A nation divided along lines different than you might think

Over the past month, we’ve found ourselves living in a nation divided more visibly than ever I have personally witnessed. Politics have spurred people from all walks of life to flock, often in anger, to whatever platform they have available to voice their frustration and displeasure. Not really breaking news, but you don’t need to be a sociologist or human behaviorist to point at throngs of disgruntled citizens in the streets to pronounce: “This is not good. This is not good for anyone.”

Tangney: We should applaud students for taking political stances

As a person in his mid-thirties, I’m part of that often-derided millennial generation, a driving force behind many of these disruptions. Though I often disagree with how demonstrations are carried out, the consternation of millennials is something with which I can identify. My frustration isn’t about left or right, or conservative versus liberal. It’s generational. I take umbrage with the categorical dismissal of younger generations when it comes to political discussions. The youth of America feel like no one is listening to them and that failure comes from both sides.

The kids aren’t alright

Ask anyone under the age of 30 and you’ll hear how difficult it is to be a young person in America.

Stop.

How many of you rolled your eyes, either physically or internally? Maybe you countered with something along the lines of “Kids these days …” followed by how difficult things were in your younger years? This is the fundamental reason why so many possibly meaningful conversations stall between generations. As long as a tireless spitting contest over personal hardship exists, we will never get to the more important issues.

Things were hard when you were young, things are hard for kids today. Different, but hard and devoid of any frame of reference aside from what they have lived through. To the generation before ours, I’m sure your parents lectured you plenty about relative hardships and how easy you had it then. Besides, isn’t one of the goals in parenting to provide your child a world to live in that’s better than the one in which you grew up? To turn around and chastise them for lamenting the only problems they’ve ever had to deal with in this better world, seems like a futile cycle.

The idea that younger generations’ struggles are insignificant in comparison to the problems you faced growing up should be taken as a sign of progress. You don’t need to get or understand it all, just let them know you hear them. Completely disavowing that a problem exists, instead of acknowledging another person’s experience, doesn’t assuage the angst or solve the problem. It also makes people feel ignored and as a result, ratchets up the fervor, abandoning civil discourse for more demonstrative measures, i.e. protest marches.

Two steps forward, one step backward

Before I go any further, allow me to elucidate that I don’t think protest marches are necessarily the right way to go, either. I can understand why a protest is an appealing form of demonstration: they’re easy to join, gain a lot of visibility and can raise awareness. They can also attract hooligans, malicious opportunists, and vandals that will absolutely make the news, while your peaceful protest is merely labeled an instigator of crimes.

Also, I wrote “can raise awareness” with a big emphasis on the can, because if there’s one consistent thing about protests, it’s the inconsistency of message. Following the presidential election results, as thousands took to the streets to demonstrate, commentators and pundits were confused. What message should be taken away from what they were seeing? What was their goal? For those on the side of the protesters, their passion was clear, but their message was not.

“I’m afraid this administration’s policies will endanger the safety of women, people of color and the LGBTQ community,” one protester told me. Regardless of what you think about that statement itself, were it emphasized more clearly to the public, I wouldn’t be writing this article. To millions across the country, all they saw in the streets were self-entitled, sore losers who were unhappy their candidate didn’t get elected. It’s a failure in communication, both in delivery and reception.

So, what now?

The future of the country, the same future that politicians often refer to as a talking point in campaign trail stump speeches, apparently has something to say. The ‘what?’ ‘why?’ and ‘who?’ are all important questions that need clear and unified answers. Will we get our act together? I hope so, because I don’t know who the voice of my generation is supposed to be anymore. I don’t think anointing celebrities is the right way to go, but one just got elected, so maybe I don’t know anything anymore, and that’s partly why we millennials are so disorganized.

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