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So what I am talking about today is labels…I hate labels. Labels do nothing but put people in groups. Groups always define people inaccurately, and that leads to division; it drives a wedge between human beings who might otherwise get along fine.
The label example I am using today is the label of “Millennial”. The term Millennial is given to the generation who is roughly between 18 and 34 years of age. It is a label that comes complete with it’s own set of negative stereotypes and prejudices.
Because there is a name for this group, and for no other reason, people assume that all people who are in this age bracket are essentially worthless, lazy people living off their parents, spending all their free time playing video games and feeling like the world owes them something. This assumption is profoundly inaccurate.
I know many, many people who are technically millennials, and I can tell you they do not fit these stereotypes at all. They are hard working, dedicated, forward thinking, engaged individuals, and many of them are now parents themselves.
That is why I hate labels; whenever you paint any group of people with a single brush…you are going to be incorrect.
When I was young people thought everyone in my generation was doing drugs and listening to rock music. The young people in the 60’s were assumed to all be hippies into indiscriminate sex and psychedelic drugs, and having no jobs.
Of course some so called millennials fit the stereotype, as did some people in my generation, and in the 60’s, but there were many individuals who did not. That is why I am against labels in general…because of their inherent inaccuracy.
One of my friends is named Will, he is the most dynamic young man I have ever met…he is going to be a civil engineer, he is more together than most older people I know and yet…he is a millennial. So every time I hear that label used in a derogatory fashion I take offense to it, because it makes me think of my friend Will. I know he is being judged along with everyone else in the group simply because he happened to be born at a certain time in history, and its wrong.
There are many, many other labels in wide use today; republicans, democrats, conservatives, liberals, black, white, young, old, terrorist, muslim, christian, atheist, on and on it goes. I submit to you that each one of these labels, in the way they are used…are inaccurate. Because labels do not take into account the individuals within this artificially named group.
If someone says “all conservatives this,” Or “all liberals that,” they will be incorrect. That’s a big deal to me personally…because words mean things. If the word ‘some’ replaced the word ‘all’, it would be much closer to an...
