Okay, so what comes next? According to our cover story, it's the Millennials. It is their time, according to author Jamie Stark, to grab the reins or at least to start reaching for them.
Jesus was supposedly 33 years old when he entered the last, public phase of his life. Using that gauge, millennials are due. The term applies to those born between the years 1980 through the end of the 20th century. And, according to Stark, their mission is nothing less than leading society to the solutions to the problems that beset us. We should start seeing saviors anytime now.
Stark is one of the contributors to a blog site called MillennialCliff.org. It aspires to be the gathering spot on the web for Millennial thinkers who feel the burden that has been placed upon the shoulders of their generation. It was conceived at the UW School of Journalism and Mass Communications in November 2012 precisely to be a sounding board for the aforesaid concerned thinkers of a certain age.
The plight of the Millennials is catalogued at the beginning of Stark's piece. In general, let it be said that the outlook for the group can be daunting. It remains to be seen, however, whether the obstacles faced by this group would match, say, the batch confronted by those dubbed "the Greatest Generation," who were required to deal with the mess we now call World War II.
This is not Stark's first contribution to Isthmus. In the fall of 2010 he wrote a series called "Madison Believers." It consisted of descriptions of religious organizations in Madison and their practices. This time he's dealing with the distinctly secular preoccupations of entrepreneurship and innovation. The Millennials are the tech-savvy generation that will be able to write code or manipulate a device to get us out of whatever mess we're in. Good luck to them. The other generations could use their help.
