Doing sociology and philosophy in real time by looking at developments in contemporary Western politics and culture, from a Moral Libertarian perspective. My mission is to stop the authoritarian 'populist' right and the cultural-systemist left from destroying the West.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg is Needed, because Real Millennials are Misunderstood | Moral Libertarian View
Welcome to the new Moral Libertarian View, a podcast style daily program where we discuss big ideas to see if they can contribute to more individual freedom. Just like how Rome wasn't built in one day, the road to freedom is a long one, and continuous innovation coupled with skeptical critique is the way we will get there.
Today, we will look at yet another 2020 candidate that I haven't been paying attention to until now. Pete Buttigieg, or Mayor Pete as he is often called, recently came third in a poll, behind only Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, and beating both Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, which is good to hear because they are my two least liked candidates in the race. By beating Harris and Warren, Mayor Pete has won himself the right to some of my attention today. Anyway, this is what we need to know about him. He is the youngest candidate in the race. He was born in 1982, which makes him only several years older than myself, and this also means that he is a millennial. The other thing is that he is perhaps the first openly gay candidate ever. I know this isn't supposed to be relevant, but I included it because this is what people are saying about him. Nevertheless, he doesn't appear to play identity politics, and that's good to see. He's more like Tulsi Gabbard, who has identity credentials but won't play the game, rather than like Kamala Harris, who plays her identity cards at every chance. Between Tulsi, Pete, and most of us out here, it appears that us Millennials simply don't buy the identity politics stuff.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not aware that Mayor Pete has put out many policies. One thing that he has focused on is his experience of life as a Millennial. I mean, older people may look at him and say, what do you know about life? You aren't even 40 yet! But then, the Millennial life experience has its own unique problems, and older adults often don't quite understand. Firstly, there's this myth that Millennials are snowflakes. From my experience, this is just not true. I mean, we are the generation who spent our teenage years in the aftermath of 9/11, why would we be politically correct snowflakes? Most of us don't support the so-called 'safe speech' stuff, that's an activist thing. On the other hand, the economic struggles of Millennials are very real. There's the difficulty in setting up a career because many fields have become saturated. That's why people do free internships to get into their desired field, and earn money as waiters in the evening. There's the housing affordability crisis. It has become too expensive for your average young adult to even rent a place in many cities. And then there's the loss of traditional expectations of settling down in marriage, which is the result of many years of postmodern damage to our social fabric, change that we are not responsible for but we have to live with. All this doesn't make for a very good life, right?
I'm sorry if it sounded like a rant, but many people imagine Millennials to be snowflakes who are into Foucaldian philosophy, when the precise opposite is true. What we need are leaders who understand that Millennials are being shut out of opportunities everywhere. This is especially true compared to our parents' generation, the baby boomers, when you think about it. Many of them married young, bought houses young, and got into their chosen career with fewer qualifications than your average bartender today. I'm actually grateful for everything the boomer generation did for us, but we do have a problem with opportunity right now. As a Moral Libertarian, equal opportunity is close to my heart. We need leaders who will address this generational inequality of opportunity. I don't know how far Mayor Pete's campaign will go, but if he at least gets to the debates and raises these issues, we will have an opportunity to have a serious conversation about them.
That's all for today. I'll be back tomorrow to discuss another big idea. Subscribe if you want to follow our story. The transcripts are available on my website, and my Medium profile. And remember to resist the hive mind and stay individualistic. The world depends on it.
