Millennials Fight Back

Author’s Note: I hate the term “Millennials”.  However, the term has become accepted and is in popular use, so I will use it here.  I much prefer “Generation Y”, but that’s probably because I like “Why?” puns.  In a perfect world, “Generation Y” would be ’80s children (ie, people in high school and college on 9/11) and “Millennials” would be ’90s children (ie, children who came of age after 9/11), but sadly, I do not – as of yet – run the world.

Everybody hates Millennials.  In a country polarized on every issue imaginable, it seems to be the one topic everyone can agree on.  Millenials are lazy, entitled, spoiled, tech-dependent, lazy, and unoriginal.  And lazy.  Hell, we might even bring down the NFL!

This week illustrator Matt Bors responded to the media onslaught with one of the most cogent defenses of our generation I have seen.  His illustrated editorial directly took on the stereotypes that others seem hell-bent on perpetuating and mocks the laziness of those who proclaim such stereotypes as if they’re unadulterated truths.

Mr. Bors went on NSFWCORP’s podcast “NSFW LIVE” to discuss the state of Millennials in the American psyche with the hosts Christopher Goscinski and Mark Ames.  The two Millennials – Goscinski and Bors – debate Gen X misanthrope Ames (said with love, of course; Ames is a remarkable person).  They manage to find a consensus in the idea that the Baby Boomers are to blame for everything.  It’s a fascinating discussion and worth sixty minutes of your time.

There are some interesting implications buried in this sentiment, though.  Everyone I’ve talked to who is not a Boomer agrees that the Boomers are to blame, so the conclusion was/is hardly surprising.  But at a deeper level, it’s a much more oedipal dynamic.  After all, the Boomers are our parents!  Within the struggle between the generations on the national/macro level, issues of parental control, teenage angst, youthful rebellion, and separation anxiety can clearly be seen.

Another interesting point that Ames and Bors touch on is that for all of the criticism about being tech-dependent and selfish, Millennials are using technology and their narcissism to make money.  To paraphrase the podcast, there are thousands (perhaps more?) of Millennials making real money off of things that aren’t real – apps, blogs, etc.  So by the “old” standards, Millennials might seem uninterested in wearing suits, driving cars, and working 9-5, but we are still entrepreneurial and in ways that have altered society to our preferences and likes.

So as the media and Baby Boomers dismiss Millennials, they might want to take notice that the tradewinds are headed in a distinctly different direction.

But you tell me.  Are Millennials spoiled narcissists in need of constant reassurance, victims of systematic Boomer selfishness permeating every sector of American culture, or a juggernaut taking over the world whether the world wants it or not?

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