A Millennial Manifesto
By Sean Bayley on 01/16/2013 with 5 CommentsRead Time: 3 - 5 minutes
If not now, when?
That’s the question that we should be asking. By “we,” I mean the “millennials.” Those of us unfortunate enough to be in our 20’s and 30’s. Those of us unfortunate enough to bear the brunt of the damage from the baby-boomer-Congress and their generationally unequal and fundamentally absurd position regarding the National debt. Who can blame them? It isn’t their Social Security checks that are being held hostage.
And who are we to demand that they change? The popular image painted by pundits and politicians of a millennial is a lazy, pot-smoking kid who lives in his parents’ basement and watches too much Jon Stewart and Bill Maher. We now face the age-old challenge of reforming the establishment by infusing the innovation of the young with the wisdom of the old. Changing our public perception will be our most difficult challenge. And the first step in changing that perception is demonstrating that our generation is not one of apathy. Rather, it is one of unprecedented technological means and a natural desire to come together in our effort to repair the dysfunction in Washington, instead of continuing the pointless process of drawing and defending divisive party lines.
I believe there is a reason why our generation tends to prefer comedy shows over news shows. It’s because we’ve been born into a system that has proven itself capable only of parodying the once-great legislative body responsible for authoring policies which fostered a global belief in the power of freedom and the importance of equality. There have no doubt been similar times in American history during which the folks in Washington found themselves separated by a seemingly impassable chasm between party ideology. But the past two years in Washington officially hit a record low, with the 112th congress enacting fewer than 230 laws. The average senator officially logged fewer than 30 hours a week in session, and the average congressman even fewer. Statistically, our legislators are the least-productive elected body this country has ever seen.
But this problem is not isolated in Washington. We must be careful not to forget that Congress is, by design, an elected body of the people for the people. That means resolving the Facebook argument you just had with that idealistic liberal or intransigent conservative is a step towards easing the gridlock in Washington. We need to realize that our greatest enemy is no longer the ideology of the opposing party. Our greatest enemy is inaction. Fortunately, the demographic polarization that the media meticulously harps on every two years does not have to be an indication of the political playing field to come. And if we have any hope of restoring sanity in Washington, we must not let these trends continue. As a people, we must recognize that each individual is capable of forming intelligent opinions regarding sensitive issues. We cannot be dismissive of an individual’s politics simply because they are a member of the same party as Rush Limbaugh or Al Gore.
With regard to the National debt, the field has been set. The conservatives demand entitlement reform and a continuation of the single largest defense budget on the planet, exceeding the next largest forteen countries’ militaries. While the liberals call for reducing the military and a continuation of the “social safety-net” which, ironically, is threatening to collapse our country’s economy. Each side has their respective think-tanks pumping out daily studies which show, definitively, that the other party is wrong. Each side has their own groupie-like news shows which broadcast to the American people one side of a complex debate, choosing to demean the opposition’s ideas and beliefs whenever the opportunity is presented.
As the outsiders, millennials can see clearly the absurdity of the entire establishment. And for that reason, we are charged with the responsibility of demonstrating the personal character and the willingness for cooperation required to solve the greatest problems of our time. We need to recognize the insanity of uncontrollable entitlement spending as well as the immoral and counter-productive military-industrial complex 21st century America has grown into. The 113th Congress is poised to solve the greatest economic crisis our country has faced since the Great Depression, and prove that Washington can once again put country before party. If we can’t do it now, when will we ever be able to?
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5 Comments
John
01.16.2013
I feel this generation has a special view of modern America, since most did not know or experience much, and certainly not at a mature adult understanding, before the great change in society really started taking place in the mid to late 90s. Within the past 15 years, the America their parents knew and loved was transformed. They heard tales of their parents living in small tighter communities, probably did not even lock their doors until the 80s, and when they look at their lives now, with 4+ home invasions in a few mile radius, daily, they see a country falling apart. When they hear how their parents were so wealthy from the boom of the 50s, they had TWO cars, it was like their parents were living as kings as children, in a new age, and yet today, they can count on one hand the number of friends that have a job, let a lone own multiple vehicles. When they look at the way their parents traveled and enjoyed life.. free to roam new highways paid for with their hard earned tax dollars and family vacations, they can’t help but turn away from the sight of modern America.. where the TSA is going to be feeling you up to board any kind of transportation. They hear stories where the law and police were friendly guidance for someone who missteps on occaision, a warning and “you know better than this, get home or Ill tell your mother!” compared to a modern police state, complete with police brutality, indefinite detention, the repealing of habeus corpus, a war on drugs, a drone war and cyber war on privacy, and a foreign gulag for dissidents… In my opinion, for them, its a pretty grim picture.
To answer your question, if we can’t do it now, the only other time is revolution. And it won’t be possible with pickett signs. Unfortunately, most of America is asleep, and it will likely come to that.
Alex Gauthier
01.16.2013
@alexg
your characterization of the contemporary world as more crime-ridden lies in stark contrast to the facts: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2012/0109/US-crime-rate-at-lowest-point-in-decades.-Why-America-is-safer-now
John
01.17.2013
While this may be true in some areas, in others it is not, Chicago for instance and Ive visited many other areas for business and pleasure and it is much worse since any time during drug rush/riot and organized crime in the beginning of the 20th century. I do not care what the numbers say in that particular article, nor do I trust the source anwyays. I can look at a map of homicides in my area on a local website and they have dots for every murder, rape, assault within a 50 mile radius, and it is certainly not going DOWN in number every year. In fact, last year my city broke a record for number of homicides since the early 2000s when it was higher than Chicago. Please don’t believe everything you read on tv or the news.. as if they don’t have agendas and messages they are pushing… Whereas, I am here in my own time, warning fellow Americans of how bad it is getting in my area, and you think I am here for my health, or to make money by pushing an agenda? Sometimes its not hard to decipher the truth… Just look who goes the farthest to cover it up?
Also its not very hard to comprehend how crime could go down in rural areas where most people are armed, while going UP in gun free zones like Chicago in the past 20 years, and still have an overall slightly downward trend, so look at all the angles, see things from other people’s point of view, and you just might learn something.
Nate McIntyre
01.17.2013
@nateo182
I think part of the reason we prefer comedy shows and news parodies to the actual, traditional news is because that’s the only way you can view the last 10-15+ years. Between the bungling of Afghanistan and the fiasco in Iraq, to the Great Recession, the state of public and private debt, Citizens United, the TSA, woefully inadequate responses to major disasters, and other issues in recent years, it’s hard not to view the whole thing as a tragicomedy.
Then when we hear the same generation of politicians, pundits and others that created these problems over the past few decades say we should respect their “wisdom” and “experience” it’s hard not to roll our eyes. If you want people to follow you, you’ve got to show them something meaningful.
That’s also why we’ve seen two populist movements in the last 5 or 6 years, one of which was suppressed and in many ways ignored, while the other was co-opted and splintered.
Sean Bayley
01.17.2013
@sbayley
That’s precisely the point I wanted to get across. I’m pleased you share my sentiment.