Laurie Penny

Pop culture and radical politics with a feminist twist

I’ve turned 25, but the world won’t let me be a grown-up

We are old enough and ugly enough to build a better future for ourselves.

By Laurie Penny Published 06 October 2011 15:04

It happens without warning. At some point between the first time you hear an ironic remix of the cartoon theme tunes of your childhood and the expiration of your Young Person's Railcard, you wake up one morning and something has changed. Under the puppy fat and pimples, your face has begun to emerge, and so has your future. You have become, however inadvertently, an adult.

By the time I finish this column, I will be 25 years old. Growing up is always an odd process, but since I graduated from university, it has become more convoluted than usual. For many people my age -- including most of my friends -- secure, meaningful employment, marriage and home ownership all seem as distant and unimaginable as they were when we sat our GCSEs.

While we've been finding our first wrinkles and filling out our first dole forms, all the normal things that were supposed to make up for theuncomfortable position of suddenly having to take care of oneself have been confiscated by the forces of world finance. Little lifelines like the Future Jobs Fund and the Education Maintenance Allowance have been cut to save costs, just as university fees have been trebled by an administration happy to hand billions in subsidies to the investment banks that created the crisis.

The impetus behind this year's uprisings in Egypt has been partly ascribed to the frustration of young adults unable to afford the transition into work, marriage and independence.

It's tempting to frame all this as a generation war, an immense and predictable kick-off between the baby boomers, who enjoyed every benefit that the postwar consensus brought its fortunate children, and Generation Y, the ragtag, loosely defined group of late-cold-war babies who are old enough to have been promised a future of permanent growth and young enough to have been shafted when that future failed to emerge. This interpretation is madly convenient for many who would prefer not to engage with the realities of geopolitics. It is also wrong.

It is wrong because it allows the enormous crisis of capital and democracy sweeping Europe, the US and the Middle East to be reconfigured as an intercontinental temper tantrum. With a bit of imagination, it's easy to see all the strikes, protests, riots and revolutions accompanying the disintegration of late capitalism as merely the international equivalent of a bedroom door slammed in fury -- a worldwide whine of: "It's not fair!"

In fact, it's a little more complicated than that. Property, privilege and profit are not the sole preserve of the "power generation" now easing its way into precarious retirement.

Disaster capitalism

There are baby boomers who have lived all their lives in poverty, and baby boomers who were marching, striking and fighting against the numbing tide of disaster capitalism when today's activists were still in nappies; just as there are members of Generation Y who'd take a Jack Wills hoodie and a job at Goldman Sachs over global revolution any day.

Something larger and far more frightening is going on. The struggle going on across the world is not between old and young, but between the possessed and the dispossessed -- most of whom just happen, like 52 per cent of the world's population, to be under the age of 30.

Three years ago, I turned 22 just as the world's stock markets were tumbling. Watching the news, I realised, like so many other middle-class young people in the west, that the future we had been promised would not be delivered after all, at least not without a fight that would finish far too late.

For many of us, it is already too late. Denied the trappings of adulthood, we grew up anyway, into unemployment, anger and disillusion, into a world that didn't want us.

When I was 22, I was angry. Now that I've been 25 for a whole ten minutes, I'm still angry, but I'm also hopeful. All around me, and across the world, people are organising, educating themselves, building new, alternative communities, joining resistance movements, and starting to talk about the possibility of a future that our parents never expected.

Fed up with waiting for a better future to be delivered, we have realised that we are old enough and ugly enough to build one for ourselves. It's not
a generation war -- but the power generation has every reason to be frightened.

