Gen-We Will Rock You
Numbering 95 million, Generation We or "Millennials" were born between 1978 and 2000 and are emerging as a social, political and philosophical force. This generation, the largest in American history, comes equipped with a strong and healthy vision for the future of America, and the entire world.
They want to change the political process, they want to restore the environment, they want to create a healthy economy, and they want it now. They're going to get it, because they're gathering together and doing it themselves.
Who are they? Watch the video to find out..
In the book Generation We: How Millennial Youth are Taking Over America And Changing Our World Forever, (available as a free PDF download as well as in paperback), author Eric Greenberg discusses the planetary situation and the "amazing and powerful generation" who are standing up and getting into action in order to change things for the better.
Incidently, the seed for the notion of Generation We came to Greenberg in 2006 during an epiphany while in a jungle hut, deep in the Amazon rainforest, the "belly of Earth".
Gen-We plans to release a site in 2009 that will allow you to connect, organize, develop campaigns, and launch actions that influence the political process, enable collective voices to be heard and heeded, and encourage a movement of globally responsible citizens.
Photo by mrhayata used via Creative Commons.
Tweet- 11-20-08
- Morgan Maher's blog
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healthy cynicism
I'm One
Give it a name, call it what you want...
but recognize:
There's a generation, the largest generation, a diverse generation, a determined generation - who want to change things for the better, who, in fact, are changing things for the better.
I'm sorry, but i don't think your cynicism is very healthy.
if only...
adequate food and water for all humans...
Taking the tongue-in-cheek a little too far
Okay vivifidal, this is all very witty, but let's show some respect for the author here. I don't think everyone gets how tongue-in-cheek you are and I want to make sure you keep it civil in accordance with our guidelines.
Also, I don't want us to divert too far away from what the article is actually about. Does this generation exist, can it be categorized in some socialogical way, and if so, what does this mean?
Speaking in Tongues
Interesting how "older" people are acting childish, while young people are acting like elders.
ok, but serious about food and water...
You have a point
This generation is full of adolescents that are acting like, well, adolescents. And there are many of us that don't give a rat's ass about the world and would rather shop than plant a tree or volunteer our time. But there are far more of us who are doing everything in our power to change the world for the better. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it isn't there.
And being cynical never helped to accomplish anything, although I don't think this generation (or anything else for that matter) should be glorified until it's fully seen in action.
Vivifidal: Why so bitter?
Vivifidal: Why so bitter? Why the hatin?
As a millennial I recognize and appreciate that without the boundary defying antics of the boomers, the culture may not have been flexible enough to get to the point it is today that we would have elected Barack Obama as President. I also agree that it's important to study all of human history.
As far as adequate food and water for all humans: Current food production technologies make it technically feasible to feed the world's population. However, you seem to be forgetting that there are market forces at work that override simply doling out sustenance. It’s unfortunate yes, but for goodness sake it’s not like any of us are even old enough to run for President yet.
As for water, well we may yet have wars over that as well, even interstate legal battles that could devolve into something messy, but what are you doing to help contraception, education, and the standard of living increases that run alongisde stable human populations. Are you perfecting the desalinization process to be more energy efficient? This year though those social networking sites that you probably also hate on and think of as solely tools of narcissism (as would be fitting of the cliché) overtook pornography in terms of traffic because we’re digital natives.
Or maybe you should take it easy on the glib comments that don't have anything constructive to add and insult an entire generation of people. Furthermore, while you may think none of us know about our collective human history, we do know enough not to drink the kool-aid of every boomer who went on the hippie pilgrimage and blended tantric practices based on the insights of their own self-indulgence and sold New Age books. Now, maybe that’s you and maybe it’s not, but something about a timber from your own (generation’s) eye… I can’t remember... because apparently we’re all too stupid to read.
We've got your back
Furthermore, while you may think none of us know about our collective human history, we do know enough not to drink the kool-aid of every boomer who went on the hippie pilgrimage and blended tantric practices based on the insights of their own self-indulgence and sold New Age books. Now, maybe that’s you and maybe it’s not, but something about a timber from your own (generation’s) eye… I can’t remember... because apparently we’re all too stupid to read.
