Posted on 04/25/2007 4:18:43 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
Some seem to think so, but media's glare can distort
"The Millennial Generation has every right to be the Melancholy Generation." -- from USA Today. Is it more difficult to be a 21-year-old American in 2007 than it was in 1987, or 1967, or 1947? Has today's college senior witnessed more defining tragedies than her parents and grandparents?
Doubtful. Every new generation has to cope with tragedies and wars, natural disasters and senseless violence.
But a USA Today article wonders if the the so-called "Millennial Generation," i.e., "those born since the early 80s," has faced an especially rough road.
"[T]he signposts on this generation's road to maturity have been a somber directory of tragedy shared," say the co-authors of the article.
"The Oklahoma City bombing. Columbine. September 11. The space shuttle disasters. Hurricane Katrina. And now Virginia Tech."
The article quotes the author of the book Parenting the Millennial Generation: "They've seen the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, the worst natural disaster in U.S. history and the worst mass killing ever. . . . They have a more realistic view of the world than previous generations."
Right. As opposed to those happy-go-lucky 19-year-old soldiers who fought in World War II, or those blissfully ignorant twentysomethings who tried to feed their families during the Great Depression.
The Tumultuous Generation A respectful correction. The horrific massacre at Virginia Tech was the worst mass murder shooting, but not the worst mass murder ever. (The Oklahoma City bombing claimed more than five times as many victims.) Nor was it the worst mass murder at a school. In 1927, Andrew Kehoe killed 45 and injured 58 when he blew up a school in Bath Township, Mich. That said, it would be obscene to minimize such seminal events as 9/11 and Katrina and the Virginia Tech shootings. There's no disputing that today's 21-year-old has been witness to far too many historically significant tragedies.
But say you turned 21 in 1977. Just some of the events that would have defined your life experience:
The Bay of Pigs. Racial hate crimes during the civil rights struggle. The Vietnam War. The assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Charles Whitman killing 15 and wounding 31 at the University of Texas. The Apollo 1 astronauts. Charles Manson. The Zodiac killer. Kent State. The resignation of President Nixon.
Tumultuous times then, tumultuous times now.
A whole new (media) world In the 1970 rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar," Judas wonders: Now why you'd choose such a backward time and such a strange land?
If you'd come today you could have reached a whole nation
Israel in 4 B.C. had no mass communication . . .
Of course, what passed for "mass communication" in 1970 seems Paleozoic by today's standards. Watch movies from 35 years ago and you see people in phone booths, watching snowy TV, sending telegrams, writing letters, and you think: How did they ever get anything done?
USA Today notes this is the first generation that "endure[s] repeated mass catastrophes in the harsh, inescapable glare of a 24/7 media environment."
In 1963, Walter Cronkite told a nation the president was dead. In 2007, we saw cell phone video and almost-instant MySpace postings about the Virginia Tech shootings, as the news channels provided saturation coverage. Whether it's a national story like Virginia Tech or a local tragedy such as Jessica Savin, MySpace and Facebook often offer instant glimpses into the lives of victims. (There are two "Rest In Peace Jessica Savin" groups on Facebook, with dozens of candid photos and messages from friends.)
If the technology had existed, Zapruder would have been on YouTube by mid-afternoon on Nov. 22, 1963.
I'm not slamming the USA Today article. In fact, it makes the argument that the Millennial Generation COULD be the Melancholy Generation -- but it's not. The twentysomethings quoted in the piece refuse to let the world frighten them.
"I don't see what good it would do to just live in fear," says a 21-year-old senior.
"[Shared tragedies] shock us into a sense of community," observes another.
The world probably isn't any scarier in 2007 than it was in 1977 or 1937. We just have a lot more ways of holding up a mirror to ourselves.
mailto:rroeper@suntimes.com
Hard to believe I just read that. The Millennial generation is the most spoiled and pampered generation to have ever walked the face of the earth. To a fault they are pampered. The biggest challenge parents of this generation have is to get these kids to understand the effort it takes to live this life of veritable luxury.
One thing though - whether by design or incompetence I cannot say - it seems apparent that todays 24/7 “bad news, all the time” news reporting coupled with disfunctional education system, parents, et. al, produces a neurotic populace fairly predictably.
Have you ever noticed how trees up close appear taller than trees far away?
