This generation – my generation – may be different not so much in our own qualities as in what we are asked to do. Our parents, the Boomers, changed the world in many important ways, but their greatest impacts have been social: the Great Society, the Civil Rights movement, the sexual revolution, Roe v. Wade, the indelible legacies of Vietnam and Watergate in the national consciousness.
Still, our parents expected revolutionary change in some of the most taken-for-granted aspects of life, and we have not seen that yet. Cars don’t fly – they are still highly-evolved Model Ts. Men still kill each other with rifles and knives. Telephones are just now starting to become more personal assistants than phones. Roombas are fun, but they are not quite
Jetsons-level technology. Marxism failed, but we have not solved the boom-and-bust economic cycle or the distribution challenges that produce 99 Percent/One Percent class divides and famines.
So this, the global generation, is confronted with global problems. The key issues of the 21st Century will be ecological, economic and educational; all three will combine to test the practical wisdom and courage of the Millennials in dealing with them.
These problems are intricately linked. Ecologically, the population and temperature are rising while the fossil fuel supply dwindles.
We already know that we are using 1.5 earths’ worth of resources each year; “moderate” UN projections put that number above two by the 2030s. Obviously, there is only one earth to go round – Millennials from all over are going to have to learn to share. Economically, we face questions of distribution – Can we conscience famines in Africa when we have the resources to feed everyone on the planet? Can de-regulation and tax rates favorable to the “One Percent” be sustained? – but we face even more serious questions on the underlying assumptions of our economy. Can perpetual growth be the driving assumption of economics for much longer after growth located in mortgage-backed securities almost brought down the world economy? Educationally, how can and should we go about preparing our children to first participate fully in human life (why can’t every one read yet?) and then to think flexibly enough to take on the jobs of tomorrow –
many of which likely do not exist today?
Taking on these challenges globally and constructively is going to require tremendous fortitude and flexibility from the Millennial generation. If we allow ourselves to use two earths’ worth of resources every year before mid-century, how much further can we kick the can down the road?
Thomas Friedman quoted former U.S. chief auditor David Walker saying that Americans are “starved for three things…truth, leadership and solutions.” We cannot close our eyes – or those of our fellow global citizens – to the realities of the challenges we face, we must not shrink from the task of taking them on, and we
must solve them. The stakes are simply too high to permit us to continue to play the politics of the bedroom while the world warms, the economy sputters and our generation remains the most obese, medicated and addicted one on record.
