Hey, what do you all think of this…?

[I survived the buster call]

Many of you who live here in the US may be familiar with David McCullough's commencement address to a bunch of seniors at the Massachusetts private school (perhaps a pertinent point) at which he teaches, but just in case, I will enclose a link to the text:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1061137286

This is a response to that same address:

[hide] Open Letter from a Millennial: Quit Telling Us We’re Not Special
by Sierra on June 25, 2012

Dear Baby Boomers and Generation X,
Quit telling us we’re not special.

Believe us, we bloody well know.

Earlier this month, Wellesley high school teacher David McCullough, Jr., delivered what was perhaps the world’s first commencement dirge to a crowd of teenagers on the first day of distinction many of them have ever experienced. Graduation from high school, he informed them, is a shiny induction to the hordes of mediocrity. McCullough even took it upon himself to remind the youth of their eventual funerals. (You know it’s a problematic speech when Rush Limbaugh loves it.) What parting words did the teacher have for those who survived his twelve-minute lesson on nihilism? The paradoxical exhortation to go forth and live extraordinary lives! Because, apparently, we can?

Here’s the rub: this speech is misplaced. It doesn’t belong in an address to the generation graduating into an economy that wipes its rear end with their high school diplomas. It doesn’t belong in an address to the generation who began running the rat race at age 4. It doesn’t apply to the generation that knows hard work guarantees nothing, that can’t hope to own a home before we have our own children, that pours coffee for other people’s parents for free in the name of gaining “work experience” through “internship.” David McCullough ought to have given that speech not to the graduates, but to their parents. We have not yet begun to shape the world: we are living in the one you created. And it’s killing us.

We stopped believing in our own specialness about the same time that we figured out who was the real Tooth Fairy. We grew up accruing praise, but not self-esteem. We learned that praise was a parenting strategy, not a sincere reward for merit. We stopped listening when you told us we were smart, brave, beautiful and unique. “You have to say that because you’re our parents,” we told you. You agreed.

So we looked to our teachers to learn where we stood. They couldn’t tell us the truth, either. “Did I get an A because I really wrote an exceptional essay, or because my teacher was afraid to deal with my parents?” We learned to suspect the latter.

When our teachers couldn’t tell us, we looked to our bosses. They despised us: the pampered, electronic generation who doesn’t know the meaning of hard work. When we worked hard, they were surprised. But they cynically assumed we were only working hard to build our resumes. That 16-year-old who went on a humanitarian relief trip to Haiti? Just another yuppie trying to pad her Harvard application. What would it take to convince you that we really care? Even the things we do for fun – playing sports, joining a band, riding a horse, writing a story – you have made into a competition. You’ve taken our creativity and told us that it matters not because it fulfills us, but because we can sell it to a college and reap the returns on our “investment” decades from now. Every little thing we do must be harnessed for profit. And you wonder why we seem to have no spontaneity left.

You have done our work for us, then called us lazy.
You have threatened our teachers, then told us “just an A” isn’t good enough.
You have gotten our jobs for us, and called us underachievers.
You have recorded everything we do, like researchers breeding a better mouse.
You have made us trophy-seekers, then mocked us for our walls of worthless awards.
You have pitted us against each other in a fight for success, which has become survival.
You have given us a world in which even our college degrees are meaningless because there are just too many of us.
You have made us depend on you. When we followed your instructions – went to the best schools, got the best grades, took the most internships and did the most independent study projects, met the right people and got into the right grad schools and chosen the right majors – we’ve ended up stuck in your basement because nobody in your generation is willing to pay us a living wage.
Then you called us the “boomerang” generation that refuses to grow up. When did we have the chance?

Somebody handed me this thing, but I don’t know what for.
We don’t think we’re special. We know that being “special” and a dollar won’t even buy us a cup of coffee anymore.

We learned something else along the way to becoming “special.” We learned that you depended on us. For validation. For certainty that you did everything right. If we did not succeed, it reflected badly on you. When you told us that you loved us and that we were smart, beautiful, creative, independent, and destined for greatness, what you implied was that we must be all of those things or that you would cease to love us. That our lives would cease to be worth anything. That we might as well die if we’re not the best.

We are drowsy with medications that we take to calm the fear that if we are anything less than the best, we will fall through the cracks. We spend our days fighting each other, always fearing our invisible duplicate who has everything we have on her resume, plus one. We don’t even know what’s down there in the zone of failure – we just know that our failure scares you so much, we’d better never dare to fall. So we work twice as many hours as you did for half the pay and come home to your taunts about how we’re twenty-six and still can’t afford an apartment.

And you know what else? We’re not all even this lucky.

A great many of us have no family home to return to. A great many of us are told not only that we’re lazy because we send text messages, but also that we’re lazy because of our race or class. We’re told that if we’ve ever been on welfare we come from inferior stock: lazy parents who breed entitled children. We try to go to school and pull ourselves up, somewhere nearer to equal footing with the children of the elite, and find that we’re up against insurmountable odds. We do our own homework, and we find ourselves at the bottom of the pile because other people’s parents have already helped them blow away the playing field. We struggle to earn our own money so we won’t be accused of expecting handouts, then watch our grades drop. If we pull our grades back up, we find that we’re up against the spotless records of other kids who were racking up sports trophies while we packed grocery bags and mowed lawns. Do we think we’re special just because we might get into college? A place where we’ll spend four years racking up debt in numbers that we’ve never seen? A place where we’ll sit through another commencement, look out over the sea of hats and realize how small we are yet again?

The truth is, we never thought we were special. You did.
You thought we were special because we were extensions of you.
You trained us to be the children you could brag about. Then, all of a sudden, everybody had one and we were no longer good enough, like outdated toys.
We were supposed to fulfill all your unrealized potential.
We were supposed to live your dreams.
We were supposed to have what you never had, do what you never did and be who you never were.
We can’t.
We know the congratulations are hollow, the awards meaningless, the degrees redundant, the ceremonies overwrought. We aren’t surprised; you are.
If there is anything that defines our generation, it’s knowing exactly how miserably our lives have failed to satisfy you.
We grew up imagining that we could be like you, but we’re not. You have prevented us from being like you.

There is a generation in America that believes in its own specialness. I will agree with that. But you’ve got its identity wrong.
It’s not us, it’s you.

You believe that you got where you are through hard work and self-reliance, not seeing that your parents created a postwar world where you could be free. Your parents suffered, and they showered their pent-up dreams on you: you grew up in love and luxury (well, some of you did). You were promised that you would live through the rainbow after the storm that was the World War. And you did – many of you lived great lives. But you got used to it.

