The Greatest Generation Versus The Great Big Group Of Pussies Generation
My boyfriend, Gregg Sutter, was Elmore Leonard's researcher for 33 years, so I know quite a bit about him (and -- lucky me -- I got to hang out with Elmore quite a bit over the years).
Elmore was on the wagon for a bunch of years, but he was what I call a voyeuristic drinker. He loved being around other people enjoying their beer, vodka, or hooch.
He was also in the Navy. My dad and one of my grandpas were in the Army. My grandfather was over in Europe during WWII. Gregg's uncle died in the hedgerows at Normandy. We went on a little pilgrimage to visit his grave in The American Cemetery there and find the hedgerows where he died. (Gregg figured out the general area after talking to a historian -- what researcher boyfriends tend to do!)
Consider the difference between these men and the "men" and "women" of the millennial generation, as is reflected in their doings.
Anyway, what inspired this post is a link @CHSommers (Christina Hoff Sommers) tweeted to an AP story -- "Millennials, hoping to find real connections, ban the booze":
Cuddling sanctuaries--for millennials? I need a drink. https://t.co/CIaSahlPgT
— Christina Sommers (@CHSommers) March 30, 2017
Kelli Kennedy writes for the AP:
It's not really about the meal at the monthly Conscious Family Dinner, although there is plenty of vegan Indian food. You can spend time in a cuddling sanctuary, sit down with a tarot reader, chat career goals with a life coach or sit in on an acro-yoga sex psychotherapy presentation. And there's almost always some form of dancing.But what's inconspicuously missing is alcohol.
Creator Ben Rolnik says the dinners are about creating a new form of play that facilitates meaningful connections, not the vapid chitchat that often proliferates at cocktail parties or bars.
The reception to the dry dinners, held at various spots in Los Angeles but expanding soon nationwide, has been impressive, with each of the 200-person event selling out. Tickets cost about $35.
...The Shine has the feel of a variety show, with mindfully-curated content in Los Angeles and New York once every two months, and includes everything from guided meditation to comedians to beat boxers.
The Shine gives about $400 of its ticket sales to a guest with instructions to help someone with it. They might use the money to feed the homeless or donate it to an animal sanctuary. A short video of how they paid it forward is shown at the next event, said co-producer Andrea Praet.
My tweet:
@CHSommers I hope somebody uses the money to buy a bunch of homeless guys some beer. https://t.co/7uQQAxr9Bt
— Amy Alkon (@amyalkon) March 30, 2017
I can't drink right now because this intensely science-based book I've been working on -- really not leaving the house much for the better part of two years -- has been so fucking hard.
I wake up every day at 5 a.m. to write and work for as many hours every day as I can...into the night if I can do it. If I drink the night before -- because, though I look Irish, I drink like the fucking pasty Eastern European Jew I am -- I am a little foggy this early in the morning.
However, I go to parties where everybody drinks. They're more fun. And I just like people who like drinking. I'll be having my nightly glasses of wine again very soon. I'm doing the final pass on the manuscript (after making the -- only nine! -- corrections my editor asked for). (I turn in a clean fucking manuscript, what can I say?!)
So, no, there's nothing wrong with not having alcohol -- it's just a choice. But having parties that specifically center around no alcohol with little areas you can get the cuddle you need to survive the trauma of life with an iPhone, speech codes, and Uber? Just another sign that the millennial generation is really the perpetually in nursery school generation.
However, there's good news for some -- for old-school people who happen to be in the millennial generation -- like this young woman at Columbia I like and respect, @Toni_Airaksinen. She comes from unmoney, and she's scrappy as hell and questions all the academic "progressivism" she's instructed to believe. Millennials like her are going to be wildly more employable than all the coddled kiddies they're in school with.
A "cuddling sanctuary" ? I can't tell if that sounds really good or really, really awful. I suppose it depends on the ground rules.
I've often thought that the purpose of alcohol was to loosen one up a little bit and lubricate social interaction. As usual, young people tend to take that too far and make it into a contest about who can get most drunk. I end up Ubering these folks home on weekends, too. :/
Totally eliminating alcohol (and I say this as a non-drinker for other reasons) wouldn't be nearly as much help as eliminating loud music, poor or strobe lighting, and other external factors that make it hard to have a decent (or decently indecent) conversation. For those of us really bad at the pick-up/hook-up game but good at actual substantive talk, bars are usually not an option.
