My first real foray into the exciting world of pretension - hah!
So, an essay entitled, "My Generation", by Dan McCormick
My Generation
Firstly, I gladly plug my friends’ new edition of their ‘zine, the Saturnine Detractor. In addition to being the inspiration for my own blog, it’s as fine a collection of fiction, non-fiction, art & entertainment pieces, etc. as any on the wide, expansive web.
In particular, the staff editorial for this issue touches on what is possibly the defining characteristic of our cohort, generation, etc. Namely, apathy. To elaborate: without college to tell us what to do and when to do it – not that we ever truly did what we were told throughout those years – how is that we just meander through our days, somewhat aimless, relatively directionless, oftentimes motionless and yet still full of boredom, griping and good ‘ole fashioned bitchin’ n’ moanin’? My sister, a member of the real slacker generation, Generation X, certainly didn’t do that, and her friends all seem upwardly mobile, too. The dot.com boom was built by these same lazy members of Generation X. For such lazy people, they sure did make a big splash. Never mind that that tide has since gone back out, leaving only hermit crabs and jellyfish to die slowly on the beach.
Granted, my own knowledge of cultural history is limited (some might say painfully inadequate), but if there’s one thing I love more than talking about things I know something about, it’s talking about things that I know relatively little about. Talk about decadence.
Let’s go back to the Baby Boomer generation when there was this tremendous cultural upheaval. World War II had just ended, and what a mess that was. I mean, really! Soldiers were home, they wanted to see their wives again. They wanted to have sex with said wives. Lots and lots of sex, judging by the aforementioned baby boom. America was Number One, and business was back, well, in business. It was a new time, and yet everyone growing up was very much aware of the past from which they had come. Or, at least, even if someone wasn’t really all that aware of what was going on, the War nonetheless had a strong impact on their lives, maybe because your dad or uncle was in Europe of the Pacific fighting the Forces of Evil, at least.
Then there were the 60’s, marked by the tremendous upheaval in civil liberties, and civil rights. People cared and shit got done. Granted, for as much shit as there was that got done, there were plenty of police beatings to prevent the getting done of even more shit back then. But we had a young president who inspired the nation, right to the Moon, really. Oh, yeah – we fucking landed on the god-damned Moon. In the words of The Onion, “HOLY SHIT!!”. That was something to get excited about. Unlike the Armageddon that was nearly brought upon us, mind you. The Cuban missile crisis didn’t cultivate excitement as much as it was shit-your-pants causing fear. So I’ve been told, I mean, and as I saw in Matinee if one was to believe that movie.
As we move into the 70’s, the Vietnam war captured the hearts and minds of American’s everywhere. It was a movement worth fighting for, as much as the continuing civil rights movement, too. While decadence and opulence (real decadence and opulence, not some sort of watered down automatic jar opening shit [see below] type decadence, mind you) raged in cities across the U.S., in the smaller towns in between, boys and young men were fighting in a war that became much more difficult to justify. And while I admit that I am glossing over a great deal, the point is, people still cared.
Then come the 80’s. A lovely time if ever there was one. For me, the 80’s meant learning how to walk, and speak, and all those sorts of necessary social graces that we rely on so much in our later years. And of course, let’s not forget the Transformers cartoon. Oh man, that’s a good one.
But for most other people, the Cold War was still looming, and nuclear bombs and missiles were scarier than ever. This particularly so with the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island accidents. And of course, we can’t forget the role that The China Syndrome played on minds everywhere.
Yuppies, too, were a big thing. Spend lots of money, do lots of coke. Ah yes, those who grew up in the 70’s were unable to let go of their youthful vices. Rich fucks that they were. And still are, really. And so people grew up with things, lots and lots of things. Maybe it was like the 50’s again, in that respect, except that things this time were newer and made of more plastic. Even though my family was dirt poor back then, I still had lots of little things to play with. Never mind that Communism basically fell apart as the decade closed, people had lots of pieces of plastic to worry about! Never mind government and corporate scandals, people had the aforementioned bounty of things to play with. Plastic things will make anyone complacent.
As we move into the 90’s, the very first ruminations of Generation X begin. At last, a generation devoid of a singularly uniting – or diving – event, a generation so utterly complacent with crap that they just. don’t. care. about. anything. How novel! How charming! Sadly, these apathetic young people were the heart and soul of the dot.com boom, and so the Fraggles became the Doozers. Generation X-ers everywhere spent their time doing the lazy thing, but soon got down to the business of being productive and busy-bodies. Maybe it was the dot.com buzz that energized everyone into being productive. Maybe it was that once some saw others getting lots of money, everyone else decided to jump back on the bandwagon. After all, when they had lots of stuff before in the 80’s, that was good. That was fun. Fuck apathy when we can have stuff. Amen.