When will you realize that your advice doesn’t work? Even McCullough, in the midst of stabbing our supposedly inflated egos, urged us not to do anything that we didn’t love or feel passionate about. You know what? We don’t have that luxury. That idea is a relic of days gone by. We are not the generation that finds itself in creative abandon. We are not the generation that goes off in search of personal fulfillment and the satisfaction of a job well done, only to come back millionaires. We are the generation that takes whatever work we can get, that knows no matter how hard we try we might not succeed. We know our lot, and it’s not nearly as bright as yours. Woodstock? Ha. Like any of us could afford to take time off to lie around smoking and writing songs. Don’t accuse us of your ennui: we’re too busy trying to find a job.

Now, we have not only to worry about how to find our way through the dried-up maze without vacant jobs or relief from our debts of education. We have our ticket for the train to success, but it’s run off the rails. And we have to start worrying about you.

How are we going to support you?
Social Security won’t prop you up anymore. Your own retirement savings? As reliable as our degrees, which is not at all. Do we have houses to mortgage? Investments to collect on? Assets to sell? For most of us, the answer is a belly laugh and a no.

So quit telling us we’re not special.
We know that. We’ve always known that. You’re the ones who can’t accept the disappointment. [/hide]

Needless to say this is but one response of a great many, as Mr. McCullough's address sparked a lot of discussion nationwide. I wonder what you think, if you don't mind my (respectfully) asking. I will share my opinion later, if anyone cares to hear it, since actually mine may be the least important in the end.

[Monkey King]

@I:

Many of you who live here in the US may be familiar with David McCollough's graduation address to a bunch of seniors, but just in case, I will enclise teh text in the first spoiler box:

[hide] here's the text of the speech: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1061137286 [/hide]

This is a response to that same address:

[hide] Open Letter from a Millennial: Quit Telling Us We’re Not Special
by Sierra on June 25, 2012

Dear Baby Boomers and Generation X,
Quit telling us we’re not special.

Believe us, we bloody well know.

Earlier this month, Wellesley high school teacher David McCullough, Jr., delivered what was perhaps the world’s first commencement dirge to a crowd of teenagers on the first day of distinction many of them have ever experienced. Graduation from high school, he informed them, is a shiny induction to the hordes of mediocrity. McCullough even took it upon himself to remind the youth of their eventual funerals. (You know it’s a problematic speech when Rush Limbaugh loves it.) What parting words did the teacher have for those who survived his twelve-minute lesson on nihilism? The paradoxical exhortation to go forth and live extraordinary lives! Because, apparently, we can?

Here’s the rub: this speech is misplaced. It doesn’t belong in an address to the generation graduating into an economy that wipes its rear end with their high school diplomas. It doesn’t belong in an address to the generation who began running the rat race at age 4. It doesn’t apply to the generation that knows hard work guarantees nothing, that can’t hope to own a home before we have our own children, that pours coffee for other people’s parents for free in the name of gaining “work experience” through “internship.” David McCullough ought to have given that speech not to the graduates, but to their parents. We have not yet begun to shape the world: we are living in the one you created. And it’s killing us.

We stopped believing in our own specialness about the same time that we figured out who was the real Tooth Fairy. We grew up accruing praise, but not self-esteem. We learned that praise was a parenting strategy, not a sincere reward for merit. We stopped listening when you told us we were smart, brave, beautiful and unique. “You have to say that because you’re our parents,” we told you. You agreed.

So we looked to our teachers to learn where we stood. They couldn’t tell us the truth, either. “Did I get an A because I really wrote an exceptional essay, or because my teacher was afraid to deal with my parents?” We learned to suspect the latter.

When our teachers couldn’t tell us, we looked to our bosses. They despised us: the pampered, electronic generation who doesn’t know the meaning of hard work. When we worked hard, they were surprised. But they cynically assumed we were only working hard to build our resumes. That 16-year-old who went on a humanitarian relief trip to Haiti? Just another yuppie trying to pad her Harvard application. What would it take to convince you that we really care? Even the things we do for fun – playing sports, joining a band, riding a horse, writing a story – you have made into a competition. You’ve taken our creativity and told us that it matters not because it fulfills us, but because we can sell it to a college and reap the returns on our “investment” decades from now. Every little thing we do must be harnessed for profit. And you wonder why we seem to have no spontaneity left.

You have done our work for us, then called us lazy.
You have threatened our teachers, then told us “just an A” isn’t good enough.
You have gotten our jobs for us, and called us underachievers.
You have recorded everything we do, like researchers breeding a better mouse.
You have made us trophy-seekers, then mocked us for our walls of worthless awards.
You have pitted us against each other in a fight for success, which has become survival.
You have given us a world in which even our college degrees are meaningless because there are just too many of us.
You have made us depend on you. When we followed your instructions – went to the best schools, got the best grades, took the most internships and did the most independent study projects, met the right people and got into the right grad schools and chosen the right majors – we’ve ended up stuck in your basement because nobody in your generation is willing to pay us a living wage.
Then you called us the “boomerang” generation that refuses to grow up. When did we have the chance?

Somebody handed me this thing, but I don’t know what for.
We don’t think we’re special. We know that being “special” and a dollar won’t even buy us a cup of coffee anymore.

We learned something else along the way to becoming “special.” We learned that you depended on us. For validation. For certainty that you did everything right. If we did not succeed, it reflected badly on you. When you told us that you loved us and that we were smart, beautiful, creative, independent, and destined for greatness, what you implied was that we must be all of those things or that you would cease to love us. That our lives would cease to be worth anything. That we might as well die if we’re not the best.

We are drowsy with medications that we take to calm the fear that if we are anything less than the best, we will fall through the cracks. We spend our days fighting each other, always fearing our invisible duplicate who has everything we have on her resume, plus one. We don’t even know what’s down there in the zone of failure – we just know that our failure scares you so much, we’d better never dare to fall. So we work twice as many hours as you did for half the pay and come home to your taunts about how we’re twenty-six and still can’t afford an apartment.

And you know what else? We’re not all even this lucky.

A great many of us have no family home to return to. A great many of us are told not only that we’re lazy because we send text messages, but also that we’re lazy because of our race or class. We’re told that if we’ve ever been on welfare we come from inferior stock: lazy parents who breed entitled children. We try to go to school and pull ourselves up, somewhere nearer to equal footing with the children of the elite, and find that we’re up against insurmountable odds. We do our own homework, and we find ourselves at the bottom of the pile because other people’s parents have already helped them blow away the playing field. We struggle to earn our own money so we won’t be accused of expecting handouts, then watch our grades drop. If we pull our grades back up, we find that we’re up against the spotless records of other kids who were racking up sports trophies while we packed grocery bags and mowed lawns. Do we think we’re special just because we might get into college? A place where we’ll spend four years racking up debt in numbers that we’ve never seen? A place where we’ll sit through another commencement, look out over the sea of hats and realize how small we are yet again?

