Are Millennials Cemented as Civics/Heroes Yet?

[Eric the Green]

(03-11-2022, 12:51 AM)JasonBlack Wrote: Overall I'd say millennials are quite Civic. The one glaring inconsistency is that civic responsibility is all about responsibility to your country. It's not that millennials are an extremely selfish generation (this is an unfair criticism that gets levied on us, but generally, it's not true), but that they often place the greater good of the entire world above their own country and families.

There is no difference. Many Millennials realize that the threat of climate breakdown is a threat to the whole world and that includes our country. They understand that many issues can't be restricted by national border.

Quote:The Ukraine fiasco is a good example. Like....really? Now is the time you want to go to war? At precisely the moment where it will cost your own people nothing but sacrifices with no payoff? Fighting moral crusades over gas while your own countrymen are in the worst depression in almost 100 years? Civics are supposed to support their people and their country, yet millennials walk around in perpetual guilt. I get some level of "why can't we have healthcare like Sweden?" or "Why can't we have work weeks like Australia?", but it's gotten to the point where people view their own country with shame and almost...want us to fail. I know not all of them are like this, but that such a large swathe feel this way is, at the very least, unusual for a Civic gen.

I disagree. The Ukraine invasion by Putin is a direct threat to our freedom and democracy. He has directly threatened the USA by putting his nuclear forces on high alert and declaring economic war. Millennials are not saying they want to go to war. They support the actions of ALL concerned people-- to impose severe sanctions on Russia and Putin and his oligarchs and to send all kinds of aid to Ukraine. This violation of the norms of behavior by nations encourages the many other dictators in this terrible crisis of increasing tyranny around the world to do the same.

It is not a matter of guilt. Many millennials see that other countries care about their citizen's health and their treatment of workers, and that the USA does not. They are exactly right. We are the most backward developed nation in the world by far, and millennials are civically-informed enough to know this, and to take action. This is desire for our nation to succeed, not to fail.

Quote:On a more positive note, one thing I will say is that they seem to be finally waking up to a kind of "wholesomeness" that American culture has lost touch with since the boom, and, even into their 30s, many of the more intellectually honest ones are open minded to changing their minds and adopting values they've only come to truly understand later in life. The "red pill" community is a good example of this. It's not that everything they believe is good (some of it is kinda disgusting, and I say this as a conservative), but that it started with cringe, immature PUAs from the 2000s and gradually grew into a more nuanced understanding of evolutionary psychology and history that has had some more positive offshoots as well (say what you will about horny bastards desperate for sex, it's a desire that lends itself to a kind of pragmatism and adaptability stemming from necessity). Coming full circle, sbarrera made a comment about how being a hero often means being a victim who is sacrificed for the greater good. I would add to that that most heroes don't set out choosing to be heroes. They get forced into it out of necessity, and forced to develop the character and skills necessary to make it through to the other side. It could be what we're seeing is that millennials could indeed be a "heroic" generation, just one comprised of...very late bloomers.

They are that. But many of us Boomers really felt liberated and elevated by the social and spiritual movements that our generation experienced in our youth. The best of us do, at any rate. Younger generations have a distorted view of those times painted by the media and conservative propaganda. I celebrate and revere those times. Millennials who understand this are blest.