OK, Boomer or Bust!

OK, Boomer or Bust!

By Ranting Panda

16 November 2019


"The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists in the circulation of their blood" ... thus speaketh, British critic, Logan Pearsall Smith, in his 1931 work, Afterthoughts: Life and Human Nature.

While Logan Pearsall Smith was more of an essayist than hematologist, he was definitely on the money. In every generation, the oldies gang up on the younger ones and blame them for the ills of the world. Even the ancient Egyptians did their nuts over the younger generations, with this pithy observation inscribed in a 6,000 year old Egyptian tomb: 'We live in a decaying age. Young people no longer respect their parents.  They are rude and impatient.  They frequently inhabit taverns and have no self-control'.

There is an irony in criticising younger generations, because they are the product of their upbringing.

Funnily enough, today's younger generations are calling out the older generations with two simple words ... no, not THOSE two words ... something far more dismissive: 'OK BOOMER!'.

For example, Baby Boomer makes fun of younger generations wanting to change the world, by saying, 'you can't even change a light bulb' - OK BOOMER!

Baby Boomer makes fun of younger generations wanting to start a revolution, by saying, 'you can't even start a lawn mower' - OK BOOMER!

Baby Boomer (who worked in non-scientific job all their life) makes fun of younger generations daring to believe the science of climate change, by saying, 'it got hot in the 70s too, you know!' - OK BOOMER!. (Because bank johnny's, tradies, farmers, salespeople, etc etc, know more about climate science than actual physicists who've studied actual science ... but hey, here we are!).

Baby Boomer criticises the younger generation for being unemployed and university-educated, 'you should do a stint in the Army, that'll make you grow up!' - OK BOOMER!

Now, just to set a few things straight. I recently saw a Millenial criticising Boomers for lumping Gen Zs (post-Millenials) in with Millenials. Yet many of the people who Millenials and post-Millenials are throwing the OK Boomer comment at, are in fact the Silent Generation, who came before the Baby Boomers, or Gen Xs who came after the Boomers. OK MILLENIAL! Chill the Fanackapanning Doylums out and get your generational thresholds clear too! So that everyone is on the same page, these are the years generally used for labelling the generations:

Interbellum Generation - 1901-1913
Greatest Generation - 1910-1924
Silent Generation - 1925-1945
Baby Boomers - 1946-1964
Generation X - 1965-1980
Millennials (Generation Y) - 1981-1996
Post-Millennials (Generation Z) - 1997-Present

For clarity, I'll be referring to Gen X, Boomers and Silent Gen as being 'older people'. While I'll refer to Millennials and Post-Millennials as being 'younger people'.

Older people often accuse younger people of being rude and lacking manners, yet older people will often be quite rude in expecting, nay, demanding, respect, while speaking abysmally to younger people. Older people will criticise all manner of people who make them feel uncomfortable, such as refugees, the homeless, activists, LGBTIQ people. They will criticise young people for their music and fashion. AND THEN, they will wonder why younger people are so critical of older people. I wonder where they learned to be so critical of, and rude towards, other people.

It seems that as people grow older, they generally become more conservative and less tolerant. This plays out in the insults that they throw around, usually at younger people, such as 'woke', 'do-gooder', 'social justice warrior', 'greenie', 'leftie', 'virtue signalling'.

Well, I'd rather people be woke than wack. I'd rather they be do-gooders, than do-nothings. I'd rather they be social justice warriors concerned for the rights of others, than selfish psychopathic individualists who care nothing about the suffering of others. I'd rather they be greenies, than environmental vandals. I'd rather they be lefties sharing the wealth, than greedy capitalists hoarding wealth while others die in poverty. I'd rather they signal virtue to others, than normalise hate and intolerance.

