Perhaps Morpheus in the Matrix said it best: “You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.”

And that, to me, is what betrays the dubious usefulness of these commentaries on the character of the coming generation–they’re rather premature, aren’t they? I’d rather know what our generation’s effect has been on the world, and we’re a long way from being able to judge that.

“How ‘bout that, huh? Kids today. Just makes you think about our country’s values. Have we lost our way? Heck, did we even have our way? Time was, everybody knew everybody else. People said hello and they meant it. Folks went to bed at a decent time, and jeans were only worn by prisoners. Someone would invite you over for coffee and you’d end up talking for eight straight days. Some people think this “modern” society’s an improvement—my question is: an improvement on what?” –Cleveland Brown

These Gen Y-bashing articles always get me all riled up! I was born in 1982! Just 1 or 2 years earlier and *I* could be passing judgment! Still, you guys are pretty much right, even if Denis Leary beat you to this argument by about 15 years.

“These kids today get trophies just for *participating*! What’s next? The whole plot of Idiocracy?”

I mean, how are we to know that this whole line of reasoning isn’t something that is obviously true of all generations that grow up in affluence?

I know, I know. I dismiss you all as curmudgeonly at my peril. And, to be honest, I agree with most of what you guys write. I’m just skeptical of most generational arguments. It seems that people get older, start to really grapple with their own mortality, and begin reading the end of the world into everything that happens, as if the world ends when they die.

one need only understand the incentives to (over)build provided by government price-fixing low interest rates and offering an endless supply of cheap loans to deadbeats to *really* understand this

you genbub guys and gals are awesome at cultural commentary but terrible at basic economics.
http://jim.com/econ

While I understand part of the point here is that mass media attempts to distort or efface economic reality beneath a veneer of pop-culture bliss, I couldn’t help but be disturbed by this article, portions of which seemed like they could’ve been lifted straight out of the National Review. For a blog that quotes Marcuse (for example) quite often, it seems strange to be criticizing Gen-Yers for their supposed prioritization of personal life and love and happiness over “the drudgery neccessary to keep food on the table.” Isn’t the ultimate goal to create an economic system in which we are *all* able to have both (yes) meaningful work and sufficient time for a rich and meaningful personal/inner life?

From that perspective, the Y Generation’s (supposed) unwillingness to buy into a model of 60-hour a week office work and little to no time for family and personal pursuits seems praiseworthy rather than lamentable – and potentially even radical. I can see a problem in this sense of privilege when it remains on the level of individual entitlement (“I deserve more than everyone else”) but on a broader level the prioritization of the personal might be a refreshing reminder that “work” should exist towards the enrichment of human existence, rather than the reverse. Or are you seriously suggesting that we all embrace a life of necessary “drudgery”?

Last, the broad generalizations of the “Y Generation” tend to scare me off – both in a general sense (I prefer to talk about human beings as individuals rather than ants) and in that the lament over the wayward “new” generation is probably as old as society itself. That and the nostalgic harking towards a mythologized “great” generation makes the piece feel more regressive than emergant/revolutionary.

Maybe I’m just saying that as, regardless of the definition, I am a Gen-Yer myself (born in 1985). But wikipedia has it that Gen Y refers to anyone born after 1974, by which standard you yourself would be a part of the very wayward youth you set out to criticize, no?

In other words, the tendency that you are describing is partly formed in your own imagination already, namely “career”. How come you didn’t ask: “What would you like to do with your life, are there places you’d like to visit, virtues you’d like to possess, social relations you would like to establish, people you’d like to help?” ??