There was a romantic comedy back in the day called “Failure to Launch,” and the whole premise of the movie was that a grown man was living with his parents while refusing to mature. Ironically, the man had a job and the means to afford a place of his own, but because of a traumatic event in his past, he had been staying with his parents for support, a fact that was glossed over until close to the end of the movie. I dislike the labeling of people who never had successful careers or healthy independent lifestyles as covert narcissists in the making, based on being unable to imitate the highly normalized, suburban lifestyle of the mostly white middle class. Selfish, greedy people intentionally made it hard to survive, and most people will never “launch” based on the principle that it makes more sense to make money than ensure that everyone has a high quality standard of life.
People have been calling younger generations “lazy” and “shiftless” all over the media for decades, but unexpectedly, that opinion was given a megaphone with the arrival of social media. There is nowhere that younger people can go without older generations calling us trash for not reaching their levels of socioeconomic success, not work, home, or online. Naturally, we started responding in kind, actually detailing how the policies they supported made it impossible to life a “normal” life, and suddenly, all the whining started from all directions. Suddenly, everyone had “feelings” and we were all being “too harsh,” conveniently forgetting that our “failure to launch” happened because of policies they enacted. Moreover, we stopped being interested in explaining to unrepentant bullies that our lives were harder based on the lack of resources, which compounded our lack of emotional resources.
The empire devolved into honest and open christofascism not only because of its roots, but because there has always been contempt for those with less. Plantation owners looked down on staff, the military used to plunder the land was hierarchical, and non-British empires were considered lesser based on the capacities to remove them. Younger people have almost no opportunities that will lead to financial stability, and people are still moronically parroting the “fiscal responsibility” and “financial literacy” tropes. If those with control and resources have taken away all the opportunities because of their misguided belief of their superiority, there is nothing that anyone else can do about it, because we depend on their validation to survive. “Failure to launch” is an idiotic phrase that belongs in the dumpster of history, and anyone still using it as descriptive should be fed with a long spoon.
Chasing A Dying Empire 