This quaint little meme has been doing the rounds on social media for several years:

If one were to take this meme at face value, then we clearly have incredibly talented school kids, who have invented aeroplanes, fast food, four wheel drives, plastic packaging, polystyrene and consumerism. Apparently today's teenagers invented pollution too, because the oldies didn't throw their paper bags and glass bottles in the street; pollution didn't exist before today's school kids came along. One other thing ... the milk man in an electric vehicle! While some areas may have had an electric milk float doing the rounds, I remember milk bottles (and later, milk plastic bags) in the 70s being delivered from a petrol-guzzling beast that produced so much pollution it created its own hole in the ozone layer. Oh, and not all kids in the 60s and 70s walked to school; many were driven in their parents' cars that had no pollution-reducing technology, barely getting 10 miles to the gallon, unlike many of the 4x4s today with vastly improved fuel consumption and lower emissions. Kids of today are generally not allowed to walk to school, because of the paranoid delusions of their parents who are convinced that the little tykes will be kidnapped if they step a toe outside the door ... then the oldies will lament how 'back in their day, kids all played in the street, or disappeared all day, only to reappear in time for dinner ... ne'er a mobile phone to be seen'. Well ... it wasn't kids of today who stopped that from happening, it was their paranoid parents ... OK BOOMER ... and GEN Xer!

Kids of today did not invent modern-day capitalism that has resulted in rampant consumerism driven by an insatiable demand for excessive and unethical profits. It was the older generations who created this, and it is mainly the older generations who are shareholders demanding greater returns on their investments with scant regard for human rights or the environment. Do the older generations chasing these exorbitant monetary gains care that much of this profit is being created through modern slavery and highly exploitative situations, not just in low-wage countries, but even in OECD countries? Do they give a flying ferret that their investments and profits are driving the destruction of the environment and animal habitats to obtain resources for manufacturing the latest electronic product, while marketing said product as the next big thing and that any previous model (while still working perfectly) is now obsolete ... perceived obsolence drives consumerism and is a significant contributor to waste generation, throw-away mentality and resource consumption. But hey, get angry with the school kids who are smart enough to call out how unsustainable this is.

So that meme ... another fun fact ... back in the 60s, the 'Generation Gap' was a real issue being debated with monotonous regularity. This was the concept that the younger generation (mostly baby boomers) were rebelling against everything their parents stood for. Remember this? The 60s was the protest era! Baby Boomers created mass social upheaval and were a generation of young people who challenged societal norms that previous generations had accepted and embraced, such as war, racism, sexism, segregation and environmental destruction. They protested for peace, women's liberation, racial equality, and environmental protection. This was a generation that embraced the Timothy Leary approach to life: 'Turn on, tune in and drop out'. They experimented with mind-altering substances in a manner that their parents had never done. But now, many have issue with young people for turning on, turning in and getting involved, rather than dropping out.

Boomers - before they forgot how to be cool!

Baby Boomers have forgotten how to be cool. They've forgotten that it was their generation that set the standard for large-scale, global protest movements which changed the world for the better. Why then, do they pick on today's young ones who are also seeking to change the world for the better.

It's understandable though. Generational wars have carried on throughout history. From way back in the day when Adam was a boy and Eve was a girl and God did his divine nut to expel them from the Garden of Eden because they wouldn't do what they were told.

Back in the day around 2400 years ago, there was this philosopher dude named Plato who tyrannised the young 'uns of ancient Greece. Plato gave them a spray with this little gem, 'What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?' Yes, what indeed, Plato ol' mate! Plato wasn't the only one who made comments of this nature ... it is a persistent theme threading its way through history.

This tyrannising of the young by the older generations is a portend of the future under Gen Ys and Zs. Because sadly, sooner than they expect, it is them who will be tyrannising the next generations, regaling them with tales of how they always respected older people and obeyed their parents, painting their generation as angels and looking back on their younger years through rose-coloured glasses.

Seventeenth century poet & politician, Joseph Addison cautioned about this, 'He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should when young, consider that he may one day become old, and when he is old, that he has once been young'. Wise words, which most of us forget about ... unless one is 'woke'.

