Stop Calling Millennials Entitled: The 100 Year Effect of the Great Depression
There are a lot of jokes flying left and right about the plight of Millenials. A group that is typically at the brunt end of a lot of negative commentary about any and everything.
If you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade and have somehow resurfaced this morning here are just a few highlights of what’s been said:
Millennials:
- are entitled
- are not financially responsible
- are not saving enough money
- are still living with their baby boomer parents
- just won’t grow up
- don’t want to work for “it”
- want instant gratification
- stay on their cell phones all-day
Again, these are just the high-level remarks made by many, particularly the previous two generations, who have a disdain for the ways of the Millennial crowd.
Exceptions To Every Rule
But just like most things in life, everyone doesn’t fit the profile and there are certainly exceptions to the rule.
In fact, there are probably more exceptions than the rule itself due to the complexity of today’s life circumstances.
But what (and who) created this rule in the first place?
Did the people (or person) who made these claims ever peel back the origin story to see what was the cause to the effect?
No. Of course not.
Very little has been said regarding the journey to Millennial life and the narrative that has shaped it.
If any, that narrative has been explored largely by members of the Millennial group so as to provide a counter-narrative to the one that has been placed upon them.
So Where Does the Journey Begin?
How far back should we go to start putting together the pieces of what is the present-day plight of the Millennial?
Well, while one could argue the beginning of time is a great place to start, let’s save the long drawn out odyssey and pinpoint a more realistic place. I’d argue you can begin to see a pattern take form roughly two to three generations ago.
More specifically - The Great Depression.
The children of this era who survived this tumultuous span of time carried with them one central theme: grave loss and extreme depravity.
Not much in the area of material excess was prevalent for this group of people. Thus, I believe because of this, this generation grew up doing two main things:
- highlighting material gain as important
- hoarding/holding on to any and everything they could
Now, of course, this is all a part of that rule I spoke of earlier as I realize I’m making a group conclusion. Conclusions that I’m very aware have exceptions to them.
But for the most part, I dare say my conclusions are near spot-on as I’ve polled and observed quite a bit of story of people from that generation. And almost all of them contain the same storyline and character trait.
You see what normally happens as human beings are that whatever we grow up experiencing we often strive with everything in us to produce the exact opposite of our negative childhood origins. Because as adults, if we can shape a life that’s more comfortable and more enjoyable why wouldn’t we do it since there’s more autonomy available to us.
So who could blame any generation or person for having that desire and acting upon it? Nobody wants to struggle their entire lives. Certainly not the Depression babies who grew up to have a life full of children (Baby Boomers) and hard work to make sure those days of depression would never rear its merciless head again.
Passing It Down
While the depression babies did their best to raise the Baby Boomer generation what they unconsciously (or maybe consciously) passed down was an emphasis on hard work.
- Work that you do even if you don’t like it or are being treated unfairly.
- Work that you do until someone else tells you -you can stop doing it.
- Work that rewards you with gain so that you don’t have to struggle like us.
While this work ethic undoubtedly produced quite a bit of good, I’d again argue that it consequently produced a narrative for this generation that many of their children (Millennials) discovered weren’t copacetic.
Millennials discovered that hard work is great and character building, but it’s not everything.
It’s an interesting thing to reflect on when it comes to the values passed down from one generation to the next. Each set of parents certainly has a hodgepodge of ideas, morals, and ways of viewing the world that gets swirled up into the mix of an ever-changing culture.
So while not all Baby Boomers adhered to a certain way of thinking, they certainly were subject to the culture that resulted from the Great Depression. It is safe to say that we can use this same formula when it comes to assessing the actions of Millennials.
They are simply inheriting a culture that was created by the Baby Boomers and responding to the ever changing culture with their own set of hodgepodge ideas, morals and ways of viewing the world.
Right or wrong this is simply a case of cause and effect.
So Let’s End It
Thus, all the fingerpointing, blame game and crude joking about the Millennial generation from Baby Boomers (or anyone else) quite frankly needs to cease.
Are there many things Millennials can and should re-assess regarding their decision making and values -absolutely. Yet, this same re-assessment can be ascribed to the previous generations as well.
No generation is without its own set of faults.
There are many things that I could discuss in more detail regarding work entitlement, adulting, cellphone usage, and financial stability. But honestly, it would take more than a Medium post to go into detail about each one of these issues that, quite frankly, just scratch the surface of the Millennial narrative.
So the question that I’ll end this article on is: “What are you doing to help better shape the narrative?”
