Ypulse Quote: Every Generation Gets A Bad Rap
Posted by anastasia on 08-12-2008Nicolaus Mills, a professor of American studies at Sarah Lawrence College, is actually excited about teaching his "millennial" students this fall. He wrote a refreshing editorial for Newsday advising us to "Look past Millenials' flaws to see their virtues," of which there are many — definitely read the whole piece. He also reminded us that every generation gets a bad rap:
Disapproving of a younger generation is as American as apple pie. Those who came of age in the 1950s were labeled the Silent Generation and chastised for their conformity. By contrast, my generation, the Baby Boomers (born from 1946 to 1964), were criticized for being too radical and too preoccupied with sex. And the Generation Xers (1964 to 1982) were thought to be too selfish for their and everyone else's good.
No new generation can win the battle to define its identity until it gains access to the media, and by then the type-casting has been done. In recent memory the only generation to escape unscathed has been the GI Generation (1901 to 1924), and if they hadn't fought World War II and lived through the Great Depression, it's easy to imagine that they, too, would have been found lacking.
August 12th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Very refreshing indeed.
I do not know that I agree that "The Dumbest Generation" was a "strong argument". Perhaps a passionate argument. But strong seems to imbue some sort of credibility.
I'm a millennial from NJ and I never knew what a bad opinion people had about NJ until I moved out of NJ (I'm back now). I often wonder if I was but a couple years older if I would have such a strong negative opinion of the millennials. I hope not.. but I guess we'll see when the next generation makes it's way through high school.