All the adults told us it would be better for us than for them.
All the adults told us that it was our responsibility to do better than they’d done things. Some of the adults tried to help out along the way, while other adults knee-capped us and robbed us and threw us in jail for the crime of becoming poor.
And there’s a real selection bias along the way. A friend of mine was six years old when her dad shoved her out of the way of a speeding car. He died. She and the driver lived. She got to grow up in a world without a father willing to give everything to protect her. But the guy who killed her dad kept on ticking.
As we carve out more and more space for reckless, heartless people, we lose the honest and selfless ones along the way. In the end, a generation that selects for selfish people is going to be dominated by the most ruthless.
Most of the adults did tell me to do better, but they also kept repeating that I had it better than they did. Which was partially true at the time depending on who said it, but they still messed things up and blame me for not fixing their mistakes.
And what does that story have to do with generational pressure?
I mean, you take your pick-which generation would you actually want to switch with? Baby boomers had it better economically (if you were a white man) but a lot less tolerance for everything from being a single woman to interracial marriage (much less gay marriage or transgender recognition)
We know, we learned the details about WW2. Our grandparents and great grandparents actually lived through that, and told us the stories.
All the adults told us it would be better for us than for them. While they fucked everything up and then blame us.
All the adults told us that it was our responsibility to do better than they’d done things. Some of the adults tried to help out along the way, while other adults knee-capped us and robbed us and threw us in jail for the crime of becoming poor.
And there’s a real selection bias along the way. A friend of mine was six years old when her dad shoved her out of the way of a speeding car. He died. She and the driver lived. She got to grow up in a world without a father willing to give everything to protect her. But the guy who killed her dad kept on ticking.
As we carve out more and more space for reckless, heartless people, we lose the honest and selfless ones along the way. In the end, a generation that selects for selfish people is going to be dominated by the most ruthless.
Most of the adults did tell me to do better, but they also kept repeating that I had it better than they did. Which was partially true at the time depending on who said it, but they still messed things up and blame me for not fixing their mistakes.
And what does that story have to do with generational pressure?
The dead family aren’t around to give better advise
I mean, you take your pick-which generation would you actually want to switch with? Baby boomers had it better economically (if you were a white man) but a lot less tolerance for everything from being a single woman to interracial marriage (much less gay marriage or transgender recognition)