Nick Gillespie: Why is the Establishment Flipping Out Over Millennials' "Individualism"?
In the wake of a recent Pew Research study on Millennials (Americans between the ages of 18 and 33), conservative and liberal columnists alike at The New York Times started flipping out over Millennials as "Generation Selfie." Their main beef? Younger folks distrust the government and organized religion and evince dangerous leves of "individualism."
Writes Nick Gillespie:
That discomfort you're sensing all around you? It's the American Establishment loading its Depends diapers over the prospect of a younger generation that is turning its back on political parties and other zombified artifacts of our glorious past….It's easy to understand why folks at The New York Times and, say, at Democratic and Republican headquarters, and the National Council of Churches are worried about all this. After all, it's their "traditional institutions" that are being left behind like Mayan ruins. But who can blame Millennials for, say, vacating worn-out, pre-Civil War political brands such as the Democrats and Republicans, two groups that are about as relevant and dependable as your father's Oldsmobile?