As a high school student, I had the distinct pleasure of getting to know many exchange students through the programs at our community’s schools. Our family even had the chance to host two—one from Finland, and another from Brazil. Over the years we’ve all kept in contact as we’ve started our own lives around the globe, and recently a friend of our Brazilian exchange student reached out to me with some of his thoughts on the current state of our generation. I found them to be so articulate and spot on—that I am honored to publish them on my blog today.
Readers, I give you Lucas Rossi of Brazil. Enjoy!
I’ve seen the current generation of young people being labeled as “millennials.” I’m not a professional writer (you’ll notice it along this text, I’m sure), but I honestly disagree with it. There is a word in the English dictionary which better describes this generation, and would be a more appropriate label: Children.
Depending on the definition you adopt, I can be considered a millennial. I’m 30 years old, I was born in 1987. However, looking at the Washington Post 2016 poll, which indicates that the majority of them actually think socialism is a good thing, I assure you: I’m nothing like them.
I love capitalism. You know why? Because I was raised to be accountable for my own actions and my own future, to value the money earned from honest labor, to treat others how I wish to be treated, and, most importantly, to honor my parents as the ones who went to work to ensure I got the best education possible.
Of course I wasn’t always like this. It was a process. At some point when I was really young, I actually did not understand why the government couldn’t just print more money and give it to the poor. I was that naïve. But I was, indeed, a child. And I did grow up, graduated in college, got a very hard job, and built a family. I’m happy.
Looking at the behavior of most people who are protesting against…well, basically against anything that’s not in line with the left agenda, it couldn’t be clearer: these people are children. They behave as such in almost every way. Let’s break it down, shall we?
1 – They want a higher authority overlooking their lives.
Almost every child at some point complains, even if in secrecy, about his “tyrannical parents,” who “won’t allow him to have his way,” who will “demand good grades in school,” and who “don’t know how hard his life is.”
(sigh)
It turns out, though, that these parents were children once. And they grew up. So now they know that what lies ahead in life is, without a doubt, considerably more demanding than the process of going to school and studying to get good grades. Some of these parents even know from experience that they should’ve dedicated themselves a bit more at that age. So they try to make sure their kids do it. We don’t expect children to understand this, they don’t have the life experience for it.
These millennials seem to have lacked a higher authority in their lives during their youth. For some reason, their parents or guardians, if present, most likely didn’t act as such. And so, these kids aged without proper guidance and boundaries. And as the children they still are, they long to be cared for by a “higher power.” They look for any resemblance of authority, to follow around like some sort of messiah. An authority that cannot be questioned, and that will do all the thinking for them, so they can focus on the important stuff, which is to spread their newfound and undeniable truth to the whole world of their neighborhood or college, or social media. Which brings us to the next bullet point.
2 – They yell, disrespect, call people names, throw tantrums, and break stuff. And they don’t see anything wrong with it. It’s actually fun.
If allowed to, a child will act without boundaries. If you have a kid, you’ve no doubt had issues with unrolled toilet paper on the bathroom floor, walls or other surfaces drawn upon, food being thrown around, name calling, among other mischiefs. The child, however, doesn’t fully understand how wrong this is. They will even do them a few times in order to challenge the parents, because, at first, it is mere play time for them, even when the parent gets angry. But once they start to be punished for these actions, they begin to realize that what they did was wrong, and that they will be held accountable for it. This is the beginning of character shaping, and I believe it to be one of the most important responsibilities of parenthood.
Many of these aged children are out there yelling around, labeling people who have different opinions with all sorts of absurd adjectives, for which they don’t even know the meaning of, and destroying public and private property. They know deep down that what they are doing is wrong. But they are also sure that there will be no accountability for it. After all, that’s how they lived thus far.
Being racist to combat alleged racism? Sure! Being violent to fight alleged violence? No problem! Being fascist to go against alleged fascism? Right on! And anything that is done to show them that this type of behavior is not acceptable will only be used to justify their horrific actions.
When confronted with facts, these kids act with feelings. As if how they felt about anything suddenly removed the need for reasoning. I’m guessing they have difficulty holding a job, if they actually have one. Imagine telling your boss “I don’t feel like working today, because I was triggered by a misogynist billboard on the way over.” Your manager won’t cuddle and comfort you. He might even be scared, since this is a major “crazy alert.” Except that today it is the behavior that is encouraged on many college campuses around the US. This is a disease, nurturing these old children to keep acting like they’re 8 years old, waiting to have their lunch be served and each spoon cooled by the gentle blowing of their mother’s mouth. Can you imagine a person like this trying to raise a kid of his own?
3 – They only like to get things for free.
These sick would-be adults love the idea of a strong hand above their shoulders, as I said before. They dream of a big government. A nice, kind, nurturing State, who will provide them with everything they need, including education, healthcare, public jobs, or, even better, free money to buy the latest gadgets that the evil, greedy capitalism is producing for everyone to buy.
