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Was there the equivalent of NEETs by choice in the GI Generation? - Printable Version

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Was there the equivalent of NEETs by choice in the GI Generation? - AspieMillennial - 03-28-2019

The Millennials who don't fit in with our peers often decide to be NEETs or antisocial. Normie is an insult to us and so is mainstream. Many of us learn from different sources, listen to different music, or even watch different programs than the mainstream society. What was the equivalent in the GI Generation? I'm Millennial but can't relate to the values of my peers at all, think my elders are clueless about how things are , and think society is a joke that should be dropped out of. I know there were technical NEETs because of the Great Depression but I mean people who dropped out of society by choice because they couldn't take how conformist it was becoming? For individualistic Millennials we think there's no point to trying to integrate or make friends with most people because then our every behavior is policed. It's easier to just do whatever you want as the outcast. My theory is everyone is easily offended or weirded out so there's no point in trying to kill yourself for people that will be total flakes on you anyways. Better to just be brash and unapologetic about being yourself. If other people don't like it, they have to deal with it. Did anyone else develop this sort of attitude?


RE: Was there the equivalent of NEETs by choice in the GI Generation? - Bill the Piper - 04-03-2019

There are loners in all generations, because of deep psychological factors:
-autistic people simply don't enjoy company
-people with avoidant personality disorder like me are too sensitive to criticism and being disliked, so socializing is not really enjoyable for us, unless it's with some trusted individuals. I used to go to parties in my late teens, before the avoidant traits started to manifest.
-people with schizophrenia and schizotypy are prone to paranoid suspicions, they often prefer to be alone for security reasons
-on old good Big 5, low Extraversion is enough to discourage people from having an active social life

Different generations have however different cultural perspectives on loneliness, e.g. the Transcendental writers praised "solitude of the self". Among Boomers' it was fashionable to be interested in Hindu or Taoist meditation. Still I don't think the prophetic generations are less sociable than civic ones. I take it for granted that many Boomers and Transcendentals meditated or spent time alone only because it was the "done thing" among their peers.

G.I.s? Remember they were drafted, so even if someone wanted to escape the conformity, he still had no choice unless he was ill. Men had to do the fighting, and women were "Rosie Riveters". Even before the war, the economic crisis was so severe there was no room for choosing one's lifestyle according to one's personality.


RE: Was there the equivalent of NEETs by choice in the GI Generation? - pbrower2a - 04-03-2019

(03-28-2019, 04:08 PM)AspieMillennial Wrote: The Millennials who don't fit in with our peers often decide to be NEETs or antisocial. Normie is an insult to us and so is mainstream. Many of us learn from different sources, listen to different music, or even watch different programs than the mainstream society.

Learning from different sources is wonderful so long as those sources aren't discreditable. Learning in a different way might be right for you even if very wrong for someone else. But remember well: "normies" will never fully understand you and your methods. You may not fit in well within bureaucratic organizations in which conformity determines who is reputable and who isn't.

Listening to different music? Go ahead! Maybe you think the current pop music scene empty. I'd rather listen to Bach for his splendid counterpoint and tricky modulations. Watching different programs on television? You really can learn very little from watching television except in programming blatantly cultural or scientific. So you are utterly unaware of what others are watching. You aren't missing much.

Quote:What was the equivalent in the GI Generation? I'm Millennial but can't relate to the values of my peers at all, think my elders are clueless about how things are , and think society is a joke that should be dropped out of. I know there were technical NEETs because of the Great Depression but I mean people who dropped out of society by choice because they couldn't take how conformist it was becoming?

There were few ways in which to drop out of mainstream society in the Great Depression. Crime was one of them -- but in view of what happened to marauding outlaws like the Barrow-Parker gang, John Dillinger, etc. as police methods got better and states started turning to the FBI for technical solutions to criminality, such would prove short-sighted. Being affiliated with extremist causes was bad for one's reputation. Many of the drop-outs proved to be unimaginative losers -- hoboes and skid-row bums who got a raw deal even in the terms of the time. 

People focused on survival, something that overpowered any assertion of self. That one did not fit the role that the economic order offered one to make a few dollars -- let us say, being an out-of-work accountant or carpenter and getting the opportunity to pick fruit -- usually didn't matter. Any lawful income was to be cherished. Starting a business? It was rarely lucrative, but at least one developed some good habits that would make one prosper in good times... like cultivating customers and watching costs. The mom-and-pop businesses that people started in the desperate 'Thirties were more likely to bring prosperity to the children and grandchildren of their founders.

Quote:For individualistic Millennials we think there's no point to trying to integrate or make friends with most people because then our every behavior is policed. It's easier to just do whatever you want as the outcast.

Being an outcast is not a good way to get what you want. You may need to latch onto a job that you despise just to meet the basic needs in life, let alone the means of asserting your Aspie differences in which you must indulge. Millions of people, including "normies", hate the jobs that they hold, despise their bosses, and loathe the political order. It does not simply seem like a harsh and unforgiving world; it is a harsh and unforgiving world in which a cadres of elites of ownership and management have aligned with reactionary politicians to ensure that as much as possible goes to those elites. You may see those elites as rapacious, despotic, and even sadistic -- but they have the power and we don't.

It may be possible to find a job that fits you as an Aspie. At least you know what you are. But whatever you do, avoid anger and resentment. The people who really rule us demand that most of us suffer for their greed and indulgence, but never forget to smile and express how wonderful it is to be treated like a peon.

If you want to know how badly things can turn out for an autistic, if talented, person, just think of Unabom killer Ted Kaczynski, who could not cope with the complexities of college life as a professor and ended up a resentful loner who used his talents for some lethal bombings.

Quote:My theory is everyone is easily offended or weirded out so there's no point in trying to kill yourself for people that will be total flakes on you anyways. Better to just be brash and unapologetic about being yourself. If other people don't like it, they have to deal with it. Did anyone else develop this sort of attitude?

Unless you find a good career fit you will need to stifle some of the resentments in your life. Money is everything  in this soulless, materialistic society which damns most people to the status of "loser". But it is the "losers" who have the luxury of having little to lose in a Crisis. They do not have an aristocratic way of life, and the identity that goes with such, to lose in the wake of war and revolution.