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What really drives millennial outrage
The most shocking statistic of all
Millennials as a group have generated quite a bit of controversy. Consider the following quote:
“The children now love luxury; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are tyrants, not servants of the households. They no longer rise when their elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize over their teachers.”
For that pearl of wisdom, we can thank none other than Socrates speaking in the fifth century B.C.E.
My point is that the practice of bemoaning the state of our youth is nothing new. Nevertheless, as the father of two millennials, I do take offence when an author of the caliber of Brett Stephens writing for the New York Times Opinion page states that “the feeling is mutual” regarding the anger millennials feel for the older generations.
It’s easy to point to the ridiculous behavior of some college students as a basis to paint that generation with a negative broad brush, and indeed such generalizations can be very misleading.
Consider that in the late 1960s, an era known for hippies and protests, many college…
