TimWoolery.net Documenting the Journey and the Learning Curve

#16 – The Cynical Generation

It?s a tragic thing to realize that you resemble the thing you hate the most. It?s also a tragic thing to know that your usual Monday morning blues closely resemble some Dickensian angst. Too many things are wrong with people my age. Both Hunter S. Thompson and Stephen King wrote about the way people sold out their generation when they substituted the Free Speech Movement and Peace Sign for yuppie greed and the Ronco Pasta Maker. I?m paraphrasing, of course, but what bothers me is that my generation is, if anything, even more self-involved than the last. The despair masked by over-indulgence is so overt, so unbelievably commonplace, that there are no good guys anymore. The idea of trying to live your life as though bad things would be punished, and the good would be rewarded is so pass? that it?s almost not worth mentioning.

Life is a meaningless thing to most. They can?t even die for a good cause because there aren?t any good causes in this town. It?s not the first time I?ve noticed it, I started several years ago. Around 1997, some jerk died snowboarding and his mother?s only public comment was ?he died doing something he loved?. That bothered me. When Jessica Dubroff, her father and her flying instructor died in Wyoming trying to make the youngest cross-country flier, her mother?s public comment was, ?she died doing something she loved.? That bothered me, too. Weren?t they bothered that their loved ones died needlessly? All they really could say was ?they died doing something they loved? ? and that?s the most tragic thing of all. If I go, I don?t want it to be doing something stupid, like snowboarding or living up to my parents? unrealistic expectations. If I go, I want my death to be for something, just like I want my life to be for something. This Epicurean philosophy of my generation is leading down a dark road; heaven only knows where it ends.

Does anyone else realize how tragic it is that the most popular music stars of our generation in no way resemble actual musicians? At least the boomers had the Beatles, Dylan and the Beach Boys. You could love ?em or hate ?em but at least they could pick out a tune. I wrote about it already, so I?m not going there again, but there?s something sinister on the wind when the most popular music acts have never written a song by themselves or played a note on a musical instrument in public. The apparent Voice of Our Generation, MTV, is also guilty of the same heinous crime, although they?re more like co-conspirators. I can?t watch that channel anymore. 30% of the time they?re announcing upcoming original programming, 20% of the time they?re actually showing original programming and the other 50% of the time, they?re showing ?retrospective? shows talking about how original and brilliant the original 20% really was. It?s enough to give you hemorrhoids.

I?d like to take the opportunity now to say that I am not a yuppie, although I dress like one and work like one. That?s what freaks me out about my situation. I?ve spent my entire life battling against that whole self-involved culture, since it was that which kept me by myself for all my formative years. I was the outsider, the loner, the one who was not part of the group. I made a special promise to myself that I wouldn?t turn out that way, and now look at me. I dress in fashionable clothes, I have a cell-phone (two, in fact), the dual-income, no kids situation. Where does that leave me? So that I don?t leave you hanging, let me tell what I?ve come up with so far, and you can either agree or disagree. I don?t think yuppie describes your financial situation as much as it does who you are. Anyone can be a snob; attitude doesn?t require a minimum balance. I know that I like to have nice things, but that, in the end, they are still just things. I?d lose a few nights sleep if my house burned down, but it?s nothing compared to the tragedy of losing someone I love.

It?s also a problem of perspective. For two generations now, American teenagers have not had to face the prospect of being drafted and going to a far-off country to die. I think that this fact has led to most of the self-pitying whiners we see around us. Previous generations never had the luxury of not knowing what a war is really like. The average American young person hasn?t had to wake up in the morning and pray to an unknown god that he live out the day every single day of the week. The fact that most of us have never been involved in real life-or-death situations has made us less as individuals. As Grace Slick said, ?Insignificant events take on monumental proportion when your brain is full of practically nothing.? I?ve quoted that before, and I still think it?s true. My grandparents never made a fuss if the power went off, or cried because a character died on their favorite TV show. There were actual, dangerous events happening in their lives that, rather than glamorizing them, they are just happy to have survived them. My grandparents were married only three months before the draft took my grandfather. They had to live for four years after that with the constant dread that my grandfather would be killed while he was ?over there?. What have I faced? What has my generation faced?

My generation loves to paint itself as angry. Angry music, punk fashion, on and on. It?s not like that ?rebel without a clue? clich?. In fact, it?s worse than that. They know there?s nothing to rebel about, they?re just doing it for the aesthetic. Perhaps it?s also the realization that there?s nothing else in their lives to hold them together. My generation may look angry, but it?s more cynical than anything else. It?s easier to believe in nothing because believing in something only leads to the heartache that you were believing in something that wasn?t true after all. Can?t believe in family after mom and dad split up. Can?t believe in religion when your pastor is being investigated for sex crimes. Can?t believe in your government, your school or your friends as your ideals are knocked down one by one. As Lou Reed put it, ?you need a busload of faith to get by.?

I'm not letting them off the hook, mind you. While the youth of today feel disenfranchised, they haven't done much to garner sympathy. The boomers had Woodstock, three days of Peace, Love and Music. Woodstock '99 was completely corporate sponsored and featured angry music, three-dollar bottles of water and sexual assault for several women who went. Previous generations tried to warn this generation about the dangers of drug use, unprotected sex and smoking. Not many youths today are listening. It's as if they all resemble that kid who tells his parents, "well, you did it when you were young, why can't I?" It?s like kids today feel they can, should and must be as stupid and irresponsible as the youth of the last generation. While the youth of that generation tries to tell it that it wasn?t the way to go after all.

They won?t need to call my generation the Y Generation or the Internet Generation. Both labels were cop-outs anyway courtesy Time Magazine and other self-appointed mouthpieces. They will call my generation the Cynical Generation or the Generation That Gave Up. You know something else? They will be right. It?s a natural hope that each successive generation of people will improve in mind and understanding about the world around it. This one seems to be saying, ?We know, we just don?t care?. The really, really scary thought about all this is, if this is how stupid and irresponsible this generation is, what about the crop we?re raising to take our place?

That's what really keeps me up at night.