A Requiem For A Dream

The Indifferent Generation

I don't know, but I just feel like our generation is full of malaise, indifference, and an overall lack of significance.

If you look at our parent's generation, a lot of really significant things happened in their lifetimes that changed the way they viewed the world. Our grandparents generation have had the Great Depression and World War II, two defining events that changed the lives of an entire generation, created new perspectives, and altered the way people thought about everything else. Our parents had generation had the civil rights movement, Vietnam War, the rise of the counter-culture (i.e., new music, new art forms, new ideologies).

But what does our generation have? We are not part of anything, no cause, no movement, no ideals to fight for. People in our parent's generation marched on Washington D.C. and heard Martin Luther King Jr. speak. They were arrested, became hippies, and experimented with their lives. Sure, they are normal now, but once upon a time they were radical, and they were involved in something new. Their generation saw an explosion of popular culture in music like the Beatles, Woodstock, rock and roll (in fact I would argue that our parent's generation is the best if you are music-lover). They saw the changing of social roles: free love, feminism, you name it. Our parent's generation saw man landing on the moon, experienced (with unjaded eyes) the sheer wonder of space exploration, and in general, rising prosperity.

My point is that our parent's generation was involved in some really significant shit, culturally, socially, politically, and economically. But what do we have thus far? Ours is the generation that saw the gradual decline of quality pop music. Back in our parent's days, their pop music was the Beatles, Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Bob Dylan. In our days, our pop music is Britnet Spears, a bunch of boybands, and a bunch of shitty rappers trying to copy 2Pac and Biggie but having none of their skills. Ours is the generation that saw the decline of literary refinements: no one reads anymore. Poetry, as a mainstream form of entertainment, is dead. The earliest wars that our generations can remember have all been morally incompetent. Bush Sr. told the Iraqi people to rise up against Saddam and then withdrew American military support, resulting in thousands of death due to repression. Somalia was a disaster: we left thousands of people to starve under warlords. Ours is the generation that saw the rise of terrorism, an act so senseless it's appalling. Where is our moral vision?

Where are our causes? Where are our ideals and principles that we have fought for? We have no ideals, no principles, no cause. We didn't get arrested for fighting for our causes. Instead, everyone's so isolated, so individualistic. Just look around you, millions of people with their cellphones, laptops, and iPods, just living in one's own digital sphere. Ours is the generation who speaks corporate-speak and political correctness. Where is our sense of social activism?

We are the indifferent generation because we just don't give a shit about anything except personal interest. Everyone's so focused on numero uno that there just can't be any sense of unity. Where is our sense of hope? When the Berlin Wall came down and when the USSR fell, people in that generation felt a sense of hope, an opportunity to create a new world order. But where is our great hope? Where is our sense of opportunity? But our generation is still young, and maybe something will come up that can give our generation a sense of purpose, an identity, a legacy that posterior can judge us by. But thus far, we are the indifferent generation.

"We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place."
-Tyler Durden

Yeah, some of you are going to say: stop concerning yourself with this bullshit non-sense and go get a job, take care of business, love the ones close to you, and try to live a happy life. I agree with you, but it just sort of bothers me, this possibility that my generation has no identity and nothing to show for it.

On a totally unrelated note, some thing really fucked up my day. I was hanging out in a forum that I frequent, and one of the regular posters there posted an entry. He found out that his best friend died in a car accident. Sure, I feel sorry for him, but reading that just made me think: what the fuck would I think if I lost a friend close to me? And that's when the thought became incredibly unbearable and overwhelming. I mean, I just cannot think about that, at all. Just the thought of it is making me go crazy. I mean, goddamn, in some ways it's as bad as losing a family member whom you are close to. Blood is blood, but friendship is something else. You might be born into a family whom you hate, but once you form a friendship, that relationship becomes almost sacred. I just can't imagine any of my friends die in such a meaningless way. Man, I would just be totally devastated if I found that out. So please, watch out for your lives, because if any of you die, you'll make me extremely miserable.

Posted by humanflyz at October 19, 2005 12:15 AM | TrackBack