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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/08/joyless-bores-todays-young-quiet-revolutionaries
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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Joyless bores? No, today’s young are quiet revolutionaries | Joyless bores? No, today’s young are quiet revolutionaries |
| (about 2 months later) | |
| The natural process of generational change was memorably summed up by Grampa Simpson in The Simpsons episode Homerpalooza: “I used to be with it, but then they changed what it was. Now what I’m with isn’t it, and what’s it seems weird and scary to me. It’ll happen to you.” For at least the four decades between rock’n’roll and rave, it was understood that the latest “it” would be weird and scary because it was wilder, louder, sexier and more free, rendering yesterday’s rebel today’s square. The changing of the guard was uncomfortable for the middle-aged, but it had a certain logic. | The natural process of generational change was memorably summed up by Grampa Simpson in The Simpsons episode Homerpalooza: “I used to be with it, but then they changed what it was. Now what I’m with isn’t it, and what’s it seems weird and scary to me. It’ll happen to you.” For at least the four decades between rock’n’roll and rave, it was understood that the latest “it” would be weird and scary because it was wilder, louder, sexier and more free, rendering yesterday’s rebel today’s square. The changing of the guard was uncomfortable for the middle-aged, but it had a certain logic. |
| The generational tensions of the 2010s are strikingly different. The popular stereotype of someone under 30 is now no longer a sex-mad freak but a strange hybrid of totalitarian and wimp, forever saying, “Don’t”. According to an interminable genre of article, millennials and young people are puritanical snowflakes who insist on trigger warnings and safe spaces, don’t drink or take drugs, think clapping is too aggressive, can’t tell the difference between flirting and sexual harassment, and delight in explaining why you should feel bad about your favourite classic sitcom. | The generational tensions of the 2010s are strikingly different. The popular stereotype of someone under 30 is now no longer a sex-mad freak but a strange hybrid of totalitarian and wimp, forever saying, “Don’t”. According to an interminable genre of article, millennials and young people are puritanical snowflakes who insist on trigger warnings and safe spaces, don’t drink or take drugs, think clapping is too aggressive, can’t tell the difference between flirting and sexual harassment, and delight in explaining why you should feel bad about your favourite classic sitcom. |
| Social change always involves some combination of two contrasting energies: liberation (you can do this now) and constraint (you can’t do that any more). The protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s were brutally hard for those on the frontline – but for less active fellow travellers, protest and pleasure went hand in hand. You could oppose racism and the war in Vietnam while also enjoying more sex, more interesting drugs and better music. Liberation was the driving force. Punk, too, though darker and angrier, represented an expansion of possibilities. The walls came tumbling down and the previously excluded walked right through. | Social change always involves some combination of two contrasting energies: liberation (you can do this now) and constraint (you can’t do that any more). The protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s were brutally hard for those on the frontline – but for less active fellow travellers, protest and pleasure went hand in hand. You could oppose racism and the war in Vietnam while also enjoying more sex, more interesting drugs and better music. Liberation was the driving force. Punk, too, though darker and angrier, represented an expansion of possibilities. The walls came tumbling down and the previously excluded walked right through. |
| The current cultural tendency, whether you call it wokeness, political correctness redux or any of the other imperfect terms available, seems to lean more towards constraint, building new walls between the acceptable and the verboten. Inevitably, that looks less like fun. | The current cultural tendency, whether you call it wokeness, political correctness redux or any of the other imperfect terms available, seems to lean more towards constraint, building new walls between the acceptable and the verboten. Inevitably, that looks less like fun. |
| It’s no wonder that boomers often seem bewildered by the culture battles of the 2010s. If you’re someone like Matt Groening, Terry Gilliam or Jerry Seinfeld, allergic to censorship and rules, accustomed to bucking the system and saying the unsayable, it’s unnerving to find yourself on the “wrong” side. Your natural enemies are the stuffed shirts and Bible-bashing moralists, not people 40 years younger telling you that, actually, what you just said isn’t OK any more. It’s an uncomfortable role reversal. To quote another Simpsons episode, in which Grampa is dragged to Woodstock, “Whoa! Get a load of Captain Bringdown!” | It’s no wonder that boomers often seem bewildered by the culture battles of the 2010s. If you’re someone like Matt Groening, Terry Gilliam or Jerry Seinfeld, allergic to censorship and rules, accustomed to bucking the system and saying the unsayable, it’s unnerving to find yourself on the “wrong” side. Your natural enemies are the stuffed shirts and Bible-bashing moralists, not people 40 years younger telling you that, actually, what you just said isn’t OK any more. It’s an uncomfortable role reversal. To quote another Simpsons episode, in which Grampa is dragged to Woodstock, “Whoa! Get a load of Captain Bringdown!” |