Perhaps John Dryden, a 17th century Poet Laureate, was one of the most woke when he identified the key driver behind the older generations' judgement of the younger ones:

'The most aggravating thing about the younger generation is that I no longer belong to it'.

Dryden wasn't the only woke oldie. Twentieth-century writer, John Boynton Priestley was full of lamentation: 'When I was young there was no respect for the young, and now that I am old, there is no respect for the old. I missed out coming and going'.

But the most woke of all boomers, Douglas Adams (who penned the revelatory Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), got it:

'Anything invented before your 15th birthday is the order of nature. That's how it should be. Anything invented between your 15th and 35th birthday is new and exciting, and you might get a career there. Anything invented after that day, however, is against nature and should be prohibited'.

OK BOOMER!

-o--0--o-

Millennials: 'entitled' or a modern-day Diogenes Lamp?

Millennials: 'entitled' or a modern-day Diogenes Lamp?


Often we see the 'more enlightened' older generations, you know Gen X and Baby Boomers, accusing millennials (Gen Y) and post-millennials (Gen Z) of thinking they're entitled ... entitled to jobs, clean environment, affordable housing ... you get the idea. Throughout this, I'll refer to millennials, but this is inclusive of post-millennials.

One of the things that the older generations bang on about as evidence of this, is that millennials grew up receiving participation awards rather than getting awards for actually achieving things. it should not be forgotten that it was the older generations who started the participation awards. After all, four year old millennials didn't start or ask for this. The older generations forget, or refuse to take responsibility for the way that they raised millennials.

This lack of taking responsibility is pretty typical of baby boomers and Gen X who merely partied on the back of the wealth that the west acquired following World War II. They partied like it was 1999 and frittered it away, creating an economy which pushed house prices out of reach of millennials, where permanent jobs are more and more difficult to find, and destroyed the environment, all in order for the older generations to selfishly exploit the markets, job-seekers and the environment for their own interests without regard for future generations. As the economy, job markets and environment go south, older generations do what they do best: find a scapegoat and blame them for it; in this case, millennials.

Is it fair to accuse millennials of feeling 'entitled' just because they want affordable housing, permanent jobs with career prospects, and an environment that will sustain future generations?

There are other issues which span generations, but which still get blamed on millennials. For instance, the expectation that people should be able to marry those who they are in love with ... regardless of gender. This is a battle that has been fought for years by previous generations, but hey, let's blame millennials. There are issues of gender and sexuality. Many conservatives seem to lack understanding of the difference between sexuality and gender. For centuries there have been people who identify as a gender that they were not apparently born with. There have been hermaphrodites, who these days are referred to as intersexual. There have been people who are born with sexuality or gender proclivities within LGBTIQ+. Yet, now that people are finally gaining the rights that have been demanded for centuries, it is the fault of millennials.

Then there's my personal favourite, when Christians accuse millennials of being entitled. Why Christians? Well ... if any group believes they're 'entitled' it is the church. Here we have a group who demand that they are entitled to freedom from taxation while also expecting to have political clout and the right to enforce their beliefs on others. It is not the fault of millennials, nor are millennials feeling 'entitled', to expect that they can have both freedom of religion and freedom from religion. The moment someone wants something that contradicts a church dogma, the church grabs its bag of entitlement and screams persecution. Ironically, this is usually because the church is being stopped from persecuting others. We saw this most dramatically during the marriage equality debate. The church carried on with incredible lies and demonisation, characterising LGBTIQ+ people as loving pedophilia and bestiality. Claims which were blatant lies and fear-mongering. What great churches we have when they would rather spread hate and fear than show love to people who want the same rights as everyone else: to marry. Interestingly, since Australia legalised marriage equality, the sky hasn't fallen in and people are not marrying their pets, children or the Sydney Harbour Bridge, as predicted by many Christians.

