Paternalism - stuck in the pseudoconcrete, opportune ego-massage for people who lost their selves in the system. Or as Justin Podur puts it:

"As youth, you have probably had to listen to all kinds of paternalism from the older generation. They pat us on the head and tell us how wonderful it is that we are idealistic now, but that we'll grow out of it. They say that because it has been their own experience.

When older people tell us that we will become more realistic when we get older, they are actually saying that as we get older, our investment in the system grows. We will need to earn a living somehow; we will have less time to dedicate to political life; and, on an uglier note, we may receive privileges-fruits of inequality-that we become so attached to that we are willing to forsake our ideals in order to avoid confronting that the system is an unjust one."