I just turned 39, and like so many that have past into this last year before hitting 40, I am being forced to look at the world, where we are, where we've been through my lifetime and where we can possibly be going. So many times I find myself telling people my age, "Music just isn't the same." I remember my parents bemoaning this same observation. There is a difference though. If I were them, there's no way I could listen to hair metal or industrial bands. Those musical genres took a leap far beyond what they had been used to. I can understand and appreciate that. The fact is, I grew up on Ratt and Van Halen and Nine Inch Nails and Ministry. I also grew up on the Golden Oldies of the 60s (parents) and classic rock of the 70s (older sister) and pop music of the 80s (this one was all me). I transitioned into adulthood with Grunge and ever since have been waiting desperately for the next big thing in music. Oh kids today! That's easy for me to say because I look at those who are 30 and younger and I see a generation that has been coddled and sold to the highest bidder. These are the kids that grew up with no sharp corners in the house. They wore helmets when they rode their bicycles. They were given a life with little worry and lots of stuff. They have come of age in the great age of political correctness.
Things WERE different when I grew up in the 70s. I never went without, but the specter of poverty forever hung over our house. Christmas meant making a wish list and being happy with what I got, even if it wasn't on the list. Demands for expensive gifts would not have been received well. We made due with what we had. We played outside and had amazing imaginations. Parents weren't afraid to twack kids when kids deserved it, and we often did. There were very real consequences around every corner. We pushed our limits but still respected our elders and neighbors.
Kids today have grown up with great expectations, just as we all did. The difference though, is that kids today are not necessarily willing to work hard and thanklessly to attain those great expectations. They feel they automatically deserve job offers as soon as they graduate college. They move back in with their parents, not as a bridge, but as a lifestyle. Money that they earn is funneled into expensive cars and the latest gadgets. They expect to inherit their parents' homes. This is not about helping out mom and dad, this is about arrested development.
These are the people who are being rallied into the ranks of the Democratic Party which promises health care to all and jobs in the swelling government ranks. High speed Internet access is a right as is higher education. Why work hard for something that's going to be handed to you anyway? They have become a leisure class and instead of being supported by trust funds, they are being supported by tax payers.
I am appreciative for absolutely everything. I have worked my ass off to get where I am which is solidly middle-class. I have scrimped and saved and sacrificed. I do not expect a parade or congratulations for my efforts. I realize that I am better off that a lot of people in this world and I appreciate that every single day. But, I was handed nothing but the love of my family and friends, everything else I earned.
It's a shame that this has become an old fashioned way of looking at the world and it's a shame that there is a generation for which these values are lost. At some point, the entitlement mentality will catch up not only with this young generation but our country as a whole and that is when the United States and all that it has represented will be relegated to a chapter in history.
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