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224 comments

Fri, 2011-10-07 19:43 — Stuart (not verified)

@ geoff and Zeros

I'm fairly happy to take Wikipedia's definition of socialism. The question that then has to be asked is: does socialism make the poor rich? The answer is clearly not. The history of every country that has tried socialism (Russia, India, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba, Bolivia, much of Africa to mention a few)is that of utter poverty for the poorest people. Compare with countries (and areas) that embraced the free market after WW2: Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea (contrast with North Korea), Japan, Germany. The point about the capitalist countries is that the poor become rich. Today in the super-rich west someone can be considered to live in abject poverty who is also obese, eg the free market has solved the oldest human problem, scarcity of food! You can live in terrible poverty in the Uk and still have central heating, fridge, freezer, tv, clean water out of your tap. India spent decades trying their own brand of socialism and their poorest people remained in unimaginable poverty. They began to embrace the evils of neoliberalism and their economy started to expand, allowing millions to lift themselves out of poverty. Sure there are still huge numbers of poor people in India but it is improving and BECAUSE of the evils of "neoliberalism" not in spite of it. Socialism failed the poorest. It may have been a worthy idea in principle but it failed utterly in the only way that mattered, in reality.

Fri, 2011-10-14 13:40 — Adam (not verified)

Mr Divine.

I have a decent job, i make a decent living, for my age i suppose...in the financial market nonetheless.

However, how does this relate in the slightest to me not being able to put my veiw across, or moan as you like to see it, about this country and whole my generation have been short changed?

I am making something of myself, on my own, but dont expect me, or any of my age group to owe anything back to this country and this government when they need me to spend/help the economy/clear my debt etc...

Fri, 2011-10-07 01:25 — Dickie1

@Stuart,

"Only the super-rich can afford to be socialists. The only hope for the poor is capitalism."

You have given away the fact that you have no idea of what socialism is. Interestingly, that means you cannot know what its opposite is. So you literally have no idea what you are talking about, which is pretty awesome really.

Well done! you should be proud.

Sat, 2011-10-15 12:02 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

What you on about Benedict, there isn't any. This article is about how the world doesn't allow people to grow up. What better to demonstrate this than by retaining all the posts on this comment thread?

Fri, 2011-10-07 19:50 — Tesco Shelf Stacker (not verified)

The economy is in the toilet, our politicians are printing more monopoly money to keep the game going, protesters are protesting against ... erm everything really, these are really crazy times!

But hey! It's Friday, the sun is shining here, Laurie celebrates reaching a quarter of a century, the sky hasn't fallen yet and world is still turning - let's have a disco!

Let's all have a disco, let's all have a disco, la la la la, Oi! la la la la Oi! LOL

Birthday wishes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS9OO0S5w2k&ob=av3e

Fri, 2011-10-07 01:28 — Dickie1

Oh,

And many happy returns Laurie.

Fri, 2011-10-07 19:50 — Stuart (not verified)

Oh and stuart, in my opinion the brand of socialism that the likes of Miss Penny believe in has caused the most unimaginable and unnecessary suffering for billions of human beings through poverty and lack of liberty, it is therefore hard not to be passionate about it. But I also believe you should never attack people only their ideas so if it was a attack on her as a person then I am very sorry. In honestly words like "disgustingly rich" were unnecessary. My point was that we in the west are almost all staggeringly rich and to then be moaning about not being rich enough seems rather churlish.

Fri, 2011-10-14 13:41 — Adam (not verified)

Sorry, the above comment is meant for Stuart not Mr D...

Sat, 2011-10-15 12:33 — John P Reid (not verified)

hows the revelution going today, j rodolfo

Fri, 2011-10-07 20:05 — Charlieman (not verified)

Ms Penny's opinions about "baby boomers" appear to have shifted since the publication of this classic:
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2010/09/04/why-is-it-easier-to-cut-services...

Fri, 2011-10-07 20:05 — Ceeks (not verified)

@Stuart. Is it not true that all of the countries you have listed, both neoliberal and socialist, adopted the ideologies to varying degrees and in different ways?

Can we say 'neoliberalism works!'?

Or can all we say is 'South Korea's take on neoliberalism worked!'

And how do you measure neoliberal success? GDP? Anything else? If not, is GDP enough to indicate a stable society?

Sun, 2011-10-09 12:04 — Spud Middleton (not verified)

"So, it is a question of taste, but bashing Penny just because you would rather read someone else is no better than standing up for her just because other attack her."

Well that's true; obviously. I think she's crap so it's a given that I'd rather be reading someone else. But, and it's not exactly hair-splitting, I 'bash' her cos she's shit...not because I'd rather be reading someone else...that goes without saying. It's like I'm tied up getting my bollocks kicked. Obviously I'd rather be sitting on a beach drinking an ice cool bottle of beer. But I don't want the bollock kicking to stop because I'd rather be sitting on a beach, I want it to stop because it fuckin hurts.

