Hi, I'm one of those Millenials. I'm going to tell you Boomers how it is.
First off, let me tell you, not all fools die young, and price does not equal value. Merely because you people earned absurd (and unjustified) salaries in an overheated economy, pumped up by fiat money, real estate bubbles and mortgages out the wazoo, does not mean you ever had the value you may believe yourselves to have, and certainly not now.
If you Boomers drop dead - this applies to any and all of you - you know what will happen to the world? It will keep on trucking. Your vaunted "experience" in whatever field you work in, is that of smooth sailing in easier times, getting along by puffing your chest out back when people cared.
Simply put, we Millennials don't need you, for any other purpose than getting the few Boomer holdouts to take us seriously. We spend considerable time and effort conspiring amongst ourselves to manipulate you Boomers into being stalking horses for our careers and goals, because that's all you are, a bunch of empty suits.
When you Boomers leave the office to go play golf, or pursue any of your other equally inane leisure activities, we're able to REALLY get some work done, without you Boomers getting in the way by imposing your "relevance" on everyone else. Usually this means bypassing or replacing your obsolete organizational processes (e.g., endless meetings, bureaucracy, obsolete technology, etc) and just getting things done.
Now, about you Boomers getting old. Let me tell you, the problem with you Boomers now being old people, is entirely one-sided, and it's on your end. Millennials respect the old. They respect wisdom. Millenials love technological gadgets, but they also love old books, antiques, "retro-gaming"; etc. They've grown up being pushed the latest fad and they're tired of it. You doubt this, go visit your local thrift shop or flea market or used electronics or game store. You know, those stores you think you're too good to shop at. The clientele is mostly Millenials. In their minds, old things are exciting, novel, tested.
Older Millenials remember the Greatest Generation as their grandparents. A surprising number of Millenials love to sit and listen to them talk about the old days. The American cultural notion that the world began in 1953 is really unique to the Boomers - Millenials are fascinated by distant times and places. You can see that in the video games they play - usually set in exotic places (real or otherwise), typically drawing heavily from history and myth. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, or Valkyrie Profile come to mind.
And we don't give a rat's behind about Vietnam or the Civil Rights Movement. Most of you never fought in Vietnam, fewer of you protested it, and those who did one or the other still see the war (for or against) in romantic, unrealistic terms - your "experience" has not guided you to objectivity. And you certainly didn't PAY for it (that's us Millenials, paying down your 50-year-old compound interest).
The Civil Rights Movement was a sideshow. Many Boomers made their lives blockbusting, few married outside their race; Boomers (of all political persuasions) are well known for their intense xenophobia; they invented the Gated Community; they hated busing (again, set up by the Greatest) and strove to destroy it even while their kids shrug at crossing the tracks into the "bad side of town" . The CRA of 1963 was signed into law by LBJ - a Greatest Gen; the Clean Air Act was passed in the same year. Since the Boomers took power (Carter/Reagan/Bush/Clinton), decisive legislation and changes in lifestyle have been replaced by the SUV and "not-me" syndrome. All those progressive ideas the Boomers talk about - their generation represented nothing so much as a lacuna in the process, a generation of historical bystanders.
Perhaps this is an outgrowth of the character of the generation. Boomers, as a culture, are not imaginative. Their parents were largely classically educated and worldly (see: classic Star Trek & Twilight Zone, shows more popular amongst Millennials, or at least better understood by them, than the original youth audience). Boomers love their mass-produced kitsch, their ugly McMansions and cheap Chinese-made furniture. They take this vision to society as well: everything is black-versus-white and the status quo is never wrong.
So our problem with you Boomers is not that you're old (you are). It's that you lack the positive qualities that come with age. Instead of wisdom, you have stubbornness. Instead of dignity, you have pomposity. Instead of temperance, you are grasping. The Boomer inability to handle getting older is not a desire "to keep kicking". It is a desire to hold off growing up until the last possible second.
To say it plain, your "experience" strutting around in your suit and tie is not worth $100k a year or whatever you think it is. That is entitlement speaking, nothing more, nothing less. Most of us Millenials live on tips or near-minimum wage and don't want to hear it.
For your collective benefit, I'll end on a positive note. You want Millenials' respect? Act your age. Drop the pompous "well I have been in this field X years" routine. (That's when we call you "dude"; it frankly baffles us how a generation that doesn't want to get old is offended at being treated like they haven't). Stop trying to talk like young people or affect an interest in our pursuits (you don't understand them and don't want to). Stop trying to tell us how you're not old (you can't stop becoming seniors any more than we can stop being teenagers, the world doesn't stop for you).
Be simple, straightforward, pragmatic, accessible, willing to sacrifice and willing to be proven wrong. You would be surprised how much respect from young people that will garner.
Hell, you might even get another job.
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