A millennial is someone who did not grow up with the Cold War.
IMO that completely changes your perspective on conflict and power. Ante-Berlin Wall, conflict was about political ideologies, totalitarian regimes, and catastrophic and uncertain military conflict.
Post-Berlin Wall / collapse of USSR the US was had completely military hegemony, conflicts became about identity in a globalizing world, and the threat of totalitarian regimes seem either more remote (ie, not afraid of Russia or China) or more immediate (afraid of your own government); but overall largely dismissive of totalitarian state power as an active force and lacking a sense of an existential external threat, and increasingly subsuming political ideology into identity and consumer culture.
This is might be why older people see terrorism as an existential threat and younger people do not.
Interesting idea. 9/11 more as an issue of “see what that shitty Patriot Act did?” as opposed to “see what them there terrists did?” I definitely know some people this would apply to. Of course, they are all too old to be millenials. lol. That’s anecdata though, I like the cut of your jib here.
I think one difference between boomers (and maybe a following generation or two) and the latest generation or two is that older generations had some inkling that armageddon was possible, that nukes might fly.
Modern generations have had 9-11, but that wasn’t the same thing. They somehow think living under Trump equates to having Russia push a button at any time.
I think this is a good expression of it. Modern youths may be worried about politically motivated (terrorism) or random acts of violence (mass shootings), but they aren’t worried that their entire society might be destroyed, and that it would be done at the behest of, essentially, the best and brightest in their country.
You know, it’s not like back in those days we didn’t consider the fact that we might be the first to launch a nuke. I mean Dr. Strangeglove was Saturday afternoon TV movie fare by the 70’s.
The left thought Reagan was capable of it in the 80’s.
‘First major news event’ depends on year, media exposure, AND nationality, so people who are by default exposed to different national press & media agencies may have entirely different ‘First major news events’.
‘Millennial’ gets thrown around here in the UK too and I don’t think anyone with a TV across the globe missed 9/11 to be fair! I was washing dishes at a restaurant when staff were flocking around the tiny TV in the staff room.
I was always taught that milennials (and I was taught this during corporate training for dealing with different generations) that Milennials are the generation of children that remember 9/11. I was 15 at the time. Most definitions go with 1983 to 1998 as the age range which would basically encompass anyone 3-18 on 9-11. I think that the idea was old enough to understand something is wrong, but not old enough to be an adult.
I think that 15 years covers a generation pretty well. It puts me right on the bubble, so maybe I am an x-ennial, as many of the defining parts of “milennial” culture were beyond me. (no high speed internet til college, no cell phone til 18, no texting or social media, myspace account in college, then facebook)
I suppose not understanding how 9-11 would change things is about equal to not understanding how Pearl Harbor would change things. About the same number of people died, both were surprise attacks and both came from groups we knew were out there.