The Generation Ledger
What are we doing here...
I have been stuck on this ledger for a while. It has taken up much of my brain space, and I have been in writing paralysis. I have not written anything in months. It started with just normal procrastination, but the weeks turned into months.
I finally had a minute to breathe, so let’s see if I can get some coherent thoughts out.
I think this one stopped me in my tracks because it’s an important one as well as controversial.
Why, you ask, is it controversial? Anytime you group people into one segment, especially generations, people get mad. It's partially an identity group, and at the same time, always really hard to look at what you did as a cohort and be honest.
I have seen the arguments between groups on social media, and it never ends well. I fully expect every generation to be mad at me by the end of this.
If you want to bail out now, here is your final statement. IT’S ALL THE YOUTHS’ FAULT!
Anyone still with me? No? Great, I can talk to myself then.
I read a book a while ago called “A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America.”
It was an interesting read and made some good points.
Here is a section of a review similar to how I felt:
This is not the first time I've seen Baby Boomers called sociopaths and I think it's an understandable response to the labels put on Millennials who are frustrated with a system that they feel unable to cope with or change. I can only imagine Baby Boomers who feel they don't fit in with the stereotypical Baby Boomers will be able to read this without taking such personal offense as to be unable to assess the arguments made in the book.
More than anything, it got me thinking about how we treat each other between generations. The book critiques how policy decisions are often made to serve the interests of those currently in power, and how those same leaders, many of whom remain in office for decades, later work to dismantle those policies, preventing future generations from reaping the benefits.
It’s a build the bridge and then burn it once we are done strategy.
I don’t want to go into too much detail on that book and want to focus on our intrageneration ledger building.
I don’t think we do this well. Viral content about generations lately is either “ok boomer” or “millennials killed…”. Seems like we are always looking to blame other generations.
If we go back to the initial principles of the ledger, it is to increase credits and lower debits. At the moment, it seems we are all in massive amounts of debt.
Every future generation is lazy, doesn’t want to work, and is just looking for the easy way.
All older generations are out of touch and just don’t get it.
The more things change, the more they stay the same - Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr
There is so much invisible tension between the generations, I guess I sit here alone and wonder what we can do.
This stuff has become incredibly cringe!
Why are we so quick to find something to judge others for? So they stare, big deal. Instead of jumping to the conclusion that there's something wrong with them, maybe we should try to understand why this behavior exists without judgment. Could it be that they’re simply jaded by the limited prospects life currently has offered them?
I constantly see articles about how Gen Z has no idea how to do a job and gets fired at increasingly alarming rates. Naturally, it’s not the previous generation’s fault to prepare them for their future. No, it’s their own damn fault for not being good enough.
What the fuck are we even doing here!?! They learned this from someone.
If we go back to Adlerian psychology (my favorite), we learn the best response is not that bad person (blame others) or poor me (victimize). It’s what can I do from now on (take responsibility, move forward).
We have all had quirks and have lost all assumption of positive intent with each other.
Now it’s time for some specific topics.
Climate
This one is easy. I know climate change is debated, but it’s real. We are destroying our planet and the way we live. We will have to reckon with it one day, and that is what I would say is the more questionable part. Which generation is the one that gets completely wrecked?
Instead of trying our best with the information we have to implement improvements, we are just chugging down a doom path because we can’t be inconvenienced. I am a hypocrite here in some ways. I could do better, but reducing my singular footprint is going to do nothing.
We need the big polluters and industries to make changes, but it’s just too depressing to live within your means if it means 100 more generations will be able to exist.
We have done this before! Remember the ozone crisis? We came together and healed it.
Unfortunately, we want to max out credit cards with generational debt larger than America’s current national debt, so people can consume more, and some get to buy bigger and bigger yachts.
This is an invisible debt we need to pay down.
AI
AI is both great and terrifying, yet mysterious. I think it will help us in some ways and will destroy us in others. I have no idea if we will see Terminator-level AI. I don’t have the expertise, and there are plenty of other experts to hear from, who also don’t have any idea.
What worries me the most right now is articles like this about deteriorating the ability to think critically. In addition to this, the article mentions: “Studies from earlier this year, for example, found that generally, the more time users spend talking to ChatGPT, the lonelier they feel.”
Additionally, I have seen AI being implemented in schools as a replacement for teachers. It seems like the easy way to have an infinite, know-it-all technology, but at what cost?
Here is that invisible ledger again. Do any of you remember from Psych 101 Harry Harlow's wire mother vs. cloth mother study? Well, here ya go!
Essentially, monkeys with a cloth-wrapped mother did far better than those with just a cold wire.
I understand that teachers are not parents, and they shouldn’t be. However, how many kids’ lives are changed because of a teacher? Sometimes it is a kid’s closest thing to a parent. How much will we destroy because we decided knowledge is the main thing we want from a teacher, and therefore, AI is the way to go?
Unfortunately, these decisions will be made because… $$, and we won’t see the effects of this debt for another generation.
Curiosity
This last example came to me this week while at the beach. Sometimes my kids resist going on beach walks because “there is nothing to do”, and a tablet is way more appealing. I get it, technology and games are rad.
Then I watched them on the beach. They were bored because they had no idea what was possible. Their ability to come up with something to do on the fly was gone, and it’s devastating to watch.
The beach that day was awesome! Some pools formed and had a flow like a river away from the ocean. I picked up a reed that had been stranded on the beach and dropped it in the river/pool, and there it went. I looked at my kids and said, “LOOK, reed races!”
An hour later, they still didn’t want to leave the beach.
I loved that we found something that was interesting for them, and it’s not good that I had to intervene. I know I can take this learning and push my boys off devices. I also know I am only one person.
I wonder what kind of invisible damage we are doing with this technology. I understand tablets are so easy and let us as parents take a break, but at what cost?
What if we stop trying to act like the world ends when we die? One of my mantras is to leave this place better than when I got here. It’s why when we go on walks on the beach, I come back with handfuls of trash.
I have never understood why we haze and feel like we need others to go through the hell we did. This goes back to my mountain metaphor. On our way down from our life mountain, tell others what they can expect. Right now, it seems like we pass people and never give them a heads up that dragons are real and don’t go up the left path.
Why can’t we help others?
I know people will say, but you need the struggle!
Trust me bro, there is PLENTY of struggle to go around.
Let’s work on making some things easier for future generations.
I want to help others find meaning and a reason to enjoy life, not struggle to keep a place to live and food on your plate. We have to start somewhere.
Until next time…
Don’t fight back, fight forward.