Sunday, March 30, 2008
Generation Me
It's not the thought of kid suburbanites wearing sideways hats with the fresh new stickers placed strategically between recklessness and abandonment, no. It's not even the new breed of hippies with their American Apparel monochromatic outfits and stripped socks. I won't even go as far to say that it's the obsession with being real while ultimately being fake. What it is, to me, that I find truly disheartening is Generation Me...these kids today - The children who have somehow managed to omit their childhood while everyone else is trying to recapture, replay and reconcile their youth. How and why did humanity become so misshapen and backwards? Perhaps it's been salty pasts and shitty parents or good parents with shitty pasts, a proliferation of MTV subcultural transpositions, an ill-fated educational system or maybe a general disrespect for oneself. I don't think I'm alone in saying that I've had my traumas of adolescence and retrospectively, those deep set scars have manifested into a whole person. I see 13 year olds relinquishing themselves to destruction - drugs, alcohol, casual sex. These are things not unfamiliar to teenagers but certainly not lifestyles. And yet, there they are...like a parade of America's disillusionment and petty importance they define our future in every dirty and disappointing niche only The United States could conjure. It'd be easy to blame the parents, the toxicity of their surroundings and even absurd red herrings like music. The reality of the matter is a societal meltdown, a true and through, no holds bar, disembowelment of boundary and principal. Modernity has bequeathed a silent plague on our future and it's fucking depressing. Maybe it's a long-winded conspiracy theory with political agendas that demands a generation of complacency in mediocrity. I doubt it though, it's a little too optimistic. Instead, I see children stripped of their innocence and enigmatically forced into a psuedo-maturity, where the image misleads the experience. I've learned that to bring someone in to this world is the most selfless and selfish act all at the same time and with it comes responsibility. Not just as a parent, but as a community, a culture, a nation, a world. Lead those who have no leader and direct them to their path. Of course you can't walk it for them or save them from the inevitable (and almost endless) mistakes they will make...but you have to equip them with principles and convictions or they'll be lost forever. Love, like the sun, is transitional and constant...without it, our seeds won't grow.
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8 comments:
I feel this. It will be interesting to see where this pygmy generation goes, and whether or not they will similarly lament for a childhood, considering for all intents and purposes, they never knew one.
In spite of all the dispiriting trends that look down upon Generation Me, I think the youth is doing a pretty good job at sustaining. Yes I think that Generation Me must confront some very crazy obstacles, but doesn't every generation? Depression, crushing disappointment when the real world doesn't deliver on the things they've been taught to expect, credit card debt, mountainous student loans, horrible breakups, rising health-insurance, lack of jobs, real estate prices, lack of leadership, etc. To say that they're "disheartening" is a lil cynical and seems to move in the wrong direction.
This new generation lives in a time of some much needed change. A time where what used to be can no longer be. Right and wrong have been redefined and is in no way shape or form based on the truths of the past. No wonder they rebel the way they do with their clothing, attitudes, perspectives on life and so on. They are rebelling against the people who tell them they dress wrong, talk wrong, look wrong, act wrong and write blogs on their wrongness! They are finding their place in a convoluted world that we gave them. And now we have the nerve to call them 'disheartening'?!
They are rebelling against the same injustices you and I rebelled against when we were younger my dear sister. Must I remind you of the numerous Charlotte Russe 'mid drifts' compensated from our closets, those knee high combat boots you wore religously carried by an attitude of 'i know more than you', or our mismatched rouge that made a remarkable distinction between our faces and necks?! And let's not forget the EYEBROWS! We were finding our place too and despite our upbringing, we made it out okay. Why? Because although everyone told us we were drug addicted wanna be hippy idiots, we had eachother. And as hideous as I may have looked in barbie pink, and you with ur wet n' wild no.14 lipstick, we still told eachother we were fabulous.
Gen Me is just as messed up as you and I. But to call them out on what they believe is an expression of their inner turmoil, is a lack of trust in our future.
