In ’79, I was standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona … trying to scrape up a few coins for the phone booth so I could call for a taxi to take me the hell out of town.
Millennials can’t relate, but in those days there were phone booths everywhere. We didn’t have cell phones, or Uber … and, guess what, we survived.
By the way, when did the pound sign (#) become a hashtag, and who in Sam Hill is this woman called Alexa?
Polling data has uncovered a disturbing profile of the younger generation, but consistent with the youthful idealism of previous generations as noted below.
Anatomy of a Millennial
- Socialist
- Atheist/Agnostic
- Anti-capitalist
- Entitlement
- Democrat
Granted, this does not apply to all Millennials. For instance, a younger caller to the Rush Limbaugh show said that he doesn’t know anyone — at least, within his circle — who fits the profile as described though data suggests that it does apply to over half of his contemporaries.
Earlier generations did subscribe to a similar ethos, but they typically grew more conservative as they aged — with the notable exception of Bernie Sanders.
Will Millennials outgrow their social idealism?
They are the first generation born with a USB cord in addition to an umbilical cord. They are the first generation to come of age in a world that is increasingly dependent upon, or subservient to, technology.
Their cell phone has become an indispensable appendage.
Millennials embrace a sense of entitlement such as a free education, free health insurance — even free cell phones. They believe that capitalism is an unfair economic system — that the accumulation of wealth is immoral and should be redistributed through such mechanisms as a 70% tax rate on the wealthiest of Americans.
They were totally immersed in a socialist worldview from grade school to college. My political science professor back in the 70’s was a Marxist. He proudly displayed in his office a poster of revolutionary Che Guevara.
I was the only student in our class who challenged him. My classmates eagerly drank the Kool-Aid though most of them toted copies of Mao’s Little Red Book.
A group of college students who said they would prefer socialism over capitalism were asked if they had ever heard of Joseph Stalin or Mao Tse-tung.
None of them had ever heard of Stalin while two answered that Mao “was that Tiananmen Square guy”.
We’ve raised up a generation of Trotskyites who are ignorant of history. The local school district does not teach history pre-WWII because it’s not relevant to the multi-cultural student body. As one young Hispanic wearing a La Raza hat said, “Why do I have to learn about dead white men?”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is the poster child of the Millennial generation enamored with Socialism, and not understanding that America and her allies fought and died to defeat the socialists over seventy-five years ago.
Communism and Fascism are distinct subsets of Socialism. Stalin, Hitler, and Mao were the bloodiest mass murderers of any era. Socialism has to be imposed by force, or indoctrination. Citizens are subservient to the state. In return, the state distributes benefits according to the Marxian tenet:
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”
Socialism disincentivizes initiative, innovation, and inventiveness while stifling wealth creation. In the name of fairness it confiscates the assets of those who produce and redistributes it to those who don’t.
It is an immoral system.
Cortez and her mentor, Bernie Sanders, have coined the phrase Democratic Socialism as if that would make it more palatable to the American people — but if you put lipstick on a pig it still won’t look like Marilyn Monroe.
Socialism that is enacted legislatively does less violence than that which is enforced by torture and death, but it is still anathema to American tradition, custom, and values.
Millennials wouldn’t know that because they haven’t been taught. Radicals in the 60’s and 70’s earned their degrees in teaching, journalism, and creative arts. They became the influencers of our children.
Through public education, but also social media and entertainment, generations of Americans have been indoctrinated according to Lenin’s precept:
“Give me four years to teach the children, and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.”
Why does your conservative, straight child come home from college liberal and gay … hmm?
My parents were from the Greatest Generation. They struggled through the Great Depression, migrated west during the Dust Bowl, fought and won a world war … and landed men on the moon.
What the hell have Millennials done? They can’t even stop to smell the roses because their eyes are constantly fixated on their cell phone.
A local businessman lamented:
“Millennials don’t want to work an 8-hour shift, or 5-day week. They expect my business to operate around their schedule. I’m supposed to be flexible, but I’ve got a company to run. I don’t know what the hell they do all day, but stare at their phone. I hired one young woman who was actually quite capable, but unreliable. She was always looking at her damn phone.”
According to surveys, Millennials are still living at home. They don’t have sex nor do the females buy makeup, or lacy underwear. I asked one girl if she knew Victoria’s Secret. “Oh, is that your girlfriend?,” she replied.
I promptly sold my stock in Estee Lauder, Ulta Beauty, and Lululemon (think spandex and yoga pants).
Lastly, I am a product of the Playboy generation. The holding company that publishes the failing magazine has assigned editorial control to a couple of Millennials … a gay man and an activist feminist.
Go figure.
No wonder the magazine only publishes quarterly. There are no ads, and the newsstand price is $24.00.
Capitalism, religion, and sex are under siege like never before. Welcome to a genderless, socialist, sexless (unless you’re gay), agnostic USA. Once they legalize pot we can all sit around in a purple haze and not give a damn.
Thanks, Millennials!
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The blog author, a lifelong conservative, holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and Finance. He has written about politics, society, culture, and economics for half a century, and has posted on Blogger and WordPress since 2007.
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