Generation Y

I have watched the smartest graduates of our best schools, one after another, year after year, enlist to become corporate vice presidents and managing directors. I have watched them stop reading books, stop voting in local elections, stop reading pages A-2 through A-10 in the daily newspaper. I have watched our generation let money become a proxy for respect, and then a synonym for respect, and then the only kind of respect that counts.

I have seen us judge books we have not read, politicians we have not heard, musicians we have not listened to, referendums we have not debated, and fellow citizens we have not met.

I have watched members of my generation lie to each other, pretending with a nod that they have been to such-and-such hip restaurant because they do not want to appear so un-hip as to have never been. I have seen them pretend to have seen so-and-so in concert, pretend to have "once or twice" gotten high on vogue illicit substances, pretend to have tried sexual variations that have occurred only in their minds.

I have seen my generation adopt an unspoken creed of "culture consumption," in which one really hasn't lived unless one has consumed a little of everything, life as Dim Sum.

I have seen members of my generation struggle to describe what they do in such a way that attempts to alleviate their guilt for choosing a career path that is so utterly conventional.

I have seen us glorify those who make decisions over those who enact decisions. I have seen us prefer being a consultant to being fully engaged, being an investor to being invested in, being an advisor over being politically involved, being an expert over being partisan, being a news analyst over being a news gatherer--all in fear of the inflexible boredom of commitment.

I have seen us be torn apart by jealousy for what others our age have accomplished rather than celebrate those accomplishments.

I have seen us afraid to assert and to fight for what this country stands for--opportunity for all--for fear of offending those we have neglected.

The coach-class