So now we’re at today, more or less. I, along with my friends, are proud members of Generation Y. It seems that since we’re even more apathetic and lazy than our older brothers and sisters that we aren’t even deserving of a wholly new and different catchy description. Though, really, aren’t we just more of the same? We don’t care. We have stuff to play with instead of social issues to take a stand for (or against). Generation Y is truly appropriate.
Except that, I guess, since we were so young, we missed out on the dot.com boom and instead caught the dot.com crash. We could have catapulted ourselves right up into yuppie-dom with our older siblings if the market had held out just a bit longer. But it didn’t, and we missed it. And so our hopes of being a rich computer geeks really didn’t pan out. So we’re left with… nothing. Kind of a big emptiness, maybe.
Oh, I mean, let’s not forget about the corporate scandals that ruined countless lives. Oh wait, been there, done that. These types of stories are boring, old news. Some might say hackneyed. How about the political scandals of late? Yeah, well, after Nixon and even Clinton, Bush will have to do something pretty wacky to get us to care. The war in Iraq? While the comparisons thus far to the Vietnam war are interesting on a purely academic note, I don’t think that Iraq will ever, ever be to me and my generation what Vietnam was to our parents or older siblings. Or crazy people on the side of the street asking for loose change. But then again, maybe I’m wrong.
And it is in this seed of doubt that I have hope for me and my friends. Maybe in between hopeless despair and grave indifference is a sliver of hope. Maybe. I want to believe so dearly that something has to give. Something has to change. There has to be a spark that will wake up all of the 20 – 30 year olds in this country. Hell, maybe even knock some sense into everyone else, too. We have sat by and done nothing more than watch our country go to hell. Maybe we’re about to realize that we can do something about that.
Granted, to do so would mean ignoring the painful failures that our parents experienced back in the day. Oh, sure, improvements were made, but by and large, we’re not the Utopia that everyone was demanding. They were kind of beat down, so why should we experience any better luck? Any government or corporate institution against which they were fighting have only been made stronger and more incorporated into our society. But maybe, just maybe, we’re ready to take risks and try things out. In the end, can things get much worse?
And besides, maybe Vietnam is too distant a memory to truly be forceful in our minds when we discuss Iraq. Really, as much as I may know about that war, what I can I really say about it? The Vietnam war, I think, means a great deal more to those that lived through it than to those who have seen Apocalypse Now and Platoon. I mean, really, talk about “duh”. My point remains, though, maybe Iraq will register on an unsuspected level.
I learned during my Thanksgiving dinner that five companies own/control every media source in this country. That’s it – five. Or, in case you can’t read letters, 5. V. Etc. The same five companies that own the major networks also own the movie studios, record labels, publishing houses, and so forth. True media conglomerates. And is this the exception to the rule? I would imagine not. I think most of the companies in the world today are much more strongly connected than we might like to see. And maybe we’ll finally get worked up enough to demand that these companies obey such laws as there are to prevent these monopolies.
Perhaps I am a little naive about all this – perhaps all this back-room dealing is nothing new, and every so often, a couple of people get it into their heads that Things Must Change. And said Things wind up Never Changing. Ce la vie? Eh, maybe.
And yet, I want to hope. So dearly, like I said. I think that this is why I’ve latched onto Dean so much. Like I’ve said before, I was initially on the fence about him. He is a doctor from Vermont, after all, and was that state’s governor. And… that’s kind of it, as far as I know. But as others’ have said, and with whom I now agree, he has inspired people. Maybe he’ll just keep getting bigger and bigger, and he’ll come thundering into Washington a year from now with the people firmly and defiantly standing by him, willing him to make things right again. Or maybe not.
Maybe those same five media companies will just show us more boobs to placate us, and we’ll give up our foolish hopes of peace and prosperity. While the legacy that we will leave those that follow us may not be as illustrious and important as the one left to us by our parents, and grand-parents, at least I’ll have my fair share of bright shiny pieces of plastic and boobs. And so, with this attitude in mind, my generation will be known not for bringing about great social and political upheaval, nor for demanding that our government do their job better, nor even for getting ridiculously wealthy. Whereas apathy was the cute, charming and novel word to describe our older brothers and sisters in Generation X, as with all hand-me-downs, we may find that when applied to us, the fit will be outdated, uncomfortable, yet ultimately, the best we can hope for.
email me
So, an essay entitled, "My Generation", by Dan McCormick
My Generation
Firstly, I gladly plug my friends’ new edition of their ‘zine, the Saturnine Detractor. In addition to being the inspiration for my own blog, it’s as fine a collection of fiction, non-fiction, art & entertainment pieces, etc. as any on the wide, expansive web.
