How political generations are formed

[mota bhai 2,675]

VJ Reader - what would you say were the formative events in your life between your late teens and mid twenties?

People are disproportionately influenced by events that occur between their late teens and mid-twenties. During that period—between the time they leave their parents’ home and the time they create a stable home of their own—individuals are most prone to change cities, religions, political parties, brands of toothpaste. After that, lifestyles and attitudes calcify. For Mannheim, what defined a generation was the particular slice of history people experienced during those plastic years. A generation had no set length ... What mattered was whether the events people experienced while at their most malleable were sufficiently different from those experienced by people older or younger than themselves.

Mannheim didn’t believe that everyone who experienced the same formative events would interpret them the same way. Germans who came of age in the early 1800s, he argued, were shaped by the Napoleonic wars. Some responded by becoming romantic-conservatives, others by becoming liberal-rationalists. What they shared was a distinct generational experience, which became the basis for a distinct intra-generational argument.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/12/the-rise-of-the-new-new-left.html

[Teddy B 17,252]

VJ Reader - what would you say were the formative events in your life between your late teens and mid twenties?

I'd love to tell you man, but I don't remember anything from my late teens to my mid twenties.

[mota bhai 2,675]

So your formative event was being high. I bet you're a libertarian today.

[Jacque67 7,328]

Lots of sex.

[Teddy B 17,252]

So your formative event was being high. I bet you're a libertarian today.

I see what you did there.

I guess the most formative event(s) that I can remember from that time period is Ronald Regan being elected president just as I was coming of age. I was working full time, making good money and the economy was doing good. Being young and naive, I credited the good economy and the wad of cash in my pocket to Regan and the Republican Party. I had voted for Ronald Reagan in his second term and was stuck on voting Republican for a very long time to come. In hind sight it was mostly blind faith, but that short time period in my life did mold me in that sense.

Edited September 13, 2013 by Teddy B

[Danno 1,228]

<<<People are disproportionately influenced by events that occur between their late teens and mid-twenties.>>>

If this is true and it might be, that lends all the more weight to choosing your kids College carefully

as the views of nearly all college faculties are out of sinc with the average American.

[mota bhai 2,675]

<<<People are disproportionately influenced by events that occur between their late teens and mid-twenties.>>>

If this is true and it might be, that lends all the more weight to choosing your kids College carefully

as the views of nearly all college faculties are out of sinc with the average American.

The average person is not particularly accomplished nor does the average person earn much or live as long as the more fortunate/accomplished.

Who in their right mind aspires to be average?

College is about aspiration. Being average is something most of us settle into, it's not something anyone plans on attaining.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

VJ Reader - what would you say were the formative events in your life between your late teens and mid twenties?

A. The demise of the absurdity and malaise of the Carter years and the rise of the Reagan revolution that restored the idea of personal responsibility,,our economy, and our respect in the world.

B. My introduction to the life of an infantry grunt and my meteoric rise thru the ranks

C. An influx of really good Mexican weed and the loosing of sexual attitudes

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

The average person is not particularly accomplished nor does the average person earn much or live as long as the more fortunate/accomplished.

Who in their right mind aspires to be average?

College is about aspiration. Being average is something most of us settle into, it's not something anyone plans on attaining.

Honestly I think the institution of college is outdated. Never have been a classroom guy.Still managed to do pretty good in life, and retired at 51.

Look at Bill Gates and Jobs.

Does someone really need 12 years of education to be a doctor ?

Example..I spent a year training as Microsoft Certified engineer and Cisco Certs..When i got done and got my first job I could run rings around my boss, who had a degree, in IT knowledge.

[mota bhai 2,675]

Honestly I think the institution of college is outdated. Never have been a classroom guy.Still managed to do pretty good in life, and retired at 51.

Look at Bill Gates and Jobs.

Does someone really need 12 years of education to be a doctor ?

Example..I spent a year training as Microsoft Certified engineer and Cisco Certs..When i got done and got my first job I could run rings around my boss, who had a degree, in IT knowledge.

I agree about college being outdated.

And yet, people who go to college go because they aspire to be more than average. That was my point.

[RGinWA 816]

Honestly I think the institution of college is outdated. Never have been a classroom guy.Still managed to do pretty good in life, and retired at 51.

Look at Bill Gates and Jobs.

Does someone really need 12 years of education to be a doctor ?

Example..I spent a year training as Microsoft Certified engineer and Cisco Certs..When i got done and got my first job I could run rings around my boss, who had a degree, in IT knowledge.

Haha true

I've gotten a couple MS certs over the years but mostly it's on the job training and experience that did the trick.

Keep in mind they won't hire without a degree now, but the degree doesn't make these new guys knowledgeable.

I usually have to train them to "think" first, because they can't trouble-shoot for sh!t.

I'd love to tell you man, but I don't remember anything from my late teens to my mid twenties.

Ditto...it was like I was hatched at 30. Well that's when the substances wore off.

[Ontarkie 14,510]

~~Removed a number of post and some quoting for Personal attacks~~

[Jacque67 7,328]

Missed it!

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

VJ Reader - what would you say were the formative events in your life between your late teens and mid twenties?

Getting drunk for the first time, smoking marijuana for the first time, getting laid for the first time, leaving home and being a hippie, then discovering hippie food sucks and they smell from eating all that tofu and stuff, so I became a long haired redneck working overseas on a tiny island getting bored and drunk but the fishing was awesome although I almost destroyed the boat and killed my two fishing companions on the reef when I turned too tight and ran over my lines fouling both propellers while circling and reporting a Japanese fishing boat that was hiding in a cove with the crew on deck smiling and waving like idiots. (I did manage to clear both props before we smashed into the reef, but I had to explain to my roommate why the lines I borrowed had all these knots in them.)

[Peikko 1,575]

Honestly I think the institution of college is outdated. Never have been a classroom guy.Still managed to do pretty good in life, and retired at 51.

Look at Bill Gates and Jobs.

Does someone really need 12 years of education to be a doctor ?

Example..I spent a year training as Microsoft Certified engineer and Cisco Certs..When i got done and got my first job I could run rings around my boss, who had a degree, in IT knowledge.

Probably, and vets train longer.

I really think that people who aspire to certain professions like doctors do need to spend a long time in training. I don't want no inexperienced 20 year old who hasn't had a thorough training getting to work on my body, thanks all the same.