The disillusioned generation. A rant.
Last edited Mon Dec 30, 2013, 10:37 AM - Edit history (1)
Ok so I need to preface this with saying this is a rant. I've been feeling particular low recently and have been thinking about some of this for a while. There is nothing new below, and it's rather darker seeming than perhaps it should, that's just cause it mirrors my own mood.
I'm 31. I belong to what I'm going to call the generation of the disillusioned. I'm using generation rather loosely here as the concept probably covers my generation and the one before it. I spoke of this in a PM to another DUer here but thought like posting a rant about it anyway.
Historically I'm sure you could trace the problem, like so much else, back to the great wars of the previous century. WW II ending with the amazing thrust of the 50s and 60s that saw the rise of the baby boomer generation. A generation that came along just in time to take full advantage of the new post war world. A world full of technological advances, rapid globalization and seemingly unbounded promise for the future. Certainly people lived in fear of "the mighty atom" but so to would this generation be the first where every family had a house, a car or two in the garage, new kitchen applicants for mom and new toys for little Johnny under the tree year after year. Incomes were on the rise, jobs plentiful, the future bright.
And so perhaps for the first time in human history a generation, my fathers generation, was raised in an environment where not only were the basic necessities of no issue, but a 40 hour work week, lots of leisure time, and the ability to follow ones passions were seen as a birthright. And indeed for this generation they were. My father was somewhat typical of the kids of his era, he went to university full of heady ideas of literature, philosophy and the arts. The concept that he needed to get a job, to raise a family, none of this even entered his head. He studied Chinese literature and later met my mother and traveled to china. When it came time to settle down and raise me it never occurred to him that what he had studied was impractical, had shoe horned him into a life of failure. Instead he shopped around at the local colleges and universities and despite never having any teaching experience lucked into a job teaching Chinese at a local college. Perhaps this is a rather eccentric example but the idea holds for so many of his generation, when the hippie party ended and people went looking for jobs many of them lucked into good jobs. Certainly not all of them were great or in a career of their choosing but by and large they didn't have a hard time of it. In this game of musical chairs when the psychedelic music of the 60s stopped playing by and large there were enough chairs for all.
When it came time for my parents generation to raise children of their own they did so with the same positive world view they had been raised in. Why not expect the party to continue? So I like many of my generation was raised with stories of the 60s and 70s and the overriding message of "go out and be who you want to be!". Find yourself. Study Latin as your father did if that's what you want. Study astronomy, philosophy. Enrich your mind because that's what's really important, when it comes time for you to settle down and find a job you too will find there to be enough seats. Little did they know that the decades of the 80s and 90s would see so many of their own generation greedily scooping up all the available seats at fire sale prices. When the reaganization of the world kicked into high gear some time in the mid 80s through the late 90s many of those in my generation were just reaching our post secondary years. And now what?
Now the message had gone from "be what you want to be" to "you better have a fucking plan!". Even those who had a plan suddenly found themselves in a world of sky rocketing tuition, and uncertain job prospects. Of those who would graduate many more found themselves saddled with a lifetime of debt. Debt equal to the lifetime savings of their parents generation. Screw a house, a car, presents under the tree, the American dream, an ideal we were raised to believe should be easily attainable, that dream now consists of staying ahead of debt payments. The music stopped playing a decade ago and we are scrambling for the few seats left. People with 4 year degrees, single moms with little education, teens just entering the work force are all vying for the same job flipping burgers. Companies see the length of the lines and know they can be picky. There was a time when even without a degree you could somewhat reasonably expect to find a job in your career of interest, even if it was pushing the mail cart around the office. So long as you were willing to work hard there were opportunities for advancement. From your job pushing the mail cart at least you could see the desk job that awaited in due course. Now you need a degree in mail cart pushing to get that job, and forget about advancement.
Of course I speak of those who have not given up. I know many of my generation turned to alcohol and drugs. In the 60s people took drugs to connect with their fellow peers "fighting the man", these days they take them to disconnect, to numb the world. Others developed severe depression and social phobias. Of course the 80s saw the shut down of mental institutions as well. Many lauded this as a positive move and by and large it was, but like so many institutions that were shut down or gobbled up in the crazy move to privatize everything, they were replaced by nothing, or something wholly inadequate. Those with mental issues like myself are no longer thought of as crazy people to be locked away, thank goodness. But the stigma of mental illness has gone nowhere and lacking the support structures that were in place before we find ourselves an invisible people. Lumped in with the rest struggling to find jobs, and make sense of a lonely world.
