June 11, 2017

"Why do millennials keep leaking government secrets?"

By Malcolm Harris — author of “Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials" — in WaPo.
Without intending to, employers and policymakers have engineered a cohort of workers that is bound to yield leakers. An important part of our training for the 21st-century labor market has been an emphasis on taking initiative, hustling, finding ways to be useful, not waiting around for someone in charge to tell us what to do....

Since we can’t get too attached to particular employers, millennials are encouraged by baby-boomer-run institutions to find internal motivation, to live out our values through our frequent employment choices, and we’ve heard them loud and clear....

Lots of firms try to look like they’re doing good in the world, in line with millennial values. Facebook isn’t an ad company; it connects the world! Uber isn’t a cab company; it liberates moms to make money in their off hours! But when firms act contrary to their rosy recruiting copy, workers who weren’t disposed to be loyal in the first place might find another way to live out their values...

We hardly invented leaking, but millennials are especially well-suited to the tactic. It’s a squirt gun we can use on our leaders when they’ve stepped out of line. I don’t imagine that employers — public or private — are going to start inspiring loyalty or stop abusing power anytime soon....

54 comments:

rhhardin said...

WAPO is an ad company.

Amadeus 48 said...

WaPoo used to be an ad company. WaPoo wants to be an ad company. WaPoo isn't much of an ad company anymore.

rhhardin said...

A man's word is his bond is patriarchical, and women never got it anyway.

Telephone, telegraph or telewoman.

David Begley said...

Why do their parents name their kids Reality?

holdfast said...

I agree that Millennials tend to want to demand that their employers be "socially responsible" and "doing good in the world", but the idea that Millennials are all about "taking initiative, hustling, finding ways to be useful, not waiting around for someone in charge to tell [them] what to do" is farcical. Maybe that applies to the ones in Silicon Valley, but the ones I deal with aren't much like that at all. Oh, they expect us to value their fresh insight and ideas, especially is areas where they have absolutely no useful experience, but I have not seen a lot of initiative and hustle - mostly I see entitlement and demand for "work life balance" (i.e. they want to go home).

I am not surprised that they are producing leakers - they attended universities where the prevailing political view is somewhere far to the left of Bernie Sanders, they grew up with the TV news talking about how Bush and the GOP were all evil, they have no respect for authority and experience, and they have a huge but almost wholly unfounded belief in their own rectitude.

sinz52 said...

Oh, brother.

Less than a week before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, someone leaked the Pentagon's secret war plan in the event of war to the Chicago Tribune. The Tribune published it on their front page.

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1941/12/04/page/1/article/f-d-r-s-war-plans

Look at the date on that newspaper. And look at the political cartoon next to it.

The leaker and the newspaper didn't want FDR to take us into war, so they published it to hobble our military retaliatory capability.

The leaker certainly wasn't a millennial.

Bob Boyd said...

"Why do their parents name their kids Reality?"

I thought maybe because when the woman got pregnant, reality came crashing in.

Ann Althouse said...

"Look at the date on that newspaper. And look at the political cartoon next to it."

Thanks for that link.

I was fascinated that it was also front-page news that clothespins were getting half an inch shorter.

Bob Boyd said...

Think of how many movies and TV shows these young people have seen where the heros are a leaker and the person who the leaker turns to. They fight Goliath, get the girl and save the world.
Millenials learned at a tender age to identify with those meddling kids. They subconsciously ask themselves, "What would Scooby do?"

holdfast said...

Did you see this post at PowerLine Blog? I doubt it could garner a perjury charge, but it reinforces what we all should have gleaned by now regarding Comey's character.

holdfast said...

Sorry, bad link

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/06/proof-that-james-comey-misled-the-senate-intelligence-committee.php

PB said...

BS! It ain't the corporate world's fault. Its the education system that has led to a disrespect for the law and our constitution. Its been drummed into them that the ends justify the means in the battle for liberalism's religious dominance.

Tommy Duncan said...