Mr D
"Spud: What's your alternative, bullshitter? What shall be done?"

For the 8 millionth time...SOCIALISM

If you don't know what that is, look it up...or ask Jack Shit...you know him so well.

"English Lit dickheads."
Ouch...that hurts...quick get me out of here and set me down on a beach.
You're a bit angsty this morning Mr D...have a cup of tea then go and have a walkabout.

Fri, 2011-10-07 20:08 — Mr Danger

Happy birthday!

When I graduated my generation came up with the same self pitying, defeatist excuses. Or at least a lot of them did.

The rest went out and did something with their lives.

Mon, 2011-10-10 22:40 — Dickie1

Spot on Spud,

The thing capitalists want you to believe is that we'll all have to grow our own jumpers if it weren't for their system. Truth is currently wealth is sat upon by people who can scarcely count it let alone spend it.

Fri, 2011-10-07 04:02 — Nathalie

Happy birthday Laurie!! And many happy returns too! I enjoy reading your columns from Canberra (OZ) I could be your grandmum, but find your thoughts most refreshing! Keep it up, please... and enjoy yourself!
Cheers!

Mon, 2011-10-10 22:48 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

Spud, you do have a great deal of wealth.. don't you have a car and a bike? How about your house, your furniture, and your holidays?
You can live every weekend without having to work. Have you spent any time in the Third World? Most people there haven't got wealth, and in comparison to them you are rich. The problem you have is that you don't want to work (I don't blame you). You want to give it up and do things that you would like to do, day in day out. Probably like a lot of people you're stuck with a mortgage, you're a slave to your debt, to your life choices. And you don't like the idea of other people being out of this slavery, so that's why you want to drag everything down to your level.

Mon, 2011-10-10 22:53 — Buckskins (not verified)

Spud, I run a team of engineers that consult on civil engineering problems, mostly on construction sites. Some of these guys work long hard days in the Texas heat solving problems. They are improving roads bridges and buildings for safe and cost effective results for everyone. Ask them why they do it and most of them will pull out a billfold with a picture of their kids. They make good money and they earn it. There is nothing for nothing.

I feel that Socialists figure the country owes them. If your natural resources were managed as a country like Norway, who despite their wealth have a hard work ethic, you would have half a chance but many of your people are wasters and bone lazy. Most of those with any ambition are long gone or working on it. You have opened your doors to immigrants, but you guys have not let them feel at home and become a part of your country. You figure capitalism is not the future. The older folks in Eastern Europe may have a different opinion than you.

Cheers Mate.

Tue, 2011-10-11 22:21 — Spud Middleton (not verified)

5 tries Divine. It won't stick. I'll try and put it somewhere else...see if that works.

Fri, 2011-10-07 08:05 — Fergus Pickering (not verified)

OK Zeros, what is socialism and where is it practised?

Tue, 2011-10-11 22:25 — Spud Middleton (not verified)

"Why do you have to wait till everyone else does it?"

Didn't I say: "I'll even go first."? Where was your "Masters in Linguists" from Divine? Was it free with 4 coupons on boxes of Sugar Puffs? Try actually reading what I wrote.

Thu, 2011-10-13 10:05 — Henry Johnson (not verified)

The problem with you Spud Middleton is that you have failed to realise that Mr. Divine has been impersonating you. Look at the way he sometimes writes with the quotation at the top of the text and then your style of reply. It's as if he's you writing about you using your style of writing but with the added bite of questions you are unable to answer.

Your writing style is so one dimensional and that's why Mr. Divine has outclassed you because he has been impersonating you, criticising you ... without you even knowing. You on the other hand are unable to do the same to him because he varies his style. You have been outclassed by an expert writer.

Tue, 2011-10-11 22:28 — Spud Middleton (not verified)

"Each according to their ability says Marx. What does that mean, and how do you assess 'ability'. Communism is each according to their need, but who determines 'need'?"

Fri, 2011-10-14 14:45 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

I'm glad you made that correction. For a moment there I thought I had insulted someone.

