AIBU to ask you your opinion on 9/11 and millennials?

[CorianderDestroysFamilies]

I read a tweet this weekend that went - why do millennials complain all the time and the answer is basically because we saw 2000 die on tv when we were 10 and the world has got worse ever since.
Reading the following tweets made me realise that actually it must have had a massive effect for the mindset of that group, myself included, and I’ve never really thought about it - obviously more so for those in the US but even in the UK I remember seeing it happen and then it does feel like everything has just got worse. The war in Iraq, the demonisation of Muslims, so so many mass shootings and terrorist attacks, it sometimes feels like we’re sitting on the edge of the abyss. I know a lot of this is to do with non stop news and how small the world has become but it just struck a nerve with me.
One thing I read that I’d never heard about before was that Nick Jr and PBS in the US played cartoons all day to basically distract the kids whilst the adults took in what had just happened and that alone made me want to cry.
Anyway I’m not putting it very well but hopefully it’s makes sense as I just wondered what other people thought because I can lose myself in MN debates and there’s always angles that I’ve not thought about.

@agentcontractor Yes in the 70s not many people went to university so a degree had more job impact. Most kids left school at 15 and went straight into work.

It was terrorism, just like 9/11. But it was terrorism that touched a neighbouring community.

What like 7/7, the Manchester Attacks, the Westminster & London Bridge attacks, or Finsbury Mosque?

I think that there is a perception that 9/11 was a pivotal event from which all subsequent troubles emerge. Everything that is wrong with today’s world seems to be traced back to that single moment.

Growing up in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, it seemed that everything related back to WWII and it’s aftermath, so there was an extended historical context, and with that an awareness of the experiences of other generations. The threat of terrorism and nuclear annihilation were balanced against the privilege of living in, if not quite peace, then not active war. We knew we had it tough but we knew too that there were other kinds of tough.

Now it’s as if history started with 9/11. And it’s a dangerous perspective.

The emergence of evidence of the holocaust was another pivotal moment that set history on a new track. The nations of Europe turned away from the entrenched habits of bigotry and hatred and tried to build a future based on shared humanity and European unity. Peace in Europe is a very fragile thing, and for the second half of the 20th c it was understood as something that was vital to protect.

Of course 9/11 didn’t occur in a vacuum. After WWII Europe got Marshall Aid while the Middle East got the CIA. And of course it can all be traced back to the colonialism and jingoism of the 19th c.

But taking history out of the curriculum, the erosion of journalism and the social media effect of echo chamber news feeds is combining to cut us off from our shared history.

Blair’s war, the rise of Trump, Brexit, the rise of the Far Right and the decay of liberalism seem grimly inevitable from the starting point of 9/11. No wonder that the zeitgeist is fatalistic and self centered.

But it’s not just the Millennials who are caught up in this fallacy. Too many of us are swept along and forgetting that we can make a difference and we absolutely must. And focusing on the differences between generations is a stupid distraction from the actual mess that we’re all facing.

I feel was the start of people seeing all these videos and pictures that previous generations never seen (adults and children) because there was no way for people to film them

In WWII you didn't need to film them - children would see it with their own eyes on their own streets constantly. Every single night pretty much for 8 months with thousands of bombs dropped. On the worst night there were 550 Luftwaffe dropping bombs on London in one night. Children would lose their neighbours, friends, families.

I find it weird that this point has been made a few times but people still keep saying we're the first generation that have seen things.

@Nomoremilk why wow?

@Nomoremilk why wow?

@Nomoremilk why wow?

@DaisyChains6 of course I do.
What I mean is that people are feeling a little stress / pressure and automatically going for the 'I'm not fit to work' option.
What I mean is some people's apparent inability to deal with normal, everyday pressure.

I've been a manager for a very long time and I'm incredibly supportive. It's hard though when you see people playing the system. And I'm talking from the point of view of having concrete evidence that this happens.
We have one girl in our department who openly blags about taking her sick days as a way to boost her annual leave.
It's so infuriating and so unfair on the people around you who do work hard and find a way to cope with life.

@Isithometimeyet0987 no of course not!
We get people self diagnosing with anxiety all the time. They don't even take this up with the gp.
Re the snorting crap comment, again unfortunately this is through experience.
I'm only 39 so not old by any stretch...
I just think there needs to be a bit more resilience and an acceptance of the fact that life is tough at times and things don't always go your way.