Picking on the younger generation is something that every older generation has done from the beginning of time. You can read more on that in Ranting Panda's Kids of Today article. However, two quotes stand out. The first one could be from any of the older generation's criticism of millennials, but is actually 6000 years old:

'We live in a decaying age. Young people no longer respect their parents. They are rude and impatient. They frequently inhabit taverns and have no self-control' - inscription on 6000 year old Egyptian tomb.

However, Logan Smith has summed up why the older generation must bag out millennials (and sadly, millennials will bag out future generations):

'The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists in the circulation of their blood' - Logan Pearsall Smith 1865-1946.

Millennials feel no more entitled than older generations do. Older people for instance, expect the government to give them all sorts of things, such as pensions, free health, free travel, and for younger people to respect them, to stand for them, to wait on them hand and foot. Many older people feel entitled to respect, but often don't give respect to others. When younger people work two or three jobs to pay for an exorbitant education (implemented mind you, by the older generation who could attend university for free), they are often abused by older people who think it is appropriate to treat people poorly if they work in retail or hospitality. How often do we see an older person abusing a sales assistant or a waiter for some trivial reason, for instance, because they had to wait an extra couple of minutes for service or because plastic bags have been banned (funnily enough by politicians who are from the older generation, but lets blame millennials).

Older people will say that back in their day they could crack racist and sexist jokes without anyone getting offended. Millennials are 'entitled' because they will often call out these racist and sexist 'jokes'. Is it that millennials are 'entitled' or is it that perhaps they are more enlightened and mature than the older generation in realising the hurt and harm these jokes cause to others.

An extension of this is the #MeToo movement and the ongoing allegations of historical sexual offences. Back in the day, women were expected to tolerate sexually aggressive behaviour by men, whether it was wolf-whistles or inappropriate groping, or worse. Donald Trump, currently US President and likely Putin's Manchurian Candidate, achieved the US presidency with the help of right-wing Christians, while boasting that he was able to just walk up to a woman and grab her on her pussy. One could be mistaken for thinking right-wing churches consider this to be their entitlement too as they were so willing to support Trump. But back to millennials, it wasn't just them that started the #MeToo movement, it was a reaction to a culture embraced by older generations, that had trivialised and normalised sexual assault.

It is this maturity and enlightenment that drives this so-called 'entitlement' of millennials. Perhaps baby boomers and Gen Xers should remember what they were like back in the day. Remember all the protests of the 1960s and 70s, in which they demanded peace, freedom and environmental protection. They marched to save the environment, end war, end racism, improve civil liberties, and gain gay and lesbian rights. They held strikes demanding fairer conditions and better pay. Baby boomers and Gen Xers were militant generations that demanded better things for the future. Now that millennials demand the same thing, they are being demonised by the very people who also wanted these things thirty or forty years ago. How short are people's memories?

Everyone has an entitlement to live life free of interference from others and to not interfere in other people's lives. What is unacceptable are actions that infringe on people's freedoms and human rights.

A story from ancient Greece tells of Diogenes of Sinope (also known as Diogenes the Cynic), a Greek philosopher (c400-325CE), who believed that no-one in society was honest or good because they were tethered to rules and conventions that encouraged dishonesty and a lack of responsibility. Diogenes went on a quest with his lamp, holding it up to the faces of Greek citizens as he sought an honest (or good) person. Additionally, there is a story that Alexander the Great approached Diogenes, telling him that he could have any gift he wanted. Diogenes allegedly told Alexander the Great that 'what you've taken away from me, you can never give'. Alexander was perplexed and asked him what he meant. Diogenes replied with, 'you're standing in my sun'.

Rather than condemning millennials for their expectations for civil liberties, equal rights, a decent life and concern for the future, we should praise them for being the Diogenes Lamp in a society where dishonesty, lack of empathy, selfishness and greed epitomised previous generations to the detriment of society and the future - not unlike the society Diogenes found himself in. It seems that conservative older people only want to conserve the worst elements of the society they grew up in; namely the war, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, pollution and environmental degradation, while mocking goodness, empathy, human rights, environmental conservation and social justice - these things should be revered, not mocked. We do not build a better society by conserving hate and ignorance, we achieve it by promoting love and respect.

