I just came back from a fantastic wedding...full of Gen Y's. Practical. Low budget. Low tech. The bride did all her own decorations; a friend provided and cooked some burgers from his family farm...most had good relationships with their parents...and hey, we all feel quirky and special (and let me tell you, the sense that you are special and have a unique destiny is TOTALLY a trait endemic to my generation, as opposed to human nature in general).
So what is interesting is that the article speaks of "job security" as if it were an equation based on inputs of hard work, practicality, and the willingness to embrace some drudgery...interestingly absent was any discussion of how the global events of the last twenty years (the rise of the WTO, structural adjustment programs, international free trade agreements which fostered an era of globalization and outsourcing) means that hard work and practicality just aren't really enough...not in a context of 8%+ unemployment...not in a context when a greater and greater percentage of the jobs available are low wage, part-time service sector jobs with no benefits or career path in sight.
Also interestingly absent was our dawning awareness that many of those "practical" jobs...the ones that keep our economy moving, the ones that do the grunt work of providing us with large amounts of stuff on a day to day basis are, um, KILLING THE PLANET AND LEAVING BILLIONS OF PEOPLE DEPRIVED AND ENSLAVED IN ORDER TO POWER AN ECONOMY BASED ON EXTRACTION, PRODUCTION, AND WASTE AT AN UNPRECEDENTED AND UNSUSTAINABLE LEVEL WTF?????...which in an era of endless communications, we have kind of started to notice.
Now, given that our parents were somewhere encircling the 60's, we have no delusions that we invented that "hey get me off this train" wheel...nor do we think that figuring out some way to, oh, I don't know, make sure we eat every day without ultimately destroying the future of the children we're not sure we should have, will be easy. But we have good friends, we have good relationships, and we have modest hopes for our futures (like, statistically speaking we don't really want a car or a big house...just community). And holy crap, are we resourceful (you should have SEEN the decorations at this wedding, man! And the food! And we all just kind of pitched in to make it happen!)!!!
And as it happens, at least within my friend group, we are all extraordinarily happy to see others' successes, and doing our best to be supportive with one another's struggles (which as it happens, do make it to the social media world quite often). So when my friends traveled the country selling art on their veggie-oil bus, I loved reading their updates. When my friend got a job doing outdoor therapy for the mentally ill in Vermont, I was thrilled to hear of her success. When I got a little gig after two months of intense struggle doing communications coordination and event planning for a nonprofit focusing on local agriculture, my friends were happy for me. We're all building this world together, and jealousy just isn't a factor.
It isn't that we think we're special. It's that the world in which we exist is seriously disturbed...and we just don't see any reason to keep that going.
--signed, a perfectly content Gen Y GYPSY.
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