Special

I read an article yesterday, and I can’t find it now, so apologies for the lack of a link.

The gist was that 20-somethings are having a harder time than older workers when it comes to job prospects in our fun economy. The article and subsequent comments basically devolved into a cross-generational flame war, but the main thing I got out of it was this: recent college grads are pissed because life didn’t turn out the way they were told it would, and it’s everyone else’s fault.

You could kinda see this coming. This is the front end of the generation that, more than any before it, hasn’t ever been allowed to fail. Don’t keep score; that will hurt feelings. Everyone gets an award at the assembly! Just go to college and everything will be fine. Take another loan; you’ll be making eleventy billion dollars a year when you graduate! Easy, right? The world is your oyster, right?

As annoying as this is, all the blame cannot be heaped on their shoulders—it’s merely what they’ve been taught. The self-esteem movement has gotten out of control, and we need to correct it.

No one is really THAT special.

Failure is a powerful teacher. Yes, you learn not to repeat your mistakes, but you also learn something more profound: humility—and, if you’re lucky, a sense of personal responsibility.

I’m not piling on the twenty-somethings. Far from it—I remember what was said about me and my Gen-X peers when we were in/graduating from college. Apologies to Dennis Green, but somehow we turned out not to be what they thought we were.

I’m just saying—couldn’t the life lessons have come a bit earlier for these folks? You know, maybe BEFORE the roof over their heads was at stake???