Millennials Don’t Need Our Judgment
Worldwide negativity has grown as dangerous as the river of psychomagnotheric slime in “Ghostbusters.” One tributary of our current, glowing river of anger flows into the troubled world of Millennials, and frankly, they don’t need our cranky opinions. They are busy enough searching for hope and meaning in a working world where all the old, easy paths are faded and lost.
Their generation did not just wake up and decide to be a certain way. They are products of the world in which they were born and raised, just as are Gen Xers and Boomers before them, same as the Greatest Generation, the Romans and the Hittites, whoever they were.
Look beyond the surface, beyond all the critical articles about a selfish, entitled bunch of whiners and you will find young people who are better educated, healthier and more motivated than many of us ever were. For previous generations, getting a job wasn’t usually that big of a deal. Millennials, on the other hand, have been pushed by their parents since childhood to prepare for an adulthood in which nothing would come easily; they would be treated by corporations as disposable assets and be forced to compete for financial scraps.
We laugh at the audacity of these young people and their questioning of the business world’s status quo. They dare to want meaningful work. So do I. Doesn’t everyone? Why do we insist they accept horrendous management practices? Why did we accept bullying bosses, blatant discrimination, sexual harassment, and so on? If anyone is equipped to break the chain of corporate greed that is destroying the middle class and our planet, it might just be fed-up Millennials.
Whatever their faults, I suspect their mistakes pretty much equal the number and seriousness of every other generation’s weaknesses. Name one stupid thing they do and then think of the stupid things we did at their age. Is there much difference?
After high school, Millennials are told college will mean crushing debt, there will be no high-paying jobs or generous company benefits, rents won’t be affordable, forget home ownership, and health insurance won’t be affordable, either. They will have to start by working internships for free and like it. Oh, by the way, the planet is dying, so get your Instagram selfies in nature while you can. And yet, Millennials I meet remain generally optimistic about their chances and hope to make the world a better place despite the odds against them.
Generational warfare is as old as mankind. That’s all this is – old people complaining about young people. It’s unfair and harmful. I live around a lot of Millennials. They are ok. I like them. Most give me confidence in the future; I wish they could walk down hallways without looking at their phones. I see the same ratio of good to bad that can be found within any other group of humans you might put together.
Millennials, and Gen Z behind them, are young. In many ways, they are not like older generations, yet they are of us and deeply connected to us. They are navigating complex lives. Please, I think we can dial back the divide-and-conquer games and embrace these fellow Earthlings, learn from them, or at least get off their backs. We will need them, after all.
Guy D. Johnson is a writer and marketing communications professional. Previously an animation studio owner, daily newspaper editor, reporter and photographer, volunteer fireman, railroad bridge gang helper, FM radio station underling and cave guide. He has lived on farmland trusted to the sun and rain; atop a wooded hill; beside great rivers; upon an arid, high plateau; and at the subtropical coast of the Gulf of Mexico. For 20 years, he worked and wrote in New Orleans.