Gen Why Rant

Want to know why Gen Y's can seem so apathetic?

Because we're the children of Boomers. Because If you were born in the 80's you were doomed for ADHD. Because you were told if you went to university and worked hard you'd be rewarded. Because you've been told for your whole life to sit down and shut up, That you were wrong, that you were a lazy generation, a spoiled generation, and entitled generation. Just add Ritalin. Please sit down and direct your attention to the socialization we are providing via the schools and your media. Don't ask that question. Go to school, learn things you'll need for the future like advanced calculus.

Don't rock the boat. Be scared.

We've been shell shocked from so many gigantic catastrophes like shooting, war, "terrorism" manufactured or real. We grew up with conspiracy theories, scandals, and entertainment television. We've been taught to worship celebrities like gods, to hate and relate to each one.Then just as you we about to graduate university or were in the first few years of your actual careers, there was a [f*cking] financial collapse that was basically planned and allowed to happen with NO repercussions. Our future [f*cking] pensions paid for that assholes. It's a joke, in our generation, about how we're not getting pensions and are all going to die from cancer. You HAVE to be apathetic in our generation. If you're not, you become near suicidal at the very thought of our society and how it operates.

Blah blah blah. Markets even out. Blah blah blah. We're just going through a flux. Blah blah blah, the trickle down theory...

FUCK YOU. You're full of shit. You're a trauma victim just as us. We all are. If we can just deal with that first, then the rest will work itself out.

We saw all the generations who were calling us the problem do atrocious things to democracy and the environment. We saw our potential jobs get outsourced. We saw massive oil spills and financial catastrophes where there was little to no consequence on the corporation that was responsible for the deaths and financial loss in the fall-outs.

Corporations won. They broke the unions. All traditional labor jobs in manufacturing of automobiles, machinery, and now even food good is gone.  The jobs will never come back. (I mean at least, don't lie to yourself about the possibility of the mid-century mid-west.) Well, they kinda did, but many as part time, no-benefits and no real chance at a future outside a cubicle. People who want good money go to the oil feilds, in the medical fields, in the chemical, geological, and forestry fields. Or you work for a corporation or a bank yourself. It's hard to make money not working for the man anymore. It's hard to never get caught in the man's machine.


We don't talk about all this stuff because we've been basically conditioned to ignore this as we "can't do anything about it".  So we don't. For the most part. Or there is a whole faction of burn outs, those who tried and failed and gave in. Or there are all those who are still trying. Having readily available products at a reasonable price would be nice while trying to make it ethically in this world. We're just trying to live life and fufil what society expects of us, which is managing an overwhelming amount of information on who we are and what we should be to fit in to an ever changing world constantly telling us to do more, be more, have this, have that, look like this, be shocked by this, outraged at that, scared by who, worried about what...

We're so saturated. We rely on our iPhones to outsource so much of our decisions for a reason. Many of us believe the hype of it not going to work. We're prepared for the worst. We'd make it better, but only if it was convenient or readily available because we don't want to get all political like those people who got arested and set cars on fire in the G20. [No, I haven't seen the recent news on the follow up of the trials that emerged from that time period.]

Want to market to the next generation? Help us untangle from all this.

Help us care deeply for the basics and the ethics through simple messaging and a focus on quality. You'll have to be satisfied with smaller margins, doing your homework and cleaning up after yourselves. Many business and political folk of your generation wasn't so awesome about that, seeing is that as how we got here. You dreamed, designed, built and currently manage this shitty system we buy into.  

Cheat tip to "market" to the next generation: You make products that don't suck and finance sustainable infrastructure= bam! You get behaviour change.

We'd buy in and we use it if it's not weird or shittier quality or looks ugly or is a million times more expensive. We're all busy working 3 minimum wage jobs and paying a mountain of debt, meanwhile maintaining and growing need to manage and maintain many forms of socialization to fit into social groups to come up for air enough to participate in politics. Or we are fed a violent message from media about what demonstrations are like. Or we're told votes were rigged and nothing was done about it. Or our mayor smokes crack and for some reason this guy is still the mayor?

We get get the message of sustainability, those who don't get the fundemantals of it would probably just buy it if was there and it made them feel good about the purchase. Feeling good is not about eliminating guilt or lessening western guilt. Stop marketing so heavily on the heart strings of the audience. We get it,  we'd buy into it, but don't have easy access to buying the actual goods. Or the goods available suck, because somewhere someone got it stuck in their heads that "eco" meant a look, a style, something visible, when it shouldn't be at all. Sustainable is about how the product is made, utlilized, and disposed of. Nothing to do with a visual element.

We were growing up watching some fundamental pillars of democracy and free will crumble, along with debt and the economy that we just want to buy the things that will help us get out of. Some people don't care. They were told to value other things like perusing degrees, careers, houses, and traditional material values. Many have escaped into the internet, to chat-rooms, dating site, fantasy fiction sites, gambling rooms, and the porn. It's insane to see the numbers of world usage on porn. Most of the world is watching it, all the time.

The world's going through a tough time right now. It's not always making the best decisions. Provide the world with products that helps them create a solution.

That's the inherent problem of saying "what is wrong with this whole generation" when we live in such a fractionned society to begin with. Be business people and find your segmentation and cater to it.

Now sell us our sustainable products.

Just make us sustainable products, but make them not suck. Make Canadian made and independent products available in the main shelves of the suburbs. Make the product look and be exactly the same as any normal product, but have a few signs like in the description. Try to explain it scientifically. Compete on price, try not to charge more then 15%  percent. Stop offering blanket solution products based on guilt or some super emotional call. Make it like any other major brand, just make it so it doesn't hurt anybody in the process. Give us good politicians and we'll vote for them. Politicians that aren't smug rich jerks. Better yet, help us elect a few people from our generation and we'll get to work fixing this problem.

Work on that. Your generation controls most of this stuff.

"Physician, heal thyself."