Phew. It's been almost exactly a year since last I blogged, but here we go. (Surprisingly, this is less than 3K words. Maybe I am getting more concise.)
If you read the same sort of articles I do (or watched the last season of Survivor), you will likely read a slew of articles describing the many ills of the next generations. Millennials are coddled. Millennials are self-absorbed and not used to experiencing failure. Millennials are presumptuous, narcissistic, and delusional regarding their own worth as employees.
When searching for the explanation for what went wrong with us Millennials, the narrative seems to have settled upon the evil Participation Trophy/ Award. This explanation has endless variations describing how they made Millennials weak in character or delusional of their actual abilities. Who or what is at fault: those nasty awards for participating.
Now I really cannot account for how the other Millennials are comporting themselves, but I find the obsession with participation awards odd for several reasons. 1) Where Was My Participation Award? Seriously, where were they? I really don't remember very many of them. I remember a ranking system for concert and jazz bands: superior, excellent, good, fair, poor. In sports, I remember rankings from first to maybe eight, and trophies for first, second, and third. I remember in elementary the one time I ran in the 200m dash, I got a participation award, but that's the only one I can recall, but that leads me to my next point.
2) Who Legitimately Thought Highly of the Participation Awards? That one participation award I received in grade four... I thought was incredibly stupid. I might have kept it for awhile, but buried away somewhere. I never saw it as a source of pride, but easily recognized that the 200m was not really the race for me and eventually found more success in volleyball.
I don't know any of my elementary peers that thought any differently of these awards being infrequently handed out. Was the rest of my generation fooled by them, but not my peers and me? I mean, regardless of what ribbon they hand out, it was pretty obvious who was successful, because they went on from North Zones, to North Islands, and from there to Islands, Provincials, and maybe Nationals. Anyone connected to sports could see who were the good teams or competitors. But that's also true when you were listening to other school jazz bands- yes it's not an elimination, but some bands were invited to nationals (mine), and others were not.
A certain level of skill is sometimes necessary to realize how much skill you do not have, but that's fairly quickly attained once on a team or in a band at a competitive level.
3) Who's Idea Was It Anyway? Again, there is so much bellyaching and blame placed on the Millennials. We are these wilting flowers because of our participation awards. However, how were they our awards? Were we running these competitions? Was this our grand idea for puffing ourselves up? No, we were the ones who were bemused to be given an award for a less than stellar performance. I don't like the generation blame game, but if we are blaming the ill effects of participation awards, at least blame the people in charge of giving out awards. But all I hear is "Millennial this, Millennials that"...of course me noticing a lot of articles on the narcissism of the Millennials, may just be another indication of my Millennial narcissism...
So I am left with this: I don't actually recall that many participation awards, those that I do remember, we dismissed as being valueless, and we weren't actually in control of these awards. Maybe there are lots of problems with the Millennial generation. I don't know; I am probably too much the self-absorbed Millennial to tell. But participation awards and trophies seem a misguided focal point for all that is wrong with us.
Or am I wrong? Were the rest of you hoodwinked in your youth by your participation awards?
I dunno if I qualify as a "millennial" and I really don't care, I think it's all very stupid. With that out of the way... As a little kid pretty much every year for little league and then farmers(maybe?) league we got trophies regardless of whether we won lots of games or not. I remember thinking they were pointless and stupid so they just sat in a box in our garage. Other than that I can't think of any other times where they really gave out participation awards. Except for High School Diplomas. At least for my school that **** was pretty much impossible to not receive.
By the way, I read the post from a year ago, and I thought it was fantastic. I really liked your vision of Star Wars.
ANYWAY
Here's my idea: The generation from the 40s was really fucked-up because they went into a huge war, then they came home and beat the shit out of their kids. Those kids turned into drug addicts and had emotional issues. That was the 60s, I guess. Also, there was Vietnam. So the next generation has all these parents who are violent because they have Vietnam-PTSD or were addicted to drugs. That generation was like, "Our parents were so horrible and we're never gonna treat our kids like that. Our kids aren't gonna get beaten or screamed at or have to feel worthless. They're gonna be HAPPY."
So they went wayyyyyyy overboard with the coddling, and the Millennials were spawned. I don't think they ever intended to be assholes or crybabies, but a lot of kids, especially upper-class, upper-middle-class, middle-middle class-ish kids, haven't really faced very much adversity in their lives beyond normal stuff like a relative dying or a friend dying or fighting with depression or breaking up with someone they loved. They didn't have to survive an earthquake or some shit.
On December 21 2016 07:30 ninazerg wrote: By the way, I read the post from a year ago, and I thought it was fantastic. I really liked your vision of Star Wars.
Thank you- it was a lot of fun to dream up and write, after bouncing ideas off some friends.
As to the rest- certainly my generation has not faced much in the way of adversity as a whole. If you look only a few generations back with the world wars or mass flight as refugees, carrying what they could on their backs (my great grandparents). Some have fought in wars, but most like myself have not. All things considered, we have it pretty good.
We got participation ribbons in our school in our electives and competitions. I only kept the first to 3rd place ribbons. Everything else was thrown away. Even in grade 3 I felt insulted at the green participation ribbon. "You're there! You exist!"
