Don and Vinod have replied to my reply to their reply to my column about today’s yoot. Their latest is in The Mark, published here.
I’ve gone through their piece a few times, and the only thing I’m sure about is they’ve substantially shifted the terrain of debate. As they argue, what’s really at stake here is not a generation gap per se, but a fundamental shift in social identies, on a par with the transition from tribal or ethnic identities to the rise of nation-state identities in the 18th and 19th century. Now, it’s the demise of the nation-state — thanks to globalization, technology, population mobility, and so on — that has triggered what they describe as a “seismic shift” in our identities, with Gen Y feeling the full brunt of it.
And so:
In our view, identifying the skills and supports young people need to cope with this kind of change should be one of our highest priorities as a society. We cannot simply assume that a whole generation will have the internal resources to figure it out for themselves. This new world has caused an identity shift; with it comes a new challenge that demands that we rethink many of the structures, attitudes, and relationships of the old world. There is no turning back the clock.
I have thoughts on this, but I’m not sure they are good thoughts. Anyone here want to chime in first?