I'm a millennial and this is my manifesto.
I came out of a world that was vastly different from the one of the past generations. Our society is changing with the speed of light and the quickening of time is concentrating an unbelievable amount of complexity and novelty in a very concentrated form. Our world is slowly, but steadily shifting away from the problems of concrete nature towards the abstract, mental and virtual problems. The problems of surviving the challenges of the physical world are quickly being replaced by problems of surviving in the digital. I am sometimes not understood by the past generations and conveniently boxed into diminishing adjectives. It is normal that there is a gap between generations and it is normal, that the new generation has its own set of values. After all, the human, in its purest form, remains the same, with the same patterns of mind as in the past, and this happened countless times, with every new generation. However I just seek my place in the society, and because of that, I wish to get closer to you, by trying to outline my frame of mind and perhaps, we can get closer and walk down the path together and write a beautiful common story.
I have been labeled with various adjectives. I was called special, narcissistic and entitled, to which I answer: we came out of the world that put great emphasis on the individuality and the power of an individual to change himself and his environment. The western purpose of achievement and climbing the social, economic and other ladders by its very design implicates winners and losers, and there can be no winners and losers in the same team. It's a lonely job and it's a ladder of wolves, biting each other until they reach the top. I have understood this and was further alienated in my individuality by technology. The universal access to knowledge and internet gave me an opportunity to build wisdom and character in isolation, by myself, not within the community. I shaped my own character, from the information I have gathered in completely non-structured way from the shared pool of knowledge that is called the internet. But this knowledge gave me insight and I was able to see things that are wrong in society, that past generations were not able to see at my age. I had access to information and opinions from all sides of the arguments and I was able to see that truth is not one-sided. I became too wise at an age too early and I became conscious of the very fact, that I might actually have processed more information and formed more informed opinions than many people from the past generations. Not that I consider myself better in any way, it is just a consequence of being built out of the available pool of knowledge which I was able to use and incorporate more efficiently, as I grew with the technology. This wisdom was alienating. I have seen through the existing schemes and because I was alienated, I was accused of being special, narcissistic and entitled, to which I answer – I'm just aware of the state of affairs, I know the game and I refuse to play it.
I was accused of refusing to accept a real job and work in an eight hour schedule, to which I answer: I understood very quickly that the work can't be quantified in time nowadays. By doing so, we enable Pareto principle and end up wasting 80% of our time. We only live once and I refuse to waste 80% of my life on inefficiency. Technology has advanced to a level at which there is no need for many of the current jobs, and I refuse to waste the potential of my life, with which I could pursue higher goals, explore our inner and outer space, to count screws in a factory instead or do any other job that a machine could do. I understood and knew that many jobs produce no value and could be replaced by machines immediately, allowing people to spend time on things that really matter. I also understood that people with time on their hands are a danger to the establishment and I understand why the game rules are set as they are – but I do not want to play this game.
I was accused of being too sheltered and spoiled to which I answer: at the time when our ancestors moved from the open fields to the fire-warmed caves, surely, the older generation accused them of being too sheltered and spoiled. This probably happened again when they moved from hunting to agriculture, and it's happening now again when we are on the brink of the age of technological singularity. I believe that the progress improves our life, shelters us and has the potential to give us everything nature does not provide. Technology improved our life and cured many of the wounds nature has been inflicting us over the time. I believe that we have the means and the necessary technology already to establish a sort of human paradise, if we only wanted and put our effort into it. I also understood that the human mind matured enough to move into the next phase, when we will be able to shape our environment to a degree that we will end up living in a fully symbiotic but thriving coexistence with the outer world. I'm not afraid of the future. I'm excited for it!
I was accused of being conventional to which I answer: past generations might have rebelled, created subcultures and social movements, defied the norms and defined new ones. I know the history and I understand it. I will not play this game. I understand the environment that shapes me and I believe in slow and positive change. I want to induce change with an example, not with violence. And I want to use technology for doing it. For me, this battle is not fought in the material world, but in the digital. It is fought with information, my actions and my decisions. There is no point in not being part of the environment that shaped me. We can grow together. I was accused of having lack of substance to which I say: my substance is inside me and I do not need to paint it on my forehead, as I have no need for social validation to deal with my insecurities.
When working, I was labeled as confident, team oriented, easily stressed and pressured, but wanting to achieve. I accumulated a lot of knowledge and the information that serves me well to do my job. I however, might lack experience in real life application, which is understandable, as I'm young and not had a chance to dirty my hands more than what time allowed to. There is a real dissonance between what I know and what I do and it generates a lot of pressure and stress. The knowledge I have, gives me confidence, but the real life scenarios give me stress of facing them for the first time. In a way, I have knowledge, but not the wisdom in the work place – and this is something I'm really willing to learn from the past generations.
Finally, I have been accused of refusing to do anything unless it serves some kind of a »purpose« or »higher goal« in life, to which I answer: can I really be accused of this? Is it really a sin, to want to devote your life to something meaningful? I have seen a beautiful future in which humans peacefully coexist with the environment and this symbiosis is fully supported on the framework of technology. I have seen a future in which people are pursuing meaningful occupations, create art, invent, pursue knowledge and explore inner and outer space. I have seen the future in which machines tend to all the basic needs of humanity, it's a place where nobody is hungry, sick or without a purpose. And I have seen this future is possible now. I refuse to fuel the old concepts and structures which oppose this future and am fully willing to devote my life to add a small stone to the mosaic of the brilliant and beautiful life that lies ahead for all of us.
I am a Millennial and this is my manifesto.