LET’S CALL THEM: GENERATION SCREWED

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June 26, 2017

LET’S CALL THEM: GENERATION SCREWED

PLEASE TATTLE ON THE DRIVER — Zazzle.com

One of the problems with getting old is that you begin to question your judgement about the new generation. They are different than we were, because – let’s face it – they live in a different world. They have different expectations, and again to be brutally honest – with some notable exceptions – they are not as prepared for life as previous generations.

Let’s call them Generation Screwed.

I don’t blame them. In fact, if there is anybody to blame it is probably my generation and the ones that followed. Not only did we not prepare the current generation to be adults, but we squandered their future. Since so many of us are living longer and retiring earlier, we are expecting them to take care of us while we loll around the golf course or vacation in Tahiti.

In many ways we have stolen their future. We let the infrastructure decay, government benefits to grow to unsustainable levels, the school system – K through college – to dissolve into mush, and the culture to coarsen to the point that incivility has become the norm.

We have convinced the upcoming generation of adults that they are special by giving them participation awards and certificates merely for existing. And companies – either in an effort to undo the damage or continue the silliness – have begun treating employees like children.

We bought a quart of Hydrangea Blue at Home Depot, and the cashier asked if we would go on line and fill out a form saying she did an excellent job. We bought some paint, she rang us up and smiled, and we, the customer, are now supposed to complete a 12-page online form saying how good she was and telling her employer about our shopping experience. To sweeten the deal, Home Depot will hold a drawing of those who respond and award the winner a $5,000 Home Depot gift card. Of course, you will have to pay income tax on your winnings, so it’s really more like $3,500 worth of Home Depot stuff. I don’t think so.

Number one, it’s a stupid idea thought up by a bunch of stupid middle managers who sat around a big table trying to justify their existence. Not many folks work on an assembly line anymore, where there’s a boss looking over their shoulders and exhorting them to work harder and faster. Now we have computers that do it, and as customers and members of the public, we are expected to help these computers to monitor company employees.

So now we see truck drivers – hard-working men and women supporting their families by spending hours each day staring at the yellow line down the middle of the highway – with a sign on the back of their trucks exhorting the rest of us to tattle on them if we think they are not driving properly.

It’s insulting and demeaning to a person doing his or her best to make a living.

Think if we did that in our personal lives. You go out on a hot date, you end up going back to your apartment or maybe a hotel room, and doing what comes naturally. Then, the next morning, you ask if your partner would like to fill out an online endorsement that you could post on your Facebook page saying how great you were.

Who knows, maybe you could even get a good Yelp review.

– George Lee Cunningham

Do you have a dissenting opinion or any opinion at all on the subject? Contact me at george@georgeleecunningham.com and let me know. Meanwhile, you can always subscribe and get an email reminder of blog postings. Your name will not be shared and you may cancel at any time.

News

April 17, 2024

Minor Character

Sometimes I feel like a minor character in one of those really long James Michener historic novels. I’m one of the guys they check in on a couple of times during the course of the book and one more time when he finally kicks the bucket. In truth, that suits me just fine. I don’t want to be one of the major players – those guys who lie, cheat, sleep around, make a lot of money, kill a lot of people, and then then suffer a tragic death on Christmas Eve. I just want to be me – plugging along, having some fun, loving the same woman for years, and then quietly passing away.

March 25, 2024

Cereal Killer

I have almost given up on cereal. As a younger man, I loved a sugary treat. As an old man, who has to watch his diet, I find myself checking labels on everything. Sugar is the enemy. For instance, Cap’n Crunch – a former favorite of my wife – contains: Corn Flour, Sugar, Oat Flour, Brown Sugar, Palm and/or Coconut Oil, Salt, Reduced Iron, Yellow 5, Niacinamide, Yellow 6, BHT, Thiamin, Mononitrate, Pridoxined Hydrochloride, Rioflavin, and Folic Acid. My choice: plain old Shredded Wheat. Ingredients: wheat and BHT (a harmless preservative). Not a taste treat, but at least I’ll live to tell about it

Highway Memorials

Driving across country nowadays, we notice a growing number of roadside displays – flowers, crosses, and ribbons – marking the sites where people apparently died in traffic accidents. I do understand mourning the passing of somebody you love, but I’m not sure I see the point of putting a display at the place along the road where they died. Even sadder is the fact that flowers wilt and highway trash piles up around the displays, making them just another sad reminder of life cut short.

December 5, 2023

Love Motives

I often tell my wife I love and adore her, mainly because I do and also because women like to hear the man in their life actually say the words. But during one conversation I had to confess that some times when I say it – especially when she is irked and giving me the deadly silent treatment – I am also reminding myself of that fact so I don’t start yelling and slamming doors. Is that so wrong?

Being Mortal

I am officially an old man. Sometimes I forget, then I look in the mirror and there it is. The truth is that life has its limits, and that is how it should be. There are new generations coming up, ready to step up and take our place. They are welcome to it. If you have reached old age, you have made some blunders in you life. If you think otherwise, then you are indeed a fool. You can warn the new generations about the mistakes you made, but they are oblivious. This too is as it should be. It’s their world, and it’s on them to screw it up for the generations to follow, just as we did for them.

Good Deeds

There is a saying that no good deed goes unpunished. It’s mostly – but not always – true. The problem with good deeds is that most people who do them expect to be appreciated. In actuality, good-deed recipients are more often resentful about it, rather than grateful. Nobody likes being the person who has to rely on the good will of others. So do good deeds for your own sake – because it makes you feel better, not because you want to be feel appreciated.

Recreational Bitching

Did you ever notice that some people – maybe more people than not – like to complain about everything? In the summertime, it’s too hot. In the wintertime it’s too cold. Health care is too expensive. Young people are too rude. Old people move too slowly. There ought to be a law against anything and everything that might make one unhappy. It’s recreational bitching, and we all do it to greater or lesser extent. Maybe once in a while, it might make sense to listen to how we talk and how we think. Most of us are just doing the best that we can.