Looking back to younger days in contrast to today's affairs, it would be easy to become depressed. Contrasting men and women of yesteryear in comparison to the generation of snowflakes illustrates the chasm's edge upon which we stand.
I don't like to make sweeping generalizations about this generation. My neighbors son and his girlfriend joined us for a beer and pizza yesterday and this young (23) engineer continues to impress me with his drive, vision and commitment. 3 hours and not a single time did he (or his girlfriend) reach for their phones. We had enjoyable adult conversations. He talked about his masters program and job and travel and food and beer and generally living life. This is a kid who did not grow up wealthy by any means, worked through high school and college, found scholarships and grants and worked two jobs in the summer to make sure he graduated with a useful engineering degree and no debt from university of MD. I don't think they're unicorns but they do seem to be the minority.
It's interesting you bring up depression Dan. I caught up with an old college friend last week and I asked about his kids. He relayed something I have heard from others about their 20-30 year old children. He said "they have given up". Both his son and daughter (early 20's) simply believe the future is so dystopian that it's not worth trying. Not worth college or a trade school, or job, or god forbid thinking about a career, family and living life. They have been told this since they were toddlers by the media and had whatever the scare of the day pounded into them over and over again until they believe it with every fiber of their bodies. Global Climate change, collapsing economy, nuclear, bio terrorism, robots taking all the jobs, crushing personal debt they have had the negativism driven into them via every media channel. We're all going to die (apparently Tuesday or at the latest Thursday) . What bother? Seems to be their mantra.
I see the same thing here on the CF. There are many who buy into every chicken little scenario that they are fed. Look at the videos often posted. WTF, how can any believe that stuff when a simple search shows you it is either a complete fake or taking something we should know and running with it to the Nth degree with a level of absurdity that isn't remotely believable? The lack of critical thinking and ability to even question "does that make sense" astounds me here and polls show we're all at least a couple generations removed from the one we're talking about.
Guess what? Kids need to be shown the western world is still a pretty damn good place and full of opportunity. They will be required to make decisions though. It's rare to get to live exactly where you want, have a job you love and have all the money and other things desire without making compromises in one or the other and you will have to work your ass off when there are really other things you want to be doing than working. That's called life and adulthood. Kids that don't understand that need to get that lesson and it often means kicking them out of the nest.
When I read members slamming Californians (or many other state residents and they all suck except the one "you" live in
) I put it in perspective. Those folks made decisions based on a series of factors and ended up there. I did it in MD. By the time we leave here we will have stayed (voluntarily as in when not on orders) for 25 years. That's a long time but in the whole perspective of my life, not really. We balanced careers and friends and decided this was our best opportunity. Make the best of it, plan for the exit and keep your eyes open for when that time is right.
Overall, a little more postive outlook would help a bunch of folks here. We have some great members who are not Pollyannas that are good examples.
I was planning on my wife and flying up the Appalachians today to do a little aerial fall foliage tour but alas Nestor has decided to make it a rainy day so that's out and even going to shoot sporting clays seems like a poor choice (and the new Gurieni is too new to expose it to that) so it looks like a little shop time getting stuff organized for deer season, loading some 6.5x55 rounds and we have a friend coming over for dinner later. Going to try to do some oil poached halibut and Souse Vide's carrots.
It's life. Make the best of it and show this generation how to live.
