Millennials and the Boomers

Okay, today’s post is outside of my usual topics but I think it is necessary to go outside of one’s usual domain. This activity falls under my “horizon scanning” that I usually do so that I can get a sense of the direction of the world or citizens are moving. I’m trying to get a big picture feel of how businesses, culture, science, digital technology is moving on the trajectory toward the future. Today is a focus on my sense of the millennials because they are the future and are increasingly playing a role in our society.

The beginning point for this post is Ezra Klein’s article/podcast “Did the Boomers Ruin America” on New York Times. (You may or may not be able to access the article. If you subscribe, you can get it). Ezra Klein, who is a millennial and happens to be at the beginning of graying hairs at his temples, has some really interesting articles/podcasts where he talks to people with interesting viewpoints. When I did a search on his name at the NYT, I pulled up a list of articles that I wanted to read. He covers a broad range of fascinating topics.

At this point, you’ve probably heard of “okay Boomer” and it’s easy to think that the millennials don’t think much of the Boomers.

I have to admit, I kind of agree with them: the Boomers did not leave the world a better place. The Boomers may say that they brought in civil rights but I kind of think even civil rights have backslided in some ways. The Boomers are at the end stage of their lives and all that is left of their reign is a burning planet populated with increasing inequality, intractable polarization, and rising mass shootings.

Other than that, everything is going great!

With all of that as background, I see strains in the millennials and younger and I worry about the potential path they could take. The question will be how many of them will take it.

Take the white supremacy that is rising around the country: I see pictures of those participating in the white supremacy and they don’t look old. That Charlottesville picture of men chanting “…. will not replace us”: those guys look young. How large a group of these young men comprising the white supremacy/authoritarian tendencies remains to be seen. But they are going to be a problem.

Or how about the fact that some millennials prefer communism over capitalism? How large a group are they? I know capitalism has a bad rap and it deserves it, but we have to distinguish the type of capitalism we have today – the primacy of the shareholder dogma – and the one we had before the ’70s or ’80s which regarded all stakeholders, not just shareholders. In other words, the shareholders-at-all cost type of capitalism that we’ve been living through since probably the ’80s should be adjusted, broadened to bring benefits to all participants in society, not thrown out for communism. Communist Russia failed for a good reason: it didn’t bring benefits to everyone. Capitalism can bring good things by cultivating healthy competition in markets so that new ideas improving lives can be developed. Capitalism can bring people out of poverty.

But it needs to be the right kind of capitalism. The kind that the Boomers lived through was not it.

Or how about the cancel culture that seems to arise out of the millennials whereby a rabid group of people can make life a hell for the recipient of these “call outs”. My understanding of the cancel culture is kind of weak. I’m thinking of those college students who shout and drown out the presentation of undesirable ideas in such a way that lives are feared. I remember reading articles where the speaker had to flee the college auditorium in fear for their well being because these students were so strident and nearly physically violent. The cancel culture crowd does not allow a peaceful discussion of ideas. The cancel culture crowd simmers with violence. That doesn’t bode well for the future.

Or how about that group of young people in Washington DC that stood over a lady in a threatening manner, asking her to raise her fist in support of Black Lives Matter. The surrounded her, stood over her, and they were not Boomers. You don’t get people’s agreement by being threatening. The kind of groupthink that these young people demanded of the citizens of Washington DC was frightening. There is a strain of authoritarianism in this kind of threat. Is this the future that the millennials can look forward to?

Or how about the social justice or socialistic principles that millennials seem to adhere to? I have to say, I haven’t heard of a clear articulation of how their brand of socialism will not lead to Russian or Venezuelan type of socialism/communism where everybody’s life is miserable. I suspect that a subset of Trump voters went over to Trump out of fear of “socialism” on the left; they worry the US will turn into Russia, Cuba or Venezuela and the millennials have not made an effort to explain how they will avoid those countries’ fate. As far as I can tell, they haven’t made any attempt or tried very hard.

All in all, I can’t say in which direction the millennials will turn out but there are worrying signs that they will endure immense struggles on top of their current economic struggle.