Wow, cool. That could have been said by a punk to a hippy! In fact, I think I said something like this once. I'm down with the mellenials. FYI, we Gen Xers have your back. Rock on!
there are only two generations of people.
it's experience that makes it possible...
Me? Dr Who Generation!
Back in the 90's I asked a some neo-con banker lawyer type at a Christmas party when would we see the end of the "me generation"? He looked at me like I had two heads and did not speak to me ever again.
Guess what dude... ?
While some cynicism is evident in some commentary surrounding this stellar effort, it's a whole truck load (that's a dookiepie in the bush) better than whatever the banker lawyer type had rolling around in his necktop.
Time flies like an arrow.
Fruit flies like a banana.
~ Grouch Marx
More We
More We
http://www.wecansolveit.org/
The We Campaign is a project of The Alliance for Climate Protection -- a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort founded by Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore. The goal of the Alliance is to build a movement that creates the political will to solve the climate crisis.
From Ego to We Go
http://www.realitysandwich.com/ego_we_go
quit being such babies you babies
Caller ID
hehe :)
Call me out, call me in, rip me up and down, criticize me (or it) day and night.
But do so intelligently. Do so in a way that provides something to think about and something to act upon.
vivifidal's comment of "I've seen what kind of sheep they flock as." doesn't seem to call out much. Maybe it's a cry in the dark? But I do not feel, in any way, that those people who are being referred to as GenWe or Millennials are sheep. Quite the opposite.
The Gen-We website is just a place and just a name, and Eric Greenberg is just one man. But it is true, verifiable and evidently, being discussed, that this generation is up and coming, doing so fast and taking no prisoners - ya get me?
Gen-We is not something someone subscribes to signs up for or pays a fee to join. It is a phenomenon. It is a wave. It is a shift. The people in the video are representations of what's going on with the youth of today.
One either surfs the wave of this kind of inspiration or gets dragged down by the undertow of their own pessimism and cynicism.
It is not limited to any one country, even though it is portrayed this way in that video. Furthermore, while the youth are rising up, acting as elders and doing worthwhile things - being a "Millennial" need not be confined by age, really.
Are you a child of the future? Do you want to create a better world? Then join the gang.
technically we were excreted first, you decided to join us...
Why did the psychic cross the road?
... to get to the other side! ktschhhh
Time flies like an arrow.
Fruit flies like a banana.
~ Groucho Marx
Here's to the Max!
"They say people don't believe in heroes anymore. Well, damn them! You and me, Max, we're gonna give 'em back their heroes! "
~Fifi
Mad Max (1979)
Time flies like an arrow.
Fruit flies like a banana.
~ Groucho Marx
1978-2000
I was born in 1958, a couple of months after the first U.S. satallite went into orbit. If Gen-We can find a set of psycho-spiritual power-chords to strum, ego-melding rhythms to drum, and unity-scripting jingles to hum, I have great confidence that they can turn this Titanic in time. I'm a boomer who never got traction, and skidded off the road more traveled. By some simple twist of fate, I ain't dead yet, despite the booze, pills, powders, flowers, and folly. I often wonder what the frack I'm still around for, lacking kids, property, degree, career, marriage, and faith in the Red, White, and Blue. When I read this article, I felt something, a long-shot gamble, some pieces clicked, and that little voice that usually talks shit said "maybe, just maybe, with the tools available now, they can do it." I can suggest many paths to avoid. I have been collecting nuggets of novelty which might be helpful. I have lived among odd folk, and am difficult to startle. And, I could really use a good reason to hang around. Chances are, there are others like me, not invested in the status quo, having a bit of experience working the edges, eager to redeem the debacle of the last four decades.
"You are the One, Neo" - Morpheus
"I hope The Oracle gave you some Good News." Apok - The Matrix
Melty!!!
That was sooo sweet! Thank you!
