Feature
Hell No, We Won’t Go!
Hell No, That’s Our Dough!
(Page 2 of 3)
But given the breadth of human individuality, why should we define ourselves on generational terms? Indeed, one could make a fairly good parlor game out of trying to name the most awkward, incongruent pair from a given cohort.
Generation X: Marilyn Manson (1969), maniac singer; and Chris Farley (1964), motivational speaker.
The Silent Generation: George Carlin (1937), known for occasionally joking about dirty words; and Ron Paul (1935), known for occasionally joking about becoming president.
The Baby Boom: Bill Clinton (1946), who never inhaled; and Cheech Marin (1946), who always inhaled. Famed windbag Bill Maher (1956), and famed windbags Dolly Parton (1946).
For my part, I feel a much stronger connection to an 85-year-old, morbidly obese, married, retired magazine correspondent—someone who has trod the path before me—than I do to a 25-year-old doctoral student in gender studies named Harmony.
Perhaps even more troubling for our effort, conservatives tend to be those who recognize the limitations of youth.
One of the guiding tenets of conservatism is that there is wisdom in the traditions of society—that, in essence, the old dead white guys knew more than they were letting on. Under such a philosophy, even the wisest among us possess only a startlingly small subset of human knowledge. And how much smaller is the further subset mastered by the young!
Jonah Goldberg recently raised ire for pointing this out in an interview, when he told the Daily Caller that nothing correlates quite so well with ignorance as youth.
“There is a certain power worship that finds its expression in this adulation of youth,” said Goldberg, steeling himself for a noticeable uptick in his regular hate mail. “My view is, ‘They’re going to run the country one day, so we should really explain why they’re so frickin’ stupid about so many things.’”
Goldberg wasn’t being malicious. He was simply pointing out that experience matters. The whole trope about events repeating themselves seems pretty spot on, and—having never been here before—young people don’t know to duck when the Arc of History comes swinging back through. It’s easy to think, as President Barack Obama has told us, that “We are the ones we have been waiting for,” if your exile in the political wilderness lasted from 2000 to 2008. And the simple fact is that there are only two groups of people who learned nothing from the Cold War: those born after 1991, and communists. The former, at least, have a good excuse.
SO WHAT, THEN, are we doing here? Having already barred the way forward, how shall we now proceed? Well…very carefully.
The Spectator’s youth manifesto claims to speak for no one but its authors. It does not aim to spark radical protest, nor does it condone unauthorized camping in public squares. It does not urge that Millennials become the next “Greatest Generation,” but that they invent a product, build a business, start a family, and let history take care of itself.
That said, we also recognize that the problems facing this generation are of a different sort than those that inspired manifestos past. Many of the protestations of the ’60s and ’70s were frivolous attempts to reshape society. Free love. Drugs. New Age spiritualism. The difficulties that lie in wait for modern youth are more pedestrian, yet more real. We are long past arguments to remake our society, and to the point of simply trying to save it. We fear—or at least I fear—that my parents’ generation may turn out to be the high-water mark of average American life.
In education, collegiate cost-benefit ratio continues to plummet. Americans now owe more in student loans than they do on credit cards. Some predict we will look back on this as a bubble, provided we make it through the bursting unscathed.
When young Americans do graduate, they’re greeted by the most dismal job market in decades. Millions are unemployed or underemployed, and missing the first foothold into a good career and a middle-class life.
About the Author
Kyle Peterson is managing editor of The American Spectator. Email him at petersonk@spectator.org, or follow him on Twitter at @kyleopeterson.
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TLP| 9.17.12 @ 6:34AM
"We have an opportunity to take action to avoid a crises in the Social Secirity System." The Redneck Rapist - Bill Clinton.
That was then.
This is now - The Magic Negro has not collected ONE THIN DIME - as he likes to say - for the Social Security "Lockbox" for the last Year.
Why not?
If we're all supposed to be recieving Soc. Sec. in our golden years, and this Street N-Word KNOWS that the Lockbox doesn't have a Pot to Piss in?
Why would he keep ELIMINATING the only source of Funding for it?
Why if FICA the only Tax that he's willing to cut?
This is not a Contest.
There are no prizes.
Can someone tell me WTF he's doing, DE-FUNDING Social Security?
And, why this isn't the biggest story out there?
(Actually, I have one Calender left over. I was gonna put it out back to keep the Deer outta the yard. But you can have it, if you can put - what I know his intentions are - into a Cogent Comment, without any references to a Shirtless Hillary.)
John Navratil| 9.17.12 @ 8:00AM
TLP,
You know the answer. That's the only tax the 50% who pay no income taxes pay. It completes the enslavement of a permanent majority to the Democrat party. It's the last fast lap around the bowl before we enter the drain.
