In Defense of “Generation Selfie”: Nick Gillespie at The Daily Beast

The New York Times and
other Establishment outposts are flipping out over a new Pew
Research report on Millennials (defined as folks between the ages
of 18 and 33). The cause of the anxiety? The Kids These Days’ lack
of attachment to political parties, religious organizations, and
old-fashioned patriotism. And selfies. Yes, selfies.

I offer a defense of “Generation Selfie” in my latest Daily
Beast column:

“In the future,” worries Ross Douthat, “there will be only one
‘ism’—Individualism—and its rule will never end. As for religion,
it shall decline; as for marriage, it shall be postponed; as for
ideologies, they shall be rejected; as for patriotism, it shall be
abandoned; as for strangers, they shall be distrusted. Only pot,
selfies and Facebook will abide.”

Does it strike anyone else as odd that selfies—clearly less the
product of rising narcissism and more the product of the same
awesome technology that empowers citizens to capture cops
beating the shit of innocent people—have emerged as this year’s
droopy pants, backwards baseball caps, or visible piercings,
as a shorthand for all that is wrong with today’s youth? Getting
bent out of shape over selfies may just be the ultimate
#firstworldproblem.

To my mind, it makes perfect
sense that Millennials aren’t buying into the old verities:

More than most age groups, Millennials know that they are being
set up for a generational scam of epic proportions. Indeed,
Obamacare’s individual market is explicitly
predicated upon overcharging relatively younger, healthier,
poorer people to subsidize lower premiums for relatively older,
sicker, and wealthier people (who really hit the jackpot when they
turn 65 and get Medicare). A full 51 percent of
Millennials believe they won’t receive any Social Security benefits
and an additional 39 percent say that they will receive reduced
benefits if they get anything at all. That’s not even factoring in
analysis by Urban Institute researchers who show that
virtually all workers getting Social Security after 2009 will get
less out of the system than they paid in. Wait until that sinks in
on younger Americans.

Millennials, alas, aren’t perfect – or all that smart. For
instance, more than Gen Xers, Boomers, or members of the Silent
Generation, they prefer a government that is bigger and provides
more services. Which is exactly how we got into problems in the
first place. So they’ve got that learning curve ahead of them. But
to the extent that they are turning their back on “political
parties and other zombified artifacts of our glorious past,”
they’re a hell of a lot smarter than I was at their age.

Read the whole thing.