The Hubris of Generation Y

Check out this column in today's Christian Science Monitor. The title is "Gen Y's Opt-out Vision."

In the article, Courtney E. Martin trumpets her generation's discovery of cutting-edge ideas such as "isn't work supposed to be...a vital, joyful activity?" and "Am I supposed to settle for being alive only on the weekends?"

She doesn't want to be like her parents who "waste away in drab cubicles and count the days to retirement." Instead, she wants "to contribute to society, but...do it in a way that doesn't drain the life out of us."

By saying this, Ms. Martin implies that her parent's generation, when they were 20-something, somehow wanted and planned to take life-draining jobs and embraced the idea of working 12 hours a day in a "drab cubicle".

It's a good thing Gen Y is so smart, so they can avoid these pitfalls.

Ms. Martin then brags about her friends who have taken the path less travelled.

She tells about how "A childhood friend in Denver started his own medical supply business right out of college. My writing partner from Houston does freelance music promotion and writes screenplays. My housemate spends his Brooklyn days packaging books and teaching kids to play the guitar. We are digital video artists, web designers, bloggers, stock market players, personal assistants, and bartenders. And we are all in our mid 20s."

Yippee. I wonder how many of her friends are still living in their cubicle-dwelling parents' basements.

Has Ms. Martin considered that her childhood friend's medical supply business, if successful, may someday become a business that has employees who work in drab cubicles? Or that there are a lot of people who write screenplays, including members of Generation X and Baby Boomers who, during the day, work at life-wasting jobs to pay the rent and support their families?

That is a flaw of the young. Somehow they think they are smarter, and more aware and enlightened than the generations who have gone before them.

Ms. Martin's article would have been more effective without the permeating attitude that screams "Look at us! Aren't we great?". I do not object to her points, but she acts as if these questions and ideas are the unique discoveries of Generation Y. My g-g-generation, Generation X, and the Baby Boomers before us, and the "Greatest Generation" before them, and...

We have all thought the same things.