After their socialist indoctrination in the public schools the Millennials are instinctively protective of party principles. It is right and just to blow the whistle on those with wrong thoughts and send them to the gulags.

Anonymous said...

"....I doubt it could garner a perjury charge, but it reinforces what we all should have gleaned by now regarding Comey's character."

I keep reading how so many of you Trumpists know of Trump's lack of character, but don't care. Funny how you expect the FBI Director to have a pristine character, yet accept a complete lack of character in your President. You people have lost your senses.

Tommy Duncan said...

You people have lost your senses.

Inga starts yet another day with an ad hominem attack on those with whom she disagrees.

Fernandinande said...

Without intending to, employers and policymakers have engineered a cohort of workers that is bound to yield leakers.

He doesn't provide any evidence for that, or for any other generational differences.

If there is actually more leaking, it's not because of some group personality characteristic, it's because:

- Far more secrets to leak.

- Computers. There's no need to physically sneak around with a Minox camera.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

I can't wait to comment on this -- we had exactly this conversation with our 15 year old yesterday -- but I have to get ready for church.

Old Camera Guy said...

It would take just a few honest prosecutors doing their jobs to change this headline to, "Why do millenials keep going to jail for 25 years for leaking government secrets?"

But what the hell. Bradley Manning is a hero with this cohort. You can do untold damage to thousands of lives, but as long as you can present yourself as a helpless victim, you're a saint and a super-hero.

Kevin said...

"Funny how you expect the FBI Director to have a pristine character"

Comey was billed by many as "the last honest man in Washington". In a "he said/he said" against Trump we were to assume Trump the liar because Comey thought nothing but of the truth and serving the American people.

When you're billed that way, it's not wrong to question you.

Matt Sablan said...

I think it is in part because they think they know better, the tools are easier to get, and WikiLeaks was lauded as a hero for leaking things during the Bush presidency when many millennials were in their formative years, so they think that this is just how to do things.

Gahrie said...

"Why do their parents name their kids Reality?"

They didn't. She changed her name as an adult.

Michael K said...

"mostly I see entitlement and demand for "work life balance" (i.e. they want to go home). "

Yes. I saw this when my partner and I were looking for an other surgeon to join us in practice 30 years ago.

Vacation and time off where in the first few questions. That was when Medicine was still pretty free from bureaucratic control.

It was discouraging. It has progressed from there in all fields of work. Even the military,

I read that one of the big problems employers have is with new hires who don't show up the second day of work.

mockturtle said...

Here's an interesting story about Reality Winner, albeit from the Daily Mail. It seems she sympathized with Osama bin Laden and hated America, wanting to blow up the White House and move to the Middle East. Why was she ever hired? How many others are there? Reality Winner

mockturtle said...

Correction: Burn down, not blow up, the White House.

Mountain Maven said...

No, these are govt employees. Initiative is not part of that. Leakers are Criminals. They want to keep their jobs. The amoral ideological politicized culture helps them rationalized their crimes.

Bad Lieutenant said...

holdfast said...
Did you see this post at PowerLine Blog? I doubt it could garner a perjury charge, but it reinforces what we all should have gleaned by now regarding Comey's character.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/06/proof-that-james-comey-misled-the-senate-intelligence-committee.php
6/11/17, 7:26 AM


I suppose it's too much to ask that James Comey be raped to death in prison, but can he at least be disbarred and prevented from earning a living?

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

So, they work four hours, then leave for a bar to party. The questions remains, who should enjoy the beachfront estate in Hawaii? Also what happens when their shift ends mid-surgery?

It seems the millennials have a work ethic analogous to green technology. They're full of unreliable, intermittent bursts of energy, that will abort an eagle (or baby) or two for their greater good.

Establish of the Pro-Choice quasi-religious/moral/legal philosophy and a progressive adoption of the twilight faith has consequences.

Yancey Ward said...

The following quote tells you a lot about the author of the essay:

"An important part of our training for the 21st-century labor market has been an emphasis on taking initiative, hustling, finding ways to be useful, not waiting around for someone in charge to tell us what to do...."