Just as I once did not understand the basic concept of inflation, and wanted money to be printed and distributed around, the aged children of today don’t understand the concept that there is no free lunch. Someone is always paying for something that is being provided for free to other people. And it usually is the same person who is getting the benefits.
I live in a country with one of the highest tax rates in the world. Oh, yes…I’m not American. And I really envy your tiny government. My own is bloated and almost omnipresent. The result? Corruption, bad private services and even worse public ones, inverted values, violence, and blind dependence on the State. And even with all of that, a large part of my fellow country mates still believe the government should just “provide.” Few people stop to think that they’re paying for everything.
By the way, how could the private services also be bad if the free market that capitalism brings is supposed to be the solution to everything? Am I contradicting myself? Not really. On a big government scenario, there are so many regulations, and the access to justice is so bureaucratic and inefficient, that there’s a much distorted version of “free” market going on. Opening a business is painful and keeping it open is almost impossible, due to the unbelievable amount of taxes and the difficulty to employ anyone. On the consumer side, there are usually very few providers to choose from, and if one of them does you wrong, don’t count on the judges and prosecutors to get your rights. Just cut your losses and move on. And the public services are unbelievably worse.
But back to the main issue.
Children are not used to having to work in order to get the stuff they need. It just comes naturally. And since those kids haven’t grown up, they don’t understand why big daddy government can’t just keep on doing it for the rest of their lives. Why, make the rich pay for it. They are evil and greedy, anyways. Or at least that’s what their messiahs keep telling them, and they never lie.
4 – They have all the most reliable information real-time on their hands. So they know more than anybody else.
This generation has access to information like no other. But this information has to come fully chewed, processed and digested. It’s been some time since news was given in a more impartial and unprocessed way. Did you ever watch a newscast from the 60s or 70s? It is remarkable how the anchor reads the news, incomparable with today’s standards. They just pass the information, and the interpretation is left for the viewer.
That’s it.
Along with the bias that has been building up along the years, conventional media has lost so much space to blogs and social media in the past two decades that it had to appeal to other tactics in order to survive. From clickbaits to ridiculous headlines that sound like conclusions, the desperation for attention is almost pathetic. And don’t you dare accuse anyone of lying or being biased. You’ll just be labeled a blind ignorant.
If this generation knows more than the past one, they can’t be argued with. They will always be right. And, as in an algorithm for winning an argument without arguments, if confronted with the truth, go back to bullet point #2. They practice Schopenhauer’s Eristic Dialectic with mastery, the more experienced ones appealing to almost all the stratagems, while the hot-headed go directly to the 38th one: personal offenses. It’s not about convincing the person you’re debating with, but rather ending the debate as quickly as possible, so your contradictions and lack of factual evidence don’t show up.
5 – They know that socialism is the way for equality. It just hasn’t been done properly so far.
How often have you heard that the socialism in Cuba is not real socialism, that it hasn’t been implemented the right way, or that the sanctions put in place by the American imperialists were the real culprit in the Cuban path to an absolutely perfect society? Apparently, for the know-it-all old children, Fidel Castro’s and Che Guevara’s terror regime and mass murders were not enough. A lot of these kids will even say that this never took place, and that Cuba even has elections. The media says it, so it must be true. It doesn’t matter that Cuba is a single-party State and that elections have “candidates” that belong to the same party. Some nutjobs believe that Fidel Castro’s brother, Raul Castro, was, in fact, elected by the people.
Venezuela is another example. People are starving because Nicolás Maduro is not doing it right. But the illuminated children know the way for socialist heaven. And they will do whatever it takes to make sure it is implemented in America, after all, they know more than everyone else, and cannot be questioned. The violence and intolerance is a reflection of how far these people are willing to go to get their way.
How many liberals choose to move from the evil, oppressor, unjust capitalism hell to the heavenly socialist economies of Cuba or Venezuela? It’s either a very strong stupidity or pure hypocrisy to see the numbers and data on these socialist countries and still say that they’re better off than living under capitalism. The people who never experienced hunger or real oppression, where you can actually be killed for speaking your mind, trying to convince people living under these conditions that this is a good life? Wow.
Don’t worry, though…they’re almost succeeding on suppressing free speech in America, given the recent events in college campuses around the country. One of the things people died for to keep is being neglected by the very people it protects.
Bottom line of all this discussion: you’ve created a generation of condescending, intolerant, and oppressive children, which can spark a chain reaction that can indeed destroy the American society from within, if it starts to change the laws in order to accommodate their tyrannical demands. Antonio Gramsci himself could not have imagined such success.
And if you don’t even know who Gramsci was, you’re already losing the battle.
A Future Free 