recently read an essay about the first black regiment to see combat during the Civil War. An army surgeon recorded how the men of the 33rd United States Colored Troops refused to report to him after being injured because they wanted to stay in the fight. They remained at their posts with bullet wounds in their necks, backs, and even skulls. Those forced by their commanding officer to seek treatment amazed the doctor. Battlefield surgery was more like Medieval torture than medicine, but the soldiers of the 33rd were “perfectly quiet and cool.”
“Another soldier,” the surgeon wrote, “did not report himself at all, but remained all night on guard…having buckshot in his shoulder.” He finally “persuaded a comrade to dig out the buckshot, for fear of being ordered on the sick-list.”
The soldiers of the 33rd United States Colored regiment had a seemingly supernatural ability to persevere through pain; a sticktoitiveness that overcame every obstacle. The surgeon saw many brave men during the Civil War, but concerning the 33rd USCT he concluded, “Braver men never lived.”
.. Millennials lack the grit necessary for religious obedience, and the church lacks the tools necessary to cultivate it.
Sometime in the last century, the church embraced the unbiblical notion that mature disciples of Jesus could be formed painlessly.
.. We are not to try to get in a position to avoid trials. And we are not to ‘catastrophize’ and declare ‘the end of the world’ when things happen.
The Try-Hard Generation
The core charge against today’s youth is that they are achievement-orientedautomatons, single-mindedly focused on themselves and their careers. They are uninterested in delving deep into the search for inner knowledge, giving reign to their passions, or developing their character.
.. David Brooks is gentler but equally convinced that the young lack an interest in and a language for a discussion of character and virtue. They are, he believes, “morally inarticulate.”
.. But most of the complaints today are quite different from the concerns of the past. After centuries of bemoaning the fact that the young are too rebellious and disrespectful, the problem today, it appears, is that they are not rebellious and disrespectful enough. They aren’t willing to challenge conventional wisdom, neither the liberal pieties that offended Allan Bloom nor the conservative ones that gall Deresiewicz.
.. After all, they did not devise the intense system of tests that comprise the gateway to American higher education, nor did they create the highly competitive job market in anxious economic times. Admissions offices now prize nothing less than perfection. And the pressure doesn’t stop once students get into college... But much of that change took place from 1967 to 1987, and the percentage of freshmen who identify “becoming well off financially” as a personal objective has steadied significantly since then. That’s surely a rational response to the great post-1960s slowdown of the American economy and a world of greater competition, churn, and anxiety... Today, everyone is told, that compact has been broken. Everything is in flux. You must be entrepreneurial and recognize that you will need to change jobs and even careers over a lifetime. No company will stay loyal to you, nor can you lock yourself into one place... An older generation may have spoken loftily about morality and virtue and nobility. But many of them could be callous, cruel, and selfish in the way that they treated so many of their fellow human beings — blacks, other minorities, women, and people who were less fortunate than they were... As John Adams famously wrote during the American Revolution, “I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.” So maybe today they’re writing apps rather than studying poetry, but that’s an adjustment for the age.
Understanding Millennials—How do Potatoes Fit into Their Lives?
Avoiders prefer routines and packages. They want meals to be fast, quick, easy and convenient. Therefore, avoiders often eat frozen or boxed foods, and if they must cook, refer to their go-to routine of what to make. They skew a little older (late 20s) and Midwest.
Nurturers are similar to the current target (moms). They like to experiment with new recipes and cook for the taste and enjoyment of it, not for nutrition. Nurturers are looking to put something on the table that everyone will enjoy; so flavor, satisfying cravings and ease are all of upmost importance. They also skew to the Midwest.
Entertainers are foodies at home. They love to experiment with new, creative recipes that use start-from-scratch ingredients and enjoy sharing their cooking with others. Entertainers aspire to be at–home gourmet chefs and find relaxation through cooking. In addition, they are also health aware and nutrition conscious.
Explorers are foodies outside of home. They want adventurous foods that are new and exciting. Explorers are health involved and watch their diets and weight; however, they are more concerned with convenience than nutrition. Explorers are likely to be male, single and living in the Northeast.
Health Seekers base all food choices on health and nutrition. They watch their diets, exercise consistently and choose natural and unprocessed foods. However, they are also looking for meals that are easy to prepare. They are more likely to be living in the West.
Why Millennials aren’t buying cars or houses, and what that means for the economy
How do you sell cars to Millennials (a k a Generation Y)? The fact is, today’s young people simply don’t drive like their predecessors did. In 2010, adults between the ages of 21 and 34 bought just 27 percent of all new vehicles sold in America, down from the peak of 38 percent in 1985. Miles driven are down, too. Even the proportion of teenagers with a license fell, by 28 percent, between 1998 and 2008.
In a bid to reverse these trends, General Motors has enlisted the youth-brand consultants at MTV Scratch—a corporate cousin of the TV network responsible forJersey Shore—to give its vehicles some 20-something edge. “I don’t believe that young buyers don’t care about owning a car,” says John McFarland, GM’s 31-year-old manager of global strategic marketing. “We just think nobody truly understands them yet.” Subaru, meanwhile, is betting that it can appeal to the quirky eco-conscious individualism that supposedly characterizes this generation. “We’re trying to get the emotional connection correct,” says Doug O’Reilly, a publicist for Subaru. Ford, for its part, continues to push heavily into social media, hoping to more closely match its marketing efforts to the channels that Millennials use and trust the most... Half of a typical family’s spending today goes to transportation and housing
.. Car ownership, meanwhile, has slipped down the hierarchy of status goods for many young adults. “Zipcar conducted a survey of Millennials,” Mark Norman, the company’s president and chief operating officer, told us. “And this generation said, ‘We don’t care about owning a car.’ Cars used to be what people aspired to own. Now it’s the smartphone.”
.. Young people prize “access over ownership,” said Sheryl Connelly, head of global consumer trends at Ford.
.. Smartphones compete against cars for young people’s big-ticket dollars, since the cost of a good phone and data plan can exceed $1,000 a year. But they also provide some of the same psychic benefits—opening new vistas and carrying us far from the physical space in which we reside. “You no longer need to feel connected to your friends with a car when you have this technology that’s so ubiquitous, it transcends time and space,” Connelly said.