular vote. But that's another story. Our two political parties who have too much in common have long ago gave up on serving the people and working together to solve actual problems. Now it is much more like a TV reality /game show than a legislative body doing the work of the people. Insults, finger pointing and entrenched gridlock keep hardly anything (except what the corporate masters want) from getting done.                  

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These are not "bloodless" wars. Consider all the chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in football and premature deaths. Now, I'm not sure anyone has died from golf yet. But I hope it gets the point across about language. Business in a capitalist system must have casualties in the form of poverty and spiraling uncertainty. In politics, language can not only lead to physical war but outright genocide as well. The words we choose to use say a lot about us, indeed.   
       

Stateless

A Quick RANT 

So 45 likes to run his mouth about people born on US soil who's parents are not citizens also not being citizens. Yet another example of his utter clueless understanding of the world the rest of us live in. We have enough problems without adding yet another class of untouchables. Hello, they are not citizens anywhere else either. So what are they to do, other than politely die at no cost to the rest of us? I know it is just an appeal to his more xenophobic base, but Jesus!