What does the author think the generations that came before the Millenials did? Did they sit around and take no initiative? Were they taught not to take initiative? Were they taught not to be useful employees? Were they taught to sit around and wait for direction?

I have worked closely with the Greatest Generation, Baby Boomers, Gen X, and the Millenials- I found that initiative seemed to be a declining trait as one generation followed another. This is just a piss poor and nonsensical defense of leaking. There are actually better defenses of it.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

mockturtle said...
Here's an interesting story about Reality Winner, albeit from the Daily Mail. It seems she sympathized with Osama bin Laden and hated America, wanting to blow up the White House and move to the Middle East. Why was she ever hired? How many others are there?"

Inga called her a heroine and a patriot.

Remember that when Inga goes on about Trump's character.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

n.n said...
So, they work four hours, then leave for a bar to party."

Or they leave for a bar to watch Comey testify. I marveled at all the millennials who were packing bars in Brooklyn and DC on a weekday afternoon.

Mary Beth said...

Gahrie said...

"Why do their parents name their kids Reality?"

They didn't. She changed her name as an adult.

6/11/17, 8:48 AM


According to the Daily Mail interview with her mother and stepfather, her father gave her the name because he wanted a "Real Winner". - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4583088/How-Reality-Winner-got-unusual-name.html

I had also read that she changed her name, but I think that was speculation based on her using "SaraWinners" as a Twitter handle.

mockturtle said...

It seems the millennials have a work ethic analogous to green technology. They're full of unreliable, intermittent bursts of energy

Excellent, n.n.!

Real American said...

Millennials are raised to be tattletales.

John henry said...

Blogger sinz52 said...

Less than a week before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, someone leaked the Pentagon's secret war plan in the event of war to the Chicago Tribune. The Tribune published it on their front page.

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1941/12/04/page/1/article/f-d-r-s-war-plans


the article is hard to read but it looks like it is mainly about plans to get the US into the war in Europe, again. I don't see much about Japan in it. There are some theories that FDR was purposely trying to provoke Japan into attacking us as well. Possibly but I am not convinced.

Getting us into Europe? Hell yes.

FDR had been working on this since 1939. Sending war materials to Britain on a never-never loan called "Lend-Lease", invading Iceland, bombing and torpedoing German subs, running escorts for non-US shipping to Britain, issuing a "sink on sight" (shoot first) order to the US Navy re German ships, instituting a peacetime draft and more.

All this BEFORE the Germans declared war on us. Most of it cited in the German Declaration of War on the US in Dec 41. Absent FDR's participation in WWI (Part 2) prior to Dec 1941, it is unlikely the Germans would have ever declared war on the US.

The Japanese saw this, figured we were going to get into Europe, could not fight on both sides of the world at once and went ahead with their plans.

John Henry

HoodlumDoodlum said...

I don’t imagine that employers — public or private — are going to start inspiring loyalty or stop abusing power anytime soon

Oh. "I don't imagine Millennials will feel loyalty to their nation nor fidelity to their oaths anytime soon."
Lovely.

MayBee said...

I think it's social media. If you want to find a world that verifies your way of thinking and helps you justify your actions, you can find that world online.
There's a whole world of people who think Chelsea Manning was a hero online. Live in that world instead of the "real" world, and you, too, can be a hero by leaking.

John henry said...

Also this, for history buffs:

http://www.americanheritage.com/content/early-warning

FEBRUARY 7, 1932, A DATE THAT WOULD LIVE IN… AMNESIA
Thomas Fleming

On February 1, 1932, the United States began its annual Grand Joint Army and Navy Exercises. As in earlier years, the participating soldiers and sailors were divided into “Blue” and “Black” teams. This year the goal was to test the defenses of the main American bastion in the Pacific. The Blue attackers, with the Navy’s two new carriers, USS Saratoga and Lexington, plus a formidable array of battleships and cruisers, were ordered to land a combined Army-Marine assault force on Oahu, Hawaii.
...


John Henry

Big Mike said...

