Bringing Up Baby The True Tales of Generation layZee

Let’s face it. Americans are breeding their humans stupider, lazier, and more ill-equipped to cope with life. This has been a slow but definite decline since the Greatest Generation, who somehow produced the hedonistic and slothful Baby Boomers, who grew up to do a 180-degree shift into S&L scandals, accounting frauds, and corporate takeovers.

The Baby Boomers managed to be the poorest parents thus far in the history of America. Their “if it feels good, do it” credo resulted in the highest spike in divorce rates the country had ever seen, with divorce rates tripling between 1960 and 1980. To make matters worse, their desire to be friends rather than parents to their children (or ignore them completely) produced a generation of kids that were, at best, slow to adapt to adulthood--Generation X.

The younger Baby Boomers and the older Gen X’ers produced the latest debacle in human history...a generation I will refer to as “Generation layZee.” If Generation layZee has a posterboy, it is Casey Serin, whose incompetence, delusion and sociopathic tendencies should reignite a serious push toward eugenics.

Fuelled by a steady diet of late-night infomercials, shoddy public schooling, and a complete absence of a work ethic, Generation layZee strives to get ahead in life by some sort of social lottery system. This generation was never taught the importance of hard work, of resiliency. They have been simply coddled. And those responsible for this have done them no favors.

Last week’s massacre at Virginia Tech is another example of Generation layZee at its worst. Like Casey Serin, Cho Seung Hui was unable to take personal responsibility for his actions or his life, saying that others “forced” him to do what he did. In the bizarre rants left behind, the shooter angrily whines about rich kids, people being mean to him, and life not being fair.

Well boo fucking hoo. Here’s a reality check...if we look back to those Greatest Generation folks, we see that, after some of them had their names forcibly changed on Ellis Island, their new world greeted them with signs in shop windows that said “No Dogs or Irish.”

Or how about the Tuskegee Airmen? Every last one risked their lives in service to a nation that treated them as second-class citizens. Some were killed, others were held as prisoners of war. Six decades later, the remaining few were formally honored. Talk about delayed gratification.

But not Generation layZee. They want it, and they want it NOW. No one has taught them how to work toward a goal. Just the opposite, in fact--seemingly everyone in their tiny universes seemed focused on preventing even the slightest harm from ever befalling them, from scraped knees to hurt feelings.

Generation layZee is continually focused on what they do NOT have. We’ll rarely, if ever, see them thankful for a simple meal or place to sleep. They seem unable to comprehend the statistical odds that they most likely will not become the next Michael Jordan, Paul Allen or Sergey Brin. Their mommies and daddies told them they were special, dammit, and the world had better reflect that.

As they try to become the “next big thing,” Generation layZee fails in the earliest stages. They have no concept of the amount of tireless work it takes to become that, and even if they did, lack the fortitude to get there. Few, if any, ponder how many parties Michael Jordan missed in order to spend solitary hours shooting free throws. They think it “just happens.”

So they go off into the world woefully unprepared. The Casey Serins of the world want to jump in with both feet and play with the big boys. Because they’re ‘special,’ they blissfully ignore their own lack of training and experience, and seem unable to even put a value on such nebulous ideas.

When things go awry, as they always do in this world, we have the Columbine kids or the Virginia Tech shooter. I’ve been saying for years that this generation, Generation layZee, would be a generation of suicides. I did not predict that their pampering would lead to taking out as many people as they could while they go down in flames.

But whether it’s Casey Serin negatively impacting his neighbors’ finances or Cho Seung Hui depriving others of their very lives, Generation layZee only looks at how they themselves are impacted.

I wish this weren’t the case, but it’s only going to get worse. Everywhere we go, we are allowed glimpses into the future. The latest round of pseudo-parents allow their children to run wild in public, scream at the top of their lungs, and make no attempt to discipline or socialize them.

Each self-absorbed generation has managed to produce a subsequent generation that is shockingly more egocentric and spoiled than the one that came before it. If you’re a parent, you need to seriously rethink your role in creating productive members of society. If you’re thinking about becoming a parent, consider your motives for doing so.

Are you really up to the task of parenting? Or are you content to spend 18 years with a living accessory that will one day create a burden to and a drain upon society?

And to Generation layZee, I say this: Slow down and take a more thoughtful approach to your lives. Before you leap into something, can you answer the question, with absolute certainty, “How will this end?” And maybe, just maybe, after you realize that your parents and schools have failed to train you (as many generations ahead of you have done), you will take it upon yourselves to defy the odds, through actual hard work.

And if you think the world has been cruel to you up to this point, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Time to grow some callouses and thicken up the skin, kids, because life itself is a long and rocky road.

ADDITION: Aantares/Eve Community readers, please see this post.