Kelly Crigger's Blog - Posts Tagged "america"
Don't Break America, Kids
It hurts to see something you’ve paid for get broken. When my kid steps on his iPod and breaks the glass, I don’t see the accidental droppage. I don’t see the mistake or lack of attention he wasn’t paying. All I see is the money I worked hard to earn being wasted. It still works and yes, it was an accident, but fixing it will cost me almost as much as the price of a new one and will prevent me from purchasing something else I really wanted, like a bottle of bourbon to drink away the disappointment. But I really get pissed when he shrugs his shoulders and says “meh” like he doesn’t care. It’s not easy to stomach when your hard work is squandered. The same can be said for watching the youth of America break the country I gave 24 years of my life to.
This is nothing new. Several of us salty curmudgeons have waxed poetic about how unhappy we are with the youth of today since the Occupy Wall Street whinefest launched Generation WAAA! But here’s the thing – it’s not getting any better and now their cause has morphed from student loan relief and securing paying jobs to safe zones and offensive words.
What. The. Fuck?
Everyone has their theory on why our youth is so befuckled. Some blame the societal removal of spanking and belts. Some blame Starbucks. Clint Eastwood says people became pussies when they started asking what the meaning of life is. For me it comes down to respect and the twenty-something’s of today don’t seem to have much. They don’t respect what it means to work hard to buy the things you want. They want everything now and don’t respect the process of paying your dues to achieve goals. They didn’t chop the wood in the fireplace, so they complain about how it doesn’t warm them enough.
And now they hold something even more dear to all of us in their precious arms – our country – and are breaking it with these demands for things they haven’t earned. Free college? The average, honest taxpayer would end up paying for that. Free healthcare and a higher minimum wage? Same bucket of money…mine. All they really end up asking for is a redistribution of wealth, which penalizes me for being successful. That’s downright un-American.
Somehow these pernicious views that America owes them happiness, a degree, and a Volvo without earning it are endearing, so they take up the flag and make demands and wonder why the adults are laughing at them in public and crying in private. Simply put - we have no confidence in the future of America because the people we’re entrusting it to will break it because the youth of today seem to have no respect for hard work.
This wave of our youth screaming “poor me” comes at a very inopportune time when a great evil prowls outside the gates. While ISIS beheads and executes indiscriminately, the future of our country cowers from offensive words. The greatest generation weeps while my generation scratches our heads and blames this idiocy on ourselves. Surely we could have done more to educate young people on the basics of capitalism, standards, and respect. Because that’s who we are. We’re selfless and when shit goes south, we wonder what we could have done to keep it from happening. We take responsibility not just for ourselves, but the people around us who we affect. The youth of today don’t share these values. “ME ME ME” is their battle cry.
So what’s the solution? What are we going to do to make these kids man the fuck up? We can’t draft them. We can’t make them serve in the Peace Corps, law enforcement, Red Cross or any number of agencies that would give them a little perspective on how good they have it. We can’t make them suffer in any way because then we’re the douchebags who violated their personal space and we’ll be crucified on the social media outlets owned by the younger generation.
We can try to be mentors, coaches, and good examples of what’s right. We can try to show them that hard work is what made this country great and laziness and low standards will kill it. We can show them raw data and history to prove that even the greatest societies rise and fall with the tides, especially when those societies ride on ships of egotism and pride. We can take them by the hand and show them the seediest parts of life and try to make them appreciate what they have. Otherwise when the wolves are knocking at the door they’ll expect someone else to fight their battles. If the youth of today grow up having everything handed to them, then they will expect peace and freedom to be the same.
But all those lessons take words. Words that they won’t like. Words they’ll want to deny, run from, or retreat to their safe zones and act like they don’t exist. Words they’ll cower from like victims. The same way they’ll cower when ISIS is knocking at their door. Breaking an iPod doesn’t seem like such a big deal when our youth is just a decade or two away from breaking America.
