I'm beginning to develop a theory about the next generation.
Not having to do with access to guns. That's a separate issue. But having to do with the way this generation (millennials and younger) are being raised, not only without God and faith and and a morality that transcends human wisdom (right/wrong, good/evil), but also being raised as if they're the center of the universe.
Maybe this next generation should be called the "narcissistic generation." YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, selfies. This is their world. Affirmation is not an option but a necessity. One of my students wrote in a paper this semester that if she doesn't get at least 50 "likes" on a Facebook post she removes the post.
Even if it turns out this guy Elliot Rodgers had some kind of mental disorder, it doesn't change my thinking. I believe he's an inevitable by-product of the societal trend that fosters self-affirmation. Social media not only perpetuates this trend, it probably spawned it.
From childhood, millennials have been nurtured on the idea that they're self-important, that everything has to go their way, that they are "winners," that nothing bad should ever happen to them, that they deserve happiness, that the world revolves around them. And when it finally dawns on them that the world does not revolve around them, those that that are already a bit "off" (like this guy apparently was) are already be primed to commit atrocities like this.
But not, of course, before they get out their I-phones and videotape themselves, up close, in our faces, talking about how they've been wronged.
Factor in the secularist, anti-Christian, anti-God thinking that now permeates both the schools and public square, and the inevitable result is pretty frightening. What we saw in Isla Vista last night is just a symptom of a greater ill: narcissism run amok.
Isla Vista Shooting Suspect Left Disturbing Manifesto (Los Angeles Times, May 24, 2014).
In fairness, the shooter went much father than the typical Millennial would go.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, I feel your pain and I wonder about the future generation living in a world where everything is possible but little is actually real (CGI graphics can make anything you want and stimulate you in any way; communities have gone virtual; and you too have a voice and can be a published writer).
I have had some interesting observations in the workplace around work ethic and the sense of entitlement, over-healthy self-esteem, and the belief that every mandate must be a collaborative conversation that it has brought serious pondering among management as to how one can make a unified team out of these parts.
Two years ago at a non-profit donor management conference I heard a talk on how to raise funds (ok, market) to young donors who (as far as I could tell from the speech) were illiterate, need everything to be visual, need everything to be about them and their involvement, and only trusted their friends. I walked away discouraged thankful that I'm not a marketer.
This year, a similar speaker talked about us - the Baby Boomers since we are the ones who are coming of age with discretionary income. What I did connect with is the fact that we BB's did bring to the table the strong notion of choice as the overriding value and "having it my way". This is why, the speaker argued, that government no longer works. Unlike government in the builder generation (those who had some respect for process and protocol and at the end of the day often worked together to get a job done), congress is now run by Baby Boomers who simply want to have it their way at any cost.
I think the genx, geny and Millennial are just further permutations of the theme. As these constructs got sent down to our children, it just got worse.
In closing, a humor note:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz0o9clVQu8
Video is hilarious. Thanks! I agree, this Isla Vista kid was over the top, an 11 on a scale of 1-10. But does my original observation have any validity?
ReplyDeleteElaine: I made the classic mistake in the Blogosphere. I started writing my response without giving enough thoughtful reflection of what you were saying. Your premise of the implications of a "I'm the center of the world and you are not the boss of me" generation is spot on and I think we will see various trends and manifestations from a culture that is not only used to affirmation but instantaneous and constant affirmation as a right.
ReplyDeleteI further wonder: we Baby Boomers are the first generation who grew up on TV so we know what marketing is and we tend to dislike it because we identify it as fake. I really wonder about a Millennium generation who grew up on CGI, YouTube, realistic computer games, Michael Moorish documentary techniques, and fake social media communities that feel real and I wonder (to add to your thesis) if this lack of a strong line between fantasy and reality will perpetrate more instances like the one in Santa Barbara.
I guess I'm less concerned about that (since, as you first pointed out, most "typical" millennials wouldn't go off the deep end like this kid in Isla Vista did) than I am about 20-somethings being easily duped by misinformation and/or propaganda, easily told, quickly forgotten, in the "24/7" news cycle. So Hillary Clinton can say, "what difference, at this point, does it make?", and she's probably right. Two years have passed, who cares what happened on her watch, let's move on, and apparently this strategy works. These are kids whose go-to news sources are Twitter, Facebook, and Comedy Central and who cheer and guffaw when Barack Obama the rock star president does his schtick on their campuses. This is the next generation of voters!
ReplyDelete