The Kids Are Alright.

1. The Kids are alright.

You’ve heard it before, “What’s wrong with these kids?”. From criticism of music, clothing, attitudes, it’s an age-old complaint, and never ceases to amaze me. I will never forget when I purchased my first CD, Queens Greatest Hits. My Grandma looked at it, and without flinching said, “Oh your grandpa and I used get high listening to this, but remember Jimmy; Jesus hates faggots.”. Even at my young age, I knew something was inherently wrong with that statement. Yet Encapsulated in that statement is a great example of the hypocrisy of age.

My grandparents were free loving, dirty hippies; Bell bottoms, rock music, racing motorcycles, ban-the bra, and drugs, lots and lots of drugs. I was an infant during the crazy times, and by the time I started knowing what was going on around me they had been AA members, and born again evangelicals, speaking tongues and all that fun-stuff. In other words they went from down with ‘Nixon and the system’, to “Hey, have you heard the words of the new profit Glenn Beck?”. The experience of my grandparents is not all that unique.

When Jazz music first arrived on the scene, older people stated it would destroy music as we know it. Not to mention the provocative dance movements that was rotting the kids minds. Fast-forward, and those unkempt undisciplined kids turned out to be known as ‘The Greatest Generation’. Likewise, the same ‘older people’ that criticized Jazz music were the same that were confused by the riots that broke out during their listening of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring in Paris, or Richard Wagner in 1861. “Richard Wagner is an artist mom, you wouldn’t understand!” Every older generation has much to complain about with the newer generation. As Kurt Vonnegut would say, ‘So it goes’.

I often find myself bringing up these historical continuum to older people, when they get on a ‘damn these millennial kick. The retort to follow is always; “well now it’s different” :

Look at their hair! To which, I recount the flappers of the 20's criticized women, their hair short like a boy, scandal!

They have all these piercings! To which I retort, far from being new, piercings predate western civilization. Tattoos were criticized at first too, and now we often see those normalized. Often tattoos are worn by the very people criticizing piercings.

They hate America and have all these Socialist views, and keep saying how great Europe is. Response? Post World War II American Generals had to rebuild the fallen European countries, they chose to do so in America’s own image at the time. Those great socialist programs that Europe has, had their seeds planted by Americans best and brightest. America itself was bound to a glorious Socialist future as well, until McCarthyism and fear confused the American public that Socialism is Communism. Luckily for us, millennial are better educated and more civically engaged than the earlier generations. This means a millennial knows the different forms of government far more accurately. As a result, Socialism is increasing in popularity again in America, and can be made uniquely American. Socialism after all is; the post office, the police department, the military, social security, medicaid, and medicare. The fact is, we rely on Socialism all the time, and don’t even realize. As we have seen after school mass shootings the kids are organizing, becoming political, and demanding change. In Rhode Island the kids got together and sued the school for not teaching civics. These millennials are far more active and aware of the political situation and want to make a change, for the better.

Frankly, the problem isn’t the millennials, it’s everyone else! In the past you would work your plot of land, save as much money as possible and try to provide a decent life for your family. Then you would die, and leave the house, and your belongings and savings to your kids, and help them up a little, on the economic scale. Now days both parents are working, often in jobs they hate, leaving the kids to fend for themselves. Then as they age, they spend every dime they have to hospital bills trying to extend their lives, taking at a reverse mortgage and blowing through the savings. This means when they pass, they not only leave nothing, but instead, leave debt and bills of funeral expenses. Instead of giving the next generation a leg up, they pull them further and further down. My other set of grandparents often lament, “When I was 25 I had finished college, and used my savings as a down payment on a house, and we were pregnant with our second child. Kids now days can’t even get off their parents insurance until they are 26, and are still living at home.” In the 1960’s the purchasing power of a minimum wage job was about $16.80. Now minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and has been since 2009. Costs increased a mind-boggling amount (1960 law school was the equivalent of $3,419, and now is 36,000, in 2011 USD). So yes grandpa, you could get a minimum wage job back then, and it would pay not just a living wage, but the ability to save, and improve your life. In short millennials, your prosperity and future has been stolen, in measures by your parents, and grandparents, and they turn around and blame you for it.

Church attendance is down, the largest growing affiliation in the US is Atheism. Are these millennials heathens? First off, no kid ever wants to go to church. Wake up early on a Sunday morning to go sit and read the same book that’s thousands of years old is a tough sell. Most people tend to ‘find their way back to a church’ at an older age. That being said, I personally pass more churches than coffee shops, and I live in heathenistic Washington state. In addition, if you talk to most millennials they will tell you, while they may identify as atheistic, or agnostic, they consider themselves spiritual. Yea, I know that’s weird. However, most still pray, or believe in a higher power. I for one am happy to live in a time, where I am not forced to go to church every Sunday unless I want to. Instead of attending church these millennials are actually trying to work towards fixing poverty and violence. Most of the older generations would go to their church or synagogue, drop a few coins off for tithes, and not think another thing about religion, afterlife, or helping their fellow man. Back to the grindstone for earlier generations, and back to that job you hate, and not spending time with your family. Millennials have flipped this on it’s head. What if, instead of a job that I hate, but that gives me a lavish lifestyle, I instead find a job that is fulfilling, helps others, and makes the world a better place. That is the millennial way. NGO’s, and Not-for Profit Companies are booming right now. Millennials seek to make the world better for everyone, not just their country, and are willing to reduce their lifestyle expectations to do so. Sure, they may still dream of being fabulously wealthy, but even that, would look different to them. Gone would be the McMansion, replaced by an energy neutral home made from renewable sources, solar panels on the roof, ample land around the house to grow organic produce, a bee hive nearby to save the bees, and a rain water collection device to save water. No fleet of giant fossil fuel burning cars, but rather a Tesla or two and a classic car converted to electric. More importantly we hear what they would do with that money, how they could: “Help fund their old school to fix the dilapidated buildings”, another said “ start a nonprofit that would create affordable mass transit that serviced the poor communities and hire people that live in those communities”, or how they would “buy some of rain-forest to keep it from being clear cut”, or “buy solar panels for every house in the neighborhood”, one told me how they would like to “build a green homeless shelter, that trains the homeless into green technology jobs, because it is the fastest growing sector of the US economy.” The millennials are not driven Gordon Gekkos mantra of ‘Greed is Good’. In fact, they recognize that Greed is one of the seven deadly sins. Even in their fantasies of extravagant wealth, they put their families, communities, and needs of others above their own. When was the last time you came up with a day dream to help humanity?

So my ‘old’ friends, next time you see one of those dang kids doing something you don’t understand, and want to shake them and ask them to be more like you; take a moment to realize how lucky we are they aren’t like you. You have done enough damage, and the kids are here to clean up your mess. If that doesn't make you feel better, then take solace in the fact, that in 40-50 years they will be complaining about the next generation of kids as having terrible music, dressing inappropriately, and being disrespectful punks! Hypocrites.