On December 21 2016 08:22 Coagulation wrote: I dont think it was participation trophies that pussified america. I think it was those little wheels on luggage.
Truth. Haha, too good.
edit. @Testie. Yeah, that's more or less my view as well. Did we all see through the BS? My first guess is yes, unless they were a particularly unaware/ oblivious child.
That's a good point. While I was watching survivor Generation X Vs. Millennials, I just accepted that we millennials received those awards because i vaguely remembered getting a few. You're right though they meant really nothing to me. I wanted the real awards (which we did have.)
I think the participation award is like a metaphor for the zeitgeist of those times though. There was sort of the attitude that everyone gets everything and maybe that didn't exist for generation X.
the only trophy i've kept though was that of a second-place finish in which i should have won first, to remind me to keep things in perspective even when I think things are going well.
On December 21 2016 08:22 SK.Testie wrote: We got participation ribbons in our school in our electives and competitions. I only kept the first to 3rd place ribbons. Everything else was thrown away. Even in grade 3 I felt insulted at the green participation ribbon. "You're there! You exist!"
Well, the existence of someone like you is indeed an insult to humanity itself, so everything worked out in the end?
someone needs to make a study on how many "millenials failed because x" articles are written compared to "the previous generation failed us because x". seems like it's a generational thing to blame the next generation for everything
I only got participation awards in noncompetitive youth soccer, but to be frank, I was usually more concerned with getting my hands on a post-game capri sun and a granola bar anyway
Every young generation is spat on by older generations, it's just some kind of weird thing with generations. I mean, Plato talked about the same stuff 2500 years ago.
when the Berlin Wall fell every one thought Freedom/Capitalism won and Communism/Totalitarianism lost. The problem is the adults in the free world in 1989 worshipped communism and believed a planned economy and life were the way to go.
the millienials are the children of the most left-wing//socialist generation of North Americans ever.
you see it played out in hockey. Canada has the boring-est hockey teams with zero individualism and every one always playing in adherence to the "team system". Canadian teams play like the Soviet Union used to play. ZZZZZzzzzzz.....
Socialism//Communism is alive and well right here in NA.
our surrender was voluntary... Ronald Reagan was right.
we have been sentenced by our fathers and grandfathers to take the final steps towards a thousand years of darkness...
? I find the link between left-wing politics and hockey teams working together as a team tenuous at best. If we were to make any link, perhaps the military would be better? You could fight with a focus on personal glory like the Natives of the Plains and their coup counting, but ultimately it's better to fight as a unit. If anything, what would create more individuality on ice is if they made the ice rinks bigger like the Europeans, thereby opening up space for the faster players to maneuver. But that seems rather tangential.
On December 21 2016 23:48 JimmyJRaynor wrote: when the Berlin Wall fell every one thought Freedom/Capitalism won and Communism/Totalitarianism lost. The problem is the adults in the free world in 1989 worshipped communism and believed a planned economy and life were the way to go.
the millienials are the children of the most left-wing//socialist generation of North Americans ever.
you see it played out in hockey. Canada has the boring-est hockey teams with zero individualism and every one always playing in adherence to the "team system". Canadian teams play like the Soviet Union used to play. ZZZZZzzzzzz.....
Socialism//Communism is alive and well right here in NA.
our surrender was voluntary... Ronald Reagan was right.
we have been sentenced by our fathers and grandfathers to take the final steps towards a thousand years of darkness...
Quote The Raven, Nevermore.
That is one of the most far fetched connections I've had the joy to read on TL.
I don't know any adults from the 'free world of 1989' that worshiped communism or believed a planned economy was the way to go. What many adults and any educated person may realize is that unbridled capitalism leads to massive inequality which is not in the interest of a functioning democracy.
Socially (socialist) influenced capitalism is vastly superior to unbridled capitalism in combating inequality. Saying North America is misleading since that puts Mexico, Canada and the U.S. into one pot when they're different politically, economically and socially.
I think my grandfather and father only sentenced me to exist on this planet, only a commie like you would think that you don't the freedom to choose your own steps in this life.
We did a track and field thing once a year at my elementary school. Only ever kept my 3rd place grade 5 high jump one. All the participation ribbons were worthless.
I got a participation trophy from little league when I was like 6 or 8 or something, I don't even think I got one when I played soccer...
Plus, wouldn't the parents be the ones lobbying to have their kid feel special, do kids really have an appropriate understanding of the feeling of worth that having a trophy is meant to fill you with? I know when I played youth sports (blegh) I was mostly there for... I dunno, I must have enjoyed it, I cant think of any other reason to waste the money and time honestly.
Kids figured it out pretty quick which was the "booby prize." Just like how they don't keep score anymore (Trust me. It's rare to see soccer games in my big city area up to 5th grade actually keep track.). The kids mentally know. They're smart. Nobody was hoodwinked for more than a little bit.
And frankly the narrative is stupid. The education bubble and student loan debt and the job market was not caused by millenials, so generally speaking, there's plenty to whine about when your parent's generation talks about
supporting a stay-at-home-wife and two kids with a job you got from having a high school degree
in the same factory/farm his father worked in!
Millenials will make their own name for themselves. Enough of the pathetic narrative.
EPT
