Strauss and Howe

Two authors (William Strauss and Neil Howe) who write books about the generations: Lost, G.I., Silent, Boomer, Thirteenth, Millennial and Homelander. They say that today's youth, the Millennial Generation, are a generation of authoritarian, bland, all-American, clean-cut, preppy little fascists who are destined to march behind Bushitler. They claim we oppose gay rights, youth rights, drug legalization, flag-burning, the anti-corporate and anti-globalization movements and premarital sex, and support the draft. They claim we will be just like the whitewashed boy scouts of World War II, the Greatest Generation, and believe that corporations can do no wrong and whatever the government does is right. Somehow, they draw the conclusion that Millennials trust their government even after SOPA/PIPA, the execution of Troy Davis, the White House Trespass Act, gulag schools and voter disenfranchisement of under18s, public schools that have become prisons, and cops who harass teens (or even over21s who look like teens), shoot people's dogs, arrest people for protesting, and get their "right" to cheat people protected by the Supreme Court. Another thing they got wrong about us is when they said we would be willing to trade liberty for security after 9/11. In reality, we were one of the few generations that DIDN'T get behind Bush or put security ahead of liberty after that tragic September day.

Greg: What's that you're reading?

Natalie: It's "The Fourth Turning", a book by Strauss and Howe.

Greg: What's about about?

Natalie (taking sip of her coffee): Oh, it's about how kids our age are supposed to follow social norms and march dutifully under our elder authority figures instead of rebelling.

Greg: In a world where the principal can have someone arrested for burping in class, a world where the cops arrest kids who go out when their parents ground them for dating someone of a different race, a world where gays can't marry in more than forty states and most countries of the world, a world where corporations have people arrested for starting websites they don't like, a world there the president and Establishment want to drill for petroleum re$erve$, a world where Occupy protestors get shot by filth, how could we NOT rebel?

Natalie: Yeah, tjose were my thoughts.

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