So is this generational, political, or a little bit of both...

So when I was growing up, one of the simplest life lessons I learned early on was that life was not fair. Life was not a race where everyone lined up at the same time and played by the same rules. Some would get a head start, some would have the best equipment, some would start late, and some would be slowed down by various burdens that others don't encounter. But I was also taught that everyone had their own advantages in their unique nature (everyone has skills and talents) and could make use of these advantages with hard work and dedication.

My childhood was not all sunshine and unicorns. I started earning my own money when I was 10 to buy things other kids had bought for them. Corn detassaling, lawn mowing and odd jobs, a eventually a paper route. Through high school I held down a job, lettered in three different sports, and still maintained an honor roll GPA. I paid my own way through college working two jobs and living off 49 cent frozen pizzas and egg noodle dinners and still managed to make the occasional Dean's list.

It's like the old cliche about how luck and hard work always seem in sync. The harder you work, the luckier you get. This same cliche could be updated for 2020, by simply suggesting that the harder you work, the more "privileged" you seem to be. Either way, the concept is the same. I would not have been successful had I allowed my lower middle class upbringing to be an excuse to not put the extra effort into parts of my life where I had to compete with others who had financial advantages over me. I suspect it's been the same story throughout history and will likely remain the story in generations to come.

But such talk of hard work and dedication seems to be scoffed at by many in 2020. People no longer seem to be taught that hard work and dedication is the manner in which you rise above. Rather we are taught today that it's all about changing the system, changing society, tearing down inequalities, and when push comes to shove, removing anything that remind us that things are are inherently unfair (as if sticking our head in the sand is a manner to push beyond something).

We certainly wouldn't want to burden someone by telling them to work harder. Not when we can hand them a protest sign, provide them a place to occupy, or give them an excuse to burn something down. To certain idealists, the unfairness of life isn't something that should be dealt with at any individual level with hard work and dedication. Rather it's up to society to make it fair so that nobody has to work harder than anyone else to get to the same place.

If you look at the current protests going on in Seattle and other areas of the country; what are they really doing, if not holding a glorified temper tantrum?  What they have been taught is if they make a scene in the grocery checkout because they want a candy bar, that many times their tantrum is appeased. My parents (and I would assume the parents of many from my generation) dealt with that tantrum after we left the store. I would have gone without the candy bar and without the ability to sit comfortably on my well tanned bottom had I pulled that kind of stunt.

But in this instance, they don't just want a candy bar, but they have an entire "list" of things that they demand in exchange for them... um... quieting their protests and giving back the parcel of land that they have stolen from the legal owners. Perhaps it's just a simple temper tantrum, or perhaps it's closer to the terrorism that some suggest that this sort of situation represents. Either way, they are holding a portion of a city hostage and are demanding a ransom to give it back. But ironically, much of the population believes in the cause and even supports the manner in which they are attempting to achieve their mostly ill-advised goals.

The question becomes as to whom, when, and why people were taught that this was acceptable behavior and the approved method of getting what you want in life? Who, when, and why did some determine that somehow life could be "fair" if we just held a couple more protests and made more people aware of the inherent unfairness of things.

Because once you eliminate the unfairness of one thing, the unfairness of something else will rise up to replace it. I hate to break it to those who believe differently, but life will never be fair. Our inherent individual differences as people guarantee that. Some people will be bigger, smarter, and generally more talented than others. Call it unfair systemic genetics. But it exists and I am not sure how you go about pretending it doesn't. Certainly it doesn't help to hold a sign at a rally.

My question on this is simple. Is this difference in fundamental thinking generational, political or is is a little bit of both?