So it seems a lot of people are actually somewhat concerned by the potential of a terrorist attack etc? As in you guys actually think about this on a regular basis and this is impacting your lives?
NO. Absolutely not. It almost never enters my active mind on a day-to-day basis. Maybe I haven't been clear about the distinction I am making between something being part of your general philosophical framework/epistemology/worldview, and something being an active part of your life.
People who grew up during the cold war did things like go to university, get jobs, get married, have children - would you do that if the thought of imminent nuclear holocaust occupied your every waking hour? People may have thought the world would end by the time they were thirty, but thinking something and *thinking about* something are different.
I don't mean to suggest that Millenials spend their time biting their fingernails over the imminent economic collapse, or that they tremble in fear every time they see an Arab with a beard on the bus. I would imagine most hardly ever really think about any of that. However, the general background of our lives is filled with doom, gloom and nihilism.
We are told, both explicitly in a lot of media outlets and implicitly:
- Your GCSEs and A Levels are worthless, but you still have to learn everything and take the exams, even though a glance at the education section of a newspaper makes it quite clear that no one in authority thinks what you are learning has any worth or equips you for the future.
But you revise and try hard for the exams anyway.- Your degree is worthless and you might as well not bother because you won't learn anything of consequence.
But you still take out student loans to get the degree.- You grew up on the internet so your brains are addled, you can't write and can't concentrate and you're too obsessed with technology to know anything.
- You won't be able to get a job because too many people are going to university and there's a recession.
- You'll never buy a house because they cost too much and you won't be able to save for a deposit because you'll be unemployed because you'll never get a job.
- There won't be any money left or the NHS when you get to pension age, and you don't deserve unemployment or housing benefits now, but you still have to pay your taxes.
Etc, etc. There is no one who is painting a positive future for our generation. We are basically told we have nothing to look forward to. This is the largely ignored backdrop to our world. I'm not saying any of it is genuinely true, but we are being relentlessly told that we are lazy, stupid, not useful members of society...
I read a blog post once, not sure where, and the author said:
1. Middle aged people are saying that young people are stupid, lazy and not equipped for the world of work. Degrees mean nothing any more. That is why they can't employ them at the companies they own and have them do endless unpaid internships.
2. These young people are the same age as their children.
3. But their children are not stupid, lazy, and unequipped for the world of work. Their children must get a degree! Their children are perfect and deserve so much more than an endless stream of unpaid internships. Even though their children are the same as the lazy people in point 1.
I'm putting it very badly, but it was basically about double standards when applied to a generation as a whole and the specific example of your own children. And why middle aged people cannot see that as parents/as a generation they have made their children whatever they are, so why are they complaining? Obviously it was mainly about the middle classes.