Via Instapundit: Here’s the strangest part: I didn’t start out this way. I was a very industrious kid. I got my first job, working in a nursery, when I was 12 years-old. I worked at a responsible job in a church rectory until I was 17. I have never “not” worked. I’m an Eagle Scout and (nominally) a Knight of Columbus. I went to college, got the quarter-million dollar degree – the diploma hangs above my bed like the Sword of Damocles – and I’m faithfully paying off the student loans by working part-time jobs. There are the “seeds” of traditional masculinity inside me, and I never consciously rejected them.
But something has changed, and it hasn’t changed only for me, but for my contemporaries, too. Most of us are still living at home; a few of us have married, but we’re mostly still single. Why haven’t we moved on?
But something has changed, and it hasn’t changed only for me, but for my contemporaries, too. Most of us are still living at home; a few of us have married, but we’re mostly still single. Why haven’t we moved on?
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6 comments:
The wussy modern feminist culture, no education thanks to teacher unions, no real religion in most churches, lousy role models thanks to post-Namath sports and the media, coupled with President Pissy's Depression.
You don't need to get married to have a successful life. Tho - do try and make it a goal to move out of your parents house. In fact, do that first, and the potential partner might follow.
Don't lose that industrious spirit!
I do feel sorry for young people trying to buy real estate/first home. It's so bleeping expensive. Esp in markets where the jobs are.
I appreciated his answer. It resonates with my experience of some of the millennial men I've encountered through contact with friends of SonsM. The disillusionment mentioned goes along with the focus on, penchant for, or inclination toward an outlook and humor centered around absurdity (the quality or state of being ridiculous or wildly unreasonable) I've seen which feels like underlying despair countered with dark humor. I've also witnessed them attempting to take on basic tasks (like cook, sew, mow, build, clean, repair) on their own without seeking wisdom or input from others, as if it is up to them to reinvent the wheel, come up with a solution on their own or be the hero in their own story, with some less than satisfying outcomes as a result (what the MrM refers to as a "1/2 job"). While they're cheerful enough about accepting what is and soldiering through, they seem to have difficulty putting their whole self in to become fully invested in the process.
The only explanation I can think of is that my generation has been disillusioned by the discrepancies between what we were told the world was, and reality. We saw the Twin Towers fall when we were at our most impressionable, we’ve seen politicians, from the presidency on down, dwindle in stature, likewise our degrees and our sporting heroes.
There’s a line from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight: “You either die the hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” My generation understands this to be true.
Illusions have fallen for us. Perhaps it’s because we are the first internet generation with so much information, so much exposure to human weakness, sin, and misery. Maybe we’re just overwhelmed, and drawing back.
His parents should kick him out of the house.
Give him a month.
Charge him rent, starting today.
MamaM said...
The only explanation I can think of is that my generation has been disillusioned by the discrepancies between what we were told the world was, and reality. We saw the Twin Towers fall when we were at our most impressionable, we’ve seen politicians, from the presidency on down, dwindle in stature, likewise our degrees and our sporting heroes.
2 words rebut that - Pearl Harbor. That generation saw the world come flying apart, too.
There’s a line from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight: “You either die the hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” My generation understands this to be true.
Then his generation understands nothing. Heroes generally stay that way and villains are exposed very early.
Illusions have fallen for us. Perhaps it’s because we are the first internet generation with so much information, so much exposure to human weakness, sin, and misery. Maybe we’re just overwhelmed, and drawing back.
The Baby Boomers grew up with all manner of lightning communication. Some sucked it up and did the best, the rest became hippies.
No reproach on you, Mama, but some of us have heard this song before. It's the old issue of either the parents push you out of the nest, or the day comes when you find you must stand on your own.
The remainder go own welfare where once they would have had to live in the slums.
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