The Millennials: A Generation Of Losers

Did you still have hope that the current crop of 20-somethings would be able to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and figure out a way to pull themselves out of the muddled morass their lives have become, and somehow contribute to society in the process?

Well, this piece in New York magazine will put paid to that fantasy.  Noreen Malone's essay, "The Kids Are Actually Sort Of Alright" was written as a defense of the "Millennials", instead, it comes off as a lettered version of the inanity of the #OWS crowd, exposing the mental weakness and literal lack of smarts of this new crop of Americans.

Some illustrative excerpts - first and foremost, blame your parents:

Our generation is the product of two long-term social experiments conducted by our parents. The first sought to create little hyperachievers encouraged to explore our interests and talents, so long as that could be spun for maximum effect on a college application.

In the second experiment, which was a reaction to their own distant moms and dads, our parents tried to see how much self-confidence they could pack into us...

...Since we are not in fact all perfect, this means that the endless praise we got growing up, win or lose, must have really sunk in. (Meanwhile, it’s this characteristic that our parents’ generation—which instilled it in us!—so delights in interpreting as “entitled.”)

Got that? The Millennials are blameless for their woes, their faults lie within their parent's faults, and the kids are heroic simply for being able to cope with their defective psyches.

Ooooooh....I am so impressed by your bravery! Not enough to hire you, though...

What follows are tales of self-pity from people who are simply not smart enough to realize how lucky they are.  Such as...

Lael, who is 27, was the valedictorian of her high school and did very well in college too. Unable to find a position that paid a decent wage using her En­glish degree, she got a master’s at the University of Michigan in environmental studies. She does technically have a job, for now, filling in for a woman on maternity leave at a D.C. nonprofit, but it’s not one that prevents all her go-getting from seeming for naught.

English degree?  Environmental studies?  What kind of productive job, outside of a teaching gig, could Lael have expected?  Or does she believe that society owes her a job that matches her, ahem, skills, even though they contribute very little - if any - productive value?

And they blame their parents for labeling them "entitled"...and for their own unfeeling nihilism:

Our generation tends to prefer our dystopian news ­delivered with the impish smile of a Jon Stewart. Reared to sponge up positive reinforcement that requires only a positive attitude as a buy-in, we are just not that into anger.

I spent the summer listening to Helplessness Blues, an album by Fleet Foxes....


Time to stop hating your parents, and time to stop with the defeatist existentialism? Nah:

Making stuff is what got us smiles from our parents and top billing in refrigerator art galleries. And since we are, as a generation, more addicted to positive reinforcement than any before us...we have returned to our stuff-making ways, via pursuits easily mocked: the modern-day pickling, the obsessive Etsying, the flower-arranging classes, the knitting resurgence, the Kickstarter funds for art projects of no potential commercial value. The millions upon millions who upload footage of themselves singing or dancing or talking about the news to YouTube.

Who, us? Self abosrbed?

Empty, pathetic attempts at accomplishment, with only transitory pleasure will only lead to more existential despair. Which, I am sure, will be the fault of her parents.
Maybe Noreen could, you know, actually...make stuff?  Real stuff? Maybe creating something with an actual worth to society - something that people need or want or don't even know they need but will become a must-have once you "make" it? And if the limits of your generation really is "flower arrangement", is there any reason why you shouldn't be where you are right now - catatonic in an emotional closet?

This piece concludes by taking liberalism's favorite anti-American trope and making it a watchword for their empty, pathetic lives:

Another phrase I now can’t get out of my head is “managed decline.”...that’s what we’re doing when we decide that we can be okay with having more unpredictable careers and more modest lifestyles, if that’s what’s in store: Even as we hold out hope that something will reverse the trajectory, we are managing our decline, we are making do.

Noreen, you ignorant slut - there is no shame in an unpredictable career and a more modest lifestyle, if you are surviving in tough times. That's not "decline"; it is something to be praised, and to find pride in. The fact you see it as shameful, as a "decline", speaks volumes to the moral vacuum of  both yourself and your sorry peers.

A Millennial, managing her decline.  It's expressed in her body art, stupid!

 What a generational wasteland. And rather than do something about it, they'd prefer to give up. Which is why they won't ever get my sympathy - or my help, unless they earn it.

Earn it - is that even a phrase "the kids" can comprehend? And the fact I even have to ask...