We Were Lied To
I am a millennial in every sense of the word. I was born in the late 1980’s, grew up in the 90’s, had my formative years in the 2000’s, and slowly figured out how to be an adult in the 2010’s. I was fifteen years old when 9/11 happened, sixteen years old when the United States invaded Iraq, and graduated from college just months after the global financial crisis of 2008. I have no marketable skills. I am a millennial.
In the Nineties, we were told a lie. We were told, “You are special. You can do anything. If you believe in yourself you can achieve anything. If you work hard, your dreams will come true. You can be anything you want to be.” Our parents, teachers and favorite cartoon characters all told us this. It was the core belief of the times. Life was improving, America was fighting fewer wars, and the advent of the new millennium promised technological advances beyond our wildest dreams. As a society we faced only two existential crises: global warming and deforestation. All those folks down there cutting down the Rainforest, they were the problem. That was it, just that. Pollution was all we had to worry about. We were listening to Sugar Ray and the Offspring and everything was alright. Time was linear and life was just going to get better and better. Optimism reigned supreme. Then one day, everything changed.
On that day, two Boeing 767s reduced two concrete skyscrapers to dust. We’re not sure how they did, but they did somehow. Everyone was sad, and then afraid when they heard it was intentional. That made many people scared, and many people angry. After that, some new wars started. It made sense because the wars were against the people who destroyed the buildings, or so we thought. It didn’t matter because the news said it was the right thing to do.
And so a new era began, and so faded the Dream of the Nineties. We accepted our new reality, and went on living our lives. Some of us finished high school and some of us went off to college. We believed that we could study whatever we wanted because we believed we could be anything we wanted. We were special and could major in whatever, because the jobs, the careers would always be there. There would always be a place for everyone somewhere. Some of us chose employable majors like chemistry, accounting and electrical engineering, while others chose unemployable majors like sociology, art history and communications. It’s fine, we said confidently, we’ll figure it all out in grad school/law school/wherever we wind up. And so college became a time to grow, explore and find ourselves rather than an educational endeavor providing us with important vocational skills. We learned so much, developed so many new opinions, partied so many parties. Our brains filled up with facts and theories and ideologies but no new abilities. It was just stuff, and time, and more student loan debt, but we didn’t care, because that was in the future and this was now.
Eventually now ended, and we were thrown out in the world to fend for ourselves. The economy had just crashed, and the jobs and optimism were gone again. Suddenly, a degree in computer science was more valuable than a degree in philosophy. Out of nowhere, we were no longer very special snowflakes. We were people without a future, without a career path. So we went back to the malls, back to the restaurants and department stores, and became the most over-educated, underemployed generation in history. And so we have been for the better part of the last ten years.
Today we face the greatest social and economic collapse of our lifetime and many other lifetimes. Today we know it was all a lie. We are not special and nothing can be promised to any of us. The future is not guaranteed to anyone. Our cultural institutions now lay bare, exposed for the paradoxical absurdities they have become. Now more than ever must we rely upon our own judgment and reason. You are the arbiter, the judge, jury and executioner of the War of the Mind, the War for Your Mind. Your thoughts, feelings and values matter. Trust yourself, assume nothing, and be free.
