Are young people in the workplace different today than in the 60's?

[kentuck]

I see a lot of young people, very smart and energetic, in my workplace, so my impressions may be different from many others. But, they never question authority. Many are gung-ho to get the suck-up jobs. They are very competitive but they never seem to question company policies or work conditions or pay in the same manner that young people did when I was their age?? It's difficult to describe, but am I sensing something is missing with these young folks? Are they as fearful for their jobs as some of the older employees - for healthcare reasons or whatever?? Shouldn't there be some degree of rebellion of revolution in their souls...somewhere?

[Maple]

1. The idea that

young people are naturally rebels is a very recent one. And while it's been popularized over the years, it doesn't necessarily reflect reality.

[Wilber_Stool]

2. I remember getting a job in the 60s.

If you didn't like it, you went out and got one you did. Now, your lucky to have the one you've got.
That's why young people don't demonstrate much any more. In the 60s, you wouldn't lose your job if you were gone a couple of days. Or in jail. Today, you're out on your ass.

[rockedthevoteinMA]

3. Many that I know don't have the time. Many of us are working

50+ hours a week. x( thanks to pretzeldent. It frustrates me, I'm in college right now, in Massachusetts - kids seem so apathetic, I want to tear my hair out. But the professors seem to try and inspire some individual thought... you can see it in some of them. I think the indoctrination from the freaking TEEVEE is too much ...

[kentuck]

4. The kids seem so smart...

But it's like they just accept everything that is thrown at them. Hey, that's the way it is....nothing we can do about it. Maybe they are right?

[rockedthevoteinMA]

7. Yeah, I can see that in some of them, but at the same time, this

is the "War on Terror" crowd, many of them were only 15 when 9/11 happened. So maybe that has something to do with it. It's almost as if they have learned not to question reality.

I really believe we can change things. Maybe not improve them like all the protests and movements did in the sixties, but we can affect change. I try to stay positive.

I think a huge factor these days is everything is so individualistic (cell phones, the net, video games, they all seem to have their own cars, latest fashions, etc.), that no one really interacts like they did
back then. :( I think if there were a draft (I shudder to think about that, and every time older folks bring it up I get upset because so many in my generation will have to die for this idiot's illegal wars) it would wake everyone up... I don't know what will do it, but I see it slowly happening.

That's just my two cents.

[sandnsea]

8. I have two like that

Sort of. They aren't as combative as I am about every little thing. I'll get pissed off over 2 cents at the grocery store. They don't care. BUT they also made sure every one of their friends was registered to vote and they are much more left leaning then my older one. He's more radical, but he's also more libertarian. So the good news is, they're hard workers with heart. I think they're going to be a great generation, when they find their voice.

[kodi]

5. for today's youth, the future ain't what it used to be.

the chasm called the '60s separated a world of white, male dominated culture from one where there were going to be boundless rainbow horizons. well by 2000, we had reached or seen the limits of those horizons.

i have been re-reading oswald spengler's "decline of the west" this week and taking from spengler, what i see is an american civilization in decline.

we are now entering the real closing of the west on the american pysche where our national mythological beliefs are bumping into reality.

does anyone think the american people are still prepared to hear and willing to embrace through sacrifice and through action the spirit of the words spoken by John F. Kennedy, “a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"—a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.”

we no longer have that optimism. we no longer dream of a better world made by our own bare hands.

[spooky3]

6. I think there's less of a generation gap than there once was.

Many of them are close to their parents. I think this influences them to feel less need to rebel or bring about a new reality that some of us felt.

[hector459]

9. Yes, they are a hell of a lot dumber.

eom