Dangerous Minds pal Charles Hugh Smith has posted an open letter to the folks belonging to the so-called Millennials and Gen Y generations. Many older readers will probably agree with his thoughts on the matter, while younger readers will either be pissed off or agree themselves. I think this is one of those things where there’s never going to be agreement across the various age groups. If you’ve ever had conversations about this and similar “generation gap” type topics, you’ll know why I say this! Surely this is a controversial subject no matter what age you are.

Take it away, Charles:

Here are my first-hand observations of Millennials:

1. They can’t/won’t recycle. Here in a “green” capital of activism, very few American students can be bothered to recycle cardboard, paper or even aluminum. They stuff a cardboard box (unfolded) into a trash container, filling the container, and then pile the garbage on the side since they are too lazy to recycle the box (the recycling containers are right next to the trash cans) collapse the cardboard box or even press it down to make room for more garbage.

2. The males generally own their own vehicles; on my street, that includes Mustangs and Jeep SUVs sporting bumper stickers like “The environment is all we have.” The Millennial owner is apparently blind to the irony.

Most of the students who recycle with any sort of consistency (i.e. demonstrating their belief via actual action instead of bumper stickers) are Europeans.

3. At the end of the Spring semester, Millennials stuff dozens of huge 20-foot long containers with their waste and tossed-out “stuff”—trash bags full of barely worn shoes, perfectly good beds, desks, books, etc. I have no direct knowledge that any graduating student took all their perfectly good shoes, etc. to the Goodwill, a few blocks from the university. From my informal dumpster diving, I can attest they throw out tons of high-quality food—whole unblemished fruits, canned goods, etc. Based on my direct observation, I would say the Millennials are the most wasteful, profligately consumerist generation in history.

4. My brother-in-law reports that the vast majority of his students are in active denial about the economy or the interlocking problems of the nation and world. They express little to no interest in environmental issues or actions, or in Peak Oil, etc., even though it will most certainly impact them.

5. Local “progressive” politics is still completely dominated by Boomers and Gen Xers. If there is a Millennial political movement or zeitgeist, it is currently invisible in one of the great political hotbeds of the nation and world.

6. The over-arching emotion of the Millennials I have met and observed is fear: fear that they won’t get a cush job with bennies, fear that the “good life” which apparently means a secure job with high pay might not open up, fear that life might not work out easily.

It’s over, so move on to something better. The whole cheap oil, Savior State, consumerist/media/facebook solipsism has no future. Clinging to it in the hopes you can extract some meaning, security or swag is a losing proposition. Where is the excitement about changing things, rather than fearfully hoping the swag lasts long enough for you to get your share? Fearfully clinging to Mommy, Daddy and the Savior State is no path to greatness.

I even make an appearance at one point in the essay. Read more of Charles Hugh Smith’s An Open Letter to the Millennials/Gen-Y: Where Are You? (Of Two Minds)
 

 
Coming from this dude? Really???
 
(via The Daily What)

 
Today, writing on Esquire’s Politics blog, Esquire’s executive editor Mark Warren posted this rather succinct piece about what GOP Rep. Joe Barton (TX)—a man who has received over $1.5 million in campaign donations from oil and gas interests—had to say about the BP oil spill catastrophe in his “apology” to BP and what it says—LOUDLY AND CLEARLY—about the Republican Party and whose side they are on. Hint: It’s not the people of the Gulf coast and it sure as hell ain’t mother nature’s side either. This is an ASTONISHING admission and something everyone in this country—even the Tea partiers—should read. The ones who can read, I mean…

Just when you thought nothing could improve upon the statement released yesterday evening by the Republican Study Committee’s chairman Tom Price of Georgia — which attacked the deal struck at the White House yesterday providing for the $20 billion escrow account to compensate the people of the Gulf Coast for damages as “Chicago-style shakedown politics” — came the unthinkable: This morning, Texas Republican Joe Barton apologized to Tony Hayward — twice — and said that he was ashamed that such a thing could occur in America.

He apologized.

Now, it was puzzling enough that the Republicans would think it wise to attack a deal that seeks to make American citizens whole from damages caused by a foreign corporation. But it is incomprehensible that even a lobby puppet such as Barton would place the Republican Party squarely on the side of the corporation and against the people of the Gulf Coast.

In so doing, in one five-minute opening statement in a hearing that otherwise seemed to be yielding nothing meaningful, Joe Barton may have changed the calculus of this fall’s elections.

His party will protest and say otherwise, but Barton has revealed something quite extreme and very ugly about what he and his colleagues truly believe.

—snip—

So today, in Washington D.C., Joe Barton has placed himself and his party so far outside the bounds of decency that he has even Tony Hayward shaking his head.

It is important to note that Joe Barton is not popularly regarded in his caucus as a whackjob. Rather, as the ranking Republican on Energy and Commerce, he is well-respected. He cannot be marginalized as an outlier. This moment cannot simply be allowed to pass. And its importance cannot be overstated.

George W. Bush once famously said: “You’re either with us or against us.”

Indeed.