The truth is, we never thought we were special. You did.
You thought we were special because we were extensions of you.
You trained us to be the children you could brag about. Then, all of a sudden, everybody had one and we were no longer good enough, like outdated toys.
We were supposed to fulfill all your unrealized potential.
We were supposed to live your dreams.
We were supposed to have what you never had, do what you never did and be who you never were.
We can’t.
We know the congratulations are hollow, the awards meaningless, the degrees redundant, the ceremonies overwrought. We aren’t surprised; you are.
If there is anything that defines our generation, it’s knowing exactly how miserably our lives have failed to satisfy you.
We grew up imagining that we could be like you, but we’re not. You have prevented us from being like you.

There is a generation in America that believes in its own specialness. I will agree with that. But you’ve got its identity wrong.
It’s not us, it’s you.

You believe that you got where you are through hard work and self-reliance, not seeing that your parents created a postwar world where you could be free. Your parents suffered, and they showered their pent-up dreams on you: you grew up in love and luxury (well, some of you did). You were promised that you would live through the rainbow after the storm that was the World War. And you did – many of you lived great lives. But you got used to it.

When will you realize that your advice doesn’t work? Even McCullough, in the midst of stabbing our supposedly inflated egos, urged us not to do anything that we didn’t love or feel passionate about. You know what? We don’t have that luxury. That idea is a relic of days gone by. We are not the generation that finds itself in creative abandon. We are not the generation that goes off in search of personal fulfillment and the satisfaction of a job well done, only to come back millionaires. We are the generation that takes whatever work we can get, that knows no matter how hard we try we might not succeed. We know our lot, and it’s not nearly as bright as yours. Woodstock? Ha. Like any of us could afford to take time off to lie around smoking and writing songs. Don’t accuse us of your ennui: we’re too busy trying to find a job.

Now, we have not only to worry about how to find our way through the dried-up maze without vacant jobs or relief from our debts of education. We have our ticket for the train to success, but it’s run off the rails. And we have to start worrying about you.

How are we going to support you?
Social Security won’t prop you up anymore. Your own retirement savings? As reliable as our degrees, which is not at all. Do we have houses to mortgage? Investments to collect on? Assets to sell? For most of us, the answer is a belly laugh and a no.

So quit telling us we’re not special.
We know that. We’ve always known that. You’re the ones who can’t accept the disappointment. [/hide]

I wonder what you think, if you don't mind my (respectfully) asking. I will share my opinions later, since actually mine may be the least important in the end.

Yeah I'm extremely sick of a bunch of older people constantly condescending to us about this shit.
HEY GUESSS WHAT
It's especially infuriating coming from generations above us who all lead the charmed life of both a functioning economy on their graduation, and higher living standards than their parents, stooping to tell us, the ones taking shit they never did, this sort of thing. Aside from Generation X, and no offense BusterCall, both the Boomers and WW2 bunch are probably the most "WE'RE SPECIAL" generations ever, and we've grown up in the shadow of their "MASSIVE CULTURAL ACHEIVEMENTS".

"WE KILLED HITLER, WE ENDED RACISM AND SEXISM AND TOOK DOWN NIXON
oh by the way yer not special you spoiled little princes and princesses"

It's like "Shut the flying fuck up" lol
I've even seen it suggested that we caused the current economic shit lol, people complaining "KIDS THESE DAYS WITH THEIR CREDIT CARDS" like we were the ones buying houses out of our price range at age 19 or so.

[WarshipArc]

What kills me the most about this is that the principal felt the need to "deflate" the graduating classes ego's at all.
As if the real world needed any help doing that.

[Cyan D. Funk]

"Hey you're about to enter a world where basically everything you did here for the past few years means nothing and you'll have to lie cheat and murder to get a job, so here's something to further break your spirit!!!"

[Monkey King]

There's a big right wing bent in all this talk too, mostly where it gets applause from. I guess we're a good scapegoat for ENTITLEMENT NATION bullshit talk or whatever. What do they care? We're secularized homo lovers or whatever.

–- Update From New Post Merge ---

@Cyan:

"Hey you're about to enter a world where basically everything you did here for the past few years means nothing and you'll have to lie cheat and murder to get a job"

"And you're unhappy about this?? Wow, wow ok, in my day we….uh. Anyway you're spoiled so shut up!"

[Herodadotus]

I'm tired of the older generations looking down on us too, it's extremely annoying.

"We did hard manual labor, I'm sure you wouldn't get that, though." Yeah, it's not like my job at a hardware store doesn't require heavy lifting and manual labor, but thanks for letting me know.

[Cyan D. Funk]

"Ha ha I already made my money, why should I care about you brats?"

[I survived the buster call]

So–first off, one of the things I disliked intensely about what Mr McCullough (and everyone who names and categorizes a generation, for that matter) did was lumping an entire generation together, like he did, and here you are doing that exact thing to me, Mr., er, Zeph?, Disease? ...King. I have spent a lot of time poking people who insist on placing me in the Boomer generation based on nothing more than the year of my birth--and its amusing how exercised they get over it, too--as if I am required by some law to recognize such an arbitrary lumping despite my own opinions on the matter. So please refrain from lumping me (and presumdely my opinions) into said category, with my thanks. I may like the music and be heavily influenced by events before and during my forumative years (as I assume are most people) but I also like to think I am a thinking, learning individual with a mind of my own, thank you, and I like to give the same respect to others, including you and the folks of your generation. (If it matters, my current fave song is the new Maroon 5 song "One More Night." Trite I'm sure, but its catchy, and I love Adam's voice--annoying to be offering the equivalent to a "Some of my best friends are..." sort of sentiment here, but there ya go. LOL)

So let me try again. I was offended by the address, but highly disturbed by the answer I posted. I am interested in your reaction to the points brought up in the letter of response. Do you feel as if you basically have no future? Do you see things as bleak as she painted them for you, a person in your 20's? Are we all, as the current vernacular puts it, f-ed?

[Monkey King]

I was never lumping you in with that or aiming it at you just as I don't blame my parents and many others, but I don't take back the demographic swipe at all. I've seen too much of this stuff to pretend it's not framed as such. From apologies to more often than not, venom venom and venom.

Anyway the thing of it is, it's already what it is. And we're dealing with it because there's no choice and have no illusion of otherwise. Congress trying to do something about student loans is great, but then again I think they only did that because it was threatning the economy.
No arguing or finger pointing has any effect on anything. Well maybe not, because I wouldn't be surprised if the more high school teachers talking like that there are the more suicides there is going to be. But so what? If they'd rather die they'd better do it! And decrease the surplus unemployment line!