John Navratil| 9.17.12 @ 8:03AM
TLP,
You know, Cloward–Piven!
Cobalt| 9.17.12 @ 9:40AM
Slick Willie invited Cloward and Piven to the White House when he signed The Motor Voter Act.
http://nicedeb.files.wordpress.....rvoter.jpg
TLP| 9.17.12 @ 4:52PM
You're absolutely right John. I'll get that second Calender out to you, right away.
And, not for nothing, but in Rush's first hour, he mentioned that: "We need to have A CONTEST".
Go to his site, and check the Transcript.
I know that he reads the TAS, and he often sites Mr. Kengor's Columns.
The Contest was Friday, and he mentions a Contest on Monday.
Coincidence?
I don't think so.
As Dr. Zoiberg (Futurama) would say: What an Honour.
Enjoy your Calenders.
Von Mises Jr| 9.17.12 @ 9:14AM
Considering State Pensions start shitting the bed in 2017, Social Security Disability Insurance will go broke by 2018 with over 10M (many new 99 week unemployment drones) on the dole, Medicare implodes between 2016 to 2024 per the Trustees; it is only logical that the 2037 Social Security bankruptcy must be accelerated.
If we go over the fiscal cliff in 2013 and have no state funds or health care within a dozen years; why the hell do we need Social Security to last 25 years?
Appleby| 9.17.12 @ 6:36AM
Most of these manifestos consist of a prolonged and interminable "Waaaaaaaah!"
The current NHL "lockout" is Exhibit "A" in the Youth Disconnect Sweepstakes, to my mind. In a time when so many people are hesitating between a loaf of bread and a quart of milk, to hear 19 year old kids squalling that a minimum wage of $595,000 a year is simply not enough boggles the mind. Then there are the piggies in the Teachers' Unions in Chicago, whose overfed faces above their red shirts scream GIMMEE to a community where parents are risking their by no means tenured jobs to try to find a place to keep their kids.
TLP| 9.17.12 @ 4:54PM
The current NHL Contract?
Spoken like a True Canadian.
Albert Constantine Jr.| 9.17.12 @ 8:51AM
For years, whenever there was some obnoxious expensive power-grabbing new government program, the Left would say "It's for the children". Now, we're learning that they left the important words off of the end of the sentence: "to pay for".
Jacob McCandles| 9.17.12 @ 10:35AM
That's fantastic. How liberals have managed to claim the "moral high ground" over the last 2 decades is beyond me. As I've suggested before, R and R should make this campaign about our kids and grandkids.
Purp| 9.17.12 @ 8:55AM
And all this while Mitt Romney's campaign is imploding ... how interesting.
Von Mises Jr| 9.17.12 @ 9:06AM
Endlessly observing monkeys fornicate would be interesting to you, Caliban.
TLP| 9.17.12 @ 4:59PM
Yeah.
The world is on Fire, with one Middle East President, after another, proclaiming that they told this @sshole that he needed to BEEF UP SECURITY, which he Ignored, because he was too busy Step'n Fetching it for Campaign Money to give a Sh*t, but all you can come up with is "Romney's Campaign is Imploding?
Good Luck with that one.
mike 3/505| 9.17.12 @ 5:34PM
Governor Romney's campaign is "imploding " because he had the effrontery (spelling?) to challenge President Obama's inept Foreign Policy...and as more and more reports seem to indicate, be exactly correct in doing so. How dare he?!
BTW....May I suggest a prize for this week's contest Tim?
atilla| 9.17.12 @ 9:18AM
IMPEACH OBAMA!!! NOW
Gary B| 9.17.12 @ 11:30AM
Wish we could, but he's black, so no we can't.
Ken (Old Texican)| 9.17.12 @ 3:42PM
I honestly don't know when the Phrase was ivented.....BUT I KNOW WHEN IT FLOWERED!
mILLIONS OF YOUNG MEN REFUSING TO BE DRAFTED TO VIET NAM.
God I must be getting old!
mike 3/505| 9.17.12 @ 5:37PM
You and me both....I missed that by 2 years.
mike 3/505| 9.17.12 @ 5:38PM
Correction...3
wildblue | 9.17.12 @ 4:19PM
Mitt Romney's we need you!
Mickle | 9.18.12 @ 4:10AM
I am afraid that a cold night is setlting over westeren civilization, and the warming fire needed to resore it may be more expensive than anyone wanted to contemplate.
Carroll | 9.18.12 @ 4:15AM
Can it all be just make believe as long as they pay you the REAL price on the day in question? Does order and Cause and Effect matter or can life in Mitt's Matrix be OK, as long as it SEEMS Real?