The Existential Millennial Struggle

originally posted by: Bluntone22
Millennials are struggling now because the participation trophy world they were raised in is a lie. They are unable to handle failure and struggle.

Oh, really.

Im a supposed millenial. Who were the ones raising us in that "everyone gets a trophy" society?

To add to that, I'm veritably certain if anyone of any age group dealt with my story, theyd have been killed, killed themselves a very long time ago, or be permanently locked up in a psych ward muttering gibberish as they smeered feces on their own face.

And yet i and those like me are lumped in with every other "young" person as being a no nothing pattered nose baby?

Wont be so easy to blame every woe on their own #ing children within a few years when many of these hate filled, accusatory older folks dont even know their own god forsaken names.

originally posted by: 3NL1GHT3N3D1
a reply to: Mandroid7

I don't plan on being a hermit, I have family in Montana but have lived in the city (Georgia) most of my life. I feel like I need to balance out the city life with semi-hermit life for a little bit in order to find that middle ground you speak of.

Just this past week alone going and hiking these national parks on the way up to my new home has helped tremendously already. I've felt closer to God hiking the mountains and wilderness than I ever did walking the streets in my home city.

I believe the city kills your soul in a way and makes you forget who you are and where you came from on a cosmic level.

If you do go hermit, get a sattelite internet, cause you are fun to debate with dude.

I agree with escaping the concrete jungle.

You should check out the Tetons out there, it's insane, but you need to get passes early.

I am a backpacking junkie too, I've got more gear than REI. Even my dog has a cool backpack.

Nothing grounds me more than escaping the city chaos and connecting with nature.

You just need to observe the attitudes of city vs country people. City people are miserable.

a reply to: CreationBro

Broad general statements.
Every generation seems to think they had it worse than everybody else.
You're not special.

Wang Tang:

The existential millennial struggle...

In an 'existential' sense, all generations throughout history have struggled to place meaning and purpose to their lives. I was born at the start of 1960, and in as much as I have witnessed a fair few developmental changes to society, particularly through the introduction of new technologies, the greater shifts have always been psychological, requiring an adaptive intellectual update every so often.

I am not writing simply about assimilating ever more knowledge upon which to exercise one's faculty of wisdom, but more about the profound philosophical, even ideological changes that occur as one gets older. If there is one thing I perceive to be more lacking in many different societies today, it has to be trust. Trust is the first casualty of polarization. The loss of trust brings about its own unique form of a vacuum, a void that is very hard to fill once it is created.

If we did not give ourselves our own existential reasons to live, upon which we hook meaning and purpose, the inertia that threatens to ever-constantly grip us would cause our species to stagnate and collapse in on itself. We turn away and against one another at our species' peril. However, the fact is...life has no meaning or purpose apart from that which we give it by manufacturing illusions to feed and soothe our needs and wants and ignorances.

We each burn a brief light, but inevitably, it is after a short period snuffed out, and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it!

a reply to: Wang Tang

Wow.

Great post, thoughtful and engaging.

The western world is finding out a truth through existential experience. That is that freedom is not an end in itself, but like most things a means to an end.

Freedom exists so humans can find some truth….Or the truth. But this is a double edged sword waiting to strike.

I won’t go into the subjective and say what that truth is, it’s for an individual to seek and find for themselves without the burden of a coercive agency like a government.

Once we understand this then the next item to deal with is the etiology of the philosophy of freedom that has gripped western civilization.

This means a grasp of history, exoteric and esoteric. In examining the source of western philosophy where the concept of freedom has taken hold we come to see the exoteric as the political idea of freedom as an end in itself, and the esoteric aspect which understands that that concept is bankrupt, and only leads to forms and levels of hedonistic indulgence.

That’s one reason for the unfortunate fact that many of the fascist ideas from the west are based in immature esoteric concepts from people who aught to know better.

That said, and gotten out of the way, we must note that freedom as a means to an end has as its extension in many minds that the end is some kind of religion or philosophy that claims to have found the truth; therefore to its fellows they say: there's no longer any reason for freedom: fascism, Nazism, religious cults, political cults, communism, capitalism and many other isms and asms have filled the void you speak of in contradiction to the very concept of freedom.


This is valid on one level as far as it goes, conceptually speaking, in terms of the idea of freedom as a means to an end and not as an end in itself. But the ever present idea of ethics and morality cuts through this and slays it like a valiant knight slays for its beloved. It never works, the apocalyptic cults and truth finders when they want to impose their truth on the world always fail because of the ontological reality that truth is persepctival and based on many things outside of linear deductions and dogma.

The fact is the individual in the west has to find a path within the narrow and conflicting elements that cut across the philosophical reality of freedom: materialism, the cause of seeking higher truth, and the conflict of truth for the individual and the collective.

There are dangers in all of these elements.

Though in the end we must try to understand ourselves better...

It’s like the spiritual seeker who visited a spiritual master with intent to become enlightened. When the master healed this seeker of a disease he had, ironically, the seeker no longer needed to have enlightenment.


I wish you well

Wang Tang

a reply to: Mandroid7

I actually just left the Tetons yesterday and visited Yellowstone today! They're amazing (the Tetons I mean). I've just recently caught the hiking bug thanks to visiting my brother in Montana the past two years, now I'm addicted!

It's amazing the feeling I get out there, especially after reaching the summit of a hike I just spent a few hours climbing. It's definitely a natural high knowing you just conquered a mountain, plus the view is usually pretty nice too.



This is me near the top (well maybe halfway) of Angel's Landing in Zion a few days ago, one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.

