Fast Future

December 3, 2012
This articulate and occasionally one-sided apologia for millennials defends the generation born between 1980 and 1994 against “kids these days” complaints. Burstein’s own résumé burnishes his case. While still in high school, he founded a film festival, going on to create a nonprofit (Generation18), and supporting documentary (18 in ’08), advocating for young people to vote. Wisely, only the preface involves the potentially self-aggrandizing details of Burstein’s career, with far more space going to the traits he believes make millennial Americans uniquely well-equipped to navigate our era’s “operating system” of cultural assumptions. An especially important attribute is “pragmatic idealism,” the linchpin in Burstein’s argument against those who call this generation politically apathetic or amorally careerist. He defines his generation instead by those working toward progressive change alongside corporations or within major political parties. In the name of inclusivity, Burstein allocates the final chapter to global youth-driven change, referring to the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street, and keeps up a sometimes strained nonpartisan tone throughout (he feels compelled to cite both Kennedy and Reagan as precursors to Obama’s youthful electoral support). If this is a boosterish rallying cry, with only limited time for uncongenial facts like high unemployment or intractable political conflicts, it’s at least a thoughtful one. Agent: Heather Baror, Baror International.

December 1, 2012
An inspiring look at what the millennial generation is doing in America. "Millennials are people born in the 1980s and 1990s," writes Fast Company contributor Burstein, founder and director of the youth-voter engagement organization Generation18. They "share the characteristic of having had one foot in the pre-Internet, pre-cell phone, pre-Facebook world, while the other foot is in the new world." It is this unusual combination of old and new that makes them go-getters who use technology to its fullest extent as a tool and a social platform to bring about rapid changes in today's evolving world. As Burstein elaborates through various stories, millennials brought Facebook into the world, have tackled establishments such as Egypt's government and Wall Street, and have successfully campaigned for President Barack Obama. Due to their self-confidence, assertiveness and willingness to experiment, coupled with their dissatisfaction with the status quo, this generation has opened thousands of new businesses, most of them online, despite the recession. They are eager to move toward their high ideals in small, practical and incremental steps and are hopeful about the future and eager to embrace change despite global warming, the threat of war and terrorism, failing economies, etc. Burstein's interviews and firsthand accounts bring to light these young people, and readers will gain a deeper appreciation and awareness of the rapid progress and changes that have occurred worldwide since the advent of the Internet. Stimulating accounts of what is being accomplished by an ambitious generation.

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