In Defense of Youth

There is an article on Alternet.org about a survey of narcissism among today's youth.

A little smug self-absorption might be a time-honored trait of at least some subsets of the under-30 crowd.

But over the past few decades the prevailing disposition among college students -- today labeled Generation Y or Millennials -- has slid into full-blown narcissism, according to a study released this week.
***a series of "narcissistic personality inventory" questions, each with two possible answers,

Think about that. Two possible answers. When was the last time you took one of these inventories that offered two possible answers? When you did, how often was your true answer not one of the choices? I have been taking these things, both scientific and silly, since the 50s. Rit Dye used to have one in girls' magazines where you answered questions about your personality and they told you what color to dye the bedspread and curtains in your bedroom. My answers were, as in so many of these forced choice tests I've taken since, not listed at all. So, how accurate is the information revealed by this test on narcissism? Having taken courses at UC Berkeley in constructing psychological surveys, I wonder, what are they really measuring? Is it narcissism at all?

I feel competent to speak on this because I am almost 65, and have worked with kids most of my life. I am an Alaska court certified expert on child development and parenting issues, and worked for over ten years with parents in danger of having their parental rights terminated. I have taught parenting classes (and, no, I don't believe in the groundless self-esteem that the authors of this study are talking about) and coached individual parents to improve their ability to discipline and guide their children.

I am currently working with high school students who are interested in preventing underage drinking. I spend at least half an hour with them every week, in addition to several hours at a time doing community service projects. What I know about today's young people does not come from a group of questions to which they can answer only A or B, but from observation, conversation, evaluation, and shared effort. From lots of time actually spent with lots of kids.

My experience and observation is that this is a wonderful generation. They are thoughtful, kind, empathetic, and funny. I go to their classroom at noon for group meetings and, seeing me with my cane, they pull out the one chair in the room that is easy for me to get out of and take my cane and jacket -- and return them to me at the end of the meeting. They distribute handouts for me, come early to projects to help me bring in materials and set up and stay late to assist with clean up. The Alternet.org article mentions that kids of this generation do a lot of community service work, but the authors of the study discount this with the fact that they are required to for school. Yes, they are. The kids I work with are students in health class and required to do 12 hours, and meeting time counts. Most kids do up to 26 hours, and many have been known to stay with the program not only a second semester, but even all four years that they are in high school. Receiving credit for it only that one semester.

A recent study showed that the majority of people dying of drug overdoses are aging baby boomers -- not Millenials. Violence is down with this group of teens. Drug, alcohol, and tobacco use is down. Teen pregnancy is down.

Of course this generation has some narcissistic members, every generation does. And, to some degree, all teens are self-centered. The major task of the teen is to give over childhood and develop an adult self. You can't do this without being more self-centered than either children or adults. However, in my rather long career, I have never seen a less narcissistic generation than the current one. I have never seen a generation that was more attached to parents and had their heads on straighter. I have always seen great kids, and I have always seen not-so-great kids. But, in my experience, the balance tips in favor of the current generation. And I'm getting a little ticked off at hearing them disparaged.

In A Nutshell follows.

I Wonder

So, after the disclosures last week of the incredibly callous treatment being provided to our young wounded, the Secretary of the Army and the general in charge of Walter Reed Medical Center have been fired. As well they should have been.

But I wonder. I wonder if we are going to stop with these two. For as much as they should have known about this disgrace and done something about it long ago, firing them is a little bit like prosecuting Lyndie Englund. Throwing the small fry under the train in order to protect the people who made it possible. No, the people who made it inevitable. The Bush administration and the GOP controlled congress which ran things until last November had a duty to fund all levels of military medical care high enough to provide excellent care for the young people they sent in harm's way. Sent in harm's way without adequate armor, either body or vehicle. Sent in harm's way without adequate planning. Sent in harm's way without enough troop strength to win. Sent in harm's way with support provided by Halliburton, which if we care to remember fed them MREs while charging for full meals for quite a while when they first got there. Sent them in harm's way under the direction of Rumsfeld, a man who had no experience with war and who so thoroughly considered that his ideology was better than battle field knowledge, that he fired the generals who disagreed with him. Sent them in harm's way with lies for justification.

Not only has this administration and their GOP enablers (and some Democrats, as well) not funded enough armor or troops or medical care, they have, systematically and year after year, reduced funding for the Veterans' Administration. While creating an increasing number of more critically wounded soldiers, they have reduced the funds to care for them.

And I wonder if this same mess would have happened if we had a draft, if the sons of congressmen and rich men were going into this war? If the vast majority of our armed forces were not working class? If most of them were not brown skinned? Do you suppose that it would have gotten this bad before someone noticed if the people sitting for months in the cockroach infested rooms were the sons and daughters of the people who are receiving the majority of the tax breaks? Do you suppose that it ever would have gotten this bad at all? Or if the powers that be would have sent their own children out with inadequate armor in the first place? Into a war based on lies?

In A Nutshell follows.

Hatred

Please go over to Bullies -1, Sanity - 0 on Brilliant At Breakfast and read what has happened to Amanda Marcotte. For those of you who don't know, Amanda is the feminist blogger at Pandagon who was hired by the John Edwards campaign. Over the last few days, Bill Donohue, head of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and an anti-Semite if I have ever read one, has mounted an attack at Amanda, aimed at getting Edwards to fire her, because of some opinions which he considers bigoted that she expressed on her own site, prior to being hired by Edwards. It seems, that as a feminist, Amanda doesn't like the stance of the religious right, including the Catholic church, on abortion, contraception, women's rights, and condoms. She considers the Catholic church to practice full-throated misogyny. Donohue, as I said is an anti-Semite (he has claimed that "Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular ... Hollywood likes anal sex.") Go here and read how his followers have responded to his call for action, but only if you a. have a strong stomach and b. can bear the sight of just how ugly the human mind can get. It truly astounds me that these people are saying these things in what they consider to be the defense of the Catholic faith. Of course, it astounds me that people who talk like this can go out in public and be mistaken for human beings.

Amanda, in order to not detract from the Edwards campaign, has resigned and gone back to tending her blog. And tend it she must, since it is being gang raped by the simple tactic of going there and hitting the refresh button again and again. It looks like all of the wingnuts are giving a good 7,000 hits for every vile drop of hatred in their souls. She reports something like 100 hate e-mails in a 12-hour period.

Not only that, but other feminist blogs are also being attacked. I've tried three this morning and found them full of incoherent code.

Molly

You may have noticed a blog mentioned on my blogroll, Molly Saves the Day. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the link no longer worked. It took me to a commercial site instead of where I wanted to go. Since I like Molly, I would try the link every once in a while, thinking that while obviously someone had managed to do something to her site, somehow she would fix it. Didn't happen. So, I did a blog search for Molly Saves the Day, which netted me the following links/articles.

Hear Me Roar

Axinar

and Biting Beaver

I have no idea what to say. I had no idea such things could happen. Did happen.

I wish there were a way that I could express to Molly how outraged I am at what was done to her and how much I will miss her.

But, more than that, I wish there were a way that I could stop such cruelty. That such behavior were never thinkable to anyone. That all people felt secure enough and loved enough that hating others simply didn't happen.