Never has the world been more polarized. The 1% have more than anyone could use in ten generations the bottom 50% have less than they ever have. The left feels powerless, the right fear we are coming to take their massive collection of guns. In the span of some three decades the system of economic checks and balances put in place in the preceding decades have been systematically removed, ushering in an era where single players on the stock market can trade in nations worth of currency, where deals are counted in the trillions, where irony of ironies the insurance on these huge deals, should anything go wrong, are the lives of the 99%.
Is it any wonder my generation feels disillusioned? Where is this going? Not since the depression has youth unemployment been this high. Sure the stock market has recovered, but was there ever really any doubt that would occur? Jobs have returned, but many of them are temporary, or those at the bottom of the market. Those with jobs understandably hold onto them like the precious gold they are. In Japan, of all places, there is a youth subculture composed of the unemployed young who sleep in McDonalds and internet cafés. Europe still has youth unemployment approaching 20% or higher in many places. I don't doubt the same is true in many pockets of the US.
So what is to become of all this. What happens when a generation of people grow up terribly disillusioned. Saddled with debt working just to make ends meat, or saddled with emotional problems. Or those who have given up on life entirely. One generation begets the next, what does the future hold? I'm not one to wallow in apocalyptic scenarios of the future, nor am I a conspiracy theorist. I don't believe for a second that there is no hope. But nor am I blind, we face some very large challenges and it's been a long time since the future has seemed so uncertain. Need we be reminded that the roots of past terrible global calamities were often rooted in troubles of the generation before?
Update: As several have pointed out my generation is by no means unique in having to face looming obstacles and unfair starting conditions. The Vietnam War, WW I &II, The Depression, all generated generations of the disillusioned and depressed. Most of them went through far worse horrors than anything my own generation has seen. So please know I mean no disrespect nor hold my generation in any special light. I merely speak from my own experiences and feelings.
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..... and well written post, I'd hardly call it a rant 
because I don't think there is much in the way of exaggeration in your words.
Things are bad, and sometimes I think a lot of Americans have taken to "whistling past the graveyard" lest it happen to them also.
I have been preparing for a possible serious breakdown in what we consider to be our inviolable right, normality, with food on the shelves, gas at the station and water from the tap, for many years. I do not talk to many friends/acquaintances about it because in the real world, just like on DU, most people believe everything will just limp along for a while and then improve.
I'm not so sure.
What is SUPPOSED to happen in America when thing go off the rails? Well, we are supposed to vote in better leaders who will right the ship. But IMHO that is no longer working for various reasons. We voted for the "progressive" president but he really isn't. We have a serious and pervasive system of gerrymandering (I thought that was illegal , "illegal", another quaint term) that gives one party an near impossible to shake chunk of the House. We have "voting rights" laws springing up everywhere whose sole purpose is to prevent the wrong people from having a vote at all. We have pervasive "surveillance" (possibly the most pernicious abuse of govt power possible) and police trained to ignore quaint notions like the Constitution when it comes to things like protests or civil disobedience of any kind.
IOW, the usual remedies for our situation have been systematically dismantled. Not by accident. So since where we are is no accident, one can reasonably assume that the train we are on has not yet reached its destination, and it is unlikely that it is going to reverse course on its own.
Is there any possible way to turn it around? There are signs that people are finally, in the wake of its abject failure to deliver, giving up on "trickle down"/deregulation, etc. But this is a very slow process with maybe only a few percent of the population catching on. Will enough catch on in time for the damage to be rolled back? I really don't know.
I wish I could offer a more optimistic assessment but it is what it is. You did not ask for advice and I hope you will not be offended if I offer some. Yes, your generation got a raw deal. It's not fair but to be fair there is a lot of unfairness going around right now, not all directed at your generation. Folks younger than you are getting screwed and so are many older boomers.
All that said all you can do is keep your head. Try to understand what is really happening and where we really are and what opportunities (there are always opportunities of some kind) are available and realistic for you to pursue.
If you do all that one could reasonably do, at least if things do not turn out as well as you'd hoped you will not have to blame yourself.
