People in their 20s can barely conceive of a world where you have to take the first job offer, put up with a bad boss or stick with work you don't like. Both authors are nostalgic for the 1940s and 1950s, when American men could find meaning in anonymous industrial labor and stable social roles. But the promise was broken. Current social and economic arrangements, these critics suggest, have been foisted on the good people of America by a cold system that cares nothing for their needs or aspirations. Worst of all, there's no one to take the blame and reassert control.
Nobody knows who is in charge.
No one knows who to appeal to. It's an increasingly common gripe among the articulate. Again and again, particularly in articles about Silicon Valley, intellectuals are venting their rage at the dynamism of the American economy. Nobody is in charge, they fume. We never voted for this state of affairs, they say.