Millennial Rage: Have Our Parents Ruined Our Chances At Success?

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"It's A Man's World" is a column on anything and everything related to the modern man,by Ian Lang. If there are any topics you'd like to see addressed here, sendthem to us at editorial@askmen.com, orlet us know in the comments section.There’s aquiet but growing rift in America that’s affecting us all. I’m talking aboutthe divide between Baby Boomers and Millennials, specifically the Boomers’ ability(and apparent desire) to use their influence to continue to tip societal scales in theirfavor despite their ever-eroding relevance. In a world with decidedly finite resources,the Boomers steadfastly (and selfishly) exploit laws and societal norms to theiradvantage, and when they can’t, they use their power to create new ones. As membersof mygeneration continue to struggle to reach “real” adulthood (bill-paying,job-holding adulthood), the issue is only going to grow in significance.First,a quick history lesson: In their seminal 1991 book Generations, historiansWilliam Strauss and Neil Howe characterize Baby Boomers asindividuals born in the postwar years between 1946 and 1964 (apparently winning wars makeschicks want to do it). They were the beneficiaries of the high-flying economic times thatfollowed WWII, and they can be real assholes. They tend to think of themselves as aspecial generation, very different from those that preceded them. To their credit, manyforward-thinking marketers treated them as such because of their immense numbers, and as aresult Baby Boomers have been a coveted marketing demographic since the day they poppedout of their mothers’ hoo-has holding a Jack Kerouac book in one hand and bustickets to Canada in the other.Millennials, meanwhile, are the children of theBaby Boomers (and probably some Gen X-ers who didn’t understand prophylactics) bornbetween 1982 and 2000. We’re also sometimes referred to as the “SexiestGeneration” (citation needed). We are the beneficiaries of our Boomer parents’affluence, and we can be real assholes. Because rebelling against the ideologies of ourparents was something that our parents would have done, the Millennial generation issometimes described as having “moved beyond” the ideological battles thatspawned our parents’ counterculture movement. We reject our parents’attitudes, but we also enjoy the same books and movies they do. We’re just, like,so over the whole rebellion thing.So, that’s part of theproblem -- we’re not all that different. It’s not surprising, because when twoentitled, nonconformist assholes exchange genetic contact info, the result is more oftenthan not going to be a different flavor of entitled, nonconformist asshole. But there arealso some key differences. In Generations, Strauss and Howe stratify eachgeneration into one of four cyclical categories. A sample:Prophet/Idealist

A Prophet (or Idealist) generation is born during aHigh, spends its rising adult years during an Awakening, spends midlife during anUnraveling, and spends old age in a Crisis. Prophetic leaders have been cerebral andprincipled, summoners of human sacrifice, wagers of righteous wars. Early in life, few sawcombat in uniform; late in life, most come to be revered as much for their words as fortheir deeds. Hero/Civic

A Hero (or Civic) generation is born during anUnraveling, spends its rising adult years during a Crisis, spends midlife during a High,and spends old age in an Awakening. Heroic leaders are considered to have been vigorousand rational institution-builders, busy and competent in old age. All of them enteringmidlife were aggressive advocates of technological progress, economic prosperity, socialharmony, and public optimism.Sound familiar? Those are the twotypes that Strauss and Howe attribute to the Boomers and Millennials (respectively), andthey seem awfully accurate to me. Obama was elected in large part due to the outpouring ofsupport from my generation, and his campaign rhetoric could pretty easily be boiled downto that last sentence.The whole crux of the issue is the notion of crisis.Millennials are trying to gain a foothold in the midst of it, and the Boomers are facingthe reality that your golden years aren’t so golden when a 401(k) that was oncefatter than a Christmas goose (do people even still eat goose?) is now only worth a fewshopping sprees at the dollar store. The resulting friction is due to the factthat the two groups’ respective priorities, and the policies that reflect them, aretotally different. Boomers want the government to subsidize their medical care because itturns out getting old is bad for your health. Millennials would rather use that money tobuy a bunch of overpriced organic food so they don’t get sick in the first place.Boomers built a corporate culture that demands patience, hard work andloyalty, which is convenient because it means no amount of brainpower and technologicalknow-how will allow the Millennials to swoop in and render them obsolete. On the otherhand, Millennials want a system that rewards curiosity and force of intellect, as well asone that indulges our shorter attention spans and allows us to constantly try newthings.Where do I stand? Glad you asked. (I know you didn’t, but humorme, you dickhead. Also, stop having conversations with online magazine articles.) Despitemy aversion to progress and anything that eschews buttons for touchscreens, I have to sidewith my contemporaries on this one. If nothing else, we have power in numbers (as provedby the last presidential election). My mutant ability to reproduce asexually aside, ourpopulation has grown, meaning that every two Baby Boomers have produced a few Millennialsof their own. What I’m saying is, there is a metric sh*tload of us. We might nothave financial control yet, but if history as viewed by Strauss and Howe is anyindication, the next 10-20 years are going to be very good to us. Our parents exploitedevery advantage they had to make a prosperous life for themselves and their children.It’s only natural that we find a way to do the same. We should probably start withsome clever email chains, as the Boomers absolutely love that sh*t.Hey, Baby Boomers, turn up your hearing aids, because we’re coming. But also, doyou guys mind if I move back home for a while, just until I land on my feet? I got laidoff. You know how things are in this economy.Help make Ian Twitter famousat @TheIanLang. Continue Reading

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