Holding up a lamp to the imperfections in society is not something that should be mocked, neither is expecting the rights that no-one should take away (as Diogenes pointed out to Alexander the Great), namely a sustainable environment, basic human rights and equality.

Millennials are not unfairly demanding 'entitlement', they are astutely calling out inequality and unfairness.

We stuffed up the world with Capitalism ... so hair of the dog and let's fix it with Capitalism! Oh, and blame Millennials for it all!

We f*cked the world with Capitalism ... so hair of the dog and let's fix it with Capitalism.

Oh, and it's all the fault of the Millennials (those formerly known as Gen Y), because if those selfish buggers didn't keep demanding mocha soy latte coffees the world would be a better place. If they didn't keep demanding that we reduce our carbon emissions, the world would be a better place. If they didn't keep demanding that we underemploy them, the world would be a better place. If they didn't demand university educations worth tens of thousands of dollars, the world would be a better place.

If they weren't so damn demanding!

After all, the Millennials are responsible for:

* casualisation of the workforce
* expensive university degrees
* 'academic inflation' which drives the demand for higher and higher educational requirements in jobs
* escalating house prices
* plateauing pay rates
* lack of respect for others
* war
* greed
* capitalism

Oops. That last dot point is an error ... isn't it? I mean, capitalism is good? Capitalism is the panacea of all the world's issues. So what if greed is the driving force of capitalism. Greed is good.

Actually ... it sure isn't the fault of the millennials that they entered a world that had been exploited and raped (economically and environmentally) by previous generations' pre-occupation with greed and wealth accumulation.

For years, human resource gurus have been saying that Gen Y is a mobile generation, that they only want temporary jobs so they can hop from one place to the next. Garbage. The reason Gen Y was chopping and changing between jobs was because of the greed of companies who decided it was cheaper and easier to put people on as temps or casuals. This meant that they could also be released without businesses having to be concerned with pesky industrial relations obligations, such as giving a minimum period of notice, paying out leave and so on. Gen Y did not cause that. They are the victims of that. Additionally, it isn't just this generation who move around for work. Remember, throughout the 20th century, people travelling the country for seasonal jobs, such as fruit picking, or moving to the 'big smoke' in search of work. People travelling from one job to the next is nothing new.

Millennials are not the lazy bums that older generations portray them as. If those older generations stopped pursuing the almighty dollar for their own benefit, if they stopped reducing or casualising their workforces, then the jobs would be there. But you can't reduce jobs and then blame young people for not being able to find these non-existent jobs.

Academic inflation is also being driven by large organisations who have this idea that the higher educated one is, the better their contribution to the company. So back in the day, when the parents and grand-parents of the Millennials wanted a job, say to work in an office, all they needed was maybe a year 7 education. Then it was a year 10 education. Then year 12. Then some places asked for a Certificate III, IV or a Diploma. And then entry level administrative jobs required Bachelor's degrees. Now, the push is for Honours degrees or even Graduate Certificate or Graduate Diplomas for entry level jobs. For promotion? Masters. All to do jobs that back in the day required nothing more than basic literacy skills.

While a higher education is good, does it make people any more productive than years gone by? Probably not.

People argue that Millennials come out of university expecting to step into managerial jobs. Maybe some do, however, it is clear that for many, a uni education is only qualifying them for an entry level position if they're lucky.

The only ones who benefit from academic inflation are the universities and the businesses that run them. It's basic supply and demand. As the demand grows for higher education, the more upward pressure will be placed on the cost of degrees.

The problem with academic inflation is that people who can't afford the exorbitant costs of university, will struggle to either enter the workforce, or to remain relevant in the workforce. Employment is becoming a privilege for the rich.