In fact I have been in your situation. I too have had my heart broken at a young age; I really have. It's very difficult I know and people like stuart telling you to pull yourself together don't help. I still can't understand why she left me and although I have a found another beautiful woman there is something in that song entitled, 'The First Cut is the Deepest, Baby I Know' that makes me feel that I lost something very special all those years ago. Good luck Adam, there is nothing wrong with feeling so bad.

Tue, 2011-10-11 22:30 — Spud Middleton (not verified)

Trying to chop it up and post in bits, but I'm fuckin bored now. This site is a fuckin joke. I've got about another 50 lines. I've fuckin had it with this place.

Tue, 2011-10-11 22:44 — Iain (not verified)

@ Chris

"it's almost as though the memory of decades of rising, equitable prosperity and near-full employment were brushed away"

Evidence please?

Mon, 2011-10-10 23:09 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

I've with Buckskins on this. If you look at most government bodies you'll see heaps of waste. I know someone who worked for government BT. They had 6 workers in his department... they played games most of the shift. The job only needed one person, and that doesn't include the central government body to look after BT. It is the nature of government to waste and not innovate.

Tue, 2011-10-11 22:51 — Bob (not verified)

I still think Laurie Penny is a wind up.

ps Some people on here have a serious problem discerning between opinions/interpretations and facts. I can only recommend Arthur Marwick's the 'New Nature of History'.

Fri, 2011-10-07 21:01 — Dickie1

Fergus Pickering

Just so we don't go making it up here is an OED entry

http://www.oxfordadvancedlearnersdictionary.com/dictionary/socialism

And I don't think there is anywhere that has really managed it. Humans are too corrupt. Oddly thought the banking sector rather resembles part of it, but not the equality bit.

Tue, 2011-10-11 22:59 — Iain (not verified)

If people promise to stop hurling personal abuse at Laurie Penny, will her 'fans' promise to stop posting their fantastically sycophantic and obsequious comments. Both the trolling and the arse licking are way past creepy now.

Mon, 2011-10-10 23:18 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

And Buckskins is spot on, the people with ambition left the UK years ago. If you're just doing a normal job it is very difficult to save there, mainly because of taxation. So you have to think about different ways to get what you want.

What gets me is why you criticise Laurie Penny when you have the same ideas about what to do. And what you'll do will make your situation worse. If you start trying to squeeze private enterprise too much you'll get a flight of capital, and then the country will really be in dire straits.

Fri, 2011-10-07 09:19 — Doink (not verified)

Laurie is clearly a Toff in disguise. I'd rather sh*t my pants in the middle of the day on a busy High Street than listen to her. Spare the meek your drivel Laurie, please.

Fri, 2011-10-07 21:17 — Indu Pendent (not verified)

Happy birthday.

Dont let the bastards grind you down as my old dad use to say - hope the comments dont thicken your skin too much. They are just being playful. Some of them.

Tue, 2011-10-11 23:23 — kenny jenkins (not verified)

children! children! children!
If you can't play nicely you can all go to your rooms!

Mon, 2011-10-10 23:44 — Dickie1

Mr D,

"the people with ambition left the UK years ago."

Was there one golden age of people with ambition? or is it that every time someone has ambition the first thing they do is leave.

And, define ambition. Some ambitions, in the arts for instance, are very hard to achieve but seldom earn a great living. They require a whole different skill-set. People who work at such things don't lack ambition, they are just inclined towards other goals. And many of them work full-time too.

Thu, 2011-10-13 11:37 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

@Henry; 'You have been outclassed by an expert writer.'

Don't be such a adolsecent dyselix dipstick twelze year old..how the fuckin hell could I outclass someone who quotes someone and then takes the piss with the same linguistical lexical brilliance of a BlackAdder impersonator from the 80s?

'Look at the way he sometimes writes with the quotation at the top of the text and then your style of reply'

Yes I agree ...but does that mean I am impersonating him? Does it really? ... It might just mean it's ... the best way I can reply to his inane ignorance of all things ignorant. Have you considered that? Of course you haven't...and that's why you are dyslexic plonker with a donkey's dildo stuck in your left pig's ear for sow.