 
THERE SHOULD BE A MOVE TO IMPEACH THIS SON OF A BITCH TOMORROW. WHAT ARE THE PEOPLE OF TEXAS WAITING FOR AFTER THIS?!?!?! NEED ANY MORE EVIDENCE THAT JOE BARTON IS A FUCK? I DON’T THINK SO!
 
The Joe Barton Apology Tour Is About to Bring Down the GOP (Esquire)
 
(Via Esquire’s newly minted News and Features editor at Esquire.com, Dangerous Minds pal Marty Beckerman! Congrats are in order for both Mr. Beckerman and for one of the most venerated magazines in American, Esquire, for making such an inspired hire as Marty. Salut!)

David Lynch’s Interview Project has recently and quietly come to its scheduled end. The well-produced online-only project comprises a full 121 video interviews with random people, shot by Lynch’s team (led by his son Austin) on a year-long road-trip around the United States.

Lynch and co. manage to tap deeply into the wealth of personal stories in the great American working class that was first mined by the likes of oral historian Studs Terkel. But Interview Project filters Terkel’s ultra-earnest approach through the post-thereputic present, often getting a surprising amount of confessional material from a literal stop-and-talk encounter.

 
Tony Hayward, the tactless shithead CEO of BP might “like his life back,” but what about the 99% of the birds caught up in the oil spill catastrophe who will inevitably die from suffocation and liver and kidney damage?

According to a post at Treehugger, animal biologists with experience dealing with birds caught up in oil spills, know what cruel fate has in store for them: slow painful deaths. Conservationists who have set up emergency clean-up centers for oil-coated avians have their hearts in the right place, but scrubbing crude oil off the afflicted birds’ feathers still won’t help them live much longer. The kinder thing to do for the birds—and it pains me to type this—would probably be a mass euthanasia:

Threehugger, quoting Der Spiegel:

Despite the short-term success in cleaning the birds and releasing them back into the wild, few, if any, have a chance of surviving, says Silvia Gaus, a biologist at the Wattenmeer National Park along the North Sea in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.

“According to serious studies, the middle-term survival rate of oil-soaked birds is under 1 percent,” Gaus says. “We, therefore, oppose cleaning birds.”

Instead, she says, it would be less painful for the birds to kill them quickly, or to let them die in peace.

The World Wildlife Fund agrees: “Birds, those that have been covered in oil and can still be caught, can no longer be helped. ... Therefore, the World Wildlife Fund is very reluctant to recommend cleaning.”

I’m sure that after reading that depressing bit of information, you’re either weeping or extremely angry. If you want to become even angrier, then read this:

The spill, the scandal and the president: The inside story of how Obama failed to crack down on the corruption of the Bush years – and let the world’s most dangerous oil company get away with murder (Rolling Stone)

Opposition leaders in Iran have called off demonstrations on the anniversary of the contested June 11 2009 national election that led to the unrest that launched the pro-democracy Green movement there. Meanwhile, amidst the speculation as to whether that movement is dead, the Iranian government is doing what it can to squelch the dissemination of For Neda, HBO’s documentary about Neda Agha-Soltan. Agha-Soltan was the young Tehranian woman whose shooting death during a street demonstration was captured on video and became a symbol of the heart-rending struggle against Iran’s authoritarian regime. Here’s the full doc, dedicated to the people’s fight against fascism worldwide.

 
Earlier this year, in a stunning verbal gaffe, South Carolina’s (soon to be former) Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer compared helping the poor to feeding stray animals, because they “breed”! Obviously a Republican, Bauer, a wealthy white man who flies small planes, later said he wasn’t saying those who receive government help “were animals or anything else.” (What were you trying to say, fuck wit?) Well, he lost his election bid yesterday, coming in DEAD LAST in a state where over 50% of all schoolchildren receive subsidized or free lunches from the government. Clearly his political instincts are shit. Just like his brains.

This is someone showing you the very stuff his black, immoral little soul is made of. From CBS News:

“My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals,” Bauer said during a town hall meeting, as the Greenville News reported over the weekend. “You know why? Because they breed. You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better.”

As the Greenville News notes, more than half of the students in South Carolina participate in a program that allows them to get their lunch for free, or at a reduced cost.

Bauer later said he wasn’t saying those who receive government help “were animals or anything else.”

What an utterly contemptible ass-clown this guy is. This is the kind of comment that haunts you forever, hanging around your neck like a big, dumb, dead albatross. Google Andre Bauer for the rest of his life, and there future employers, voters and anyone else who cares enough about this twat to type his name into a search field will find people like me telling this story. It serves him right, but the thing is, look at him. Do you think there is a chance in Hell that Andre Bauer has a self-reflexive bone in his body? Not a chance. If he did he wouldn’t think this way in the first place. He got what he deserved yesterday from the voters of his state: the bum’s rush. Karma’s a bitch, Andre!

And more in politics from the hilariously funny great state of South Carolina: A random unemployed guy who no one seems to know much of anything about (update) wins Democratic senate primary: The mysterious Alvin Greene has become “an inspiration for random unemployed dudes everywhere,” as Gawker tells it. The chairwoman of the S.C. Democratic party speculated to the AP that “people who didn’t know either candidate and voted alphabetically may help explain Greene’s win.”