Years ago, teachers only needed a diploma. Now the demand is that they must have a Bachelor's degree on entry, and if they are to remain in the education system they must upgrade to Masters ... all so they can teach a high school curriculum.

Some organisations, such as Price Waterhouse Coopers, Ernst and Young, and Penguin Random House have either ditched or relaxed degree requirements to counter this and to assist people in entering the workforce⁽¹⁾.

The biggest threat out of all this is that unemployment will rise for the ranks of those who have a secondary education, but not a tertiary one. An example of this is the Philippines, where even a job in McDonald's requires a bachelor's degree in hospitality or communication, all while there is massive unemployment and poverty among the unskilled. In Australia, the same job is often undertaken by teenagers who've been put through a management traineeship. A barista job in the Philippines requires a Bachelor of Science in Hotel & Restaurant Management. Is this where Australia is headed?⁽²⁾

But it's all the fault of the Millennials. So is the fact that they live at home with their parents well into their 20s or even 30s.

Why don't they just go out and buy a house, live on two minute noodles for a couple of years like their parents did and enjoy the thrill of owning their own house. Forget this crap about housing affordability, they are just being too picky ... but wait ...

Short of buying a house in a country town 150km away (where there are no jobs), they are likely to either face an exorbitant price for an existing house, or stare down the barrel of an over-size house in a new estate. The idea that Millennials want the biggest houses ignores the fact that many housing developments have covenants on them that demand large houses. This is not the fault of the Millennials.

Neither is it the fault of Millennials that their parents and grand-parents invested up big in order to make a huge capital return, driving up house prices so that those young 'uns coming through can't possibly earn enough to afford one ... particularly when they have graduated university while carrying a large debt for their education.

So what's the answer? Capitalism? Rampant consumerism? If people spend more money on unnecessary items it will improve the economy and magically, all of society's ills will be gone. Let's forget that it was unfettered capitalism that got us into this mess. Capitalism is often thought of as a system where people are rewarded by keeping the fruits of their labours. But explain that to people who are on minimum wage, working for companies whose excessive profits are earned from those labours but who don't share in those profits other than through their pittance of a wage.

Capitalism is a cleverly deceptive system that transfers wealth from the many to the rich few. This transfer is achieved by paying pitiful wages, not sharing profits, and getting people to part with their hard earned through clever consumer advertising, or through government tax cuts to the wealthy and big business. Capitalists have taken this and run with it, building in obsolescence and perceived obsolescence, so that consumers are either forced to replace items and feel they need to every time a new version comes out⁽³⁾. (Apple I'm looking squarely at you).

The theory is that if we continue transferring wealth from the general population upwards to the most wealthy, then it will somehow trickle back down and make us all rich. Trickle down economics didn't work for Thatcher, Reagan, or George W. Bush, and it doesn't work in Australia.

Since the election of the Liberal and National Party coalition in Australia, the government has been attacking students and the poor as a means for fiscal repair. Those who earn the big bucks, and the big businesses who have clever tax minimisation strategies, are not contributing their fair share towards the budget bottom line because the government is living in a trickle-down fantasy land.

Here's a thought. What say we took the Robin Hood approach and share the wealth from the rich with the rest of society.

Instead, the government and business distract from their failures by blaming Labor, the Greens, the left-wing, the poor, the needy, students, Muslims, refugees, global terrorism, the CSIRO, scientists, Millennials.

Yet, ALL of the issues in society are caused by capitalism. It is capitalist greed that has been responsible for:

* unrestrained pillaging of natural resources in order to access fossil fuels for consumption and power, causing war and climate change
* unnecessary but perpetual and profitable wars and funding of 'insurgents' to fight whoever the 'evil' enemy is at the time, and which has resulted in global terrorism (that's right, Islam is not the cause of terrorism; it was caused by the US funding of the Mujaheddin gave rise to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, the 2003 invasion of Iraq gave rise to ISIS, not to mention western nations' exploitation and theft of land and resources in what are now developing countries going back centuries)
* unrestrained accumulation of wealth and assets, driving down housing affordability
* craving for larger and larger profits that has driven workforce reduction and casualisation.

