I agree America began decaying some time ago, but I don't believe the analogy to death is apt. It is more like a slow descent into schizophrenia. What are the symptoms of schizophrenia?

- Delusion (we are the greatest country in the world)

- Hallucinations (red scare and threat to american nuclear hegemony)

- Disorganized thinking & speech (cold war politics and the pivot to asia)

- Disorganized or abnormal motor behavior (what crisis has america actually solved recently?)

- Negative Symptoms (collapse of the social safety net and a crisis of social mobility and healthcare)

I think it is clear how America will act in its authoritarian period. Any individual pursuit of liberty will be denied unless sanctioned by authority or financed by extreme personal wealth. All others will be marginalized and rendered destitute unless they fit in the corporate picture.

Young people don't see much hope. A lack of hope turns into fear. Fear leads to anger, and we all know where that will end up.

It's an opinion on the WORD millennial with this implied, angsty attitude towards the perceived marginalization of his (and my) generation. He doesn't have a problem with the word, he has a problem with popular culture's perception of millennials.

Do you want to be called Baby Boomers? Generation X? These are meaningless tags so we don't have to say Born: 1920-1940, Born 1940-1960, etc. He may as well complain about why we name hurricanes in alphabetical order.

I just don't view this as productive: it's not a discussion of WHY we are perceived this way and what this informs us about generational differences - it's the author complaining about how people complain about him.

That apathy is primarily taken as a denouncement of the system though. That is what Obama is responding to: the dissatisfaction or indifference towards our current government.

He's promising to do well these next two years as a way to give non-voters a reason to participate in the next election. I would suppose he's gambling on them being democrats.