The Millennial Generation (those born since 1982, up to 26 years of age), represent an entirely new ‘turning’ point in society.
“Amongst democratic nations, each new generation is a new people,” wrote Alexis de Tocqueville
I’m really intrigued by what I’ve learned so far in this interview published by Casey Research, plus a new report titled:
Yes We Can - The Emergence of Millennials As a Political Generation
by Neil Howe and Reena Nadler
…available here
http://www.newamerica.net/files/Yes%20We%20Can.pdf
A few clips:
Who is this Millennial Generation? Cynical Gen-X slackers are giving way to a new kind of youth—civically engaged organizers…
Millennials have brought with them a very different set of attitudes and behaviors than the youth who preceded them: a confidence and conventionality, a preference for group con- sensus, an aversion to personal risk, and a self- image as special and as worthy of protection.
There is a new youth assumption that long-term success demands near-term organization and achievement—that what a high school junior does this week determines where she’ll be five and ten years from now. That, at least, is the new perception, and it’s a reversal of a forty-year trend.
“Wayne’s World and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”… There is no such self- mockery among Millennials. Eight in ten teenagers say that it is “cool to be smart.
Showing a left-brained tilt, Millennials demonstrate more interest and improvement in math and science than in the arts or social sciences.
If compelled to give them a label, we might define them as politically and economically liberal but socially and culturally conservative, reminiscent of the now aging (and dis- proportionately G.I.) “Reagan Democrats.”
Make capitalism work better - In their economic orientation, Millennials support govern- ment regulation without opposing businesses or markets. Millennials have grown up in the shadow of Reaganomics.
Their entire lifespan has coincided with the longest finan- cial boom and perhaps the most robust era of economic expansion in American history—all predicated on deregu- lated markets, entrepreneurialism, and globalization. They know that markets work, and in high school and college they study how markets work in far greater depth than older Americans ever did.
Yet Millennials are also a risk-averse and community-oriented generation that wants government to safeguard the economy against mounting systemic financial risk and an increasingly unequal dis- tribution of wealth and income. As part of the solution, they believe that regulation should be used to give a market economy a proper structure and direction.
Like older liberals, they believe that government regulation is necessary to ensure a stable and equitable economy. Like older conser- vatives, they believe that markets are the best way for an economy to perform most of its functions efficiently in a globalizing, high-tech world.
On the other hand, Millennials do not share the view of many older liberals that markets are inherently harmful or unfair—indeed, they are generally supportive of business as an institution and of markets as a means to empower consumer choice.
With their signature optimism, Millennials believe that the right public-policy framework can both promote market efficiency and encourage social equity—thus, their policy priorities cut across the traditional divide between free markets and government intervention.
…The slogan of the Millennial-run youth advocacy group Youth Entitlements Summit sums up [a] new attitude: “Governance, not politics.”
They trust free markets but want to close the gap between rich and poor.
The entire report is eye opening and has most certainly coloured the way that I approach my writing projects, and will likely do so for the next 20 years.
Also check out www.newamerica.net and there page on the ‘latest generation’.
A good review is available at http://www.futuremajority.com/node/5180
I also found another report which I have not yet read.
