12.4.16
Yelling at Nothing
I am Millennial, kind of. I'm on board with our choices and movements, but I also find myself condemning the idealism that we float on in the media. Generational monikers, like "Millennial", are just sign posts which mark groups of people creating generalizations that stick with them as they grow. I think there are a lot of individuals who feel that they don't fit within this box, but you have to take on the weight of whatever traits you've been assigned by the year you were born. This is frankly BS (but maybe my resistance to be put in a box is because of my Millennial-ness). My conflict comes from this box, and right now it comes from the Millennial era elitism -a box I certainly fit in to but want to denounce. We are highly educated, overwhelmingly liberal, and are just as useless as every other generation at finding level ground with each other and admitting to ourselves that we aren’t as accepting as we like to think. As I write, thousands of us march the streets of our biggest cities calling for justice and I wish I wanted to join them. I agree with them, I'm inspired by them, I like what they're doing, but I think it won't make a difference. They, as I do, live under an idealistic notion that if we yell loud enough we can affect change. We had a black president so why not a woman?! Maybe if we yell loud enough we will change the political landscape. But probably not. Culture proceeds politics. We have to change the cultural landscape first. The problem is we have to combat the apathy that has come from the storm of major events we've been pelted with in the past few years. The problem is we aren’t yelling at the right people, and yelling doesn't really create change. People don't listen just because our voices are louder. We liberal elitists underestimate the differences between individuals and groups that differ from our own. We like to pretend that we are all the same, and that is a beautiful idea. But this ignores the communities -black, Muslim- and areas -the Deep South- that are radically different from us. W have to include these groups to make a deeper societal change, so the legislators become the target. That idea revolves around the idea of "if we can change the laws that govern us then our behavior will change with it". This is the idealism that so many generations have and had in the past, not just the persecuted "Millennials". If laws truly affected change, then Roe v. Wade wouldn’t be at risk of being repealed. The culture didn’t change when the law did, and culture is key. I'm part of this idealistic group, and I think we need to change. The right has it's own complicated story which over emphasizes differences and creates a wall rather than a line in the sand. This is clearly not the answer either. I think inclusive change will come more from left side, but we can't take the color-blind approach and pretend everyone is like us, and we can't leave out the Right half of the country. We'll have to respect the differences and use our understanding of each other to affect change in the dominate cultural landscape. We need to reach the Tipping Point before this shift will occur. I like to think we have the right ideals, but yelling or apathy are the only choices we're currently making. We need something in-between.