Listen I'm a Socialist who thinks the state should set up a blog site so that I can send my poetry there without it being moderated by a bunch of right wing capitalists in cat suits.

Thu, 2011-10-13 11:44 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

@Henry:

God this site keeps getting my brilliant post screwed up. Look ...tell me where I can send you the response? Name another site..which fuckin works...and I'll put it there. I'm just not fuckin about with this shitehole any more.

Comeon our Henry
I'm Muhammed Ali
And I know it
Cos me poetry shows it.

Wed, 2011-10-12 02:32 — Dickie1

"If people promise to stop hurling personal abuse at Laurie Penny, will her 'fans' promise to stop posting their fantastically sycophantic and obsequious comments."

Sounds like a fair exchange to me, if a little overblown and tautologically presented.

Wed, 2011-10-12 05:27 — Mr. Farthing (not verified)

Our Penny has been chosen as one of the golden ones by the BBC. The BBC wheels her out for an lefty opinion for a fee, presumably!

Tue, 2011-10-11 00:34 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

Yea, you're right, some people with 'ambition' didn't leave!
If you are a 'average' person with a regular job and your ambition is a big house in the country with acres and an unearned income then the UK isn't the place for you. The economics don't stack up, the wages are too low, taxes too high, and the house price are too high (except for parts of Scotland).

A simple way to get the country house lifestyle is to earn money in one place, save it and spend it in another. Different times highlight different places ... early 90s the place to be was Japan just teaching English. Now one of the places to work is mining sites in outback Australia where a cleaner can earn about 70,000 quid a year. Then you take that money and go to the States or East Europe where you can buy a house cheaply. If you work for about 7 years you'll get your house and your unearned income .. but you mustn't spend your money on junk, expensive holidays, furniture etc.

Fri, 2011-10-14 16:24 — Adam (not verified)

Too true my friend :(

I didnt want to just come out with it but i feel my hand has been forced. My post was only there to entice the 25 year old Laurie to join an almost 25 year old, me, into wallowing in our uncertain future....together...

Wed, 2011-10-12 09:10 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

@Spud: My Masters is in Linguistics was from the Australian National University (specialisation in Semantics). My BA is in Political Philosophy from Swansea University with a specialisation in Marxism in Russia from 1880 to 1924 from Neil Harding the 'expert' (he was a nice airhead) in Lenin, the hot bed of Russian Studies in the 80s. I'm fuckin lethal shit face. Unlike you, who is a bullshitter, and you fuckin know it.. you don't even know anything about sport, do ya? A word bullshitter, just like Laurie Penny. Exactly the fuckin same as her, you are, Spud. You don't understand Hegel, the one that Marx was trying to outdo. Both are bullshitters from the past but one has loads of fuckin hangerson .. just the am as fuckin Jesus Christ, another bullshitter.
Don't ya fuckin understand all this Socialism is stupid maths? That's how fuckin stupid you yar. You're a fuckin SHEEP. Look, Hegel reckoned it was 'one goes into all', and Marx thought it was 'All goes into one'. Both of these German dickheads knew nothing. When you understand that you'll be where I am, not fuckin poucing about about where you are.

All the people who call them themselves 'Socialists' or 'Capitalists' are STUPID PEOPLE. When you get that get that into your thick skull you move on from that concrete jungle of Pilger stupidity.

Tue, 2011-10-11 01:16 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

I suppose you can say ambition is something that you want to happen AND that you are prepared to sacrifice other things to make that happen.

Many people are quite happy to stay on state benefits because they have what they want .. free housing and a certain amount of money to live on. They may want more but they are not prepared to do things in order to achieve their goals. Some people just spend their wages on things that give them immediate satisfaction and moan that they never get anywhere financially. You got to ask yourself, what do you really need.

People say you need a lot of money to travel, but why not bicycle places and camp free like I did for years? Even now I free camp rather than give money to some hotel chain. I still bin dive and pick up free stuff on the side of the road. I don't have to but think about it, what exactly is the value of things. Are they worth your life?