Of course, I was born in 1975. The last gasp of the Gen Xers? And my sister, she was in 1978. I've heard different numbers for the generations. 1978 being the earliest I've heard for the Y's. I typically hear of 1986-ish as the start. I wonder what the general consensus on the dates are, if there is a consensus.
"You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul." - Swami Vivekananda
Generational Space
kelleil,
Thank you for the kindness of your response. I am quite serious in my position of optimism regarding Gen-We, or any delineation one prefers.
The alternative to optimism, no matter how well rationalized, is, to me, unsatisfactory.
Long-shots have always held special sway in my cosmology.
Never have so many been so connected, so often, at such bandwidth. The inability to foresee developments does not disallow their unfoldment. I invoke the work of Ilya Prigogine, and suggest a sudden phase transition to higher state of order is at hand.
Naysayers can sit and fume, enjoying doom.
JED
Semiotic Avalanche
Every generation has its raison d’etre. Every generation has its critics. What would happen if the ‘post-millenials’ arrived and Rome is still burning?Maybe it’s not even an age thing but an attitude thing that places one square in the midst of an evolution. I feel like i’ve been a millenial all my life and I was born 2 days before the Age of Aquarius began (Feb 1962).
My real problem has been in not being capable of raising my voice above the sound of the semiotic avalanche that has been passed off as ‘civil society’ for my waking life. The tools have arrived. Science is bringing back all the answers (sic). The dookiepie has hit the fan.
Time flies like an arrow.
Fruit flies like a banana.
~ Grouch Marx
Quarter Life Crisis VS. Gen-WE
Propaganda Anonymous
Names of Generations seem like more artificial boundaries to keep people from just acting like a human. However, generation gaps do seem like actual sociological phenomenon.
Giambatista Vico said that every revolution is comprised of the son versus the father (or sumthing like that)
Generation Gaps seem to exist because there are rifts within one's family structures (internally felt or externally experienced) that have yet to be healed. To a child molested and beaten by a parent, the older generation could be generalized as just a bunch of self-indulgent hypocritical slobs. While this could be applied to a small group, this would clearly not be the case. Just a singular occurrance extrapolated to a whole group.
The same would apply to the other end of the spectrum. There are many books and opinions that paint the younger generations as self-indulgent cry babies unable to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and start doing something progressive.
It seems like 'Gen-WE' is the opposite of that.
Again, this 'Generation Gap' business seems like false dividers to me. There are elders worth respecting and elders worth tolerating. And some who are just fuck-ups.Just like the younger generations.
Truth is We ALL face hardships in every generation, and it seems wise if we all just listen to each other's stories ready to learn something new about the world.
Good foundation
Thank you for your ideas PropA! I would like to add a few more, and so I will.Generational gaps are a necessary effect of aging, maturity, learning, etc... and of course these all take place at different intervals for different people. There is some good in having older and younger generations in frequent conflict, as it spurs the younger to prove themselves to the older; thus we have progress. However, it is the emotional reaction to this struggle that is unnecessary and too often detrimental to positive evolution.
I agree with Prop that listening is extremely important to the process of social/cultural/personal evolution. As terrible of a trope as it is at this point, and I must mention it so I am not burned at the stake, the idea now so common to American culture via Fight Club, “when people think you’re dying they really, really listen to you instead of just… instead of just waiting for their turn to speak,” seems painfully true. I currently attend classes in a university where I see undergraduate students constantly engaged in cutting each other short, repeating ideas said seconds before by peers or professors, and bridging together their speech with the fillers: like, such as, and you-know; out of fear their fellows will jump in.
Listening is a lost skill. People have no desire to listen to each other after spending all day listening to endless steams from artificial mediums.
If we can all learn to listen without acting on our immediate emotional reactions to the things we hear, or read, we might learn from each others stories. This is not easy and it takes constant practice; but what Prop says is true, and I assume the majority of the population here (RealitySandwich) knows it to be true; we really do have a lot to teach each other. There is no person I have ever encountered that has been unable to teach me something if given the chance. Perhaps this is my subjectivity coming out full force, maybe I’m dead wrong, I don't know; this is just what I have observed thus far. This by no means encompasses all that I think about this, but I am not a psychologist so I will refrain from speaking as one. Maybe we have one in our midst...?