@I:

So let me try again. I am interested in your reaction to the points brought up in the letter of response. Do you feel as if you basically have no future? Do you see things as bleak as she painted them for you, a person in your 20's?

For others yes. I'm incredibly lucky myself for a variety of reasons, even if I am literally stuck at home and probably kept from fatal mental decay by the girl in my life. I have hope. I have money from saved sources helping me reroute my education, something few people ever have. And I have a skillset in a field with tons of jobs (Geography believe it or not). I'm on track for success. But that sort of illustrates the point really, how dumb luck old money, and dumb luck wierd skills are what I got.

I cannot even imagine how the average 20 something is surviving. All of this would be fine honestly if not for the useless college degrees, that's the worst worst worst thing.

And I'm wondering too. Will Generation Z? Will there suddenly be an economic boom when things go back? And then suddenly all these new kids get the jobs? And a zombie generation of 30 somethings just coming back up get jumped over for Gen Z? I see this happening. I see a lost generation.

Or possibly Gen Z suffers the same fate.

[Cyan D. Funk]

This post is deleted!

[I survived the buster call]

Thank you for your clarification. You are right–I have heard the vitriol myself. It appeared in the new HBO show called "The Newsroom," in the opening speech that got so much reposting on FB and everywhere else--much of the speech was noteworthy, but for me it was ruined by the addition of the reporter's attack on the college gal as a member of the "worst.generation.ever." What is that about? I honestly have no idea why the need for it, or where the hate sprang from, other than that it came from the same place as the rest of the current hate does--a need to point fingers and place blame rather than getting down to coming together to come up with solutions. We are all being segregated and separated so much, that its hard to come together for anything anymore. They blame you for being whatever---you blame us for being the folks who made it like this, and it goes on. Makes me very sad. Zeph--you have always managed to be so positive--say just the right thing at just the right time about the wonderful things that still exist these days. Can you think of anything now? There has to be hope out there still. There is--we just can't see it through all the smoke from people burning each other. Lets think of some...

[Monkey King]

I don't think anything has changed either. All the trophy kid bullshit is still in effect with the young generation, my parent teachers tell me enough to know this. The kids who have like eight clubs they don't really care about. The parents who complain about teachers about bad grades. The mindless push to college when college is no promise of anything.
Having been to art school especially I basically imagine 90% of my classmates are going nowhere with degrees that were ALREADY worthless, and now even more so. Except the graphic designers anyway, they'll be fine.
I don't think there's anything wrong with the Boomers (WW2 gen…..though.....) just the prevailing attitude. There is no such thing as a "worst generation ever".

If you want hope, well it's the fact that like I said, it is what it is. That we're enduring it because it's what we have, and that's the only thing that can be done.
That we're not what Robert Mcculough or whatever his name is thinks we are, and just going to sit around and stop trying.

[The Laughing Man]

I'm just going to be blunt about it: The 'older' generation should simply die. They've outlived their usefulness years ago.

[Monkey King]

@The:

I'm just going to be blunt about it: The 'older' generation should simply die. They've outlived their usefulness years ago.

The WW2 ones? …yeah. They're just sitting around voting for obscenely conservative shit they don't have to live through since they're in condos and in their 70's and 80's and shit. It's like...please stop bothering people who actually live and work in modern America with your ideas of what we need, or just fade away already.

[Chrissie]

@The:

I'm just going to be blunt about it: The 'older' generation should simply die. They've outlived their usefulness years ago.

No. Grandparents are awesome to have around and if you are fortunate enough to have them, please appreciate them more? misses all 4 of her grandparents very much

[The Laughing Man]

@Chrissie:

No. Grandparents are awesome to have around and if you are fortunate enough to have them, please appreciate them more? misses all 4 of her grandparents very much

I should have specified: The people in the older generation, who, think they're generation is the best and our generation is pretty much worthless.

[Cyclone_Baroness]

@Chrissie:

No. Grandparents are awesome to have around and if you are fortunate enough to have them, please appreciate them more? misses all 4 of her grandparents very much

My grandmother is not awesome. Not wishing death on her, but she's definitely not one of my favorite people.

It sucks that things have progressed this way. I wish I never did college right after high school, or that I went to art school. So using my BA well in animation at my data center job…

Now I'm working on my Masters in IT just so I can hopefully get a more relevant better paying job. Yay debt.

[Chrissie]

@The:

I should have specified: The people in the older generation, who, think they're generation is the best and our generation is pretty much worthless.

Eh, they will die out eventually. Don't rush it tho! Even they are loved by some little grandchild or something. :U

[loneassassin]

@The:

I'm just going to be blunt about it: The 'older' generation should simply die. They've outlived their usefulness years ago.

This totally reminds me of Wonder Showzen insulting old people. I wish the clip was on youtube because it was great

[wolfwood]

Always found it hilarious in some dark way how totally out of touch my parents generation are with how the job market is today

They get that the job market is "bad" but they can't comprehend that i'd get down on my knees and weep if i got a steady job at mickey D's

[Monkey King]

@I:

Thank you for your clarification. You are right–I have heard the vitriol myself. It appeared in the new HBO show called "The Newsroom," in the opening speech that got so much reposting on FB and everywhere else--much of the speech was noteworthy, but for me it was ruined by the addition of the reporter's attack on the college gal as a member of the "worst.generation.ever." What is that about? I honestly have no idea why the need for it, or where the hate sprang from, other than that it came from the same place as the rest of the current hate does--a need to point fingers and place blame rather than getting down to coming together to come up with solutions. We are all being segregated and separated so much, that its hard to come together for anything anymore. They blame you for being whatever---you blame us for being the folks who made it like this, and it goes on. Makes me very sad. Zeph--you have always managed to be so positive--say just the right thing at just the right time about the wonderful things that still exist these days. Can you think of anything now? There has to be hope out there still. There is--we just can't see it through all the smoke from people burning each other. Lets think of some...

Actually I guess I have additional optimism.

That the trophy kid bullshit will end with us as parents. I don't think Gen X is any better as parents in this regard, both in what my parents are seeing and what I see with my youngest Uncle (whose actually the worst overweening taskmaster of all my uncles and aunts so maybe Gen X is worse lol).
I don't imagine we will be the same like this, maybe the ones to break the cycle.
We'll probably be much shrewder more realistic parents.
Personally my parents didn't try to make a trophy out of me, but they (my mom mainly) are extremely overweening. They can complain about me not being indepedent enough in some way, but then she gets upset when I don't come to dinner because I have plans lol.
I will not be that kind of parent. A degree of the freedom more common when you were a kid might just be the right formula, as opposed to hyper-parent mode.

