Acknowledge the very real problems facing younger generations (especially young men), talk about potential government policies/cultural changes to address them....
....and then remind people that most of your destiny ultimately depends on YOU. Not on forces outside you.
As an Elder Gen-Z here (or youngest millennial, depending on who you ask). The bit about people not wanting to hear success stories is definitely true.
I left uni very ill, with serious mental health issues, then suffered through a year of chronic fatigue syndrome. Just as I was starting to get my head above water, COVID and lockdowns arrived.
I spent months doing courses and upskilling in my own time. Sent hundreds of applications, tracked in a depressing spreadsheet. Eventually landed one absolutely miserable job where everyone was as checked out as each other (they'd worked together for years and didn't even talk to each other at lunch times - the office had no windows).
But I kept going. Each evening I spent either doing more training or trying to get some more sleep as I was still recovering from the CFS. I managed to find a role at a start-up eventually, then "job hopped" my way up through a series of year-long stints until I finally landed somewhere decent. Somehow I leaf-frogged a few of my more successful university peers in the end.
My best friend has got four kids, helps run his small church denomination, serves as a deacon, works a full time managerial role, and is somehow doing a theology course on top of all that. I'll be starting a degree myself in the new year whilst also working full-time.
There's this stark division amongst people our age between what I'd call "high agency" and "low agency" types. You've got people who stay in dead-end jobs they openly admit are terrible for them, but become quite angry when you try to suggest something better. Then you've got those of us riding the edge of burnout trying to make something work.
To be fair, I did have family support and other structures that helped me recover, and more than ever it's true that not everyone has that. But it's not like it was some perfect world, both my friend and I come from stereotypical "modern" broken homes.
Was any of this fair? No. Should the system be better? Yes. But Hickman's point about "entering the arena" regardless just rings true. You've only got one life.
Anyone my age knows you aren't going to stumble into prosperity like the boomers did. There's a Big Four partner at our church whose father-in-law gets nearly the same disposable income from his final salary pension - he was an engineer for a local council.
That world's gone (indeed, younger people are paying for it's close). But you still have to play the hand you're dealt.
What gets me is the resentment towards anyone who makes something work despite it all. As if their success invalidates everyone else's struggle. You can acknowledge things are genuinely difficult and still expect people to have a go. Those aren't contradictory.
This kind of piece is exactly why I subscribed. Everything here needs to be shouted from the rooftops.
Acknowledge the very real problems facing younger generations (especially young men), talk about potential government policies/cultural changes to address them....
....and then remind people that most of your destiny ultimately depends on YOU. Not on forces outside you.
As an Elder Gen-Z here (or youngest millennial, depending on who you ask). The bit about people not wanting to hear success stories is definitely true.
I left uni very ill, with serious mental health issues, then suffered through a year of chronic fatigue syndrome. Just as I was starting to get my head above water, COVID and lockdowns arrived.
I spent months doing courses and upskilling in my own time. Sent hundreds of applications, tracked in a depressing spreadsheet. Eventually landed one absolutely miserable job where everyone was as checked out as each other (they'd worked together for years and didn't even talk to each other at lunch times - the office had no windows).
But I kept going. Each evening I spent either doing more training or trying to get some more sleep as I was still recovering from the CFS. I managed to find a role at a start-up eventually, then "job hopped" my way up through a series of year-long stints until I finally landed somewhere decent. Somehow I leaf-frogged a few of my more successful university peers in the end.
My best friend has got four kids, helps run his small church denomination, serves as a deacon, works a full time managerial role, and is somehow doing a theology course on top of all that. I'll be starting a degree myself in the new year whilst also working full-time.
There's this stark division amongst people our age between what I'd call "high agency" and "low agency" types. You've got people who stay in dead-end jobs they openly admit are terrible for them, but become quite angry when you try to suggest something better. Then you've got those of us riding the edge of burnout trying to make something work.
To be fair, I did have family support and other structures that helped me recover, and more than ever it's true that not everyone has that. But it's not like it was some perfect world, both my friend and I come from stereotypical "modern" broken homes.
Was any of this fair? No. Should the system be better? Yes. But Hickman's point about "entering the arena" regardless just rings true. You've only got one life.
Anyone my age knows you aren't going to stumble into prosperity like the boomers did. There's a Big Four partner at our church whose father-in-law gets nearly the same disposable income from his final salary pension - he was an engineer for a local council.
That world's gone (indeed, younger people are paying for it's close). But you still have to play the hand you're dealt.
What gets me is the resentment towards anyone who makes something work despite it all. As if their success invalidates everyone else's struggle. You can acknowledge things are genuinely difficult and still expect people to have a go. Those aren't contradictory.