To: Everyone: For even more fun and learning try listening to yourself next time you speak. Really listening to the words and sentences. It can be wild.
Quarter Life Crisis VS. Gen-WE
Propaganda Anonymous
Names of Generations seem like more artificial boundaries to keep people from just acting like a human. However, generation gaps do seem like actual sociological phenomenon.
Giambatista Vico said that every revolution is comprised of the son versus the father (or sumthing like that)
Generation Gaps seem to exist because there are rifts within one's family structures (internally felt or externally experienced) that have yet to be healed. To a child molested and beaten by a parent, the older generation could be generalized as just a bunch of self-indulgent hypocritical slobs. While this could be applied to a small group, this would clearly not be the case. Just a singular occurrance extrapolated to a whole group.
The same would apply to the other end of the spectrum. There are many books and opinions that paint the younger generations as self-indulgent cry babies unable to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and start doing something progressive.
It seems like 'Gen-WE' is the opposite of that.
Again, this 'Generation Gap' business seems like false dividers to me. There are elders worth respecting and elders worth tolerating. And some who are just fuck-ups.Just like the younger generations.
Truth is We ALL face hardships in every generation, and it seems wise if we all just listen to each other's stories ready to learn something new about the world.
From We to Free
Perhaps if We succeed, we might be Free. If We do'nt, ther will still be "Freedom", but its in the guise of a well known furniture chain down under.
PS. Some wags down here have parodied the Ozz national anthem to the tune of Gilligan's Island. Try it out...
"Australians all let us rejoice,
for we are young and free
with golden soil and wealth for toil
our home is girt by sea..."
da de da de da
It's seemingly appropriate as Ozz is the biggest island on the planet!
Time flies like an arrow.
Fruit flies like a banana.
~ Grouch Marx
Wow, 3 times, Whoops
Propaganda Anonymous
Sorry about that triple post, I'll hit up admin to erase the two repeaters, haha. Was it me or my computer that just engaged in a 'Me' generation complex? haha
Anyway. Respect Ransom.
CJ, I agree man, that there are these titles based on demographics and such that name and categorize 'generations' I wish I could completely shake it all off, but these titles do, to a small degree, hold some weight.
That said, let's deconstruct this book title here for a minute. Great Idea, but what are the chances that the writers/publishers are hoping that the Name 'WE Generation' will not take off?
But shieeeet, I'd rather this than Pepsi's attempt; Remember 'Generation Next?'Man they had little Christina Aguilera singing her heart out for that campaign.
Anya Kamentz (spll?) wrote a very good book entitled 'Generation Debt' explaining the struggle for people like me, in their twenties, and experiencing a new sociological phenomenon known as post-adolesence, as well as being sold out by the older folks. (Sorry family but you were not left off the hook in this book)
There is also another 'Generation' title. The 'Hip-Hop Generation'Bikari Kitwana birthed the term in his books, and it gained traction when Jeff Chang used the term for his amazing book 'Can't Stop, Won't Stop'
Now there is another new book that looks pretty cool called 'It's Bigger than Hip-Hop' and the writer is calling it a book for the 'POST Hip-Hop Generation'
WOW!I was just getting used to calling myself part of the 'Hip-Hop Generation' now I gotta think about stuff as 'Post Hip-Hop'!
I don't know man With these titles getting thrown around so fast I can only seek refuge in Satire and Irony. What's a Millenial Hip-Hop Post Hip-Hop Generation Next Debtor to do, but point at the moon and laugh.
yes but it is one funny ass moon...
but aside from a bit of litter, same one as ever humans saw.
here's the bullets:
1. the power of youth is based on an inate overvaluation of reproductive viability.
2. this illusion leads to competition for resources and most lose.
3. in order to win, the knowledge and wisdom of all humans must be applied.
4. youth can't seem to grasp lists longer than 3 items so why am I even writing this?
discernment...
