Last weekend, while having dinner with my wife, I asked her this question:
You know, at some point in the future, we will be led by the youth we now consider as ‘millenials.’ It’s inevitable. How do you feel about that?
Her response was… well, I can tell that she was scared.
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The following Monday, I asked the same question to a senior colleague only this time I added:
Let’s say all of your current underlings becomes government officials: a congressman, senator, or a cabinet member. How would you feel?
His answer: “We’re doomed.”
Paraphrasing it, the question can be summed up to: “How do you feel about the millenial sitting next to you leading our country?”
I did that to sample how much the youths of today are trusted to be leaders. Rizal once said that the hope of the nation is in the youth. But given how we know today’s “youths” or the so-called (or dreaded) “millenials,” I wonder if Rizal’s statement is still valid. Or did he just say that because, well, the nation simply had no choice?
To be fair, my wife said that something dramatic needs to happen to change the mindset of these youths. In our discussion, the youths that we we were talking about belong to the 20-35 years old age bracket; those who are immediately next in line. I wonder what would that dramatic event be. It scared me because I think they don’t have much time to learn. Considering the way they think today and how much adjustment they should make, try as they might, they might do more damage than good once they take over the reins of power.
The Japanese were considered one of the most industrious people of the world and a few attribute that to their experience during World War II.
What about the Filipino youth? The Filipino millenials as we know them through social media? Well, I guess we need that war with that other Asian nation after all.
By the way, I’m not generalizing. I just feel that those who are good are outnumbered by the bad ones.
I use to be a future Supreme Court justice.
“Youth is wasted on the young”…a good thinker once stated. Every generation has its own mistakes; ever learning to do what is right. We were once young; and sure do have our own ways…
Millenials have the advantage of growing up in the Age of Information Technology, and in an internet connected world where news, including fake news is known in a split seconds around the world. In a much sense, they are the most informed generation in human history.
Don’t worry, these young people will grow up. They will get married, and have families. They will worry, the same, as we have worried now, in earning a living and providing their families. They will worry of their children and grand kids also, of where they are taking the them…
Of course, every generation will always blame the previous generation, for their failures and their lousy conditions …but that is the way it is !
“Well, I guess we need that war with that other Asian nation after all”. I honestly do not know what you mean by the sentence. Are you advocating a war with whoever country to wake the millennials up? What’s the “mindset” of this generation that your wife is so scared about? If these millennials can effortlessly procreate and raise their kids, why not give them your trust? Sorry, but I truly do not understand your point.
Perhaps they can learn from doing some things the old school way, if that solves the “millennial problem”.
Why must there be a war for them to shape up? It’s just passing on failure of the older generation to the next. I have a younger “millennial” cousin who does well because he doesn’t allow the failed system to define him. Distrust will only make things worse.
Eventually they all going to get old, but before they do, hopefully, their government will find a better system of taking care of all the elderly in the future, unlike today where mostly the elderly rely so much on their offspring to take care of them, whom the offspring themselves have their own offspring to take care of, or to make sure that his /her old age future will be secure, just turn to corruption, make “nakaw” here and “nakaw” there, and then just go abroad, just like that guy in the comelec.
We can only hope these millenials can avoid this.
Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it’s important.
When the Millennials seek self-fulfillment by “Fighting the good fight” by arrogantly fighting for the status quo, just to have problems they can “try” to solve, we’d already seen their support for being US proxies against China because it makes them look “brave”, ignoring the Islamic and Communist threats along with criminality, and focusing on the intangible “International Community” praise instead of infrastructure, investment, and generally giving the people jobs and security, because winning a PR battle that solves nothing is not comparable to looking for compromise. I’d say their priorities are making themselves look good while people can starve and die. They seek to emulate the Western Liberal-Progressive ideology while having zero ideas of reality and being pragmatic.