This just sounds like the person took a bunch of events and put them all together to say nothing.
I am going to have to put my Fred Thompson Prediction tag-line on hiatus, in favor of the one below...
No Doubt!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1937
From WWII looming, to FDR’s ‘New Deal’ I’d say ‘77 was much better!
Oh my God, and don't forget that Mary Kate still has eating issues. How can Ashley possibly cope? :^(
Really? I grew up in the '50s.
I remember air raid drills in school. Volunteers standing on building roofs with binoculars looking for Russian bombers.
Outbreaks of polio every summer. If you complained of a sore neck your parents turned white with fear.
In the early '60s I hit the job market at 19, married. I couldn't get a decent job because I hadn't fulfilled my military obligation. Yes there was a Draft and employers didn't want to train you only to have you drafted.
Granted, social life was much easier. Why?
criminals were incarcerated with long prison sentences and little parole. Gangs were few.
The police could 'stop and frisk' you.
There were loitering laws.
IMHO that is the biggest single reason for the rise of gangs. That and Miranda.(and open immigration)
Thank you ACLU!!
I remember saving my money and buying a .22 rifle when I was ..14,legally. Yet there was little gun crime. No drive by shootings. No losing a fight and running home to get a gun.
IMHO 'Self esteem' and 'disrespecting' being taught has left our youth unable to cope with adversity and rejection.
My father was 21 in 1937 - he did find work and actually saved enough to go to college starting in ‘39 only to be drafted a couple of years later and shipped off to Europe. He never went back to school. And he still counts himself one of the luckiest guys of that age and era.
May God bless your father. 91?
My parents were born in the mid 30’s.
Hey Vinnie, I’ll bet that you remember when every 8-10 year old boy who could get one, carried a pocket knife...Even to school!
Damn, how did we ever survive?
No kidding! Both my parents, and all my aunts and uncles lived through the Depression and WWII. Clearly, it was a life changing event for all. Even though they are all long gone now the things they taught me based on their experiences stick with me to this very day.
To think this generation has it worse is nothing short of comical....
I’ll take more freedom over wealth anytime.
Each generation passes on to the next, nowadays, a less free future, and more debt.
Don’t like.
Heh heh heh.
1930’s? Somebody was buying and driving Cords, Packards, Lincolns, Cadillacs. Hoover vacuums started. TV was being looked into, also jet engines, helicopters, penicillin and air conditioning.
Old people like to tell young how hard it was. That shows been around since fire and Homer.
Having children I believe they do have it worse. Our society doesn’t believe in right or wrong. They have homosexuality shoved down their throats starting in pre-k, they are taught never to defend themselves, our goverment is basically giving away our country, this generation is going to have to get used to the fact that they will be responsible for taking care of 30 million anchor babies and their families, God forbid you are white and masculine, success is bad, to be a gansta thug is cool, I could keep going and going.
I have not seen anyone from Gen X or Y that is complaining about how horrible we have it. I got it pretty damn good, when my father was my age back in the late seventies, he was a barely High School graduate hoping the bottling plant wasn’t going to start lay offs thanks to President Peanuts. Inflation and interest rates were double digits, he had no prospects of ever realizing the American Dream, The soviets were gobbling up the third world, the future only looked dark.
I'm the first one in my family to go to college, and I will be the first one since my great great grand father to serve my country in uniform. I have fears and anxieties about what if’s just like anyone that came before me and after me, but I have it easier and better then any other generation of my family or in this country ever had. I am truly blessed by God to be an American. Please don't blame the gobbledygook touchy feely PC crap they have been trying to indoctrinate my generation with on us. Because we hate it.
Boy, the way Glen Miller played. Songs that made the hit parade.
Guys like us, we had it made. Those were the days.
Didn’t need no welfare state. Everybody pulled his weight.
Gee, our old LaSalle ran great. Those were the days.
And you know who you were then, girls were girls and men were men.
Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.
People seemed to be content. Fifty dollars paid the rent.
Freaks were in a circus tent. Those were the days.
Take a little Sunday spin, go to watch the Dodgers win.
Have yourself a dandy day that cost you under a fin.
Hair was short and skirts were long. Kate Smith really sold a song.
I don’t know just what went wrong. Those Were The Days.
This article is trying to make the opposite point . That the younger generation has it tougher than the parent's.
That dog don't hunt either.
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