The Johnsonian

Issue date: 9/19/07 Section: Opinion

Anyone born between the years 1985 and 1989 has certainly heard how their generation has single-handedly doomed the United States.

Plenty members of previous generations will preach incessantly about how young people are selfish, rude, desensitized and generally apathetic toward life.

I recall sitting down in a restaurant one time and turning my gaze upon the complimentary TV sets on which the flavor-of-the-day talk-show host was ranting about how awful the world was.

He made sure to note how the Internet produces child molesters and makes the most talkative person "socially retarded."

Talk-show hosts aren't the only ones taking a swipe at our "tech-savvy" generation.

Critics range from the elderly individual, who reminisces about "the golden days" and compares two time periods that are separated by five decades and 10 times as many cultural changes, to the younger thirty-something individual, who chastises modern youth attitudes and fashions while clinging to the notion that their overblown tempers, valley girl hairstyles and cheesy Michael Bolton sweaters are still trendy, relevant and flawless.

Hypocrisy isn't only relevant to clothes and tantrums.

Many complain about today's fashionable anorexia trend, but the trend can be traced back to the likes of Karen Carpenter of '70s musical sensations The Carpenters, who died in 1983 of heart failure directly linked to her anorexia.

Apart from the galling assumptions on our apathy and overall personality defects, the most infuriating statement that someone from an earlier generation can say is the infamous "You've got it easy."

Any individual who utters these words is full of nothing but misguided ignorance.

Yes, we're lucky because we've got machines, electricity, the Internet and the fact that we don't have to walk five miles to school in the freezing snow, but what about the other side of the spectrum?

We are now living in an environment where it is increasingly more socially acceptable to explore our sexual orientations in ways that were taboo for previous generations, thus adding a whole new tier to the already maddening and exciting system of dating and friendship.

Also, we will be inheriting an earth that is laden with conflict.

Almost all nations that have some wealth to their name are sure to possess the capabilities to create a nuclear weapon, making it ever more important to practice our logic.

Thanks to the creation of atomics, the fate of world will hinge solely on the good of human nature.

The future is full of obstacles that we must overcome and battles we must fight on all fronts.

It is sad to see that the owners of these modern youth criticisms cannot instead turn their words into advice or, at the very least, constructive criticism.

Instead of being given such help, we are offered only cynicism, which most likely springs from an inability to cope with the modern times and their ever-changing dynamics that shove our civilization into the world of tomorrow.

We have the potential to be one of the greatest generations to walk the globe. Support from the mouths of all generations would be greatly appreciated.

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