Shorter response: most Millennials are scum. Do not hire them except for the most menial jobs. A fifty-something individual will work harder, spend less time at work on social media, and be more loyal.

Fernandinande said...

These guys have some - gasp! - data other than anecdotes:

Generational Differences
The Newest Way to Justify a Bad Hire
The Hype of Labeling Generations

rehajm said...

One good prison sentence will cure it.

Michael K said...

someone leaked the Pentagon's secret war plan in the event of war to the Chicago Tribune. The Tribune published it on their front page.

There is a theory that Major Albert Wedemeyer leaked the plans, but there is another theory that, Roosevelt did it to goad Hitler into declaring war.

Nobody knows the answer and it is unknown if Roosevelt could have anticipated the Japanese attack a few days later.

I think he wanted them to attack but did not expect it to be at Pearl Harbor.

In fact, the Pearl Harbor attack was a strategic error for the Japanese.

The Army, which ran Japan at the time, had no experience out of the East. Yamamoto did but was over ruled.

mockturtle said...

In fact, the Pearl Harbor attack was a strategic error for the Japanese.

How so? Because the aircraft carriers had been deployed elsewhere? They seemed quite successful except for the fact that they turned back after the first round instead of, as Fuchida and others expected, finishing the job.

I have read Fuchida's book, BTW. He was a remarkable man.

n.n said...

It starts at conception, followed by a Choice. A State-established Cult to force conversion therapy. A debasement of principles is sure to follow.

Michael K said...

"How so? Because the aircraft carriers had been deployed elsewhere? "

My opinion is that, had the Japanese struck in the East (west to us) at the Dutch East Indies, where the oil was that they needed, or even the Philippines, Roosevelt might have had a hard time getting the US to declare war.

First, he was focused on Europe so his heart wasn't in it anyway.

Second, the US was not enthusiastic about war. Isolationism was still a force.

What they did was to create not only a thousand American dead but war hysteria in California. "Remember Pearl Harbor" has hardly been forgotten 75 years later.

The Japanese thought we were rich dilettantes as a country and would give up after a few losses.

Also, the US Navy war plan was bunk. The plan was for US battleships to cross the Pacific and fight Japan in a surface engagement near the Philippines. The Navy was run by "battleship admirals."

They knew nothing about aircraft carriers. It would have been a slaughter. Look at the Repulse and The Prince of Wales.

That would have been the fate of the US fleet in the Plan Orange.

Admiral Philips believed the Royal Air Force could not guarantee air cover for his ships, as they were equipped with limited numbers of ageing fighters. One squadron, No. 453 Squadron RAAF with Brewster Buffalos standing by at RAF Sembawang, was available to provide close cover.[17] They were designated the Fleet Defence Squadron for this task, with Flight Lieutenant Tim Vigors given the radio procedures used by Force Z.[4]

Regardless, Phillips elected to proceed. It is believed that four factors entered into his decision: he thought that Japanese planes could not operate so far from land, he thought that his ships were relatively immune from fatal damage via air attack, he was unaware of the quality of Japanese bombing and torpedo aircraft,[17] and like many RN officers, Phillips underestimated the fighting abilities of the Japanese.


They were sunk . Churchill got a fateful telephone call the next morning.

In all the war, I never received a more direct shock... As I turned over and twisted in bed the full horror of the news sank in upon me. There were no British or American ships in the Indian Ocean or the Pacific except the American survivors of Pearl Harbor, who were hastening back to California. Over all this vast expanse of waters Japan was supreme, and we everywhere were weak and naked

Roosevelt could have gotten a worse call. He didn't because.

1. The aircraft carriers were gone.

2. The battleships were sunk in a shallow harbor and were recovered except for Arizona.

3. Most important, the carrier admirals fought the war in the Pacific. The battle ship admirals were discredited completely.

khesanh0802 said...