Our younger generation needs to stop being afraid of things that don’t matter, like words. The old ‘sticks and stones’ adage has value and needs to be hammered into their skulls as a proven truth. Words don’t matter. You’re offended? Get over it. People disagree with you? Fuck ‘em. You have enemies? That means you stood up for something in your life. Words are not the enemy. Complacency is.
Curmudgeonism: A Surly Man's Guide to Midlife
This is nothing new. Several of us salty curmudgeons have waxed poetic about how unhappy we are with the youth of today since the Occupy Wall Street whinefest launched Generation WAAA! But here’s the thing – it’s not getting any better and now their cause has morphed from student loan relief and securing paying jobs to safe zones and offensive words.
What. The. Fuck?
Everyone has their theory on why our youth is so befuckled. Some blame the societal removal of spanking and belts. Some blame Starbucks. Clint Eastwood says people became pussies when they started asking what the meaning of life is. For me it comes down to respect and the twenty-something’s of today don’t seem to have much. They don’t respect what it means to work hard to buy the things you want. They want everything now and don’t respect the process of paying your dues to achieve goals. They didn’t chop the wood in the fireplace, so they complain about how it doesn’t warm them enough.
And now they hold something even more dear to all of us in their precious arms – our country – and are breaking it with these demands for things they haven’t earned. Free college? The average, honest taxpayer would end up paying for that. Free healthcare and a higher minimum wage? Same bucket of money…mine. All they really end up asking for is a redistribution of wealth, which penalizes me for being successful. That’s downright un-American.
Somehow these pernicious views that America owes them happiness, a degree, and a Volvo without earning it are endearing, so they take up the flag and make demands and wonder why the adults are laughing at them in public and crying in private. Simply put - we have no confidence in the future of America because the people we’re entrusting it to will break it because the youth of today seem to have no respect for hard work.
This wave of our youth screaming “poor me” comes at a very inopportune time when a great evil prowls outside the gates. While ISIS beheads and executes indiscriminately, the future of our country cowers from offensive words. The greatest generation weeps while my generation scratches our heads and blames this idiocy on ourselves. Surely we could have done more to educate young people on the basics of capitalism, standards, and respect. Because that’s who we are. We’re selfless and when shit goes south, we wonder what we could have done to keep it from happening. We take responsibility not just for ourselves, but the people around us who we affect. The youth of today don’t share these values. “ME ME ME” is their battle cry.
So what’s the solution? What are we going to do to make these kids man the fuck up? We can’t draft them. We can’t make them serve in the Peace Corps, law enforcement, Red Cross or any number of agencies that would give them a little perspective on how good they have it. We can’t make them suffer in any way because then we’re the douchebags who violated their personal space and we’ll be crucified on the social media outlets owned by the younger generation.
We can try to be mentors, coaches, and good examples of what’s right. We can try to show them that hard work is what made this country great and laziness and low standards will kill it. We can show them raw data and history to prove that even the greatest societies rise and fall with the tides, especially when those societies ride on ships of egotism and pride. We can take them by the hand and show them the seediest parts of life and try to make them appreciate what they have. Otherwise when the wolves are knocking at the door they’ll expect someone else to fight their battles. If the youth of today grow up having everything handed to them, then they will expect peace and freedom to be the same.
But all those lessons take words. Words that they won’t like. Words they’ll want to deny, run from, or retreat to their safe zones and act like they don’t exist. Words they’ll cower from like victims. The same way they’ll cower when ISIS is knocking at their door. Breaking an iPod doesn’t seem like such a big deal when our youth is just a decade or two away from breaking America.
Our younger generation needs to stop being afraid of things that don’t matter, like words. The old ‘sticks and stones’ adage has value and needs to be hammered into their skulls as a proven truth. Words don’t matter. You’re offended? Get over it. People disagree with you? Fuck ‘em. You have enemies? That means you stood up for something in your life. Words are not the enemy. Complacency is.
Curmudgeonism: A Surly Man's Guide to Midlife
