History is cyclical, we see it in our 2 party system in america, and in our business cycles; for the economy, fashion, music, film. Whats old is new again… Including widely unsupported wars, racial injustice, and a second birth of feminism.
The “Millennial” generation is a controversial one, with some older “Baby-Boomers” calling them, “The Entitlement Generation,” and claiming they are lazy, apathetic, and unintelligent; but does that hold up? The Millennials are the group which started the black lives matter protests, sponsored marriage equality bills in california, and pushed for a more transparent government, through social media organization and masse local voting. These steps, are today's equivalent of groups such as the NAACP, and the second-wave feminists; groups which started in the mid 1900’s and reached their peaks in the 1960’s and early 70’s. And as history has shown those organizations were, eventually, the victors of time. These “Hippies,” as they were colloquially known were seen in much the same way our older “Boomer” counterparts view the newest generation, blaming all the current government and fiscal issues on the young. Despite this claim, the truth is, the only big difference between the 1960’s and current day, is the economic state of affairs, as all real industry was in the process of moving to other countries in the late 60’s and are now gone entirely leaving an ever shrinking service industry in its place. This obviously has a few causes including the dot com bust, as well as the housing bubble pop, of 2008, however, those all took place before the millennials were over the age of 16. Yet, when the millennials did come of age, as is tradition in many poorer parts of the country, many choose the military, going to further our “diplomatic” goals in the middle east. Then they come home, Fractured, with severe trauma, in many cases, and unable to work. Speaking of war, it is often said that a leader becomes great, by winning a war, but they keep on leading if they prolong the fighting. In the 60’s it was the fear of communism, the fear that the U.S.S.R would spread its socialist propaganda to other parts of the world, and so a cold war started where we funded the very people we are now leading the same type of fear campaign on. America funded and trained leaders including, but, not limited to, Osama Bin Laden as well as Saddam Hussein, with the hope that if the time came the middle east would serve to hold off russian forces while the west gathers an attacking force. Enter radical islam. Que 9/11. Suddenly the war on terror becomes our new cold war, only this time, we are not evenly matched with the opponent as it was in the past, and the rules of war have changed. Just as they had with the vietnam war.
All this begs the question, did we choose this “fight,” whatever banner we claim to fly, or are we simply proof that hard times produces change, beit radical, beit scary? The passions of youth if applied to the world in a meaningful way could not only change it, but also shape it, mold it, and it will never be the same. In the end, it is not the names of the protestors; with signs reading “No Integration,” picketing the steps to the capitol we learn in grade school, but rather the names of those young men and women, marching, staring history in its face.
