I want this article to be read by everyone in the world. I want it to be the spark that ignites my generation and those before it. I want this arrangement of text on a page portraying my very small-scale opinion to have a large-scale reach -- not because I want to be some Internet sensation that gets a supernova of attention and is forgotten weeks later, but because if I can change just one person’s view on the world and how they lead their life, I have accomplished my goal.
What are we doing?
That question goes to everyone. What are we doing? Look at us. Look at what we’ve prioritized. Versions of us with any sanity or decency would be so disappointed with how we’ve acted.
To the millennials, my peers -- we are supposed to be the generation that changes things. We are a force to be reckoned with, one that has the numbers and the drive to change our world into the one we want it to be, and one that we will be proud to leave to future generations. So why, then, do we insist on throwing the same blind punches that have proven to accomplish nothing?
Take a look at social media. It’s basically the home of passive aggressive, uneducated remarks and fighting when it’s literally supposed to be so people can keep up with their friends. I’ve hidden a disturbing amount of people from my news feed because I am so tired of it -- tired of logging in to see a bunch of whiny, do-nothing people crying for change that they couldn’t even describe. Some radical Christians are yelling at the LGBTQ community, the LGBTQ community is yelling back just as loud, the progressive Christians are yelling at the radical ones. I have literally witnessed friends and parents fight and hate each other over it.
I’ll say it; as a generation, we are a different breed than our parents. We have the technological prowess and assets that can affect the world in ways they never got the chance to. We are the generation of instant information, so why do we insist on fighting exactly like they have? Half of people under 25 will tell you how much they hate politicians and then turn around and act like one. I’ve never seen much good come from politics, because it’s turned into some “I hate the other person because they’re different, elect me to sit and make public appearances and do nothing” contest instead of what it was, which was the people electing an extension of ourselves to make change. I am by no means implying that I believe our older generations had no positive change, nor am I stereotyping. Our parents' generations fought for the same things that we did. My point is that it’s time we stopped fighting and started pushing.
It’s the same concept that happened in wars directly after the creation of the machine gun. We were still fighting with the methods as before we developed that weapon. We were running in lines of men, sheep to the slaughter. People would run to their death at the hand of a machine gun because they had never dealt with a weapon like that. They had never been taught how to dig a trench and stay away from the line of fire. We are pushing for societal change in the same archaic and ineffective ways that we have for, well, ever. We are yelling and screaming about topics that we normally have no information about instead of stopping, assessing whether or not we should weigh in, and doing our best to stay informed. We are fighting over traditions that need to be laid to rest. Like most of the problems that arise, we are fighting for things because it’s just how they’ve been done with no thought to whether they should still be done. It’s time to evolve.
Millennials, we are capable of so much. We have seen more advancement in our time than any other generation, and we can harness it. We can take this wealth of knowledge and work with our older generations. We can inform and discuss instead of blindly swing and yell on Facebook. We need to be the generation that learns how to cope with differences, because it’s pretty obvious no one knows. You don’t think the same as me? Okay. End of discussion. Someone having a different opinion is not justification for trying to kill them or tell them that they are some lesser creature. We need to appreciate the fact that people have different points of view and different opinions, because if not, we wouldn’t evolve.
Oh, and Baby Boomers? The sooner you stop seeing us, your children, as lazy, distracted and entitled, the sooner we can all sit down and discuss all of this together and use your experience and our drive to really make change. I, of course, am speaking in generality here. I know that not every person born before 1980 thinks this about the millennial generation, but it is prominent. This problem applies to all of you and all of us -- it applies to everyone. With the exception of the obvious, we aren’t lazy or uninformed. We are chomping at the bit to take the reins over from you all, and to decide the future ourselves. We’ve gone our entire lives watching you all run the planet, and we want our turn, but just like when you put us in the driver's seat for the first time after getting our learning permits, we want you in the passenger seat to give us your opinion. You’re still living on this planet, so why don’t we work together? It will take a great deal of work on both parts, but we can change the climate of our societies. I know it is an unrealistic delusion to think that everyone will stop arguing and killing each other, but I am confident that we can shift from yelling and pushing our doctrines to a more civilized and productive discussion.
Consider this article to be the equivalent of me begging you, pleading for you to take note. We are spiraling into vast ignorance that I don’t know we can pull ourselves out of in the future. If you disagree with your neighbor on a topic, have an intelligent discussion at a normal tone of voice supported by facts and opinions, and always clarify the two. We are beating each other to death over almost nothing, and ignoring the issues that are seriously threatening our continuity. We are too busy trying to convert everyone to our belief system to realize that we are destroying our planet and ignoring people going hungry or being sold into slavery. We want nothing more than to assimilate everyone into our school of thought when it’s the very opposite that makes life worth living. Variety isn’t the problem. It’s an inability to process and adapt. So learn, and calm down already.