–- Update From New Post Merge ---

@wolfwood:

Always found it hilarious in some dark way how totally out of touch my parents generation are with how the job market is today

They get that the job market is "bad" but they can't comprehend that i'd get down on my knees and weep if i got a steady job at mickey D's

I remember putting out three different applications to three different McDonalds last year, and all three never got back to me lol.
Also this was a special hiring day too lolllll

Also that's another positive Buster, we're the first truly Post-Modern Generation. We are born into this world skeptical of everything and then some. But unlike Gen X we take it for granted, so we have a sense of humour about literally everything.

[I survived the buster call]

Hmm. Well, I do think things have changed, though. From my perspective as an "older generation person who ought to just die," (charming, lol–ed--I see your clarification, and this no longer applies to me I guess lol) I have seen things be different when I was younger. Not all of it was better, but some was. Some is better now. Worship of older or younger is never ideal, obviously. I'm sure I sound all "Flower power" and of my generation, but some things just stay true no matter the times, and so I will repeat, again, that we need to come together and work together--old and young, rich and poor, for our mutual benefit. The Tea Partiers certainly have a twisted perspective, but they understand the power of harnessing groups of like minded people together to effect change. I feel almost as if we are laying down and giving up at times, right when it matters most to stand up and be counted. Makes me crazy with worry, to be honest.

[Cyan D. Funk]

I applied to a McDonalds this year only for the McDonalds to get torn down literally the day after I sent in the application

The whole thing is actually a pretty good metaphor for my job hunt as a whole

[Chrissie]

@Cyclone_Baroness:

My grandmother is not awesome. Not wishing death on her, but she's definitely not one of my favorite people.

My grandmothers were exact opposites. One was a traditional Cyprus granny, short, chubby and with amazing cooking skills and the other one was a tall, British woman with flowing hair and extraordinary talent in singing, acting and painting. Both were extremely proud people with class oozing from their very bones who left us too quickly. ;^;
I vow I'll be that awesome grandmother my grandchildren will want to have me around one day. :U

Going into debt for a MA for a better future is something I really don't wanna do. Debt is something I generally don't wanna go into. I am working now to gather more experience and money and when I am ready, I will go for the last round of my studies that will give me the job I really wanna do.

[Ubiq]

In my experience, the older, WW2 generation tends to be a lot less bad about this sort of thing than their successors; most of the veterans from that era tend to just view it as something that they had to do and did more than some sort of amazing action on their part. Beyond that, a lot of them, especially around here, tend to be much, much more liberal about things than their children if only because they genuinely remember what life was like before things like Social Security and TVA existed.

I've met plenty of people in their fifties and sixties who cheerfully take advantage of every government program out there while constantly complaining about people getting things for free.

[wolfwood]

My interview for Mcdonalds was done in group of 20 in front the of five heads of the five (families) resturant owners.

Was some american idol type shit going on. Being called into the spotlight to defend your claim to the honor of wearing a checkered shirt and a cap

[I survived the buster call]

Yeah I can see that when you are stuggling for survival, effecting change may be the last thing on your mind–its just that.... that's when it matters most.

I have 2 Masters degrees (And I am in debt for the second one too, jsut like you are looking at) and I can;t get out of a job at a Day Care--early childhood educations equivalent to McD's. I get it. Its frustrating, and I have not only school debts, but my kids' educations and futures and our retirements to think about far too soon for comfort--and I do not own a home to mortgage either.

[Monkey King]

@Ubiq:

I've met plenty of people in their fifties and sixties who cheerfully take advantage of every government program out there while constantly complaining about people getting things for free.

I've heard things in Florida about seniors who send my poor granny e-mails about OBAMA DEVIL COMMIE KENYAN, and then they exploit their medicare to get plastic surgery.

[Cyclone_Baroness]

@Chrissie:

My grandmothers were exact opposites. One was a traditional Cyprus granny, short, chubby and with amazing cooking skills and the other one was a tall, British woman with flowing hair and extraordinary talent in singing, acting and painting. Both were extremely proud people with class oozing from their very bones who left us too quickly. ;^;
I vow I'll be that awesome grandmother my grandchildren will want to have me around one day. :U

Going into debt for a MA for a better future is something I really don't wanna do. Debt is something I generally don't wanna go into. I am working now to gather more experience and money and when I am ready, I will go for the last round of my studies that will give me the job I really wanna do.

Thing is my grand mother is mean, paranoid and thoughtless. She's also very disrespectful of my mom and my dad although sh's the one living with them while they pay for her meds and food.

At any rate. The only reason I really went back to school was because I couldn't defer my loans any more, but I couldn't afford the monthy payments. Over 500.00 a month is too much on a 11.00/hr job. I also had car and rent and other stuff to pay. I had to boomerang back with my parents a couple of times. Which feels so shitty to do. But even living with them I still couldn't afford to pay Sallie Mae.

[I survived the buster call]

There is a lot of misinformation out there and they are preying on the elderly, who are used to being able to trust the TV news anchors. This is a place where people like us could make a difference–jus' sayin'. You realize that back in teh 70s no one company could own more than 6 broadcast stations--a law whose existance was meant to avoid control of the news, as we have today? These days they own upwards to 60 and are lobbying for more--as a result tehy run news as another profit maker rather than the public service it was always meant to be, and was protected in the constitution to be. We are losing one of the most valuable pieces of our democracy--without information, we cannot make informed decisions.

[Monkey King]

@I:

There is a lot of misinformation out there and they are preying on the elderly, who are used to being able to trust the TV news anchors. This is a palce where people like us could make a difference–jus' sayin'.

People who believe things like that are victims not so much of misinformation than as they are of Confirmation Bias.

[I survived the buster call]

tomato tomahto–IMHO--it comes down to "if they hear it enough times, they come to believe it as truth" Fox still controls a lot of the news people hear--and we have the editor of the blasted NYT asking us if they ought to be telling the truth about candidates actions, instead of dryly and "impartially" reporting just the simple facts of a given day--without any invstgative bits or background. They have to ask??? That is not good.

[Monkey King]

@I:

tomato tomahto–IMHO--it comes down to "if they hear it enough times, they come to believe it as truth" Fox still controls a lot of the news people hear--and we have the editor of the blasted NYT asking us if they ought to be telling the truth about candidates actions, instead of dryly and "impartially" reporting just the simple facts of a given day--without any invstgative bits or background. That is not good.

