People love trying to define the millennial generation. Did it begin in the 80’s? The 90’s? Anyone who was born with a cell phone in their hands? Then there are the inter-generational divides. Post- and pre- 9/11? All just years and events trying to separate the us from the them (or is it the other way around? Is it the previous generation trying to distance themselves from us?). There are a lot of arguments of how to split, divide, and otherwise pick apart the millennials.
While I pilfered through these many definitions, I came across a new term: eco fatigue. An idea, specific to millennials, that young people are tired of hearing about how the environment has gone down the toilet. Tired of hearing that the world is dying, and that there is nothing to do about it.
It is an interesting theory. It’s like someone telling you every day for the rest of your life to save the bees and at first sympathizing because, hey, bees are cool but by day 43 you just want to scream “I am a social worker I can’t save the bees!” Oh wait, bees dying is a real issue. Let’s try again. It’s like people protesting in the streets for a Black Lives Matter movement and you’re just a biologist studying penguins . . . no that’s a real problem too. How about lack of political efficacy? Or immigration? Sexism?
Every day you turn on the news there is another problem facing the world. The millennials weren’t the ones to cause the housing market to crash. We inherited economic, social, and political disasters and our demographic hasn’t aged enough to do anything about it. Too young to be able to make widespread changes but old enough to complain. And if you watch the news you know that millennials love to complain.
Eco-fatigue is right. I’m tired. I go out into the world every day and all I hear is how miserable everyone else is. But it does not stop me from going out and enjoying myself. Yeah the millennials like to spend time on the internet. How do you think we escape the nonsense that is the rest of the world? We’ve got seventy year olds running our towns, approving unsafe disposal methods of waste, draining our education budget, and all around making decisions that lower our quality of life.
When members of a younger generation try to make changes, stand up and deliver a call to action, we get scorned and turned down. People love to tell us we haven’t experienced enough of life to know better and to let the adults handle it. I’m old enough to vote but law makers still love to tell me I’m too young to give my opinions. As a politician, their job is to listen to their constituents. I know I don’t have five degrees and three kids but I know how to read a newspaper and do my research. I know when there is a problem that needs fixing.
Don’t look me in the eye and tell me I don’t know how to make an informed decision. I might get tired of that, then we’ll see what your voter demographic looks like in twenty years.
