Disclaimer- there are two video links embedded (I hope) in this blog (ahhh, the Information Age. You can keep it). Anyway, the second of the two may offend delicate eyes and ears, so be warned. Additionally, in order to see it, you have to sign in with You!Tube via your g-mail accounts. Yes, you've all got one- it's your student e-mail. Have a good remainder of the weekend.
Millennials.
Despite our definitions in class, I'm still not sure what to make of that term. Especially since admittance into that particular club seem based upon somewhat loose criteria. I can't help but feel that I quite clearly belong in a different generation than those with whom I currently attend university. I'm 32; most of them are between the ages of 18 and 22. In my conversations with other students, there is, to me, a pronounced gap in experience, points of reference, and general knowledge. To put in "modern" terms, I suppose you could call it the difference between two very different databases. There might be a better way to put that, but I'm unsure as to how.
Regardless of my confusion, or perhaps because of it, I wonder to myself am I a "millennial?" I... don't know. I could make an argument for it, of course- I was born in 1981, and graduated high school in June of 1999. So, on the surface, it would seem I'm very much a millennial. On the other hand, of course, I've seen things that many others considered millennials have never seen- nor (thinking more about this, I have to say "hopefully") will they.
I watched the Challenger blow up on TV. I saw the reports on the Tiananmen Square massacre when I was eight, and how a single man held up a column of tanks. It didn't matter to the thousand or so students who were slaughtered, but it still sent a ripple into the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-nXT8lSnPQ I watched the fall of the Berlin Wall, the opening salvos of Desert Storm live on CNN, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the break-up of Yugoslavia, the Rodney King beating, the acquittals of the LAPD officers and Los Angeles burning. I watched with rapt attention as Bill Clinton and O.J. Simpson were acquitted.
From Manuel Noriega to Slobodan Milošević; Saddam Hussein to Muamar Gaddafi to Osama bin Laden; Mobutu to Yitzhak Rabin and Yassar Arafat to Laurent Kabila; I saw them all come and go. It's unfair to put Rabin in that grouping, but his assassination heralded a fundamental shift in how the Israelis conducted themselves. I saw the end of apartheid in South Africa, the end of the Troubles, and an unconscionable chemical gas attack in a Tokyo subway. I lived through the Era of Domestic Terrorism- Nichols and McVeigh, Ruby Ridge, Waco, the Atlanta Games bombing and the Unabomber. I read about and saw the North Hollywood shootout, "ethnic cleansing" in Rwanda and Kosovo, and a cult of people who wore purple Nikes killed themselves because they wanted to catch a spiritual ride on a comet. I saw September 11th live on every channel, the London subway bombings, the Madrid train bombings, and the Bali bombing. I, along with everyone else in the country, watched us invade Panama, Haiti, *sort-of* Serbia, blot out one of the world's most powerful armies in less than 100 hours during Desert Storm, and finally our invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq (round 2). Hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and tsunamis- seen 'em all. To be fair, I've also seen the amazing relief efforts mounted in order to "fix" things as best as possible, yet somehow the taint of corruption, malfeasance, and strife always winds up in those relief efforts.
My point, I guess, is that few of you will understand the visceral reactions many of these quite literally world changing events evoked in me, or my generation. For those of you born in the '90s, the world has an extremely different shape for you than it does for me. Sometimes I think you're naive, sheltered, and unprotected, and then I have to wonder if I'm the naive one for thinking I see your generation any differently than my predecessors see my generation. At the end of the day, like most things, I have to call it a toss-up. I certainly know some things many of you will never know- for instance, Michael Jordan will always be the best basketball player who ever lived. Kobe, Lebron, and their ilk can't hold a candle to him, or the pedigree of superstars he played against. I know this for two reasons. First and foremost, I grew up around Chicago in the '90s, and that's just the way it is, and secondly, because I got to see him lead the Bulls to two three-peats. Despite the murder of his father. But I digress.
The reason I'm harping on what I see as this difference between your generation and my generation stems from my reactions to some of your reactions about the "worth" of college. For me, to buy into any of this "hackademic" or "credential inflation" nonsense is just that- nonsense. Selling such a non-plan for success predicates itself on fear- your fear. Of debt, of joblessness, of failure. And, quite frankly, I despise it.
How dare anyone tell you that an education isn't worth it? How dare anyone try to prey on the fears of the young to rob them of their future? How dare anyone advocate that you handicap yourselves with artificial limitations? Because that's exactly what going through life without a degree is- a handicap, and not one you can easily overcome.
I've been denied the company of people I respect, because they have degrees and I don't. I've been looked down upon by others- even other people without degrees- because I don't have a four year degree. I'll never be able to get the job I want without a Bachelor's. No one will consider me an expert in my field without a four year degree. Most notably as I get older, I am and will continue to be considered the next best thing to a second class citizen without a Bachelor's.
Yet many of you don't know where I'm coming from, because you're simply not old enough to have experienced the things I've experienced. You haven't heard the unknowing condescension in the voices of people you've known since you were twelve. You haven't seen the change in the eyes of someone you're discussing an important topic with change from bright engagement to hooded disinterest the second they learn you don't have a degree and are therefore their inferior. You haven't seen twenty-two year-olds lead nineteen, twenty, and thirty year-olds with multiple combat tours into ridiculous situations simply because they have a degree- and you don't.
I did two tours in Iraq with the infantry. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soFPZ-Wo9T4 I learned, I adapted, I adjusted. I was known in my platoon for over-thinking the crap out of things, for mentoring, for seeing "the big picture." Yet however smart I or any of my comrades were, we were always at someone else's mercy. Because we didn't have degrees. As a result, some of us died, and some of us didn't.
Is that the way things should work? I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. I couldn't tell you definitively. What I do know is that while you may not need a degree to be successful, odds are you'll have a better chance with one than without one. Most importantly, though, without that degree, you will always be powerless in the arenas that matter. Even if you're one of the lucky 20% that manages to start a small business and make it, you're still going to have to rely on people that have degrees to get you through. CPAs, lawyers, federal and state inspectors, policy makers, so on and so forth.
So don't, for a single second, think that your path isn't "worth it." It is. You are some of the luckiest people on earth, whether you realize it or not. You have bright, shiny futures ahead of you. Even better, most of you are young enough that you can enjoy the fruits of your labor so much sooner than people that took my route through life. I'm going to spend the rest of my days trying to make up for not going to college right out of high school, and at this point I honestly don't think I can "fix" it. But I can damn well make sure that I have the necessary tools to be heard and taken seriously. I will never again be dismissed for being an uneducated rube, and that credential can't "inflate," no matter what some kid who confuses temporary celebrity with success might tell you.
Well. That's it. Sermon over. Now start paying attention and posting on the blog.
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