Please Tell Me I Am Wrong

I had a bad dream that won't go away.

I had this realization that the United States may be essentially "screwed" (not by others, but by itself) as globalization, both socially and economically, becomes a reality.

In the dream I looked at the United States through the eyes of the rest of the world and this is what I saw and concluded:

1. "You don't have a work ethic among your youth or much of your young adults and even middle age adults. By this we mean that unless you are incentivized by a near term material gain or something that adds to your personal status or stature, you don't try. And also, unless you see that what you are doing will lead to that personal, self-serving goal, you stop trying."

2. "You act entitled instead of earning what you deserve. That means that you believe that what you want should automatically come to you. You confuse a privilege (which you need to earn) with a right, that is given to you."

3. "You resist thinking and planning unless it gets you an immediate reward. You are not intellectually curious. You fight learning and instead are focused on having."

4. "We no longer need your services (which we are quickly becoming skilled at...including creativity which you think is yours alone) nor your products (as ours are increasingly becoming better in quality and reliability)."

5. "What we do need, but increasingly less now than before, is your money to buy our services and products, which you will keep paying us as our services and products increase in quality and are less expensive because we are not weighed down by all your excessive labor and other costs."

6. "And we are certainly quite happy for you to use your resources both in money and in manpower to go chasing after terrorism in the world. And since we know you will go it alone, we are perfectly happy to let you do that until you can no longer afford it (which has already occurred)."

7. "We are not against you, but if you steadfastly refuse to wake up and do a reality check to see that you are part of the global community and no longer 'King of the Hill,' the world will pass you by."

There was much more in the dream which I thankfully can't recall, but I think that's enough to keep me awake for many nights to come.

Please tell me I am wrong.

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Follow Mark Goulston, M.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/markgoulston

Comments

[billyfromphilly]

You're wrong. I don't believe that you are, but you told me to tell you that. I think you're right actually. I'm 29 years old now and I listen to friends who received quality educations paid for by their parents and fell into jobs because of connections, talk about how much they're "worth", even though they spend half of their day slacking off at work.

[eblue562]

Thankfully, you might be considerably shortsighted in your thinking.

You have not been the first to claim such fallacies against the younger generation. There are stories and written accounts that go back for at least 50 years or so that say the same thing; "The generation below me is going to blow up the world and not give a damn!" So far, things have turned out ok. The main problem that might give some credence to your statement is technology.

Increasingly, technology has given our generation (I'm 25) an "out" in the world. Everything is automated, no one needs to know anything anymore. 20 years ago, if someone didn't know how to change the oil in their car, they would have been laughed at. Now, most people don't even know where the oil goes, much less how to check it. Computers have also made it easier for people to slack off; I'm usually laughed at when I ask students I teach how many books they've read in the past year that weren't for school. At most I heard is 3 or so.