I resent this stereotype for various reasons, namely that it reflects generalization, fundamental attribution error ("I got a job, so if you can't- tough"), a lack of awareness of changing economic climate, and truly it stems from this Objectivist idealism that people are not held back by circumstance or upbringing or anything like that, like why poor, black inner city youth can learn computer code even though they may not have access to computers in their environment (http://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2011/12/12/if-i-was-a-poor-black-kid/). That's the thing; there's this notion that, as my Ayn Rand-influenced friend put it, sociology and psychology are the "sciences of making excuses for people." Essentially, this means that factors such as socioeconomic development, parental guidance and raising don't affect cognitive development and that people use this as an excuse to their laziness and that the elites and people who succeed are that way through their own hard work.
Bull-wait for it-http://cdn.randomfunnypicture.com/wp2/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/For-my-fans-of-the-wire-sheeeeit-obama-hope-change.jpg.
Of course there are people out there who did not grow up in fortunate circumstances and had low income families but were often able to find through their human experience moments of clarity, or having the right people raise and take care and influence them, or interacting and creating bonds with the right people, or being influenced by the right models or right philosophies. There are definitely instances of this, but that doesn't mean there are not adverse circumstances that adversely affect people. People's cognitive development, perspective on life, and life's philosophy are certainly affected by being around the wrong people, having the wrong type of parental raising (or not any parental raising), and having a human experience where exposure to raw and awful shit affects you.
There's evidence in neuroscience for this in neuroplasticity, where the brain remaps itself based on human experience. Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz even wrote a book about how he helped people with OCD by having them just think that they don't have OCD: http://www.amazon.com/The-Mind-Brain-Neuroplasticity-Mental/dp/0060393556. People learn to survive through models, through experience. With good parents, people grow up learning to survive through hard work and dedication and develop empathy for other. Not everyone will have these parents, or upbringing.
This is The Other Generation Y.
Generation Y is stereotyped as trust fund kids, people who followed their impulses to impractical degrees who suffer through unemployment, people who occupy Wall Street with no aim, and were spoiled by technology, instant communication, and financial wealth and upkeep.
Behind this and unnoticed is the Other Generation Y. See, Baby Boomers were stereotyped in very much the same way as Generation Y's were; impulsive, spoiled brats who vest themselves in material needs and status symbols like sleek cars, and such, but this wasn't the case for a lot of them. During this time there was The Other America, where people suffered through low incomes, low circumstances, and low chances. When the kids of The Other America came of age they were the ones who went to Vietnam, not the Benjamin Braddocks. They came home to an economy like it is now, they turned to drugs and impulsive relationships and unplanned parenthoods. These are the people who were devoured by Cocaine and Crack and had children that became The Other Generation Y. This Generation Y subgroup had to grow up in broken families, through divorce and fighting, had to see low incomes go lower because of the shift of manufacturing to overseas markets, were devoured by meth and now they're coming of age.
Like many posts, this one comes about because of a specific incident. A former childhood playmate was arrested, with someone else his own age, for home invasion and theft. He put a gun on a senior citizen and took his wallet and money. This guy is a member of The Other Generation Y.
It saddened me, truly, to see him on the front page of our local newspaper, because he wasn't a terrible kid growing up. He was smart and had a wit about him; he picked on me quite a bit, but I was a nerd and he was one of the few kids who came over to my house for my birthday. Unfortunately, he had a mother who was a substance abuser and lived on a street that notoriously was full of people like that. He barely got to be with his father, who died a few years ago only 56 and said father neglected if not outright abandoned his family. His father was a drunk and impulsive, having 6-8 kids with 3 different women.
I was lucky; even though my dad was a member of the Other America he grew up with good role models in his extended family, like his Great-Uncle Arthur, his uncle Carlton, and his employer Otis Stonecypher. Therefore when he got out of military service in 1975, he knew better than to go into drugs and instead used his GI Bill to go back to school and get trained in a trade. Though my dad worked a lot and I didn't see him a lot, I wasn't raised by someone who didn't understand his position as a parent. When I played recreational sports, my dad didn't always throw the ball with me because of his job and his fatigue, but I never had to worry about whether or not I was going to be picked up.
See, the guy I mentioned earlier did. Let's call him D. D was on the same football team as me and I remember we had practice then when it was over, my dad was at his truck waiting to pick me up. D's wasn't, even though he was supposed to. Because my dad knew D's father, he and I waited, giving D some change to use the pay phone (before cell phones became popular) to call his dad, and waited for him to come pick him up. We waited 20 minutes, during which time D cried because he was certain his dad wasn't going to pick him up. My dad was just about to take him home, when D's dad finally showed up. I'll never forget that, because to me it seems basic that as a father you show up and pick up your kids, but that's because I was raised in an environment where that happened. D wasn't, and unfortunately he didn't have role models, parental guidance, or an upbringing that showed him necessary skills and developed a sense of self-awareness. Instead, he learned through his human experience that he had to make it on his own, and through impulses (word of the blog, if you couldn't tell) he led himself into robbing a senior citizen (who chased him out with a shotgun, by the way).
The idea of "Generation Y" almost seems asinine to me, because it fails to capture the entirety of people born in my date range. Not all of us had exposure to technology from an early age. Not all of us have iPhones, not all of us went through school without working or had new cars or new stuff. A lot of us grew up like this Bayou Renaissance man did, or came up with worse, because of the shift in the job market, because of how unplanned parenthood and drug addiction ate up people who needed help.
That's another word of the blog: help. Like, I hope D gets help and can clean himself up and make good decisions. People need help, and getting help doesn't mean you're spoiled either. Everyone gets help in one way or another.
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