The Destruction of My Generation

reply to post by Ace High


Ay Ay....I'll fit right into that. It's amazing how much indoctrination our generation had to put up with. We were always told our government could do us no wrong, that it was here to protect us and guide us through our troubles. We were brought up to be demented sheep like the Cold War generation.
In my efforts to avoid debt, I have stalled getting my Masters, but I don't regret it, seeing that I do have a job (at the time being...so long as the government continues to expand in my department)....and that I can live sufficiently. What is very disheartening is when I see qualified workers that are unable to find jobs. Our private sector is falling apart because of a select few. Corporate conglomerates of the private sector got backroom deals (bailout) in D.C. and that leaves the little guys out. So much for the American Dream.

reply to post by wantsome


wantsome,

Thanks for sharing your story. These stories are all too familiar.

So many people in our generation are either disillusioned or fighting a losing battle toward the great America dream.

Thou commoners shall gripe all that you wish, but in the end, nothing shall any of you do.

Your are of an inferior class to us, a dog with bark, sans any any bite.

As we see fit, you shall toil; enslaved and obedient you shall remain.

Your generations we shall cut even deeper.

You shall continue to bark and not bite.

Nothing more shall you do.

Barking dogs without bite.

Originally posted by laiguana
Ay Ay....I'll fit right into that. It's amazing how much indoctrination our generation had to put up with. We were always told our government could do us no wrong, that it was here to protect us and guide us through our troubles. We were brought up to be demented sheep like the Cold War generation....

The propaganda and indoctrination continues as well. Every time I turn on the radio and hear the non-stop political ads it just makes me sick. They really think we are stupid.

For example, one ad comes on for the local Democrat and attacks the Republican saying, "he is against public schools, he wants to raise your taxes 23%, he is worth $14 million, he just can't understand us regular folks." Sadly, I think that many in the generation before me, listen to something like that and just agree that, "wow, he really is out of touch." My generation hears it and realizes the ad is deceptively referencing school vouchers and the fair tax.

Then the local Republican ad comes on and sounds something like this, "There are no jobs because the Democrats are in office, jobs have been shipped to China b/c the Democrats are in office, the economy is horrible because the Democrats are in office." Again we are supposed to be idiots and believe that when a new party takes control they have some kind of clean slate and are not dragged down by the policies of the failed administrations before them.

Both parties lie. The good thing is my generation knows it.

Well, here we are. I thought it might be interesting to get comments on this post now that the debt crisis is crushing down on this generation.

While many in my generation are in dire straights, literally afraid to turn on the news at night. Many think its better to just turn on the TV and watch American Idol or Big Brother burying their heads in the sand and waiting for things to get better.

Now the news articles talk of how our generation is changed forever due to this financial disaster. Things will never be as we thought or hoped they might be.

Lets see who has jobs after Aug 2nd.

As a 24 year old male, I am deeply worried about my generation. And as a father of a 2.5 year old, I'm even more worried about his generation. The systematic demise of our people is so evident, I can't understand how others don't see it. I'm in college to be a high school history teacher (hopefully won't lose my job one day opening these kids minds) and can tell you these kids are so bad off it's ridiculous. I don't blame my parents generation, this was enacted before them. Eisenhower warned us when he left office that things wouldn't be the same. Shame not that many people listened.

Originally posted by Ace High
reply to post by On the Edge

 

On the Edge, Thank you for the post. Yes there is a positive in everything, I think that our generation will give our children a little more direction when it comes to their ability to provide for themselves and not just how they feel about there self-esteem.

I am certainly not resentful and I currently have a very well paying job despite this economy. Of course, I am in a foreclosure on the home I first bought but I will make it through this.

Thanks for the post.

I am in this generation, I live in the suburbs with 3 children and I can tell you the kids are actually more spoiled, less educated and have no idea how to provide for themselves. Self esteem is more important now then with our generation.
Sorry to bust your bubble
My parents did the best they knew how to, my mom is suffering now more than you or I ever will because she did what she was told would be the best investment with her money, real estate. She worked hard all her life, built her own business, raised 2 kids and a couple of years ago she was technically a millionaire and now she is 60 yrs old and bankrupt.

reply to post by newBodyoldSoul


Good luck to you! I myself am a history buff and pursued teaching history as a profession. I didn't have much luck. After graduating I got into business management and have been doing that ever since. Couldn't afford to live off a teacher's salary.

Originally posted by SEEWHATUDO
....my mom is suffering now more than you or I ever will because she did what she was told would be the best investment with her money, real estate. She worked hard all her life, built her own business, raised 2 kids and a couple of years ago she was technically a millionaire and now she is 60 yrs old and bankrupt.

Sorry to hear about your Mom. My Grandfather also was involved in real estate. He is now alone and most of his properties are in foreclosure because no tenants can afford to pay what he needs to charge just the cover the mortgages. It is really sad, because he was able to take care of his family for so long and worked hard everyday of his life.