But it's all the fault of Millennials.

Let's forget economics for a moment.

How about respect?

Time to unleash some old chestnuts?

Kids of today have no respect for their elders.

When I was a kid we'd have had our mouths washed out with soap if we spoke like that.

Often heard by people who've forgotten what little shits they were when they were younger.

Firstly, accusing the young of disrespect is nothing new. Two of my favourite quotes from waaayyy back in the day that show this is a generational whinging going back centuries for older people:

'We live in a decaying age. Young people no longer respect their parents.  They are rude and impatient.  They frequently inhabit taverns and have no self-control' - Inscription on 6,000 year old Egyptian tomb

'Our earth is degenerate in these latter days; bribery and corruption are common; children no longer obey their parents; every man wants to write a book, and the end of the world is evidently approaching' - Assyrian stone tablet, circa 2000-2800BC

And of course, in this day of instant gratification, it's the fault of Millennials. Not to mention the older generation's constant bemoaning of what the future holds in the hands of Millennials. But wait, waaayyy back in the day, young 'uns were impatient and the oldies feared the future as well:

'I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependant on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words ... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly disrespectful and impatient of restraint' - Hesiod, 8th century BC

Maybe what we need is some sympathy for older people, after all, it is in their constitution to blame young people:

 'The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists in the circulation of their blood'. Logan Pearsall Smith 1865-1946

But I digress.

It is a sad reality that older people have taught the younger people how to behave. The older generations demand respect from people who they are constantly abusing and blaming. They speak horribly about migrants, refugees, Muslims, the left-wing, students, the poor. They demonise and disrespect most of society and then expect Millennials to treat them with respect.

When Millennials treat them the way they treat others, they get upset and bust out a, 'in my day ...'.

Come on oldies: pot / kettle.

We can't fix the economy by driving people into more debt, we can't increase employment by making it harder to find work or through job rationalisation, we can't address climate change and pollution by continuing to burn fossil fuels while continuing with massive rates of deforestation and land clearing, we can't address housing affordability by continuing to allow the accumulation of vast property portfolios, we can't stop terrorism while we continue to fund it and wage wars, we can't end hatred and intolerance by continuing to hate and attack others, and we can't blame Millennials for the things that previous generations caused.

People need to remember that they were once young and to remember what things were like for them. Was it easier to find work, buy a house, get an education (was there even a requirement for an education)?

Yes, Millennials do need to think of the future and respect others - as we all do. But to blame Millennials and not take responsibility for our own actions is disingenuous.

"He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should when young, consider that he may one day become old, and when he is old, that he has once been young".  Joseph Addison, 1672-1719.

What the world needs is a sharing economy, not an accumulation economy. Rather than focusing on personal greed and circumstance as has been the wont of Gen X and Baby Boomers, we should be more outward focused and consider the circumstances of others, consider what is good for society as a whole and not just what is good for the individual.

In relation to the environment, land clearing has continued at unprecedented rates as the demand (consumerism) increases for housing estates, farming and wood products, such as paper and furniture. There are alternatives of course, like hemp and bamboo. Hemp is a natural product which does not leach the soil, is fast growing and easily replenished which means that it requires a fraction of the land that traditional farming produce does, such as cotton.

The government has been cutting budgets for education, health and employment. One of the reasons is that they claim that the debt incurred by spending on these essential factors is 'intergenerational theft', because it requires future generations to pay it back. Instead, it is the under-funding of these programs by the government that is going to rob current and future generations of opportunities for employment, training and health.

The real intergenerational theft has been from the greed and rampant consumerism of Gen X and Baby Boomers, the cost of which is now being borne by Millennials.

F*cked the world with capitalism? Hair of the dog is not the answer.