.... you have access to good medical care for your issues. I struggled with a "mental illness" for 20 years before being diagnosed and given meds that really help without negative effects.
Of course, my "illness" probably actually helped me in the workplace as hypomanic people are very energetic! But it was not fun for me or those around me so I am grateful to have a remedy.
Not being able to be a superman is not making an excuse. Only you know if you are doing the best you can, and if you are why be hard on yourself? Your best is your best.
As for your second paragraph, I agree 100%.
Not to pry but you mention hypomania specifically does this mean you have Bipolar II?
Healthcare cost is thankfully not a big issue as I live in Canada. Quality is another mater, I've seen several psychiatrists and may have found one that is, ok. I've been on the med roulette wheel and none of them has done more than flatten out my affect. They removed the top and bottom range of my emotional spectrum but did little to lift or motivate me. That said I have personal experience of others in whom meds have made all the difference! Time will tell, and yes I have a habit of being excruciatingly hard on myself no mater where the fault lies. 
I worry that a generation that knew RURAL..In Touch with Raking Leaves and doing Community Stuff has no contact any more with the REAL WORLD...in an Environmental Sense that many of us before had. It leads to Alienation from one's Natural Surroundings and Disenfranchisement..with anything outside of our TV/Cable/Internet/FaceBook, etc./Dominated world.
As you say: (although..CAVEAT...so many parents these days have NO TIME working TWO ...TREE JOBS...or dealing with "Lay Offs and Slow Downs" where one Parent has work the other is "out of job" and vice versa. These are times that are so hard for hope with folks struggling that PARENTS THESE DAYS...have so few ops to deal that it's truly a new phenomenon. So I could understand the angst of kids growing up these days in this kind of world...and wish it wasn't so for them.
And I don't think we can blame "Parents" who don't have time...because WHERE CAN THEY FIND THE TIME!" ...but, agree with you that those who DO HAVE THE TIME are not MENTORING as they SHOULD...Taking Responsibility. (I think of those Multi-Billionaire Wall St. "POS/Opportunists" as Prime Example of folks who let their kids RUN WILD given their PARENT's EXAMPLE! (Sorry for the "shout out for emphasis"
SNIP FROM YOUR POST:
[/i[Too many parents don't bother to parent these days, from what I see. You never see kids playing outside any more. Kids are becoming increasingly clueless about how to interact with other people, and this is reflected in our polarized politics.
DU is one of the rare places where we've managed to create a community. We need to find more ways to create the communities that will make it possible to have a better future for the 99%.
That's what the baby boomers are known as now. We're taking care of elderly parents and sometimes working two jobs to help out our children. It's a tough place to be, trust me.
I grew up in your parents' generation but not in the conditions you describe. My father worked 6 days a week, as did many fathers. There was one car, without a radio, that was parked on the street on the one day Dad was home. Families didn't have one or two children...this was the baby boom, so there were 5 and 6 kids in many households. Those poor mothers did not get much of a break from child rearing. Christmas presents? The only reason we got more than one present was because of our grandparents, bless their souls.
We grew up with horrible racism and sexism. Watch a few episodes of Mad Men. That show hits the nail on the head. As young girls with athletic potential, there were no sports for us. Title IX didn't come along until 1972. Can you imagine being a girl in those days, doing the President's Council for Physical Fitness tests in a dress (because wearing pants was forbidden)---running the Mile in penny loafers, a dress and full slip and still beating the guys? So what though, there was no use for a girl who could run fast.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that every generation has it's own challenges. I think the biggest challenge for your generation is the lack of jobs that pay a living wage. Also, the cost of higher education escalated far beyond many peoples' reach---that wasn't the case for me and your dad.
I don't believe it's a generational issue. It's more of a class warfare type of problem. The corporations have shipped our good jobs overseas. It affects your generation ($$$$ spent on education and no jobs available) and mine (forced to retire early with no health care, retirement funds decimated, and no jobs available).
We can use the disillusionment and work together to try to improve conditions for all of us.
Good luck.
In our childhood, both of our sets of grandparents lived in places without indoor sanitary. In rural areas that went on well into the 60's.
I love how you said this: "I think it's experiencing the dark that makes you value the light so much more."
From what I've read, the horrors of the First World War were so mind-boggling to people at the time (for good reason) that, supposedly, WW1 was the war to end all wars and the generation that grew up during WW1 were known as the Lost Generation .
