Meditation for November 20th, 2016
Participation Trophies
Some call the millennial generation (1982 – present) the Participation Trophy generation. They call them this because they are entitled and demand recognition for everything they do.
Is this fair?
In some ways the title is very apt, but without the previous generations parenting skills, would the millenials be such entitled little shits.
Let’s look at two wars that happen before any millenials were born: Vietnam and Korea.
In 1950, the United Nations with lots of urging from President Truman’s United States entered into the Korean civil war. It was American capitalism versus the Soviet Union’s communism.
The war ended in a tie. This was good enough for the United States. American G.I.’s were rewarded with being immortalized in the movie and long running TV show, M.A.S.H.
Vietnam was even messier and didn’t even end in a tie. It is now just a war that happened and now it is immortalized. Y every time you hear The Rolling Stones song Paint It Black or Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Fortunate Son.
Vietnam is now one of our allies in the region. We would be mad if Braddock were to enter Vietnam looking for any M.I.A.s.
It seems that the previous generation took huge global participation trophies.
The idea of participation trophies were created to bolster all kids’ self esteems instead of just the winners. The days of watching the winners celebrate while you have nothing are long over.
It just made one more entitled to feel like they should win. This isn’t just about the competitions the person is entered in, it also includes sport teams and political campaigns.
It isn’t the team didn’t win by not scoring as many points as the other team, it is the refereeing, weather, deflated balls, or some other form of cheating, real or imagined instead. Participation becomes blame for not winning. Even when the system works, the system must have to be changed when your person doesn’t get elected.
When the losers get participation trophies, the winners don’t really see a reason or reward for winning, so the best don’t try anymore. The elite stop living up to their potential and only the mediocre try anything.
So the older people love their M.A.S.H. and Forrest Gump celebrating tying like a soccer match or down right running away completely bitching about younger folks and their participation trophies. Maybe it’s the baby boomer generation and older that we’re participation trophy generations.
They normalized divorce.
They were fine trying to “contain” communism militarily.
Turned the country into a debtors nation.
Continues our racist, homophobic, sexism.
Wouldn’t change their ways to do anything at all for the environment.
Making the millenials pay for their health care.
Neo-liberalism.
Neo-conservatism.
Donald J. Trump
Votes for themselves and not for the future – protects their own interests over their children’s.
Came up with the participation trophy.
Popularized cocaine and then crack cocaine.
Kept the Grateful Dead working for far too long and therefore enabled Jerry Garcia and all the keyboard players’ deaths.
Normalizing alcoholism.
Taking golf, one of the most environmentally inappropriate pastimes, too seriously.
Light rock.
Generation bashing.