First time posting a pic of myself on here, now you guys know what I look like! Excuse the goofy grin, I was enjoying myself! Lol.

We all stand on the shoulders of the giants that have gone before us.

Some of us look at the heights that have been achieved and are paralyzed by the fear of falling; their lives are lived in fear.

Some of us measure ourselves puny against the greatness and shrivel up in shame; their lives are wasted.

And some of us pay little heed to how great our forebears were, how high we have risen, how little we have in resources. Some of us are brave as warriors, and some are simply too foolish to have fear, but we are the ones who reach for the Stars.

And some of us attain them.

a reply to: Wang Tang

Boring, pass.

Meh! A life without struggle, is kind of like, not living. Poor little worthless bastards. I have no feelings for them anymore. They have had so much given to them, and they never had to try or even bleed. Little punks! I love them to death! But I hope they get the world they want, and everything they ask for. ....That's the only way they'll get an "education" now.

I think the problem with Millennials is due to technology, nvm the beauracy and the Golden Ponies people put into each other heads, but how it is rapidly changing the economics... eventually. Although thanks to technology, the populace might as well be in a recession rather then a depression.

20-30 years ago, the average Joe would said you'd be stupid to believe you can make a living from the Internet or video games per say. It was ether get a job or rob someone.

This is the future that awaits the huge population of our intelligent and highly educated Millennial generation

OMG, I laughed so hard at this statement !

Just take away all the electronics and see what happens.

LOL !

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

Alrighty then. Still looking for my daughter and we are in Atlanta , too!

Sorry, op...I'm old and I'm sure you don't want my opinion.

Thanks for your sharing enjoyed your journey. The philosophers Achilles tendon is their own mind, this, of course, ends up being a spiritual problem or always was.The moment you learn to know and then let go the happyness you are is revealed. a reply to: Wang Tang

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

Actually I fully blame the parents for the conditions they raised their children in.

And those parents can blame their parents - and those parents can blame their parents. - and those parents can blame their parents.............................So in the end it is Adam and Eves fault.

You just have a poor outlook,my kids and many others are excelling at their jobs,just because your not equipped to deal with the real world,others were taught to care and think for themselves,only whiners I see are on TV,try turning it off and applying for a job,does wonders for depression

a reply to: Wang Tang

Hello Brother. I completely disagree with the entirety of your reasonings and conclusions of your opening post.

The world view that you are expressing is not one based on philosophy nor of critical thinking, but rather, it appears to be drawn from an extremely narrow and isolated perspective.

I am active with generation gap bridging, and the Millennials that I work with do not fall into your presumed generation stereotype.

The depression expressed by many Millennials is an existent epidemic, caused by many factors. Mainly being, the destruction of family structures, the destruction of community gatherings, the strangle-hold of the Central Banking & Corporate octopus on the global community, and living a life of pampered luxury without having to ever face a lack of, hardships, or turmoils that build character through learning & failures.

You think that the grass is greener on the other side in third world countries,... but you fail to realize that the very economic slavery that you are rallying against actually exists just about everywhere in the world. What stops impoverished people from being stuck in the rat race, is the fact that there isn't any spinning wheels available for them to run on, so rather than holding a monotonous 9-5 job, they are more concerned with daily provisional living.

What you see as wonder and amazement in the third world countries is actually a result of those people respecting their elders, honoring their mothers and fathers, and clinging fast to the bonds of family, friendship, and community. If you want the affinity of third world countries, you must learn how to respect and honor elders, family, friends, and community. Love over detrimental-selfishness.

I wish you happiness and open eyes to transcend the depressing state of your self-imposed stagnation. I say "self-imposed", because truly, on a mental, emotional, intellectual, & metaphysical level, we are the masters of our states of being. It just takes introspection, philosophic inquiry, and mindfulness discipline. You can do it!!!

Im 20 years down the line from you.

A conventional life was never easy for me to.buckle down to. You know chase that white picket fence, and all that comes with it. After a brush with a destructive lifestyle and the subsequent fallout, I made a huge push to comform at 25 years old.

I ruined my life. Got trapped and spent the next 13 years in a gilded cage of abject misery.

A car. Job. House in a hugely expensive city. Clothes. Eating out. If you are that square peg in a round hole, it wont make you happy. Some people are wired different. Leonard Cohen was a gifted man, shutting your eyes to injustice and pain doesn't make it go away. Brave people stare it in the face and create something.

Granted, I had other problems, but the material stuff didnt ease their sting.

I got out. Im poor. I live unconventionally, off my meagre income. My kids are happy. Im happier even though ive still got problems.

Ild say dont marry the wrong person, dont rush into kids (that said mine are the single most positive aspect of my life), and to thy own self be true.

Those who fit into the rat race would force others into their conventionally acceptable misery. Ignore them. Be Leonard Cohen. Heaven knows the world misses him.

originally posted by: Wulfrida
Be Leonard Cohen.

What? Canadian?

a reply to: TheAlleghenyGentleman

No point trying not to be if you are...

Philosophically, the OP makes a good point but may not understand why.

The west has reached the apex of materialism in a sense. What is left to do may be the existential dilemma therein.

Certainly a lot of people are happy in this material based paradigm, since they have somehow gotten most of the resources, one way or the other--WE WON'T GO INTO THAT HERE.

And indeed poor third world countries have so far to go they do have more incentive to hurl themselves in the maelstrom of material acquisitions.

The west may have reached the glass ceiling of materialism and the dearth of legitimate spiritualism leaves many in limbo.