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Eddy · Joined: 12 Nov 2004 Posts: 714

With a title like that, I know people will read...

I saw a story in the media that had young children (7th and 8th graders) wearing mandatory barcoded id badges in school. There was very little dissent about this and it got me to thinking.

I wonder if Generation X was systematically disenfranchised for the very reason that it effectively disarmed us and made it possible for the new reich to be born. Think about it. The elderly are dying off, and well, frankly they don't care since they have their generous pensions and social security. The boomers were trained to be greedy and look out only for their own needs and don't give an damn about anyone else. The younger generations are being brought up in a fascist environment and don't know any better.

That leaves one generation left. Mine. A generation that grew up knowing freedom, yet still was educated enough to see things are going wrong. We grew up, comfortable with freedom of speech, yet we also knew that our freedom was slowly being taken away from us. We grew up, knowing that drugs and alcohol can be beneficial in moderation, yet we saw DARE and MADD come along with propaganda. We grew up, learning about tolerance and diversity, yet we see more hatred and discrimination. We aren't fitting in with the vision of PNAC and the religious right so what can they do to effectively remove us from being a threat?

Make us impotent. They made sure that all the job losses fell squarely on the young. They made sure to remove any possibility that we could get ahead financially; a very effective way to neuter us. They made sure that we would become disgusted with society in general because it would seem like WE are the failures. They made sure that we'd never become powerful enough to challenge their fascist ideas and they were more than successful.

The beauty of this was highlighted by an article in Time magazine a few weeks ago. In it, they discussed the "new" phenomena of the "twixters" who are defined as being above teenagers, but not adults in terms of attitude and lifestyle. They are people who are of legal age, but who aren't independent for various reasons. They aren't ready for home ownership (because who the hell can afford a home today), they aren't ready to settle down in a career (because there is no such thing as a stable job track anymore thanks to offshoring), they aren't ready to marry and have children (because they can't afford it). While I agreed with the article for the most part, I couldn't help wonder why it is a big thing now, when my generation experienced it fifteen years ago.

Discuss...

JuntaJoe · Joined: 07 Nov 2004 Posts: 7391 Location: Texas

Then there is a flaw in "their" plan.

Inheritance.

The older wealthy will die and pass on money to the "twixers".

Inheritance begets money and land, thus power and influence.

Eddy · Joined: 12 Nov 2004 Posts: 714

I don't know. With the incredible cost of education and the cost of keeping the twixters at home, there won't be much of an inheritance.

broomdalf · Joined: 06 Dec 2004 Posts: 258 Location: Midwest, again

Eddy wrote:

aren't ready to settle down in a career (because there is no such thing as a stable job track anymore thanks to offshoring)
Discuss...

No, there are plenty of stable job tracks. To name a few, you could become a nurse, semi driver, skilled machinist, garbageman, or drug researcher. Sure, there are quite a few unstable job tracks, but there are also quite a few job tracks that are going to be stable for a loooooong time.

JuntaJoe · Joined: 07 Nov 2004 Posts: 7391 Location: Texas

Hmmph, I missed that line.

Glad you caught that, broomdalf.

It's one of my pet peeves that no one assumes there are no jobs.

Many fields stay in critical shortage.

What is disappearing are the mid-level manager office jobs, factory line worker jobs, and office drone jobs.

But the information age and modern electronics signalled the end of those jobs anyway.

If some of those are being offshored then it's merely delaying the inevitable.

A company used to rely on American workers for those functions. Now they also have cheap overseas labor or full automation as options too. The overseas options are only temporary as well. Note Japan, Korea, and Mexico. They all used to be cheap labor sources. But no more. In time, China, India, and Indonesia will be the same. Then companies will turn to robots and machines.

Those jobs aren't just leaving America. They are leaving the Earth for good.

That's called progress.

And progress is always painful to those that don't adapt.

Put down your buggy whip tools and reach for your laser levels, folks.