Random Unemployed Dude Wins South Carolina Democratic Primary (Gawker)

South Carolina’s Mysterious Dem Senate Candidate Likes Showing Sexy Pics to College Ladies (Gawker)

 
In what seems like something out of J.G. Ballard, Scientology, and the final act of Roland Emmerich’s 2012, like, combined, a number of billionaires are taking to the high seas for their Plan B.  I can see their point.  You’ve ravaged the planet and trashed the economy, if that possibly results in pitchforks and flaming torches at your door, a thousand miles of ocean makes a better barrier than a gate or concierge.

Thus, Utopia, a floating, billion-dollar luxury liner now being built by Samsung of Korea (you can tour the ship below).  Its 200 or so cabins run anywhere from $4 million (that gets you a small condo), to $160 million (that secures you a home of 40,000 feet).  Prices aside, what kind of people would choose such a lifestyle?  A fascinating article in today’s Alternet provides the answer:

The floating castle is a longtime dream of libertarian oligarchs—a place where they can live their lives in peace free from the teeming masses of starving losers and indebted parasites and their tax demands.  Since they’ve grown so rich off of America, they have enough spare change to fund projects like the Seasteading Institute, run by Milton Friedman’s grandson, Patri Friedman, and financed by the bizarre right-wing PayPal founder, Peter Thiel.  It couldn’t have come a moment sooner for Milton Friedman’s grandson, who was best known until recently for running a grotesque advice blog for married swingers, PUA4LTR (Pick Up Advice For Long-Term Relationships).

Thiel is also the person who last year wrote, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”   Maybe it’s also not surprising that he does believe America’s decline started with women gaining the right to vote?  Unfortunately, Thiel and Friedman are the more benign tip of the iceberg here. 

The article continues by listing the far graver misdeeds of the other players in the flee-to-the-sea movement.  They include former Carlyle Chairman and Donald Rumsfeld crony, Frank Carlucci, as well as financier Danny Pang.

Pang, along with Carlucci, are founders of the Frontier Group (the backers of the Utopia).  Pang died, though, back in September under mysterious circumstances from possible suicide.  And perhaps not a moment too soon.  He’d recently been accused of the execution-style murder of his wife, as well as the embezzlement of hundreds of millions from his private equity firm, the PEMGroup.

 
The Really Creepy People Behind the Libertarian-Inspired Billionaire Sea Castles

Sidewalk wrought iron artisan James Mutahi works his homemade arc welder in Limuru, north of Nairobi, Kenya. Photo: Dominic Wanjihia. From Afrigadget.

Preparation for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa (which starts in a couple of days) has drawn the West’s attention to the continent as a premiere sports and entertainment venue. But let’s also recognize that African countries have been quietly building a new set of infrastructures based on mobile and web connectivity, grassroots-tech ingenuity and turbo-micro-entrepreneurship.

Kenyan-raised Erik Hersman’s White African and Afrigadget are just a couple of the many blogs raising awareness about Africa’s long-running tech revolution, as epitomized by events like Maker Faire Africa. The below, from JustGiving’s YouTube channel and featured in Afrigadget, teases out some of the more everyday implications:

As a side-note: You may have read about the survivalist trend in America that mostly involves stocking up a panic room with guns, gold and Twinkies. Many populations in Africa continue to survive and innovate through the kind of emergency situations—natural disasters, economic devastation, military dictatorships, etc.—that your friendly neighborhood doomsayer can’t comprehend.  

 
Sorry to hear this sad news about Mick Karn, whose distinctive rubbery bass lines fueled the lush sound of 80s new wave group, Japan (and the brief Dali’s Car project with Peter Murphy from Bauhaus):

With great sadness we regret to inform you that Mick has recently been diagnosed with advanced stages of cancer. Mick is currently in a positive mood and undergoing further tests and treatment. His family and friends are close with him, supporting him in practical ways, and surrounding him with their love, friendship and care.

Mick has been struggling financially for some considerable time now and we are hoping that this appeal may help to raise funds for any necessary treatment and perhaps go some way towards providing a small degree of financial support whilst Mick’s immediate family provide the care and comfort we would all wish for him. We are hoping that his friends, fans and musical colleagues will, over the coming months, offer any support they feel capable of giving. Quite aside from the sheer brunt of daunting medically-related costs, Mick’s clear and major concern is for the security and well being of his wife and young son.

If you would like to make a donation whether as an individual or as a group, you can do so via the PayPal link which has been set up for this sole and express purpose. Any support you are able to give, no matter how small, could make a difference in helping Mick cope during this difficult period. His friends will be looking at a variety of ways to raise funds.

Messages of support for Karn can be left on the forum boards here. Japan’s Steve Jansen is donating the proceeds from portraits of Karn sold on his website to the Mick Karn Appeal. The images for sale can be seen here.

 
Above, Japan perform Gentlemen Take Polaroids. Below, Mick Karn and Peter Murphy perform as Dali’s Car on The Old Grey Whistle Test.