@ofjoseph1 but if their anxiety is self diagnosed they can’t be off work on sick leave as you need a sick note from your doctor, and for that doctor to give you a sick note they have to diagnose you, therefore they are not self diagnosing. I own my own business (Performing Arts school) and deal with employees and sick leave from time to time.
Yes I know life can be tough, but not everyone handles what life throws at them in the same way, what you can handle in life others can’t. Also you only know these people in work, how do you know what their life is like outside of the work place to know how tough their life may really be, some people are very good at hiding things they don’t want you to know.
Congratulations to your though for being able to handle everything life throws at your without ever having sick leave, but you need to remember not everyone is the same as you.

I think the Black Death generation must win for experiencing the scariest and most traumatizing events. Think how frightening that must have been. Everyone you know getting ill and dying, not knowing when it was your turn. And it went on year after year.

Each generation has its own life changing events and deprivations. For past generations it was WWII, losing a million young men in 5 years, the blitz & rationing.

I grew up in the 80s when interest rates were 17%, mortgages were rationed and my “end of innocence” moment was a child from our community being snatched by a group of men and murdered horribly. The police being constant in the town for months, and my parents not trusting people we’d known for years any more.

Doing homework by candlelight because the power workers were on strike. Then the miners strikes and the devastation of coal communities, No central heating & being very cold. Millions unemployed.and then Maggie Thatcher.

One of the differences is that people are encouraged to talk about their feelings now, whereas then we were expected to keep quiet and just carry on as if nothing was wrong.
Life is no more difficult, it’s just more connected.

great post, pamela.

Our school got evacuated a number of times due to IRA bomb threats. Every generation has their memories and events, difference is millennials moan and will probably be after some sort of compensation for seeing it on television

Our school got evacuated a number of times due to IRA bomb threats. Every generation has their memories and events, difference is millennials moan and will probably be after some sort of compensation for seeing it on television

Our school got evacuated a number of times due to IRA bomb threats. Every generation has their memories and events, difference is millennials moan and will probably be after some sort of compensation for seeing it on television

@Isithometimeyet0987 where I live, it is so easy to get a sick line from the doctor.
I know because I have done it before. I phoned them up and asked to speak to a doctor. They put me on their callback surgery list. When the doctor phoned me back he asked me some questions about how I was feeling. I said that I felt anxious and sad. He left me out a 4 week sick line which said 'low mood' and I've never been diagnosed with anything. Doctor will write pretty much whatever you ask for in my experience.

I think my grandparents were more traumatised by witnessing war up close and personal than we were by seeing 9/11 happen from the other side of the world on TV tbh.

If you still have your grandparents and they were young during WW2, ask them about their memories. My grandad remembers crossing a room which was so unstable it could have collapsed at any moment. My great aunt (early 20s at the time) got caught outside during a raid with no way to get to a shelter and she stood up against the wall of a building praying to avoid a direct hit, listening to bombs fall all around her and was so frightened her hair literally grew out white from that day.

I think it's good that we are more aware of mental health compared to those who were ridiculed for having shell shock, however we also need to be taught coping mechanisms such as mindfullness so we are not so flawed by it.

We have seen footage and pictures of many horrific events but 9/11 was the first one I had seen played out live on tv and I think that's why it stuck with so many people. It was just shots afterwards, we saw the second plane hit and the towers drop during the news coverage.
I'm 38, so not a millennial, but it's definitely the news story that sticks out in my mind for that reason

I was about 10 when the towers fell. I will never forget the sound of bodies hitting the pavement. I feel pretty desensitized when it comes to anything gory now. The news seems constantly full of all the horrible stuff to the point it just becomes background noise. It's quite sad really.

9/11 was terrible - but i am absolutely astonished that people think growing up in the shadow of it was worse than anything else - and i do think that level of self absorption is ... well...a poor character trait.

btw we had photography in Ww1, film in Ww2, vietnam war was largely televised.

I don’t doubt things are tough for Millennials but how many (in the U.K. anyway) would have actually seen 9/11 happen, if they’re blaming seeing that for actually causing them problems? They’ll have been at bloody school.

I think the baby boomers had it cushy and then every generation has had it tougher since. Although baby boomers will pull 14% mortgage interest out of their arse as their example of how tough it was but it was only a few months and brought in to rein in excessive spending

Not read all the comments but I blame a lot of it on social media, smartphones and 24 hour news channels. They bring out the worst in folk and I don't think it's any coincidence that as the use of these have increased so has things like depression, anxiety, personality disorders etc.

Sad times 🙁

But I think we all have our defining moments that affect us. I’ll never forget the image of that plane nosecone and the massive crater in the streets of Lockerbie, 4 days before Christmas :( an act of terrorism just like 9/11.