You might want to do further reading about that generation. I know exactly what you're speaking of, because my son, who turns 18 next month, is facing the same challenges your generation is. He will undoubtedly have it rougher than me in many respects.
Take care of yourself in all ways, Locut0s. 
Resigned perhaps. Like Locut0s, I'm 31 (As of just a few days ago, in fact) and I look forward with the realization that pretty much everything is a steady downhill drop.
Once you come to understand this, that really, no matter what anyone does right now, we're in for a century of being beaten in the face with axe handles, it stops being a huge worry. Of course still strive for the best you can, just with the knowledge that your best isn't going to get the boulder back up the hill.
- Our political system is fucked. And the problem is, it was designed that way. Whether an unintended consequence (how our election system creates two big parties by default) or fully intentional (the glacial, almost reactionary pace of advancing change through constitutional channels) the whole thing was set up with the inevitibility that it would be what it is today. Which when you consider that it was penned by wealthy white slave-owners who were staging a bloody rebellion with consripts recruited under threat of arms in order to evade their taxes, makes a lot of sense.
- The culture itself is coming unglued. I'm not talking "culture war" bullshit, but the very concept of culture itself. Where everyone is a "self-centered self-made individual," there can be no community. Where 80% of media is consolidated into the hands of fifty people, there can be no free thought. we've had our attention spans whittled down to practically nothing, and our ideas of philosophy, humor, politics, irony, tragedy, are all basically encapsulated in a 22-minute episode of "Family Guy." Education is going down, with basic science and history constantly being beaten to death with hammers because two states full of dumbfucks control the book markets. And the internet, for all its potential and amazing content? For every would-be Carl Sagan posting material online, there's five hundred motherfuckers making deepak Chopra look legitimate. Our culture frowns on thought and dismisses community, we are essentially a tribe of apes united only by sniggering at cartoon dick jokes.
- if politics and culture are arid wastelands, well, maybe I shouldn't talk about the environment. When I was little, I saved a portion of my allowance to donate to the World Wide Fund for Nature. Every year for about five years, I'd pop a money order into the mail, because I thought it would help save tigers or something. And you know, maybe it did help. Do you know why there's not bigger news about the western black rhinoceros going extinct? I mean it really should be a big deal right, a seven-ton mammal just died out because a bunch of ignorant fucks think snorting the fingernail shit its horn is made of will give their peckers a boost. Bu it's not. Why? Because it doesn't fucking matter that this thing went extinct. The rhino is gone, so it certainly doesn't care, but what I mean is... it's just one species in a panoply of others just like it that are going to die out, because of what has been done to the environment. In the 70's and 80's, ecologists were concerned about the barred owl or the snail darter. In the 90's, they were worried about entire ecosystems. By 2005, they were worried about the planet being habitable, and now on the eve of 2014, it looks like they've pretty much just given the fuck up. Game over. I don't try to save tigers anymore because tigers don't fucking float.
This is my world, and I think I always knew this is what it was going to be.
Unlike locut0s, I absolutely blame previous generations. While perhaps some aspects of this shithole were unavoidable and others were just mistaken... Nobody alive today is ignorant. Nobody alive in 1974 was ignorant, it had all been laid out back then. And still the waste continued. Still the pillaging continued. Because, eh, fuck it, our kids will pick up the tab. Had no problem at all gutting everything between the cradle and retirement, but HOLY SHIT don't touch social security! 
Okay. Maybe a little helpless. And certainly a little angry. What I'm saying though is that once you understand that you will be inheriting a wasteland, no matter what, even if right now, everyone hit the brakes and started backpedaling as hard as they could... you come to accept it. A realization that hey, you'll figure out a way to make it work. Humanity goes on, even in the coming dark age.
I'm not a boomer.
I was a barely pre 'war baby' in August, 1941.
4 months before the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor.
I too am disillusioned.
It began with the 2000 'sElection'.
I watched TV, jaw-droppingly gobsmacked, while a right-wing partisan state government and a right-wing partisan U.S. supreme court chose our next president.
This is not the country I grew up in.
Not the one I studied in history classes.
This has become a country I don't recognize any more.
I volunteered to put my life on the line for this country for seven years.
And I was subject to recall to active duty for many years after my active service was over.
I would not now.
