[Kreuzberger]

I just met a rather decent chap, Charlie, while smoking outside our regular Sunday haunt. He's an English lad and, inevitably, wanted to talk a bit about Brexit.

The conversation, as is the way with half way intelligent people, moved on from the usual - Farage etc etc.

It turns out that we have kids who are basically the same age and that La Thunberg, whilst being two years their junior, is rocket fuel for a new and multi-faceted sense of engagement.

Something has to change and we are just too failingly old and too stale in our thinking to deliver it. The clarity of this emerging cohort is a breath of fresh air, even if they are perhaps still getting to grips with the narrative.

Charlie and I agreed that the best we can do is to get out of the way and let these kids formulate their argument from the ground up and build something fit for purpose. Social, political, economic and all within the screaming imperative of climate catastrophe. We're all ears.

Millennials are a busted, semi-skimmed, lactose-free flush. Y and Z had it so easy hanging on the property speculation coat tails of the remnants of the post-war settlement. They are part of the problem.

Generation Zero. Discuss.

[cycloon]

There's another one?

Providing they can combat the caustic and uncontrollable corrosiveness of the 'irony' of the alt-right pricks on YouTube and Reddit et al, more power to them .

[The Weeping Angel]

I resent that attack on Millennials.

[Killer Whale]

Why is it always you that refuses to read and understand other people's posts?

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I'm with you and Charlie.

As Bob Dylan had it. I think it may finally be true.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.



Certainly my grandkids at 9 and 10 have more idea than most millennials I have met.

[The Weeping Angel]

Why is it always you that refuses to read and understand other people's posts?

Millennials are a busted, semi-skimmed, lactose-free flush

What's so hard to understand about that?

[visage]

The problem with getting out of the way is that the people who have boosted her to her status of celebrity du jour are the older generation.

If that older generation sit on the sidelines then younger voices will get swamped by the usual suspects.

[Bones McCoy]

If Gen Zero (I just can't keep up with the current labels - I remember when you could call your neighbour Honky and laugh all the way to the A&E), is those born between 2000 and 2009 then #3 son falls into that category.

He turns 16 at the end of the week and is quite a contrast to me and my pals so many years back.

Youngsters are now bombarded with consumerism (electronics and fashion to the fore).
He and his mates know they way around that stuff without becoming the impulsive slaves that you'll witness among Thirty and Twenty somethings - "OOh another Apple thing, let's queue up at 2 in the morning".

They are grounded in a sober way about their prospects; knowing that few will have the easy options of the previous generation.
They are also quite well attuned to foreign affairs, can spot a shyster that eludes 'grown ups' like the gammon of Sunderland or the minutemen of Hicksville, Alabama.

Final praise for the generation before I bollock him for playing on his phone instead of revising for tomorrow's Biology.
I see no evidence for the "dumbing down" of education that the Littlejohns and Ferrarris of the world promote.
I've been helping with revision, and my observation for subjects where I'm vaguely competent are:
* There's some stuff in the National 5s (GCSEs for other bits of the UK) that I didn't encounter until A-level.
* There are other bits of the old O-levels that are no longer present (You can't get an A for memorising the Times Tables after 11 years schooling).
* Subjects like English and Maths provided me with 2 O-levels each (Pure and applied, language and literature). There's one of each, incorporating both disciplines. (I'd include a nod to the Blues Brothers here, but I didn't do O-level Music)
* There don't seem to be as many easy options for dummies: Physical Education is a written paper with some performance assessments, likewise Art's paper is largely written criticism. There's no "Dumbed down" versions of the core stuff either like "Spoken English" or "Maths with Stats".

So to summarise:
* Stoic acceptance of being dealt a poor hand.
* Mature approach to consumerism.
* A well developed school curriculum (despite what papers written for 7 year olds claim).
* Generally polite, well behaved and sociable.

[youngian]

Back when Farage was a school boy showing off about his initials there was a bitter culture war going on in schools, gigs and terraces for the hearts and minds of the next generation. Rock against Racism and Two Tone won, the NF and Gripper Stebson (racist Grange Hill bully) lost. Gripper is now a middle aged Brexiter and they got their revenge because we took our world for granted. I’m bit old and despondent to be lobbing paving stones at fascists but I’m very optimistic about the young driving this sludge back into the sewer.

[Abernathy]

I know I keep asking this, but what is meant by "millennials" ???

[Andy McDandy]

Supposed to be people who came of age around 2000, so were born in the early 80s. But it's become shorthand for "kids, eh?".

[cycloon]

It's advertising speak masquerading as useful sociology. It's useful, up to a point, and that point doesn't go terribly far...

[Timbo]

As a 1982 baby, I've been impressed by the generation after mine for quite some time. I've often wondered whether I'm going to be part of the first generation that doesn't think the world is going to hell in a handbasket because of the youths of today.
They've been handed a deliberately-made shit sandwich. They're cynical as fuck, but optimistic too. They expect the world to fuck them over, trust virtually none of the institutions that the rest of us grew up thinking had our backs (government, industry, even supranational institutions now), but are pragmatic enough to know that they'll be alright if they stand up for what they think is right. I think we have a dark few decades ahead, but if these lot show anything for the future, I can sleep soundly.

[Bones McCoy]

Back when Farage was a school boy showing off about his initials there was a bitter culture war going on in schools, gigs and terraces for the hearts and minds of the next generation. Rock against Racism and Two Tone won, the NF and Gripper Stebson (racist Grange Hill bully) lost. Gripper is now a middle aged Brexiter and they got their revenge because we took our world for granted. I’m bit old and despondent to be lobbing paving stones at fascists but I’m very optimistic about the young driving this sludge back into the sewer.

That's what they all say, it means you've not met the right fascist yet.

I notice a few of them are bold enough to be agitating for a full blown "culture war".
Being a bit slower than I once was, I hope the wise young people don't oblige them.
I admit, to my shame, I occasionally daydream about cracking a few shitlord heads - for old time's sake.

[Kreuzberger]

If Gen Zero (I just can't keep up with the current labels...)

That's because I made it up in the pub last night.