References

1. The Conversation, Joshua Krook, Degrees of separation: companies shed degree requirements to promote merit over qualifications, 18 April 2017, http://theconversation.com/degrees-of-separation-companies-shed-degree-requirements-to-promote-merit-over-qualifications-76150. Accessed 6 May 2017.

2. Refer to the below screen-grabs from the websites listed, taken on 8 May 2017.

3. Story of Stuff, Annie Leonard, Louis Fox, Jonah Sachs, The Story of Stuff, December 2007, http://storyofstuff.org/.

www.mcdonalds.com.ph/content/page/careers

https://jobs.laimoon.com/job/192660

Kids of today

"Childen today are tyrants.  They contradict their parents, gobble their food and tyrannize their teachers".  Socrates, Greek philosopher, 470-399BC

So often we hear older people complaining about "kids of today" having no respect. However, respect is a two way street.  If we treat people like they are fools and speak to them that way, is it any wonder that they respond in kind?

Children of today are no different to children of previous generations in terms of behaviour or attitudes.  Forget this rubbish about "gen X", "gen Y".  People are people and they don't change.  This includes the propensity for adults to believe that things were better back in the day!

Rather than me expound on this, I'll leave this to some of the world's greatest philosophers to make the point that this criticism of the young has been the habit of older people for millenia:

"We live in a decaying age. Young people no longer respect their parents.  They are rude and impatient.  They frequently inhabit taverns and have no self-control" - Inscription on 6,000 year old Egyptian tomb

"Our earth is degenerate in these latter days; bribery and corruption are common; children no longer obey their parents; every man wants to write a book, and the end of the world is evidently approaching" - Assyrian stone tablet, circa 2000-2800BC

"I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependant on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words ... When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly disrespectful and impatient of restraint" - Hesiod, 8th century BC

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect to their elders and love chatter in place of exercise.  Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannise their teachers" - attributed to Socrates by Plato - 4th Century BC.

"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?" - Plato, 4th century BC

"The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age.  They are impatient of all restraint... As for the girls, they are forward, immodest and unladylike in speech, behavior and dress". - Attributed to Peter the Hermit, 1274AD. 

 "The most aggravating thing about the younger generation is that I no longer belong to it" John Dryden 1631-1700.

"The humour of blaming the present, and admiring the past, is strongly rooted in human nature, and has an influence even on persons endued with the profoundest judgement and most extensive learning" - David Hume, Scottish philospher, 1754

 "The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists in the circulation of their blood".  Logan Pearsall Smith 1865-1946

"I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid" - G.K. Chesterton, 1874-1936

"Juvenile delinquency has increased at an alarming rate and is eating at the heart of America".  - United States juvenile court judge, 1946.

 "When I was young there was no respect for the young, and now that I am old, there is no respect for the old.  I missed out coming and going".  JB Priestley 1894-1984.

"Anything invented before your 15th birthday is the order of nature. That's how it should be. Anything invented between your 15th and 35th birthday is new and exciting, and you might get a career there. Anything invented after that day, however, is against nature and should be prohibited".  Douglas Adams 1952-2001.

People who complain about children of today, need to remember the role they play in shaping children (and remember this is the same development that they went through when growing up):

"In the life of children there are two very clear-cut phases, before and after puberty. Before puberty the child's personality has not yet formed and it is easier to guide its life and make it acquire specific habits of order, discipline and work. After puberty the personality develops impetuously and all extraneous intervention becomes odious, tyrannical, insufferable. Now it so happens that parents feel the responsibility towards their children precisely during this second period, when it is too late, then of course the stick and violence enter the scene and yield very few results indeed. Why not instead take an interest in the child during the first period"  - Antonio Gramsci, 1891-1937.

As mentioned at the beginning, respect is a two way street.  Joseph Addison provides pertinent advice for those who wish to be respected, whether young or old:

"He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should when young, consider that he may one day become old, and when he is old, that he has once been young".  Joseph Addison, 1672-1719.