I guess I see it backwards. Fox has the audience it does because that audience existed first. And there's really nothing anyone can do about that really. You try and go at Fox and it's fans just defend it more since they thrive off persecution as much as anything. Unless Rupert Murdoch gets legally taken down in the UK they will only lose power as their audience does. They are going to be gone soon anyway, the WW2 bunch, they're old, they die. This is how societal evolution works partly.
I'd rather worry about my gen, because we have our info problems. The internet is great and all, and being Post-Modern means you don't buy into Fox type jingoistic simplicity….
But it also means you're more in danger of being a conspiracy theory ALTERNATIVE NEWS style moron, like Sanji499. I read something to the effect that RussiaToday was one of the biggest online news sources in the US. And for all my anger toward the Boomers there's things about Millenials I can't stand. We're more likely to turn into idiots who in their eternal skepticism of their environment will ignore everything domestic or that resembles domestic (sorry BBC!) and will rush off to the opposite, a Russian mafia dictator's propaganda machine, and give that their time.

So not so much Tomato Tomauto, as Chicken Egg Chicken.

[Nobodyman]

@Ubiq:

I've met plenty of people in their fifties and sixties who cheerfully take advantage of every government program out there while constantly complaining about people getting things for free.

Bum: Got any spare change, man?

Grandpa Simpson: Yes! And you ain't gettin' it. Everybody wants something for nothing.
[Abe walks into the social security building] I'm old: gimme gimme gimme!

Also.

Marge Simpson: Where'd you get the money?

Grandpa Simpson: The government. I didn't earn it, I don't need it, but if they miss one payment I'll raise hell!

Anyway, as for me, I can't complain too much, though my situation as of the last three or four years could be better. I currently rent a $400 a month room/heatbox in a townhouse owned by a Bolivian lady. I currently still work retail, which can be immensely frustrating at times, where I make $12 an hour ($18 on Sundays). I have a Bachelor's Degree in Accounting and have been looking for a job for over a year.

However, I was recently selected for the hiring process at DCAA (a federal organization) and am currently in the middle of getting my security clearance, which could take another few months to complete. I don't foresee any problems in getting my clearance, but I'm still kind of nervous in general (plus, I haven't heard anything from them in the past 3-4 weeks). So yeah, when/if I do get this job, I imagine I'll be doing pretty well. Of course, I'd also like to note that I think a big part of me getting the job was getting my stepfather's cousin, who also works for DCAA, to help me.

As for my college tuition, I actually have no student loan debt as my grandmother (bless her heart), paid for basically all of it. I actually feel kind of guilty about it.

There are, of course, a lot of other factors involved, but on the whole, there are a few things I'd like to improve on, but I'm certainly not doing terribly.

[Sniper King]

Ahh, I don't know anything.
Wish I did, so I can talk with you grown-ups.
But politics, economics…It's all confusing to me.

I do know that that speech must've been a bummer to those it was addressed to.

[I survived the buster call]

Ah I guess there is a basic difference in our POV then, Zeph. I still tend to think people need information–that is the role trusted news reporters used to play for us. I think there is always a tendancy among some to trend towards conspiracy theories, but FOX exploits it to the extreme. When they first started, I don't recall it being this bad--there were others watching and watchdogging to keep them somewhat honest--but now they blatantly lie and not much comes of it but more fuel for the fires of people's fears. You guys say you are suffering--everyone is suffering--everyone is running harder and harder to keep up. Its harder to take the time to find the truth when you are struggling just to stay afloat--but this is when its all the more important to cling together instead of saying its every generation for itself. That is the sort of thinking that had people cheering the idea of someone dieing without insurance, since obviously they made the choices that put them there. "I got mine--you had your chance--die sucker." Chills me to the bone. That is not how things were when I was growing up--its not how things were during the depression, or WWII either. Its a new thing, and needless to say its not a good thing.

[Monkey King]

@Nobodyman:

However, I was recently selected for the hiring process at DCAA (a federal organization) and am currently in the middle of getting my security clearance, which could take another few months to complete. I don't foresee any problems in getting my clearance, but I'm still kind of nervous in general (plus, I haven't heard anything from them in the past 3-4 weeks). So yeah, when/if I do get this job, I imagine I'll be doing pretty well. Of course, I'd also like to note that I think a big part of me getting the job was getting my stepfather's cousin, who also works for DCAA, to help me.

A GOVERNMENT job???
These goddamn entitlement kids!!!

–- Update From New Post Merge ---

@I:

Ah I guess there is a basic difference in our POV then, Zeph. I still tend to think people need information–that is the role trusted news reporters used to play for us. I think there is always a tendancy among some to trend towards conspiracy theories, but FOX exploits it to the extreme. When they first started, I don't recall it being this bad--there were othres watching and watchdogging to keep them somewhat honest--but now they blatantly lie and not much comes of it but more fuel for the fires of people's fears. You guys say you are suffering--everyone is suffering--everyone is running harder and harder to keep up. Its harder to take the time to find the truth when you are struggling just to stay afloat--but this is when its all the more important to clong together instead of saying its every generation for itself. That is the sort of thinking that had people cheering the idea of someone dieing without insurance, since obviously they made the choices that put them there.

How is what I said about Fox New's audience in any way similar to that??

"I got mine–you had your chance--die sucker." Chills me to the bone. That is not how things were when I was growing up--its not how things were during the depression, or WWII either. Its a new thing, and needless to say its not a good thing.

Depends what you mean by new. Something happened between when you were a kid, and when I was, and it's name was Ronald.

[I survived the buster call]

LOL–Ronny-boy was responsible for a lot of what ails us, but by no means all of it. Please keep in mind that he favored higher taxes on the rich, that deregulation continued through Clinton's term, and that even today, Obama is more right than centrist even, if you ask me--having used more droan attacks than either of his successors (to great effect, I suppose, if you find killing AlQuaida more important than counting civilian lives--I'm torn on it, more than even my comment makes clear) allowed the Patriot Act to be renewed and Freaking DID AWAY with due process of law for CITIZENS. Scary stuff that I would bet that even ole' Ronny boy would feel hesitant about

[wolfwood]

Another thing i love about the older generation. When they tell you that oh become an X in this field there'll be all kinds of jobs in the future when the 40's retire.

And then once they're gone all their jobs get rationalized screwing over all the people who actually bough into what they were selling.

Follow your dreams, or follow the "jobs" either way you'll be screwed beyond belief

[Gliblord]

Just had my mom read this thread

[I survived the buster call]

What did she say Glib?

To answer you Wolfy–Yes, everyone is getting screwed right now--you are getting the worst end of it, but fortunately there is a place for many of you to boomerang back to, right? Just because some dried up, bitter old TV personalities and curmudgeonly professor types are feeling like they need to eat the young doesn't mean we all see things that way. I am grateful (not resentful) that I can (as of yet) offer such a safe haven to my kids, should the need arise. Together we can fight on--apart we just get lonely and lose hope.

Zeph--you never did say that Fox' audinece was the type who applauded that statement about insurance--I was repsonding to your comment that said you wanted to worry about just your generation. I took it pretty far, I'll admit--but that is the direction it was headed from my perspective over here.