@MockTurtle Although Yamamoto's "sleeping giant" quote is questionable we know he wrote this: "Anyone who has seen the auto factories in Detroit and the oil fields in Texas knows that Japan lacks the national power for a naval race with America." Forcing the US into the war was a strategic error. Pearl Harbor was a tactical success, certainly. It is unlikely that Japan could have gone "east", as Michael K says, without bringing us into the war, but by unifying the American people with the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor the Japanese did make a serious strategic mistake. For some time we fought the Pacific War out of our back pockets. Had the full force of America's industrial power been turned on the Japs from the beginning it would have been a much shorter war.

mockturtle said...

Khesan asserts: For some time we fought the Pacific War out of our back pockets. Had the full force of America's industrial power been turned on the Japs from the beginning it would have been a much shorter war.

Well, I guess Hiroshima and Nagasaki shortened it a tad.

mockturtle said...

I would also argue that we are splitting semantic hairs regarding strategy and tactics. Japan had a strategy for Pearl Harbor which was a successful and tactically brilliant. I agree that their overall war strategy was ill-conceived.

0_0 said...

I love the stories on that archived-
John Garand gets an ASME award for the M1 rifle, the only semiautomatic battle rifle issued to troops (everyone else had bolt actions and a few submachine guns).
Detectives smash their way into office to arrest abortionist
Germans give Paris 7 days to find "terrorists"
British using Italian POWs to farm (slave labor?)
Full employment for the French (because French industry is now part of the German war production)

Michael K: The Tribune's publisher hated FDR and would not publish a leak to help him. Read that archived paper for his feeling on the international situation in general.

mockturtle: Pearl Harbor was a strategic error because it brought the USA into the war against them- a war they had NO chance of winning.
>as Fuchida and others expected
Misuo Fuchida has been exposed as a liar. You can find why online easily.

khesanh0802: >Had the full force of America's industrial power been turned on the Japs from the beginning- True, but the Pacific was given a lower priority because Japan was not the industrial nor military power Germany was, and therfore less of a threat to the USA.

0_0 said...

mockturtle, strategy and tactics are very different, and the difference is NOT splitting hairs.

Michael K said...

"Well, I guess Hiroshima and Nagasaki shortened it a tad."

There is a new book, reviewed by Hornfischer in the WSJ, that points out in considerable detail how difficult, if not impossible, an invasion of Japan would have been.

The shift from Europe to the Pacific was an incredible logistic nightmare. Senior noncoms all had high point scores and were eligible for discharge,

American thought the war was over. Okinawa was a blood bath. There was a major typhoon that would have struck the invasion fleet.

I doubt we would have gotten Japan to surrender without the atomic bombs. They did not surrender after Hiroshima because their atomic scientists, and they had been working on a bomb, told the Emperor that we could not have enough purified Uranium for a second bomb, They were correct.

They did not know about the Plutonium bomb. Nagasaki is what brought them to surrender and even then there was an attempted revolt in the officer corps.

Michael K said...

The Tribune's publisher hated FDR and would not publish a leak to help him

Oh, I know. It was probably Wedemeyer through a cutout like Comey,

I remember the Trib in those days, not 1941 as I was only 3, but I remember Westbrook Pegler the columnist who wrote nasty columns about FDR. He did have a sense of humor, unlike lefties today. One Christmas he sent out a card with a photo of him and Eleanor Roosevelt. I don't remember how he did it. No Photoshop then.

Birches said...

My opinion (as a old Millenial) is that Millenials don't understand the concept of promises or oaths anymore. Everything that people my age doesn't have a permanent status. My spouse and I are coming up on our 14th anniversary. He mentioned it to a younger co-worker and the co-worker's response (He's engaged himself): "I think I'd been really proud of myself if I made it to 14 years." ??!?! I don't relate to the concept that 14 years is the mark of a successful marriage.

I think prior generations were able to see a distinction in the promises they made in relationships and work, and work "secrets" were always sacrosanct. There is no distinction for Millenials; all promises are made with their fingers crossed.

Starpixel Clipping Point said...

I remember the Trib in those days, not 1941 as I was only 3, but I remember Westbrook Pegler the columnist who wrote nasty columns about FDR.

-Clipping path