Opening a New Chapter
Well, it seems the Pope has passed away. It's obvious, to me at least, that Mike's departure from the Houston Press tipped the scales on the Pope's resolve to sustain his fading light of hope and life. Hope you're happy Serazio, the Pope's death is on your shoulders now. Good luck living that one down.
On another note, I've spent many restless nights searching for the proper answer to Cory's not-so-recent quandary concerning the relationship between his psychological health and the uselessness of his chosen occupation. Granted, it is much more difficult for our generation to step into adulthood, and all of its associated trappings, with as much ease and grace as our predecessors. People have done studies focusing on our generation's propensity to accrue negative debt on a massive scale. This debt is often viewed as that albatross which prevents us from purchasing a home, getting married, or having the resources necessary to raise a proper family free from the incestuous disfigurement of those lineages of, um, the lower caste.
Aside from cheap shots at the underprivileged the fact of the matter is that there are multitude of us who strove for a higher education, maintained exceptional credit, and retained gainful employment before, during, and after our time in a university setting. Yet for some inexplicable reason those of us in the aforementioned crowd are still unable to make that transition from adolescence to young adulthood. I can't comment objectively as to whether or not our maturity is somehow lacking, or if our generation is deliberately postponing the sedentary lifestyle of the married with children. Yet the fact remains that we are at an age where our generation is a bit disillusioned about the prospects of marriage, down-right upset about the quality of our employment opportunities (not so much fiscally, but the content and context of the occupations themselves), and wondering as Cory stated, what's wrong with wanting to see more nymphets prancing about in French Maid outfits? I'm eager to hear some more thoughts on this one.
Ok for now,
Aden
On another note, I've spent many restless nights searching for the proper answer to Cory's not-so-recent quandary concerning the relationship between his psychological health and the uselessness of his chosen occupation. Granted, it is much more difficult for our generation to step into adulthood, and all of its associated trappings, with as much ease and grace as our predecessors. People have done studies focusing on our generation's propensity to accrue negative debt on a massive scale. This debt is often viewed as that albatross which prevents us from purchasing a home, getting married, or having the resources necessary to raise a proper family free from the incestuous disfigurement of those lineages of, um, the lower caste.
Aside from cheap shots at the underprivileged the fact of the matter is that there are multitude of us who strove for a higher education, maintained exceptional credit, and retained gainful employment before, during, and after our time in a university setting. Yet for some inexplicable reason those of us in the aforementioned crowd are still unable to make that transition from adolescence to young adulthood. I can't comment objectively as to whether or not our maturity is somehow lacking, or if our generation is deliberately postponing the sedentary lifestyle of the married with children. Yet the fact remains that we are at an age where our generation is a bit disillusioned about the prospects of marriage, down-right upset about the quality of our employment opportunities (not so much fiscally, but the content and context of the occupations themselves), and wondering as Cory stated, what's wrong with wanting to see more nymphets prancing about in French Maid outfits? I'm eager to hear some more thoughts on this one.
Ok for now,
Aden
posted by Aden at 5:35 PM
3 Comments:
Tasty food for thought. One thing that immediately jumps out as a factor has to be the number of kids our age that grew up with divorced parents, which, I would guess, is ridiculously higher than any generation in history. That would have to be a factor in the vast swaths of somewhat romantically aimless twentysomethings who see no reason to rush into marriage as their parents or grandparents did. If marriage has been exposed as a fraudulent -- or at least pliable -- instituion for a generation of kids, they'll perhaps be hesitant and downright skeptical to go down that same road without great caution. That's what made the whole gay marriage hullabaloo so silly. Who said that straight marriage was working as a social model?
As for the crushing debt that most students consign themselves to, there, too, I would have to chalk it up, at least partially to the lost notion of sacrifice. For both economic and cultural reasons, collectively, this is the generation of entitlement. A steady inundation of media has taught us that immediate gratification is not only possible, it's mandatory. Ours is the most hyper-mediated generation in history -- with near saturation in both form and content. There's no good reason that a 24-year-old should be able to afford toys like an IPod, cell phone, digital camera -- these things just weren't comparatively possible for a 24-year-old thirty years ago, much less sixty. But, hell, if it's possible, why not? Especially if sacrifice and doing something noble with your money/time aren't "sexy" things to do, as defined by modern American society.
Sure, college brings debt. Debt is a bitch. But most of the world would love to have that monkey on their back. I mean, shit. What are the numbers on world population percentage that doesn't have a college diploma? Pretty high if I've read it right over the years.
The thing about college (and high school for that matter) is that it presents you with the notion of individual growth leading toward personal success. Outside of school, that equation rarely pans out. Success comes in other ways, as does growth, but an employer does not see you in the same way a school does. You're a producer in the former sense; a consumer in the latter. Hmmm. I don't know exactly where I'm going with this, so I'll close up shop and see if anyone else has more insight.
I have to say that the divorce rate argument doesn't hold much sway in my book. I think its a greater problem that our generation holds in contempt many more of the institutions that our parents and grandparents held very sacred, marriage being one of the primary ones. We see notions of love, of commitment, of sacrifice, of country in a very skeptical light. You can make the media argument here, you can make the marketing argument, but I just think we hold ourselves to an (arbitrarily?) higher standard than previous generations. Thus explains this new-found DIY obsession, because we can finally do something ourselves. Soon though, even that will have been compromised and re-packaged, and we'll move on from that to the next.
We are a generation that can never be satisfied, and arguably, probably can never be happy, that is, until we magically find that point where it all makes sense. But will it ever? I argue that no, it will never make sense. Life is nothing more than a string of experience, it is the visceral that makes your life the experience you want it to be. Perhaps its a idolatric, but to me, your meaning, your life, your experience, they're all located in your mind, and its how you tap and come to terms with yourself that really counts. It has to be - that's the only way I'm surviving the office monkey insanity right now.
Well friends, even though I haven't met a few of you I am definitely feeling your pain. Maybe pain isn't really the right word but what is? These are strange times these twentyish years.
First off I feel like I should adamantly defend marriage yet I know exactly what you mean. Marriage can definitely be amazing but I admit I had no particular plans regarding it or unwavering belief in it when I was younger. I certainly wasn't expecting to marry when I was 21 years old. But I feel extremely lucky to say that it was the right thing for me and for us. I remember when I was thinking about it my main strike against it was how young we were. Looking back I realize how dumb of an argument that was. Humans don't work that way, things happen and feelings happen and decisions have to be made. The timeline is not up to us, and it seems silly for us to think it could be.
As far as work is concerned, I think the main thing I've learned is that people are the most important part of work. The other day I was in a meeting where our 55 year old division director yelled at a 45 year old lady who has worked there for 20 years and made her cry. How fucking grown up is that? He could be insanely technically inept and I would still respect him a million more times than I do now. And what the fuck is the point? Getting money or getting work done? Is it really worth being a dick?
All in all, what work you do is pretty meaningless. But being a person others can count on in a workplace in one way or another is pretty sweet. Careers are strange beasts. Everyone wants to master them and then they seem very mad to be at the top. I think the simpler we keep our goals for a day the better. And to me right now simple things seem a lot more important than a career.
Anyway, I guess that was a bit of a rant but I guess I'll blame Mr. Acklin for starting that. Hope you all are having fun whatever you're doing. And take it easy,
Nik
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