I think you misinterpreted what I said - I'm not blaming the youth for how they are because obviously they are a product of the time, as we are and all our predecessors. Secondly, the obstacles that are presented to them are directly related to a societal apathy to the future. It is evident in every class divide, racial subversion and peculiar governmental practices where tomorrow is not today's problem. My point, dear sister, is that it IS fucking depressing that we've allowed things to get so out of hand that a child born today is already 30,000 dollars in debt. It is quite disheartening that we've diluted the masses into thinking that stupidity is a form of rebellion and to disenfranchise oneself when disenfranchisement is practically hereditary nowadays is the daily yield of a culture bordering on popular novelty and flighty conviction. We have not been successful in instilling principles and role models as a community. We blame frivolity as an anecdote to the poison that's perpetuated. Thirdly, my comments on today's kid fashions were humorous since, as you have said, we were all fashion victims in our search for the perfect ensemble of self. From my experience, the injustices that were pursuant of my combat boots were skewed and me not being able to smoke bong loads 24/7 did more good than bad. The underlying message now, then and later is a generation in need of TLC and direction & that was my point. Fortunately we have two strong parents, in all their idiosyncratic ways of showing love, did give it to us. For others, all they have is this world we live in and it becomes our responsibility to make-up for what they've been robbed of.
Lastly, I spend 12 hours, five days a week with people 20 years and younger and believe me, it's not a fucking picnic. It's not immaturity that I don't understand or the general awkwardness of growing up - since I know both all too well and I remember. It is that they are plainly and bluntly disrespectful. They are disrespectful because they are disrespected daily in one way or another and the cycle keeps going and going. So no, it's not ok to be complacent and say they're doing well because they aren't. They just aren't. It's the truth and we can sugar coat it with all the sweet nothings of "you'll figure it out" but the truth is...some won't. I don't think being called a fucking bitch by a snotty 17 year old who forgot his dorm room keys is okay. There are no consequences for the kids today, everyone is too stressed out with the "real world" problems. Newsflash, there is no real world, only this one. So if the youth are reflections of our society (which, anthropologically, they always are) then yah, it's pretty damn fucking sad.
Oh, and btw...my Charlotte Russe was fiercely. Don't hate Barbie.
you know, they are disrespectful not because they are disrespected but because they have no regard for human quality. it is a very individualistic mentality because our society is completely selfishly motivated. this is why there is such a chasm between the uber rich, the almost there and me, the struggling. the way we were there for each other should be the basis of community welfare. i don't believe it is idealistic, i think it's necessary...because in 30-40 years we are going to be a society with serious fucking problems that will even put emo to shame.
You're being emo. I get your point.
But there is an apparent dichotmy in your writing. It's almost as if you are exempting yourself of this world by dividing the masses into sub-divisions, mainly you and Gen Me. You discuss the apparent 'worldly' issues that give rise to such a diluted generation, yet you fail, myself included, to take responsibility for your own contribution. Ie: your mac book acessorized with the oh so original chiuaua (i love her) and ipod (twice purchased), numerous vintage material posessions, your incessant smoking habit, your judgemental vision, your potty mouth, etc. You and I are just as much a victim as well as accomplices to the decline of a moral foundation.
You then continue on with your tone of victimization saying that you are forced to spend 12 hours 5 days a week with a group of people 20 years of age and younger whom are all bluntly disrespectful to themselves, eachother and you. Newsflash to you my dear sister, this happens all over the world in a variety of age groups! And I did not by any means convey a message of complacency with sugar coated phrases of "It's ok, you'll figure it out". And who are you or I to say that some may never "get it"? Get what? What I think is right, what you think is right? Maybe we're all wrong!
What I am trying to communicate is that if we continue on with a negative outlook on the past and the present then our future will be exactly that! NEGATIVE. When a snotty 17 year old calls you a fucking bitch due to a lack of his own responsibility, instead of feeling disrespected or applying one bad experience to a whole generation, you should react in a positive way. This is difficult, but very necessary! Lead by example, ALWAYS! This is the only change the world needs to see: Great leaders and less followers. Be the change you want to see and watch how the entire world will change around you.
And no, Charlotte Russe was not fiercely.
Hello 'rmut' aka monkey face shit emo asshole of the universe=)
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