William Deresiewicz claims our (millennial) generation is an entrepreneurial generation devoid of a real moral structure or higher ideals. Rather we're just a group of "entrepreneurs" disguised as crafty salespeople. What causes do we stand for? What larger goals are we striving towards?

Is Bill onto something here, or has our future course largely been unwritten? I for one, appreciate the outside (albeit older) viewpoint. Certainly puts things into a context.

Meanwhile, experimenting w/ Branch here... Feel free to contribue!

Peace.

Here's the link to the video btw...

vimeo.com

(I'm only a bit into the video, so forgive me) I think the point is not far-fetched, but it certainly feels over-generalized. We have a highly entrepreneurial generation by necessity, a product of a bad enconomy and our parent's generation, which dismantled a system of well-paying service and blue collar jobs, and built a culture of materialism. We are products of a world that demands high debt burdens, so it seems natural that we are a generation that sees profit as important.

However, I don't believe that we are without values. They just are not generational values. We are a generation of individual preferences and identities. Our parents had one show they watched at night, one band they all listened to, and one hairstyle. We have thousands of media outlets and personal preferences, so it seems natural that we have a wide range of different ideals and creeds.

We're not empty; we're individuals.

Austin, thanks for the share. This video is quite interesting - Bill looks at our generation with critical and seasoned eyes. He makes the comment that there isn't such a thing as "selling out," but I disagree. To me, "selling out" is working for the man and taking the easy way out. Creating a business and selling something that others want is harder and takes more thought. It takes real commitment to make something that other people are willing to give something up for (i.e. money). Does that make it more "honorable" or any way superior to a blue collar job? No, but it shouldn't be scoffed at and swept away with the notion that selling is dishonorable.

Bill also says that advertising and marketing are "designed to create the illusion of value." Sure, but what's wrong with that? Good products speak for themselves, and ultimately buyer beware. I don't see how you can criticize selling and not propose an alternative. Ultimately, we produce money and exchange it for things we want. Selling is 50% of that. Is he preaching socialism? Because that doesn't work. Money talks, bullshit walks.

Dylan, I agree with your second post about values being individual as opposed to generational. Bill even admits this when he expresses confusion as to what our generation stands for. What's wrong with this? To each his own. Everyone being on the same page is the result of everyone being fed the same thing. That's not a good thing.

just getting to this now. a few things come to mind:

1. (having attended a creative mornings session in portland) i think it's ironic/awesome that the very audience he's critiquing is sitting directly in front of him, and that they would invite him to speak.

2. the kind of critique he offers is absolutely necessary and refreshing -- to question the essence of what we're doing, why we're doing it, and who we're doing it for.

3. there will always be people making generalizations about our generational values, what we stand for, why it's not "avant garde" etc... this, to me, is not as important as the greater point that may be getting lost in his strong rhetoric -- that the changes we're making as entrepreneurs are by small degrees, and they might even be corrupt, just trying to "sell shit" to a consumer audience. but more importantly, i think his claim is that our generation isn't making systemic change to the institutions that are broken themselves.

it really came out in the Q&A: is the framework we're operating in structurally flawed, and why aren't we stepping up in a way that's proportional to the challenge (e.g. not sustainable pickle shops or even a shoe store that donates some of its profits to charity)? and the question is more nuanced than, "so capitalism sucks, now what?"