4 ms·

I can't vouch for any other generations, but it's hard to tell people my age (born 1985) that they /can't/ accomplish anything even if they try their hardest. L

I can't vouch for any other generations, but it's hard to tell people my age (born 1985) that they /can't/ accomplish anything even if they try their hardest. Life is a lot more fatalistic and free will a lot weaker than we've been taught. It's very sobering and depressing to learn that scarcity is a very real thing. There are only so many spots for the jobs that people want, and most of the time people get there through personal relationships, luck, or other things most people just can't realistically be expected to have.

jacoblyles 18y ago
I call the mindset of my peer group the "Disney culture". It is characterized by magical thinking, such as "if you follow your heart, everything will turn out for the best!" To some extent, this is valuable. It encourages people to take risks and be creative. The wonderful explosion of technology and prosperity in the 1990s was an expression of magical thinking. But I think we place too little value on financial stability, independence, and other more boring traditional values. This could be because we've never really had to face hard times until now. I wonder if we will pick up these traits during the recession.
- Ardit20 18y ago
  I doubt it, necessity is the mother of invention and that magical thinking you mentioned otherwise we might riot like the Greek teenagers :P
danbmil99 18y ago
This is not unique to your generation. Mine (I'm 49) had different but similar myths -- the rock star, the uber-athlete, the astronaut. This is part of our collective human culture, and to some extent it's sort of a larger extension of what the article is about. It's very difficult to be honest with young people about their odds of making a large-scale difference in a world of six billion people. Even just the opportunity to 'do what you love' is simply not in the cards for the majority. I'm not sure what we can do about that if anything, but it's a fact and it often takes 30+ years before it starts to sink in. Maybe that's evolution's way of keeping us from feeling hopeless before we've had children. Once you have kids, all that ambition can be transferred to them. That might explain why some parents seem to be completely insane when it comes to their kids.

jacoblyles 18y ago

I call the mindset of my peer group the "Disney culture". It is characterized by magical thinking, such as "if you follow your heart, everything will turn out for the best!" To some extent, this is valuable. It encourages people to take risks and be creative. The wonderful explosion of technology and prosperity in the 1990s was an expression of magical thinking. But I think we place too little value on financial stability, independence, and other more boring traditional values. This could be because we've never really had to face hard times until now. I wonder if we will pick up these traits during the recession.

Ardit20 18y ago
I doubt it, necessity is the mother of invention and that magical thinking you mentioned otherwise we might riot like the Greek teenagers :P

danbmil99 18y ago

This is not unique to your generation. Mine (I'm 49) had different but similar myths -- the rock star, the uber-athlete, the astronaut. This is part of our collective human culture, and to some extent it's sort of a larger extension of what the article is about. It's very difficult to be honest with young people about their odds of making a large-scale difference in a world of six billion people. Even just the opportunity to 'do what you love' is simply not in the cards for the majority. I'm not sure what we can do about that if anything, but it's a fact and it often takes 30+ years before it starts to sink in. Maybe that's evolution's way of keeping us from feeling hopeless before we've had children. Once you have kids, all that ambition can be transferred to them. That might explain why some parents seem to be completely insane when it comes to their kids.