I know this story is being repeated around the country. The people will only take this so long. I get the feeling what happened in Greece, Ireland, and Italy is just days away from starting in this country. How strange it will be to turn on the TV and see video of protests, like those is Syria, Tunisia, Egypt on the streets of Washington DC. I think we will be there before this time next year.

I hope not.

I'm in a hurry and didn't get to read the whole thread- I apologize if I repeat things already said or am basically out of sync!!

A good book to read is "The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy"

This book is really eye opening. It was written quite few years ago, and yet the outline it gives for these years and what shall happen to our society has been AMAZINGLY accurate- right down to the most unpredictable events like 9/11. Yet it is neither a doomsday call nor mystical prophecy. The authors assert that the skill of prophesizing has always been a matter of studying and knowing the cycles of humanity and it's generations, as they are repeated. This is why in ancient times those considered "seer" of the future were people with access to the historical records- either written or oral tradition. They used knowing past to know future- not any mystical power.

A very key element in their hypothesis is the four types of generations that repeat in cycles, and yet each time having their own particular characteristics, both formed by their experiences and the previous generation, and also influencing future events and experiences (because of their attitudes and actions).

I was of the 13th or X Generation, born in the sixties, while that hippy generation were still "hippies" and not yet in their "yuppie" stage. The effects were completely different. The parents were "exploring themselves" and expressing themselves, and completely ignoring their children, saying they would be better off learning from nature and not being infected by others. Lots of us didn't even go to school. Parents were having all sorts of experimental sex and drug experiences at home and we had to survive out there.

This had a very different effect in our cultural personality than the kids they had later (once they'd married and decided to clean up their act, still as self absorbed in their "Thirty Something" navel staring, but able to at least provide material comfort and security for their later born kids. I have a brother who was born later, and he is lost, as you describe. He has always had everythign he wanted, his room was crowded with toys, but he also had au pairs and nannies instead of parents, and was never ever spanked once in his entire life. He does not know what work is, nor effort (the opposite of my generation that knows only that, and for survival, not to earn luxuries or pleasures), he cannot keep a job, is usually homeless, and with this completely irrational unrealistic overblown self concept- in which despite his obvious failings at everything, he truly believes he is superior to all others, more intelligent, and probably the next messiah. It is sad. He has been handicapped by all the positive reinforcement and is totally ineffective now.

This book described how during this time, with the X Generation in the force of age, we will have to carry the world through total break down. We may be rough, uncultured, reactive, but we're also extremely endurant, which is what will be needed to survive for a while. Some have said the X Generation was a total waste of human life- a bunch of losers with belief in "no future". But each generation has a time and a place where they fit and play an important part fo the picture.

Your generation, in their theory, is the dreamers of the new society. The oens that shall imagine up the blueprints of the new way (being rasied on computer games helps this). Movies like "Avatar" are popular exactly ebcaus eyour generation is dreaming and spinning out the new vision. And your kids, having been borught up in tough living, influenced by us grandparents to be tough pirates, as well as your idealistic and fantastic dreams, shall actually BUILD the new society.

It is a rather uplifting vision, and I really woudl recommend reading it!

Originally posted by Bluesma
...This had a very different effect in our cultural personality than the kids they had later (once they'd married and decided to clean up their act, still as self absorbed in their "Thirty Something" navel staring, but able to at least provide material comfort and security for their later born kids. I have a brother who was born later, and he is lost, as you describe. He has always had everythign he wanted, his room was crowded with toys, but he also had au pairs and nannies instead of parents, and was never ever spanked once in his entire life. He does not know what work is, nor effort (the opposite of my generation that knows only that, and for survival, not to earn luxuries or pleasures), he cannot keep a job, is usually homeless, and with this completely irrational unrealistic overblown self concept- in which despite his obvious failings at everything, he truly believes he is superior to all others, more intelligent, and probably the next messiah. It is sad. He has been handicapped by all the positive reinforcement and is totally ineffective now....

Your generation, in their theory, is the dreamers of the new society. The oens that shall imagine up the blueprints of the new way (being rasied on computer games helps this). Movies like "Avatar" are popular exactly ebcaus eyour generation is dreaming and spinning out the new vision. And your kids, having been borught up in tough living, influenced by us grandparents to be tough pirates, as well as your idealistic and fantastic dreams, shall actually BUILD the new society.

It is a rather uplifting vision, and I really woudl recommend reading it!

Sounds like a good read! It is funny to review this thread with the current debt crisis. It all really fits together. Our generation is so lost it is not funny. "The Glass is half full" side of me wants to think that this will be a wake up call for my generation that we better start earning our keep. But then I look around me and try to discuss current events with my peers and all they know about is who just got kicked off Big Brother or who won The Voice. LOL or I'd cry.

It seems the debt crisis speaks to this thread. The destruction of our generation indeed.

Thanks Obama!!!

reply to post by Dock9


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