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...lots of good observations but needs to pull them together to be more concise. It was a bit hard trying to pull out central points.
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For Tabs benefit here are the key themes summarized:
The PPOT contributors are not a cross section of society. PPOT is biased high in terms of intelligence, life accomplishments, and expectations for themselves and others. Most are very hard working and have applied themselves well. I make no assertion that intelligence and work ethic are linked. Only that above average intelligence provides a foundation for capability above the societal mean. What one does with their intelligence is up to the individual. So, PPOT members view the world through their personal lens of experience and intellectual analysis.
Those individual lenses inject a bias on how we perceive others. Furthermore, many people exhibit selective memory of past events or their role in past successes or failures. That’s how we get stories of grandparents that walked 5 miles to school in the snow, and it was uphill both ways. So this leads many to look at the youth of today and lament our society is filled with lazy unmotivated, drug induced stupor, slacker Millennials.
I like the notion that Millennials challenge the status quo and rebel against behaviors and values that don’t align with their current perceptions of personal values. I know I challenged lots of things in the world around me as I matured. I now realize I was exhibiting critical thinking but didn’t know how to express my perspective to others. Personal responsibility develops in individuals at different rates; some early, some later, some not ever (in the case of my sister, she is brilliant and sadly an unmotivated loser that blames everyone but herself for her woes).
Our current society has a problem with what I am calling “Societal Entropy”. The Millennials need to sort through the bombardment of political correctness and “nanny state” socialistic politics circulating around them. Is anyone right if everyone is wrong? Will that cause this generation to take longer to sort through their personal ethos – perhaps.
Some will opine the loss of manufacturing jobs as an irreversible death spiral for the US economy. Keep in mind that around 2/3 of jobs in the US are still created by small business. It’s not my place to tell a small business owner who to hire, but perhaps there is merit to helping coach Millennial job candidates towards the “make yourself indispensable” and your pay will follow approach to job satisfaction. Small business is still a big lever in our economy.
So my message is, let’s be open minded, and help mentor & coach the Millennials we interact with, and help them on their life’s journey. For, they may be not very different from you or I.