[Monkey King]

@I:

LOL–Ronny-boy was responsible for a lot of what ails us, but by no means all of it. Please keep in mind that he favored higher taxes on the rich, that deregulation continued through Clinton's term, and that even today,

Ronald started it and has become a dead god to the other people who came up with him with the fall of Rockefeller Republicans. Maybe you haven't been watching the Republicans during the primary but they evoked Reagan over everything. By this point it's not what he did, but what people do in his name. Ronald is alive if only in that sense. The Reagan Revolution is the source of the people and attitude that cheers deaths without insurance. It is the reason for the problems you were wondering about being new. Also. Which came in on the same wave.

having used more droan attacks than either of his successors (to great effect, I suppose, if you find killing AlQuaida more important than counting civilian lives–I'm torn on it, more than even my comment makes clear)

Obama is center, calling him right wing is sort of crazy to say the least. Especially in invoking drones. At what point exactly did warfare become a domain of any one wing of politics? I'm really kind of disgusted by this (dying) aspect of the American Left honestly. Yes the Drones lead to some awful accidents, but they are in essence an alternative to the sort of on the ground troops sifting through hinterlands stuff that lead to much more civilian deaths, things like Mai Lai for instance. And it needs to be recalled they are accidents largely.
Basically whatever instinct it is that leads to Dennis Kucinich going to Tripoli to talk to Gaddafi last year needs to stop. Like now. Military action is too important and too dangerous to be surrendered to the right wing. Because they're goddamn blood-covered fools about it, and that doesn't need to be explained any more than pointing at the Bush jr. administration or the horrifying bullshit the Republican candidates were advocating in the primary. As well as Romney's advisors. One of which last I checked was a former crazy Lebanese Christian Militiaman.

The Left needs to follow along with Obama on FP, he's doing some extreme good on that front after years where we had shit like Carter deciding pulling out of the Korean DMZ in 1977 was a good idea and the aforementioned visiting of Gaddafi (also the cottage industry of Oliver Stone and people shilling for crooks like Chavez). Treating it like a contagion is not going to stop another Iraq from happening, in fact it will probably do the opposite. Deliver the votes and perception of being strong on it to the still alive Neo-Cons, who will rush us into stupid places and ruins millions of lives all over again.

allowed the Patriot Act to be renewed and Freaking DID AWAY with due process of law for CITIZENS. Scary stuff that I would bet that even ole' Ronny boy would feel hesitant about

Ronny was unscrupulous in terms of warfare and that sort of thing, we should be glad no actual wars happened on his watch. And his successors are exactly those people.

[wolfwood]

@I:

To answer you Wolfy–Yes, everyone is getting screwed right now--you are getting the worst end of it, but fortunately there is a place for many of you to boomerang back to, right? Just because some dried up, bitter old TV personalities and curmudgeonly professor types are feeling like they need to eat the young doesn't mean we all see things that way. I am grateful (not resentful) that I can (as of yet) offer such a safe haven to my kids, should the need arise. Together we can fight on--apart we just get lonely and lose hope.

Oh i'm not hating on the older generation or anything, just noting that what was probably was good advice in the 60's is hilariously out of date in the 10's.

I mean my mom, god bless her, could never understand a world where if you aren't employed by the time you are 25 you might never be

[I survived the buster call]

LOL Don't try that old argument with me–just because I say some of his policies are more right than center doesn't mean I am crazy, or against him either, for that matter. I just want him to be more left than center, not more right--and I want him to bend less. I can critisize him without it meaning I can't see the evil the other side offers. Obama is who he is, regardless of who the others are. Having opinions about that that may diverge from yours doesn't make me crazy or wrong automatically, thank you. I am not blind to his many accomplishments. I agree and like his many accomplishments, but if we can't talk about the things he did that we disagree with then what makes us any different than any others who spout propaganda? I do not have to cheer every thing he ever did, any more than anyone else. He is a human being in public office, and as such is open to criticism. The fact of the matter is he placed many right wingers on his cabinet in very influential positions, and has pursued some blatantly odd lines of reasoning. I note you have nothing to say about renewing the Patriot Act, nor the nonsense about Habeous Corpus. War you can think as you will--as I stated I am conflicted on it. I will wait and see--I am not blatantly against his actions there--but I recognize that am not as educated on the Middle East as I would like to be, and I know war has a price, so I remain conflicted. I'm allowed. That said, it has ever been the province of the right to be hawkish--that hasn't always been the evil that it is propagated as being these days--clearly before WWII it was a good thing, since we were desparately needed in the European theater.

[Monkey King]

@I:

LOL Don't try that old argument with me–just because I say some of his policies are more right than center doesn't mean I am crazy or against him either.

I didn't say you were crazy, but calling him right wing is pretty out there is all. And you did call him right wing, not certain policies.

I just want him to be more left than center, not more right–and I want him to bend less.

He has to bend somewhat. Look at the shitstorm over the current form of Healthcare, as if it isn't already a huge bend. But that's what had to happened to get it through at all. And it's still constantly under the gun. It sucks but…

And really this is healthy, bending. We need to understand the bend. If you can't bend you snap.
Guess who is going to snap. The right. They have become sooo extreme, soooo unmovable... that they will kill themselves at this rate. If Obama wins, and it looks currently as if he will, they will snap, break, crumble. They are creating far too rigid an intepretation of all that's going on. They mentally won't be able to handle things not going there way again. You'll see, this insane Reagan begun furor will destroy itself by it's own natures. And along with basic demographic shift of more young people less old people, and more Hispanics and what have you….they are going to be in crisis and quite dead in ten or so years. These are years to endure. Bend to survive. Rewards will come.

Obama is who he is, regardless of who the others are. Having opinions about that that may diverge from yours doesn't make me crazy or wrong automatically, thank you. I am not blind to his many accomplishments. I agree and like his many accomplishments, but if we can't talk about the things he did that we disagree with then what makes us any different than any others who spout propaganda?

This doesn't sound like it's a response to my post?

I do not have to cheer every thing he ever did, any more than anyone else. He is a human being in public office, and as such is open to criticism.

He's not in a vacuum though, you should look at the context of what he's in and why bends are necessary. Obama frankly doesn't make any sense taken alone.

[I survived the buster call]

My apologies for thinking faster than I was typing. (And I will blame my husband who is all hot to prepare for our trip already (its still 3 weeks away), and who has been interrupting me as I type every 5 minutes–botheration) I looked back and I see I did indeed state he was more right than center, lol. I meant some of his policies and some of his actions. My apologies.

