Generation Rebel

We have, I am afraid, been lied to.

My generation, Generation Y, is lousy at rebellion. Many of us were raised by Baby Boomers with a bottomless tolerance for pretty much anything, spurred by their own fancy-free youth. Most of us Generation Y’ers had nothing to rebel against, and if we did rebel, it was ineffective and without real purpose. Most of us decided early on that the Man was okay and would produce for us, that we should adhere to the Achieve-O-Tron machine because it was good and just. We bought everything they told us.

As we got older, the stakes increased. AP exams, endless homework, ceaseless jockeying for Ivy League positions: we did it all, 110 percent certain that our freakish work ethics and desire to Change the World would carry us through.

We as a generation were certain that our inherent uniqueness, the specialness our parents had assured us we carried within, would give us all we wanted and more. Our special talents and remarkably charming little personalities would allow us to become Captains of Industry and Titans of Philanthropy. We believed all this.

And then the economy broke. The world fell flat on its face. The path we had carefully marked out was not so clear anymore. Uh oh.

So what are we, my generation, the bright eyed and bushy-tailed Generation Y’ers, to do about this terrible mess? We could, it is true, simply buckle down and work harder. We could become even more resolute in our ambitions. We could throw ourselves on our knees and beg for mercy before the idols of Kaplan, graduate school admissions’ boards, and Fortune 500 head-hunters. The ship may be going down, but we can always cling onto it a minute or two longer.

Or we could try a little rebellion. I think my generation desperately needs some healthy, positive, cynicism about the nature of success. It doesn’t take a genius to see that the advice we have been given our entire lives is, in fact, total BS. We as a generation may have to face the reality that working hard, punching the ticket and volunteering with sick African children will not earn us meaningful careers, repute and Wikipedia entries. We may have to realize as a collective whole that we are living in a world that does not find us special and often finds us expendable. We are going to have to adapt to a less glittery future, or we will go completely insane. What form will that adaption take?

There are some good options. Our predecessors in youthful rebellion — look at Generation X — seemed to do well enough with profound distrust of their elders. Perhaps we must regard our own parents and authority figures with a gimlet eye, instead of automatically obeying when they tell us what to do and how we should conduct our live. Maybe we should listen to what those ‘60s stars we idolize were actually talking about and take some of that anarchist, rebellious spirit to heart. Not that these movements really made the world any better (despite what the ever-preening Baby Boomers may want us to believe), but they at least declared independence. They at least freed their adherents from believing every cotton picking thing authorities and parents told them was good and true.

As a helicopter-parented and independence-deprived generation, we are, my brethren, going to have to man up. We have to separate ourselves from the comforting petticoats of our parents, and find our own path. Because the system we bought into, it is evident, is not going to provide for us any longer.

And if the demise of that system means we are not all going to be able to become hot-shot bankers or heroic philanthropists or environmental lawyers, then we are going to have to accept it. There are more ways to make a living on this earth than glamour positions. There are more ways to be happy and successful then punching the ticket, toeing the line and following the career track to its bitter (and now uncertain) end. And we, Generation Y, are going to have to accept that.

I’m going to try to do what I can to deal, and I hope that you, my poor and startled twenty-something counterparts, try to do the same. I think it is good advice. I do not know if I will be able to take it.

Faine Greenwood is a staff writer. She can be reached for comment at sgreenwo1@tulane.edu.