“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “to speak of many things...” and it’s a great time now to speak of the ungrateful, graceless nature, of the younger generation, and their facile respect for the achievements, knowledge, and skills of their predecessors.
We are all reflections of the five people we spend most of our time with apparently, so young people need to be a little more discerning about who they are. “I wonder,” said a teacher colleague last week, “where these twenty-somethings get the absolute certainty of their ‘rightness’ about everything? There is no acceptance of other’s thoughts, no respect for their work, and as sure as eggs, no capacity for accepting that they are either, ‘not completely right,’ or even ‘wrong.’ Because, to be opinionated is too far on from trusting someone, or believing in something. To be opinionated is to have, or hold an opinion that can stand scrutiny, but we seem to be moving further towards the acceptance of strongly held opinion as truth, or fact, and that’s making me uncomfortable.”
She is right, of course, and the discomfiting thing about this intransigence we are seeing in this 16-25 age group, so not only ‘twenty-somethings,’ is that they cannot be told, cannot be advised, supported, or made to understand that everyone’s opinion has value. By contrast, their easy dismissal of contrary opinions is almost like ‘burning bridges,’ as the slight will rarely be forgotten, and is usually so harshly dealt as to be unpleasant.
Young people are so confident in the Internet, and its ‘truth,’ that they often assume a position, or opinion, without being fully informed. They will latch on to one spark of narrative that suits their ideologies, as vapid as they are, and take it as their credo, their genesis, on that particular topic, not seeking, or indeed listening to, a competitive rhetoric. It doesn’t suit their way of life, work, or progression. I like the idea of young people having dreams, and that they fit their concept of reality. But the desperation of that youthful abrasion smells like a bad egg. Slow down, you don’t have to ‘prove yourselves’ just yet. It’s still early days, so chill out, accept your inexperience, with its naivety and clumsiness, and in that, you will become even stronger.
What you need to know is that, in reality, nobody else cares! Some folk do, just a bit, but really, know that nobody cares. Everyone has their own things happening, and while they have time for reason, and reasonable perspectives, ‘opinionation,’ for want of a better word, sticks out a mile, and we don’t want anything to do with it. I like the idea of young people having dreams, and that they fit their concept of reality. But the desperation of youth smells like a bad egg. Slow down, you don’t have to ‘prove yourselves’ just yet. It’s still early days, so chill out, accept your inexperience, with its naivety and clumsiness, and in that, you will be much the better for it.
I guess part of this youthful, let’s call it ‘exuberance’ though it borders on rudeness, is to open yourself to the realisation that while you are your own most valuable asset, you need also to be awake to the fact that intransigence makes you your own worst enemy. Another part of achieving life balance is to recognise that failure, like success, is a very much temporary thing. Both are quickly forgotten by others, so while you must use success to empower you, and learn from your failures, you must be prepared to ‘let stuff go,’ good or bad.
The final reality, as harsh as it sounds, is that we don’t live forever, and unlike Peter Pan, we all do grow up, so one day, it will be you with the twenty-somethings snapping at your heels like a perpetual bad dream. Prepare yourself now by being a little more open, a little more tractable, and above all else, be a respectful listener. It will be worth it.
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