The future

The future of the United States can be seen today in a generation of young people more diverse than ever in race, culture and origin, who, by 2043, will transform this country into one where, for the first time, whites will be just another minority.

That invites changes that are welcomed by some but frightening to others and that partly explain some of today’s political and social tensions.

The so-called generation of the “millennials” — the name given to those born after 1980 — is distinguished not only because of their racial and/or ethnic diversity but also for what they share, including a greater distrust in political and social institutions. They grew up with the cybernetic revolution and its implications and have a more liberal view of social affairs, according to an extensive investigation by the Pew Research Center.

According to the analysis, the millennials (ages 18 to 33) are different from previous generations in that “they are relatively unattached to organized politics and religion, linked by social media, burdened by debt, distrustful of people, in no rush to marry, and optimistic about the future.”

“They are also America’s most racially diverse generation,” summarizes Pew.

According to the Pew polls, more than half the millennials identify themselves as independent in their politics (i.e., neither Democrats nor Republicans or any other party) and 29 percent (3 out of every 10) say that they don’t practice any religion. These are among the highest levels of political and religious disaffiliation recorded for any generation in the 25 years that the Pew Research Center has been polling on these topics.

This is a generally “liberal” generation, notable for its broad support for the Democrats and for liberal positions on a broad gamut of political and social issues, from support for an “activist” government that promotes social welfare to support for gay marriage, interracial marriage, immigration reform and the legalization of marijuana, Pew says. But it should be noted that they are not very different from the older generations when it comes to arms control and abortion.

Nevertheless, their liberal inclinations made them a key sector in Barack Obama’s political victories. Now, they share the same level of disenchantment with the president as other generations.

This is the first generation that can be called “digital natives.” They haven’t had to adapt to the cyber world and are at the vanguard of this new digital age, including the use of the Internet, social networks and mobile devices with which they build their relations with friends, colleagues and groups with common interests.

The most racially diverse generation is partly the result of the migrant flow of Latinos and Asians in recent decades. Many are the U.S.-born children of immigrants. Forty-three percent of the millennials are non-white, the highest share of any generation. Today, half of newborns in this country are non-white. This diversity explains in part their politically liberal positions, Pew points out.

It’s worth remembering that the U.S. Bureau of the Census projects that the full U.S. population will be majority non-white sometime around 2043, for the first time in the nation’s history.

Some observers have said that the transformation this generation represents — just in demographic and social terms — is part of what feeds the anti-immigrant wave of recent years, as well as movements that seek to “rescue the country” because they foresee their own end in a country that increasingly looks less like their image of themselves — white, Anglo-Saxon and Protestant.

This also explains in part the severe right-wing tilt of politics in places like Arizona and the Deep South states, among others, where the traditional political cupolas feel threatened by the generational and demographic changes.

For example, several analysts — and a Wall Street Journal report last week — warn that in the near future this might mean that Texas, today a conservative Republican bastion, will turn more Democratic as a result of the combination of demographic (above all, the presence and participation of Latinos) and generational changes.

Meanwhile, the millennials also face economic and political challenges. From an economic standpoint, they live in times of the worst inequality since the Great Recession (2007-2009), with a paralyzed socioeconomic mobility. To them, the American Dream is no more.

They face high levels of unemployment, and their jobs are worse remunerated than those of previous generations. They see dramatic changes in the job sector, including less union protection. Not only that, but this generation is crushed by a student-debt burden without precedent — the total debt is estimated at more than $1 billion.

On the political and social side, this is a generation that, if it didn’t participate, grew up in an era of interminable wars labeled “wars against terror,” which suppress expressions of dissent. As “digital natives,” they are also subjected, under this justification of national security, to electronic surveillance and denied privacy.

This generation also suffers from a doctrine of education — so-called reform — that again prioritizes a curriculum defined by standardized exams that reward docility and compliance with orders. When the young people have dared to express themselves on the streets — such as Occupy Wall Street or the Dreamers (young activist immigrants) or against abuse of authority — they’ve been frequently the victims of violent repression or judicial intimidation.

The future of this country will depend in great measure from whether this new generation overcomes all this and fulfills its promise of change.

(From the Mexican newspaper La Jornada)