Maybe I’m just getting old.

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A new national poll of America’s 18 to 29 year-olds by Harvard’s Institute of Politics (IOP) at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, found a solid 60% of Millennials support the U.S. committing ground troops to defeat ISIS, but only 16% said they “have already,” “would definitely” or “would strongly consider” joining the U.S. military to combat ISIS if additional troops were needed.

Before the Paris terrorist attacks, an earlier poll by IOP had the number of those supporting troop involvement at only 48%. So there was a 12% jump in bravado.

When it comes to actually being the ones to go, it was found that 2% said they already joined, 5% would definitely join, and 9% said they would “strongly consider” it.

56% of Millennials said they preferred that Democrats win the presidency in 2016 because that party seemed less likely to send in troops.

So, as many people regard the Millennials as the “me, me, me” generation, this shows that under certain, not very advantageous circumstances, they are the “you, you, you” generation.

For clarification, the term Millennials refers to those born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s. It is also called the Peter Pan or Boomerang Generation because of the numbers who move back in with their parents, and the tendency to delay some typical adulthood rites of passage like marriage or starting a career.

This is the generation of the “Participation Trophy” that now expects to get what they want merely on the strength of their wanting it.

They want to begin their careers in an upper level position, and often turn down entry level jobs because they want to start closer to the top.

A story in Time magazine said polls show that Millennials “want flexible work schedules, more ‘me time’ on the job, and nearly nonstop feedback and career advice from managers”, and “They’re narcissistic. They’re lazy. They’re coddled. They’re even a bit delusional. Those aren’t just unfounded negative stereotypes about 80 million Americans born roughly between 1980 and 2000. They’re backed up by a decade of sociological research.”

According to USA Today, “The trend is more of an emphasis on extrinsic values such as money, fame, and image, and less emphasis on intrinsic values such as self-acceptance, group affiliation and community.” The study was based on an analysis of 9 million high school seniors or entering college students.

On the up side they are more open minded than previous generations.

Feeling I was becoming the old person who kvetches about the young ones and just as fault-finding about the Millennials as older people were about us Baby Boomers, I took time to read articles by Millennials about Millennials.

I have to admit, that as they explained themselves, they were pleased they had justified themselves to themselves, but did not see that they were not doing themselves any favors when it came to educating the rest of us and winning us over.
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They stress they are into immediate gratification, are good with social media, and want things to be as promised so that consumer goods better work when bought as returns and exchanges are just not acceptable.

From what I read, the attitude about sending troops so long as they were somebody else is consistent.

They support dirty work being done by others, but it does not fit in with their self-accepted characteristics like:

Being multitasking pros who can juggle many responsibilities, but are easily distracted and find social media and texting hard to resist,

Knowing everything there is to know about social media because they are living it by constantly perusing Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. even in the workplace,

Needing to feel like what they are doing is important and that they are on the right track having grown up with constant praise from their Baby Boomer parents. It’s what they know. They admit they need constant ego stroking,

Not being as willing as former generations to sacrifice their personal life in order to advance their careers, and expect a more flexible work environment,

Wanting to feel like they have an open and honest relationship with their manager and co-workers, and wanting assurance that their opinion is valued while receiving a good deal of positive feedback (gratification).

In my day we protested a war and the draft that forced people to go fight it. We preferred no one being forced to go either openly through the draft, or by the subtle coercion that made someone feel compelled to have to enlist.

But this supporting a war as long as someone else does the work and potentially returns home without all the parts, both mental and physical, they had when they were deployed, or dead, while they get to be all patriotic, to me, is just wrong.

Perhaps if the 60% between 18 and 29 are so gung-ho, there should be a draft so that the 9% who said they would “strongly consider” it can be joined by the remaining 53% who have neither already joined nor are intending to, so that they can get the joy of participating in that which they support.

They could even get a Participation Trophy.

Or, if faced with a reality they assume only applies to others, they might rethink how selfish their attitude is.

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