Wed, 2011-10-12 09:22 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

Screw everyone's ideas of what should be and what shouldn't be. Build your fences and your barriers and YOU be the gate keeper. When you are the gate keeper YOU decide who comes in the gate. You are the King of YOUR domain, THE KING OF THE GATE. Once you get to that point then it is you then it is YOU that is free.
And when I say a FENCE I mean a FENCE. In fact the many fences the BETTER.

It's not about 'Socialism' or 'Capitalism': it's about you and everyone else, that's what it comes down to.

Fri, 2011-10-07 22:57 — Spud Middleton (not verified)

"Dont let the bastards grind you down as my old dad use to say - hope the comments dont thicken your skin too much. They are just being playful. Some of them."

This may be true. Possibly some of it is 'playful'. I'd just like to go on record as saying that in my case it's genuine. Obviously I've never met you and I'm willing to accept that you may be a sincere and well intentioned individual. However I'm really not a fan of your writing; either the style or content. Your knowledge and analysis of political economy is inconsistent and naive; it seems informed both by wishful thinking and a desperate desire to appear current, relevant and radical.

As somebody has already pointed out you seem to have shifted your opinion on baby-boomers. I think people should also be reminded that it's only a couple of years ago that you were shilling for the LibDems. In that short space of time you seem to have shifted into a realm of inchoate anarcho-syndicalism. I'm sure you regard this as some sort of personal growth or a move towards 'authenticity'. What amazes me is that have been granted the privilege of documenting your various changes of mind in various public forums.

I can only suppose the reason for this, given that these changing political positions have denied your 'message' any continuity or rational coherence, is that your prose style is of such quality that its content and consistency is irrelevant.

I can't agree. I find it by turn florid, mawkish and hyperbolic. Seriously...your 'rise' leaves me stunned. As much as you, yourself, seem repulsed by the cult of celebrity, I really can't conceive of anything else that explains your success. You're clearly ambitious, driven and ruthless in your pursuit of public exposure with a record of embellishing the actualite which far outstrips a certain Mr Hari...but even so, I can't, in my wildest flights of conjecture, imagine why anybody would pay you to ever report or opine on anything; not even a dog-race or a wall-pissing contest.

Happy Birthday. Seriously. I bear you no ill-will. I just think your ideas and your writing are shit.

Tue, 2011-10-11 02:09 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

@Spud: I've got a Masters in Linguistics ... does that count for studying English past primary school?

Wed, 2011-10-12 10:46 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

@Spud Middleton: 'I've fuckin had it with this place.'

Is that because i've got you pinned down and I'm thrashing you like a light WEIGHT intellectual that you are. Go on piss off to Yahoo Chat and talk to all the other light weight intellectuals. You haven't said anything here. All you've done is taken the piss. Any dickhead can take the piss. You haven't said anything different. What the fuck have you said that is different? All you've said is that YOU are great, and that Laurie Penny is shit. You've said it that many times its coming out you're fuckin ears.

YOU'VE SAID NOTHING DIFFERENT THAN WHAT HAS BEEN SAID. PISS OFF BACK TO KNOTTY ASH WITH ALL THE REST OF THE DIDDY MEN ... ONE DIMENSIONAL SHIT FACE.

Fri, 2011-10-14 16:39 — stuart (not verified)

if you meant that comment for mr divine adam, who bty i cant see making comments,,why did you headpost it mr divine...

Wed, 2011-10-12 11:02 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

And the one thing you don't recognise Spud, is that Laurie Penny is an ace writer. We may not agree with her views but we have to acknowledge that she is the best writer of our times.

Love Steve.

Tue, 2011-10-11 04:40 — Mr. Divine (not verified)

But of course you knew that already. I'm not surprised you're bored about all this now. What does a journalist do? Spends their lives reporting on things that other people have done or of how they see the world. Is that it? Then they get to Pilger's age and they think they've seen it all: they haven't done anything never mind seen anything. They conform to views that gives them their bread and butter, and they adopt silky slick mannerisms and word sound bites that fit nicely with all the other bull shit ways of the 'alternative' establishment. Nobody is prepared to go out on a real limb.

My ambition is to be a great journalist just like John Pilger! Give me a break. When you're 65 you'll be defending the right of an accused rapist not to appear before court, and bullshitting with more wooly words.

Happy 25th!