Millenial generation brings change in attitude, philosophy

Most of you would probably agree that we need some good news. For most of the summer, we’ve seen and heard stories of how poorly the economy is doing, the dysfunction in government, natural disasters near and far, and several tragic losses of life on the local level. No, there sure hasn’t been much to celebrate recently, at least from a news standpoint.

The drug-out negotiations and debate on the debt ceiling resulted in an agreement to lower budget deficits on the back of $2.4 trillion in spending cuts over the next ten years. Unfortunately, this was only about half of the $4 trillion rating agencies like Standard & Poor’s had clearly said they were looking for. After all the media theatrics the politicians went through, they thought their agreement was reason to celebrate a touchdown when in reality they barely got past the 50-yard line. Not surprisingly, this resulted in a credit rating downgrade from AAA to AA+, further intensifying the finger pointing in Washington.

That paired with a ten percent drop in the stock market will likely be what the summer of 2011 will be remembered for in a political sense for the foreseeable future. Republicans blame President Obama and Democrats are blaming the tea party just as predictably as dogs bark at cats. I’ve previously gone into great length about the various broken parts of government, most specifically the kind of people who run it. Those same sentiments have been echoed again throughout the country recently.

I’m always astonished how our leaders regularly mention the need for tough choices now so our children and grandchildren are able to live in a nation free of the burdensome problems created in their past. Then, they repeatedly revert back to the same behavior that prevents exactly that from happening. So, let’s admit it, for the time being we’re not going to get the long-term governance towards the future we need. What’s that? We need to throw them all out? Well, maybe, but simply replacing our elected representatives with even stronger like-minded folks isn’t going to change much. It’s bigger than this though, it could be generational and possibly a matter of time. Those same children and grandchildren commonly used as political pawns are growing up in a different world than their parents and it’s had an effect on the way they view the world, the people in it, and the problems we face. The ones that should serve as the motivation for progress are more than likely the ones better equipped to actually see it through.

Although I’m biased because I fit into this group, there will soon be a new generation taking the reins of leadership from the aging Baby Boomers (born 1946-64) and members of Generation X (born 1964-80). They’ve been coined Millennials, the first generation to come of age in the new millennium. While eras such as the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement, and other conflicts in the 60’s and 70’s caused what seemed to be life-long divisions between groups of people, Millennials find themselves growing up in the most diverse culture this country has ever seen. Kids and young adults are less divided on many of the issues that have caused separation among people in the past including race, gender, religion, and other social differences. This has led to a more tolerant and accepting group of Americans. In addition to personal experience, technology and social media has exposed to them multiple points of view and various opinions that help shape their own thoughts. In fact, the availability of those resources has not only made us more informed of the world around us, but also led us to be more flexible and avoid the type of purely absolute thinking so evident in our current leaders.

Millennials aren’t typically driven by traditional issues of contention because as the world becomes more complex they understand that most things aren’t as black and white as they’re commonly made out to be. Even outside of a political context, they tend to display the very characteristics you hear people clamoring for now. Things like compromise, open-mindedness, accepting differences without hostility, and disagreeing without being disagreeable.

Of course, this is just a broad view of the Millenial generation as a whole, not all individuals fit the bill exactly. They come with their own unique faults, which could be a column of its own someday. As my grandpa sometimes says “It’s darkest just before dawn”, and so may be the case now with public satisfaction in government at all-time lows. While many believe social and economic change is always just an election away, the long-term shift away from dysfunctional government may just come with the gradual changing of the guard from generations divided by their conflicts to a generation more adapted to find similarities among their growing differences.