On Being a Member of the “Dumbest Generation”
If author Mark Bauerlein is to be believed, my generation – the generation that grew up with the Internet – is hopelessly stupid, trapped in narcissism and solipsism by smartphones, Facebook, and Twitter.
This is complete horseshit.
Compared to other generations, ours is the most supportive of equality for gays and lesbians, the least fettered by religion, the most supportive of women’s reproductive rights, the most economically optimistic (even in these dire economic times), and the least racially prejudiced. And, in case you forgot, we turned up at the polls in 2008 in record numbers to elect our nation’s first black president.
Perhaps most importantly, it is the members of this “dumbest generation” who have the courage to resist tyrants and dictators – in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, and now Libya.
In truth, I feel sorry for people like Bauerlein. They repeat the pattern of hating and fearing the new generation, forgetting that we are not the ones who put greenhouse gases in the air and a hole in the ozone layer, that we have started no wars (but we have fought and died in them), and that it was their greed, not ours, that caused the global financial crisis.
Whatever you call this generation – Gen Y, Millenials, the Post-Cold-War-Kids – I’m proud to be one.
