Rather listen to this blog post instead?

I happened across an article recently that shook me.

I've never fancied myself as someone who thinks inside the box or is easily influenced by mass appeal. Today I awoke to to realize I am indeed a conformist...through and through.

It is, however, worth expressing that once I swallow the fact that I am like other people, I am somewhat comforted. It's reassuring to know there are many others that feel and think the same way I do; that I'm not alone in my quest.

But here's the problem:

My generation is the most over-confident, entitled, and narcissistic generation the world has ever seen. We grew up being told the "Every single one of you is special, and important, and 'worth it'". We are pathologically individualistic, and the special brand of delusion that emanates from this sort of thinking is a force to be reckoned with, as any employer of millennials will frustratingly tell you.

The irony is that I've had this opinion of my generation for quite some time...but I never EVER thought it applied to ME. There's an old axiom that states, "The things that bother you most about others, are usually things within yourself that you've been expressly avoiding dealing with."

In other words, "You spot it, you got it."

I equate the situation to the phenomenon of "The Hipster":

There are two snappily-dressed, creatively-tasteful individuals sitting at opposing tables in a cafe blogging away on their sticker-covered MacBook Pros. They've never met, yet they condemn one another with the label of "hipster"...and both refuse to own the title themselves.

This is a unique characteristic of the so-called hipster. A punk-rocker, though he/she may bristle when called a "punk", will still own the label. Same thing with a Mod, a Goth, a Hippie, etc. But a hipster?! God forbid we wear that scarlet letter!

This perfectly parallels my point with the characteristics of Millennials. The article I linked to above has a hefty list of statistics showing the percentage of "us" that think a certain way about a certain issue...and to my dismay, I was right there thinking with the majority every damn time.

Why this dismay?

Well, because of this godforsaken conditioning of individuality I've marinated in for so long! In reality, all I've ever wanted was "to be a part of" something greater than myself. So shouldn't we just get over it? Yes, let's get over it.

Like I said, we are a force to be reckoned with. If we can find a way to leave the entitlement and narcissism behind, but keep that deluded over-confidence I believe we can do great things. I've said it before, and those that have come before me have hammered it home: There is a necessary amount of self-delusion that we must have in order to pursue "our things".

I offer you a mantra:

We'll work hard and our entitlement will melt.
We'll fall down time and again and our narcissism will fade.
But we'll always get back up to do it all again...
...Because our self-deluded overconfidence remains alive and well.

In this way, we'll change the world.