| The stereotype has some basis in reality. Criticisms, especially on social media, can be simplistic, ahistorical and maddeningly self-righteous. Sophisticated concepts such as privilege and cultural appropriation become cudgels when they should be scalpels. The deadly idea that the purpose of good art is to reaffirm moral or political values, which the critic Robert Hughes termed “the therapeutic fallacy”, is gaining ground. The orthodoxy that designates some artists untouchable and others indefensible stops more interesting and honest conversations. | The stereotype has some basis in reality. Criticisms, especially on social media, can be simplistic, ahistorical and maddeningly self-righteous. Sophisticated concepts such as privilege and cultural appropriation become cudgels when they should be scalpels. The deadly idea that the purpose of good art is to reaffirm moral or political values, which the critic Robert Hughes termed “the therapeutic fallacy”, is gaining ground. The orthodoxy that designates some artists untouchable and others indefensible stops more interesting and honest conversations. |
| Nonetheless, when the excesses of a loud minority are amplified and turned into a caricature of a whole generation it looks suspiciously convenient. The idea that millennials are joyless bores absolves older generations of the need to keep up. It is a kind of self-flattery: “We struck the right balance between progress and fun, they’re the reactionaries.” If these people tell themselves that it’s impossible not to cause offence, then they can duck the need to ask themselves tough questions or rethink long-held assumptions. The backlash against #MeToo is the most glaring example of a reluctance to consider that the freedoms they enjoyed when they were young were unevenly distributed and frequently abused. | Nonetheless, when the excesses of a loud minority are amplified and turned into a caricature of a whole generation it looks suspiciously convenient. The idea that millennials are joyless bores absolves older generations of the need to keep up. It is a kind of self-flattery: “We struck the right balance between progress and fun, they’re the reactionaries.” If these people tell themselves that it’s impossible not to cause offence, then they can duck the need to ask themselves tough questions or rethink long-held assumptions. The backlash against #MeToo is the most glaring example of a reluctance to consider that the freedoms they enjoyed when they were young were unevenly distributed and frequently abused. |
| Millennials are struggling. Is it the fault of the baby boomers? | Millennials are struggling. Is it the fault of the baby boomers? |
| The caricature also obscures the fact that the “woke” also want liberation. Far from producing box-ticking morality tales, the relatively recent focus on diversity has already expanded the range of stories that can be told and the people who get to tell them. The cultural wave that has brought us Moonlight, Get Out, Atlanta, Black Panther, Transparent, Ms Marvel and Pose is hardly dry, doctrinaire or oblivious to nuance. Without progress, and a few painful arguments, those voices don’t get heard. The #MeToo backlash frets about the careers of men who have been accused of sexual offences, but not the work that their alleged victims never got a chance to make. To concentrate on what young people want to restrict is to ignore what they want to expand: empathy, opportunity, freedom of expression in its fullest sense. They’re still pushing more boundaries than they’re imposing. | The caricature also obscures the fact that the “woke” also want liberation. Far from producing box-ticking morality tales, the relatively recent focus on diversity has already expanded the range of stories that can be told and the people who get to tell them. The cultural wave that has brought us Moonlight, Get Out, Atlanta, Black Panther, Transparent, Ms Marvel and Pose is hardly dry, doctrinaire or oblivious to nuance. Without progress, and a few painful arguments, those voices don’t get heard. The #MeToo backlash frets about the careers of men who have been accused of sexual offences, but not the work that their alleged victims never got a chance to make. To concentrate on what young people want to restrict is to ignore what they want to expand: empathy, opportunity, freedom of expression in its fullest sense. They’re still pushing more boundaries than they’re imposing. |
| In 2018, the most famous man who busts taboos and says the unsayable isn’t some maverick standup but Donald Trump. Although he could hardly be less like a countercultural rebel, Trump is a prime example of boomer entitlement: I want, I get. He’s the gargoyle of liberation, revelling in the freedom to do whatever he wants and fuck your feelings. If you want someone who will never apologise for an offensive joke, he’s your man. | In 2018, the most famous man who busts taboos and says the unsayable isn’t some maverick standup but Donald Trump. Although he could hardly be less like a countercultural rebel, Trump is a prime example of boomer entitlement: I want, I get. He’s the gargoyle of liberation, revelling in the freedom to do whatever he wants and fuck your feelings. If you want someone who will never apologise for an offensive joke, he’s your man. |
| Older people who resent millennials because of a Twitter storm or some student union amendment that somehow became a national news story might consider why, at a time when social progress feels shockingly fragile, there’s a desire to draw a few lines – not in order to kill anyone’s buzz, but so that more people can feel more free. Then maybe it won’t seem so weird and scary. | Older people who resent millennials because of a Twitter storm or some student union amendment that somehow became a national news story might consider why, at a time when social progress feels shockingly fragile, there’s a desire to draw a few lines – not in order to kill anyone’s buzz, but so that more people can feel more free. Then maybe it won’t seem so weird and scary. |
| • Dorian Lynskey writes on music for the Guardian | • Dorian Lynskey writes on music for the Guardian |
| Young people | Young people |
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