Report by Paula Antolini
November 4, 2018, 3:45PM EDT
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR / OPINION
‘Instant Gratification’ Seems to Be The Theme of the Young Democrat Candidates Raghib Allie-Brennan and Will Haskell
Mark Twain once said “life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of 80 and gradually approach 18.” (The 2008 movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a dramatic illustration of the idea of aging backward.) —psychologytoday.com
“Instant gratification is the concept that we must have results right away and that we don’t want to wait. It’s an impulsive desire to have things instantly,” according to mindpotentialpower.com. They also state,”Understand that achieving great things takes time, effort and perseverance. Few people ever achieve anything great over night.”
It used to be that when you ran for a government office job you had the experience to do the job, had put in your time to learn the job, had a record of success, and had the credentials necessary to make the decisions required for the job.
This does not seem necessary to two young Democrat candidates who expect to be elected for jobs they are not qualified to do, and they want to get elected too quickly. It is the mentality that the younger generation has grown up with, it seems.
This seems to be the case for Democratic candidate Will Haskell, 22, running for CT State Senator, District 26, against 22-year incumbent CT State Senator Toni Boucher, and another Democratic candidate, Raghib Allie-Brennan, 27, who is running for CT State Representative, District 2, against incumbent CT State Representative Will Duff for the second time, after losing to him in 2016.
These young candidates think they are qualified to hold a legislative positions despite their lack of experience. The gist of what they believe, and the best they can come up with, is that their new “voice” should be heard and that the older generation candidates presently in office are stuck in their old ways and have not made any progress. If you check the records of their opponents you will see that Boucher is an award winning legislator and Duff has made much headway in his first term in office.
In words from the candidates’ own peers, in an article on Linkedin written by Victoria Parker entitled, “Instant Gratification Generation in the Workforce“ she writes, “Millennial children grew up with technology, from computers and video games to cell phones and the Internet. Technology surrounded their childhood, and as a result they got things done fast and quickly. They did not have to read chapters on end to find the answer to a question. All they had to do was type the question into a search engine and the answer would appear in a second.” … “This has caused many things to come easy to millennials, and has caused them to become impatient when results are not shown right away. Many have started to question the work ethic of this generation because of their willingness to cut corners and demand to get what they believe they deserve. Millennials are now beginning to enter the workforce, and they have become known as the instant gratification generation at work.”
I think we are witnessing this “instant gratification” generation where some young millennials have chosen to challenge incumbent legislators here in Connecticut and really believe they can fool people into voting for them when they have little or no job experience.
I have doubts that these candidates care as much about the issues facing Connecticut as much as they care about obtaining the title and an addition on their resume and winning a race.
Herein lies the problem. Millennials are not used to having to wait or work for anything.
“Another way instant gratification plays out in the workforce is when Millennials assume in any given situation that the faster they accomplish a particular goal, the better. However, this isn’t always the case, especially when human interactions are involved,” states Lindsay Pollack, another young person, who is described as a “multigenerational workplace expert” in an article entitled, “Millennials At Work: Instant Gratification and the Need for Speed“ on her blog, “Millennials at Work.”
The similarities in these two candidates are interesting. Both are obviously young, Allie-Brennan is 27 and Haskell is a mere 22 just having graduated from college. Neither candidate has ever owned a home or paid taxes on one, had children in local schools, or held any real jobs for a substantial amount of time, pertaining to the job they seek to be elected for. Yet they expect the public to trust them to make decisions on topics that will affect each and every one of residents’ lives, and perhaps change those lives for the worst. Not that a candidate has to have done any of the things mentioned above, as a requirement, but life experiences do give a candidate more valuable knowledge on the very topics he will have to vote upon and legislate for, when in office.
Emma Taubenfeld of Pace University writes in Study Breaks, a college magazine and online website, “Instant gratification is the need to experience fulfillment without any sort of delay or wait. Ultimately, you want it now, like greedy little Veruca Salt sings right up until she falls down Willy Wonka’s garbage chute. Waiting can be really hard, and when people don’t get what they want, the psychological reaction is anxiety.”
Taubenfeld continues, “Consider a recent graduate working in their first career. Their tendency to expect fast feedback will lead to disappointment when they are passed over for raises and promotions, and even a lack of positive reinforcement may lead them to struggle to stay motivated. When they don’t receive the expected fulfillment, they may feel frustrated and in extreme cases, may even seek a new job. In certain arenas accomplishments take time, and without a degree of patience, the pat on the back so many millennials are looking for will never be quick enough.”
This is clearly shown in the resumes of both Haskell and Allie-Brennan with their short stays at most positions at which they have worked/volunteered.
Vox says it best, in an article entitled, “4 Ways Millennials are Changing Politics,” The optimistic take: this is a generation that can help usher in more participatory, collaborative forms of democratic governance that do not simply accept our status quo forms of civic engagement. But, that comes with a caveat: digital technologies have made people accustomed to a pace of change that does not reflect political realities. In other words, democracy “on demand” is not democracy at all. The instant gratification digital technologies enable, from online ordering to live streaming, is fundamentally different from the slow pace of people, politics, and institutions. The political reform this generation desires will require sustained effort and collective action. It will require making sacrifices and working long hours. It will require, in other words, using the strategies of generations past – marrying the new with the old.
I hope the above information gives you insight to know that these two candidates, Will Haskell and Raghib Allie-Brennan, although well meaning, are simply not ready for the task of deciding matters regarding our daily life and everything that affects that, if they’ve hardly lived life at all themselves and have little experience in most matters.
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