The Millennial Mantra

Posted by chunkalunkk@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 31 comments

We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much for so long with so little that we are now qualify to do anything with nothing. -the mantra of the millennial and elder millennial and xennial Anyone else feeling like this will be our creed until death, or just me?

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Snoo-6568@reddit

This saying has been used in military or bureaucratic contexts forever, including by our Boomer parents during the Vietnam era. I'm an elder Millenial and I don't feel this way at all. While I think our generation has definitely had some unique and frankly horrible challenges (9/11, Great Recession, pandemic, uptick in public shootings, record levels of inflation...need I say more?), it's important to remember that we all have agency and that how we live our lives every day is a direct result of our own choices. You don't HAVE to stay in a dead end job you absolutely despise, for example. Leaving something comfortable is hard work. If it wasn't, everybody would be happy. But your time and money are valuable, so take the steps necessary to make positive change in your life. Nobody else is going to do it for you. Ask me how I know. Also important to remember that most things are out of your control - focus on what you can control: yourself and how you react to things. And try to find joy in the little things. Wallowing in misery or self pity is a waste of time.

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Duespad@reddit

Oh this was a core memory just unlocked from the early 90s 🤣

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Training-Visual-3776@reddit

“Learn the system then fuck the system” is the motto I have lived by

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Nonsenseinabag@reddit

As a late GenXer that feels about right. We have been resourceful our entire lives out of necessity and never received a scrap of thanks, respect, or appreciation for it. We will have come and gone without anyone giving a damn, so to that I say whatever.

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tru2dagaaame@reddit

Whatever, exactly… I almost couldn’t finish typing this out🙄

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heresmytwopence@reddit

Summer of 2000 and 2001, I was a building manager for my university’s housing department, which got me free room and board plus hourly pay when it was my turn to be on call overnight. The second summer, some student organization had organized a textbook drive at the end of spring semester and put donation boxes in the entryways of each dorm. At some point close the moveout deadline, the group stopped picking up the books. Once it nexame clear that no one was ever claiming them, I started sorting through them and selling the good ones online. After expenses, I cleared between $2,000 and $3,000 which (along with numerous other part-time jobs and side hustles) helped me pay rent the coming year.

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WeathermanOnTheTown@reddit

Similar story: In Van Halen, Sammy Hagar started putting "5 unopened bottles of top-shelf French wine" on his tour rider, complete with the brand and year he wanted. Every tour stop, they would be waiting for him in the green room backstage.

He never opened any of them. He stowed them on his tour bus and took them home and subsequently built a million-dollar wine cellar that has doubled in value.

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Jonestown_Juice@reddit

I guess I don't get this. What impossible things are we doing for ungrateful people? What thanks are we due?

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DisabledMuse@reddit

I feel like most generations have felt like that across history, but in modern day it hits harder.

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DBE113301@reddit

I'm a bit of a workaholic, and so if anyone doesn't meet my work output level, I'm often disappointed and untrusting that they'll do it right. Therefore, my motto is like the Bobs from Office Space: "What would you say…you do here?"

gif

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Plantayne@reddit

I don’t know, who cares?

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NachoNachoDan@reddit

This is our true mantra.

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Plantayne@reddit

lol no but seriously, I don’t even know what OP is talking about, it just sounds like whining.

Why do we need a creed anyway? All of us have had very different life experiences and come to wildly different conclusions.

Why can’t it be something we all have in common like Nintendo or Nickelodeon when it was good, stuff like that.

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NachoNachoDan@reddit

I've read that quote OP posted other places before, it was some goofy shit then too lol.

I mostly try and avoid dogmatic shit in my life, creeds included.

Nintendo is fucking awesome. 40+ years later and I'm still excited for the next console to be unveiled

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Plantayne@reddit

I think I’ve seen it somewhere before too, it definitely smacks of something vaguely familiar.

Anyway, I don’t have a problem with creeds per se. I’m a Christian, I believe in that creed, but it’s not like we need a generational one lol

It reminds me of that episode of the Goldbergs when it tries to say that “Living on a Prayer” was the generational anthem of people who grew up in the 80’s…I grew up in the 80’s and I only remember that song from the skating rink.

I guess I just don’t like being spoken for.

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NachoNachoDan@reddit

Ruh roh you mentioned Christianity, now you will feel the wrath of the down votes

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Plantayne@reddit

I don’t care lol

Downvotes don’t mean you’re wrong, they mean you’re unpopular. I don’t believe in Jesus to be popular with strangers on the internet.

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aftershave_cabinet@reddit

The words are different but some Vietnam vets said: We the unwilling Led by the unqualified To kill the unfortunate To die for the ungrateful

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Plantayne@reddit

Ah yes, that was it.

See how ridiculous it is to try to attach this to the life of a Xennial? None of us were drafted and forced to go to rice paddies or anything like that.

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itsasnowconemachine@reddit

"What's the difference between ignorance and apathy?"

"I don't know and I don't care."

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chunkalunkk@reddit (OP)

Correct, it's from a video clip, can't remember who exactly.

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