Coming Of Age

EVERY MEMBER of the millennial generation, born between 1982 and 2000, is now eligible to vote. The millennials now outnumber the baby boomers, who are rapidly dying off, and constitute the single largest voting bloc in America. Whereas sixty five percent of the American people identify as Christian, less than half of millennials do. Seventy percent say that they are amenable to various kinds of socialism, of which there are many kinds. Though this generation probably has no better idea of exactly what socialism is =most Americans seem to think that its a political system, not an economic one - the democratic socialism prevalent throughout Europe seems to appeal to them. It is, all and all, a very progressive generation, a fact which, combined with the increase in the percentage of Americans who make up various minorities, bodes well for the future of the progressive movement in general. There is, of course, a well known tendency of people to become more conservative as they age. Certainly teh baby boomers ended up exemplifying this; we see far fewer seventy old hippies these days than well attired professionals in business suits and ties. Everyone who fifty years ago admonished us to never trust anyone over thirty are well past thirty, and then some. But when you consider that climate change is the consequence of unfettered manufacturing and materialism, and that the millennials widely disavow materialism to the point where large numbers of them don't even own cars or houses, it may well eventuate that the future of millennialism is non materialism, and non materialism, a key component of far left thinking. When the baby boomers are all dead and buried, which is imminent, the millennials will rule the world, and control American culture and public policy. When that day arrives, it may be that long cherished conservative ideas, such as neo-liberal capitalism in the pursuit of personal wealth, are relegated, like their promulgators, to the veritable dust bin of history.