Grey Ghost at March 30, 2017 6:05 AM
"For those of us really bad at the pick-up/hook-up game but good at actual substantive talk, bars are usually not an option."
I have not understood this since I visited a club in Daytona... you could carry on a conversation just 20 feet or so from the dance floor, but if you were out there the sound system would heat your body and flap your clothes. The reason most bar audio sucks is that few bar owners care about audio beyond buying a reliable system.
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About writing that book: sadly, where I work it is not recognized that the hundred-page procedures of legal import we build do not write themselves, and it has not occrred to anyone (else) that bothering the author during the construction of such a document is very bad. Then again, they don't recognize that not everyone can actually write a waste processing procedure.
Radwaste at March 30, 2017 6:48 AM
"It's not really about the meal at the monthly Conscious Family Dinner, although there is plenty of vegan Indian food. "
I'll tell you what it's about. It's not about cuddling, or life coaching, or any form of quasi-spirituality, or any of that stuff. It's about being seen with the in-crowd. It's about status. It's about, yes, virtue signalling. It's about tribal membership. It's about how much bullshit you will put up with in order to be a member in good standing, and not be denounced.
Cousin Dave at March 30, 2017 6:49 AM
I hope somebody uses the money to buy a bunch of homeless guys some beer
I'll drink to that! So long as they're down wind from me, I think that will be more fun. Well, until a bipolar person goes from being your bestest buddy to "you wanna fight about it?" frenemy, that is.
For those of us really bad at the pick-up/hook-up game but good at actual substantive talk, bars are usually not an option.
Gotta find the right bar. Tho that's harder than it sounds. A nice, relatively quite neighborhood bar with a coterie of regulars.
I R A Darth Aggie at March 30, 2017 7:45 AM
Maybe it's just because I've been in Austin too long and have attended some seriously weird shit (from TX-secession drunken ragers to a party where no alcohol was served and we were supposed to communicate via touch and auras or something and drink juice), but this isn't exactly tickling my outrage meter.
It's just another weird-ass themed party.
And my hippie uncles (who, yes, also all served) would tell you The Shine way less woo-woo than the parties they attended in the 60s/70s (and spiritual retreats they still attend today).
sofar at March 30, 2017 7:52 AM
Goddam, I need a drink after reading that.
mpetrie98 at March 30, 2017 12:10 PM
Talking about Boomers vs Millennials:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/03/scientists-have-stopped-retiring-us-sees-its-researchers-aging/
Check the comments section.
Sixclaws at March 30, 2017 3:47 PM
The U.S. needs to bring back the draft.
Patrick at March 30, 2017 5:52 PM
The problem of BBs and Millenials will always exist until a new generation Z will grow enough to compete the previous gen. It is quite difficult to bother yourself with writing advices" for both generations, as this is the constant path of misunderstandings and competition. However, the previous generation should always be more patient to the younger one.
Amanda at March 31, 2017 3:50 AM
"However, the previous generation should always be more patient to the younger one."
This is why we are having issues w/youth avoiding adulthood and maturity.
"Kids" are defined as any age that supports the government's ability to control. Gun opposition defined youth as above 18 simply to skew the numbers their way. Healthcare is 24? now for college "kids". Above 12 the the school can give kids birth control but parents can not send medicine for the kid to take as needed.
There's a big difference between child labor abuse and being able to say "grow up kid 'cause life is hard and then you die".
Bob in Texas at March 31, 2017 5:58 AM
Speaking of no patience:
https://newrepublic.com/article/141766/unlikely-rise-alt-right-hero
Heitak at March 31, 2017 7:58 AM
No to the draft. Serving might cause some to grow up, but the unwilling aren't worth the trouble. Think high school, with guns.
MarkD at April 1, 2017 5:39 AM
No to the draft. Serving might cause some to grow up, but the unwilling aren't worth the trouble. Think high school, with guns.
MarkD at April 1, 2017 5:39 AM
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