i hate your generation

your generation made the mess we're in right now. you used to
always talk about anarchy and free love, and peace in the world
and be yourself. where is your free love now? the world is
full of hatred and there are more wars going on right now than
there ever have been in history. where is your free love? aids
is killing people all over, and teen pregnancies are at an all
time high. when i try to be myself you won't give me a job
because you don't like my hair or you are afraid that everybody
under the age of 20 is a thief or a drug addict. where is your
be yourself now?

i hate your generation. ban the bomb, my ass. there are more
nuclear bombs in the world than there ever have been, and their
destroying the world by accident or because of wars gets more
possible and scarier every day. air that's unbreathable because
of your generation driving their volkswagen campervans all over
creation, and insisting on 1 bmw for every person with a single
driver and no passengers. you buy your kids clothes from roots
and polo and spoil them rotten and you wonder why they don't
respect you. you have forgotten what it is to be young and you
punish us for the thing you wish you still had and can never
have. maybe that's why you hate us, because you're jealous. 
well we hate you too. when you retire it'll be us paying your
old age pension and we are going to remember how you treated us
when we were teens, how you stamped on our rights of freedom of
expression, and how boring and banal all your conversations
about your cars and your babies were and we won't pay. i hate
your generation and i am going to give you cause to hate mine. 
when the world is going to hell you can eat your bmws and polo
clothes, because we won't pay.

i hate your generation.

written by a 17-year-old boy

Invite response around this. For example, do you agree or
disagree, find a point you specifically agree with, and tell
why, what's wrong with this piece, and why. It is interesting
to note that my own students used this as a vehicle for
expressing their anger at my generation (the thirty-somethings)
and all the shortfallings of my generation. In fact, the 17
year old boy who wrote it was none other than myself, almost 20
years ago, in 1983, as an angry young punk rocker. Enjoy the
look of shock and disbelief on their faces when you tell them,
"The more things change, the more they stay the same."