Many moons ago
Propaganda Anonymous
Vivifidal your a funny witty kitty cat and your posts are usually always cool.
I say this with love, you seem very bitter when it comes to those younger than you.
Don't worry, I'm not gonna try to change your opinion and perspective.
I'm just glad you never baby sat for me when I was a young child. ;) (just kidding)
Have faith dear elder, your words are heard and respected, and a joy to be read.
PRop!
Four Noble Truths
1. Life is Suffering. Dukkha.Unsatisfactoriness.
Sure, the marketing glitz is there. But sometimes you gotta fight fire with fire. At least one does in the bush.
2. This is the result of an Attachment to Desire.
Some desire is good. The desire to bring a more equitable, equanimous state of affairs. But do'nt get attached to the outcome.Develop a reflective mind.
3. Cessation of Suffering.
Is this the aim? or is it a truck load of you know what?
4. The way Leading to the Cessation of Suffering.Cultivate the Noble Eightfold Path.
Have plan at least.
I hope I do'nt sound too prescriptive... but then Buddha said throw it all away, you have come to the "end of knowledge". If we have a raft of teaching and fail to use it we can never cross the ocean of time. If we use the teaching and manage to achieve that... no longer do we need the raft.
~~
"Do not make light of your failings
saying what are they to me?
A jug fills drop by drop.
So the fool becomes brimful of folly.
Do not belittle your virtues
saying they are nothing!
A jug fills drop by drop.
So the wise man becomes brimful of virtue."
~ Dhammapada ~ The Teachings of the Buddha.
thats the dander...
Reality bytes
Yeah. I struggle with mine sometimes. vivifidal, I invariably find your utterances thought sharpening and real.
Unrealistic
Using a squeaky-clean corporate logo as a blanket term for a hopeless generation that refuses to live consciously or act for the greater good of the whole is not going to fix anything.
Change on the scale that "we" need is not going to come easy. I know I can't be the only one that senses the approach of a "Great Cleansing" of sorts. Our short-sightedness, selfishness, and will to ignorance have led industrial civilization as far as it will go. A collapse is imminent. Great sacrifices and societal deprogramming are required before we can even think about a future for humanity.
The fat, over-dependent, brainwashed masses of the US will be led by their new Pharaoh to eternal enslavement, as few realize too late that they have been led astray from the unifying truth of nature, toxified, and left to die. Listening to your elders is a very logical idea. Where else to you expect true knowledge to come from? People born in the age of the great Lie?
Generalizing such a large
I suggest "Gen-We" should read the novel "We"
I'd hate to sound conspiracy-ish, but all of this "we" talk is making me a bit frightened. It may be just one more step towards easing us into global gonvernance. The financial system is the first casuality with international government ownership of institutions, the IMF, etc. The brief rally seen in the dollar is over, all of this easy credit will reduce the dollar soon enough. This will allow a proponents of a new currency to implement one in the name of "necessity."
The personality cult that has surrounded around Obama leads me to a similar conclusion. He could have his way doing anything really, and many would follow him off of a cliff. He's the perfect candidate to ease the populace into a global governance type system when you think about it. Trustworthy, well-spoken, intelligent, celebrity, amongst other things.
Always keep questioning motives, and don't let yourselves become comfortable with what is going on around you, regardless of who is in power. Eternal vigilence is the price we pay for liberty, remember that.
" If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."
Look at his financial cabinet
Geeking Out
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7740895.stm
The aim of the Digital Youth Project was to provide an "ethnographical view of how children use social media to socialise, learn and relax".
Dr Ito said that connecting online with friends via social networks such as MySpace and Facebook was where teens now "hang out", compared to the usual public places like shopping malls, the street and parks.
She also said the internet provided a core group of teens the opportunity to explore their own creativity and "take a deep dive into a subject".
The report referred to this behaviour as "geeking out".
"They picked up things like the Japanese language or some fairly esoteric knowledge around video, or coding or editing," explained Dr Ito, also a research scientist at the department of informatics at the University of California, Irvine.
Yet again