OK--I have read some very persuasive arguments that have lead me to feel that what I would like to have seen was more attention to the economy this time around--I realize he has had an very uphill battle, but he got the ACA passed--maybe he should have used that ability to get something passed to work on the economy and ACA ought to have been left for the second term (much as I feel we really really need it--its his best accomplishment--the thing he did which will be what he is most rememebred for in history, deservedly--I sure hope it lasts)--had he placed more emphasis on the economy first, it may have made more impact and the second term might be more in the bag--because despite the fact that Mittens seems to be doing everything he can to help the left win, there are no sure things these days, and close elections are far easier to steal.

As for my comment that I am allowed to criticize him--I suppose I am reacting more from my gut due to previous such discussions on FB and other sites where some act as if saying anything about Obama that is less than complimentary is tantamount to handing the election to Romney. Some of your commentary sounded that way (e.g. saying the left needs to get behind him as a block. Its part of who we as lefties are to be very independant. Anyway, sicne I clearly misundrstood you, my apologies again.

The fact is I'm distracted now, and I need to go soon to get something worthwhile done, LOL. I'll let you comment and try and come back later. I very much am enjoying this conversation. Not very many are as obsessed with politics, so often I need to just keep most of it to myself.

[igetownd]

If I blame society for making me a sour douchebag, will I really feel better about myself? I've kind of asked this question whenever I get time for introspection. (AKA commute time because I don't have a mobile device with internet) My answer is consistently no, because I'm upset at a problem, and simply blaming others and demanding them to take responsibility isn't going to get things done. The persistent belief that because there is only so much that I can do, and that whatever I do will lead me to gain nothing, tends to make life seem not worth living.

However, serendipity (aka luck aka God's grace) has made life worth living even though there is nothing grand that I can see in my future. A few cherished friends, a tasty meal, good manga, a bed, the availability of bathing and hygiene, and I'm already happy, and am entirely grateful. I really dislike it when people tell me my standards are too low, and that other people are better than me because they seemed to have achieved more. High achievements seem like something to be proud of, and it is, but there's also a cost of being expected to meet them again.

At the same time I do agree that older generations who think of themselves better than newer generations are stupid assholes who live with the delusional belief that times should be how they think it should be. Yet, somehow I feel that generation conflicts have always occurred, unerringly, for as long as hominids have lived in familial groups and used language to communicate. I like to listen to the stories of the elderly. I'm somehow able to relate to their stories even though I really have no idea how their generation was like.

I'm not sure where my rant is taking me and what my topic in this mockery of an essay is, but I gather that I respect elders even when they rebuke me, and that yet I feel hopeful for my future because I don't try to achieve an accomplishment that I feel is out of my power to do so. I guess it sounds weird that I'd prefer not be be "awesome" or "the boss" despite my fascination with "ultimate power and domination" and "feats of epic proportions".

PS. I wonder if I'm confessing too much. (lol wrong thread. I apologize) I guess I could talk on and on about ambition versus humility, or failure and death versus glory and pride, but I don't feel like writing a tome of philosophy.

[CCC]

I've honestly never experienced the baby boomer sentiment that today's youth are a bunch of lazy slackers. Every single year of my grade school education seemed to push the opposite message- the one about unique snowflakes and following dreams. My hometown was incredibly liberal, and we even had a vocal parent organization that wanted to eliminate the sorting of students into different classes in school based on skill level (like… remedial vs. normal vs. advanced placement. I believe it's called "tracking"). No kid should be made to feel bad for being less intelligent, even at the expense of dumbing down material for everyone else, and all that jazz. The most exposure that I've had to this apparently prevalent cynical downtalking to our generation was through a poster with Bill Gates' 11 Tips for Success hanging in a math classroom (the one with "Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT" and "The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself." It was in the AP Calculus classroom, interestingly enough.)

College offered a different perspective. Naturally, the majority of my finance-destined upper-class peers were cynical, but in a distinctly Patrick Bateman way. That is, not particularly negative about their own futures, but haughty, arrogant, and the type of people to compare the font on business cards as a way to measure each others' dicks. The college environment and professors were honestly pretty ambivalent. Of course we were told that our degree would open the world to us, but they made no attempt at hiding the depressing statistics (only 30% of the graduating class employed at the time of graduation). Conan O'Brien's speech to my own graduating class reflected this fairly well; a bit of optimism tempered with cynical, realistic expectations.

Personally, I'm not concerned. My first job (temporary as it is) was what I dreamed of doing for years, and I'm [perhaps naively] convinced that it was my hard work and capability that landed me here, with free rent, no taxes, a stupidly good salary, and a carefree lifestyle that I know I will likely never have again. As far as what comes next, I'm admittedly a bit lost, although not worried. My degree prepared me for a finance-related career, but four years of rubbing shoulders with my morally abhorrent would-be future coworkers and the steady decline of the finance industry's reputation since the crash have all but completely disillusioned me. Five years ago, I would have said that I wanted to get hired by Goldman, do derivatives in an office overlooking the World Trade Center, and be rolling in millions by age 35, but the thought of doing that now is depressing as fuck (although incidentally, I optimistically still have no doubt that I could). I understand that seeking that magical career that one loves AND that puts food on the table is probably asking for too much, but I stubbornly refuse to do something I hate. It seems a waste at this point not to do something that would make use of my Japanese, after having put years of study into it (and with a lot more enthusiasm than for economics), and I have this notion that my bilingualism will somehow offer a particular niche of job opportunities that most of my peers don't have access to.
And if that fails, there's always grad school to delay the onset of real life for at least another year or two.

ISBTC- your feelings about Obama are pretty much exactly my mother's. She actually volunteered during his '08 campaign (phonebanks, door-to-door, etc.) and apparently got her hopes too high. After all that, a bit of disappointment is inevitable. Not to label myself as some clairvoyant political guru, but I think I knew at the time that no single candidate would be the world-saving magic bullet that every left-leaning person dreams of. Not that that kept me from the drunken reveling in the street the night he won.
Speaking of which, I'd better start filing the paperwork for my absentee ballot…

[Monkey King]

@CCC:

and we even had a vocal parent organization that wanted to eliminate the sorting of students into different classes in school based on skill level (like… remedial vs. normal vs. advanced placement. I believe it's called "tracking"). No kid should be made to feel bad for being less intelligent, even at the expense of dumbing down material for everyone else, and all that jazz.

That's a really really bad idea lol. Like for literally everyone involved lolll.

[CCC]

@Monkey:

That's a really really bad idea lol. Like for literally everyone involved lolll.

Yes, obviously. I knew it was wrong as a wee 6th grader mostly because I had a personal stake in it, but it's clear now just how stupid that was. I wonder what their justification actually was. Like, some sort of academic-sounding pretense about education theory, or literally just "dun make kids feel dumb."