In particular, the staff editorial for this issue touches on what is possibly the defining characteristic of our cohort, generation, etc. Namely, apathy. To elaborate: without college to tell us what to do and when to do it – not that we ever truly did what we were told throughout those years – how is that we just meander through our days, somewhat aimless, relatively directionless, oftentimes motionless and yet still full of boredom, griping and good ‘ole fashioned bitchin’ n’ moanin’? My sister, a member of the real slacker generation, Generation X, certainly didn’t do that, and her friends all seem upwardly mobile, too. The dot.com boom was built by these same lazy members of Generation X. For such lazy people, they sure did make a big splash. Never mind that that tide has since gone back out, leaving only hermit crabs and jellyfish to die slowly on the beach.
Granted, my own knowledge of cultural history is limited (some might say painfully inadequate), but if there’s one thing I love more than talking about things I know something about, it’s talking about things that I know relatively little about. Talk about decadence.
Let’s go back to the Baby Boomer generation when there was this tremendous cultural upheaval. World War II had just ended, and what a mess that was. I mean, really! Soldiers were home, they wanted to see their wives again. They wanted to have sex with said wives. Lots and lots of sex, judging by the aforementioned baby boom. America was Number One, and business was back, well, in business. It was a new time, and yet everyone growing up was very much aware of the past from which they had come. Or, at least, even if someone wasn’t really all that aware of what was going on, the War nonetheless had a strong impact on their lives, maybe because your dad or uncle was in Europe of the Pacific fighting the Forces of Evil, at least.
Then there were the 60’s, marked by the tremendous upheaval in civil liberties, and civil rights. People cared and shit got done. Granted, for as much shit as there was that got done, there were plenty of police beatings to prevent the getting done of even more shit back then. But we had a young president who inspired the nation, right to the Moon, really. Oh, yeah – we fucking landed on the god-damned Moon. In the words of The Onion, “HOLY SHIT!!”. That was something to get excited about. Unlike the Armageddon that was nearly brought upon us, mind you. The Cuban missile crisis didn’t cultivate excitement as much as it was shit-your-pants causing fear. So I’ve been told, I mean, and as I saw in Matinee if one was to believe that movie.
As we move into the 70’s, the Vietnam war captured the hearts and minds of American’s everywhere. It was a movement worth fighting for, as much as the continuing civil rights movement, too. While decadence and opulence (real decadence and opulence, not some sort of watered down automatic jar opening shit [see below] type decadence, mind you) raged in cities across the U.S., in the smaller towns in between, boys and young men were fighting in a war that became much more difficult to justify. And while I admit that I am glossing over a great deal, the point is, people still cared.
Then come the 80’s. A lovely time if ever there was one. For me, the 80’s meant learning how to walk, and speak, and all those sorts of necessary social graces that we rely on so much in our later years. And of course, let’s not forget the Transformers cartoon. Oh man, that’s a good one.
But for most other people, the Cold War was still looming, and nuclear bombs and missiles were scarier than ever. This particularly so with the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island accidents. And of course, we can’t forget the role that The China Syndrome played on minds everywhere.
Yuppies, too, were a big thing. Spend lots of money, do lots of coke. Ah yes, those who grew up in the 70’s were unable to let go of their youthful vices. Rich fucks that they were. And still are, really. And so people grew up with things, lots and lots of things. Maybe it was like the 50’s again, in that respect, except that things this time were newer and made of more plastic. Even though my family was dirt poor back then, I still had lots of little things to play with. Never mind that Communism basically fell apart as the decade closed, people had lots of pieces of plastic to worry about! Never mind government and corporate scandals, people had the aforementioned bounty of things to play with. Plastic things will make anyone complacent.
As we move into the 90’s, the very first ruminations of Generation X begin. At last, a generation devoid of a singularly uniting – or diving – event, a generation so utterly complacent with crap that they just. don’t. care. about. anything. How novel! How charming! Sadly, these apathetic young people were the heart and soul of the dot.com boom, and so the Fraggles became the Doozers. Generation X-ers everywhere spent their time doing the lazy thing, but soon got down to the business of being productive and busy-bodies. Maybe it was the dot.com buzz that energized everyone into being productive. Maybe it was that once some saw others getting lots of money, everyone else decided to jump back on the bandwagon. After all, when they had lots of stuff before in the 80’s, that was good. That was fun. Fuck apathy when we can have stuff. Amen.
So now we’re at today, more or less. I, along with my friends, are proud members of Generation Y. It seems that since we’re even more apathetic and lazy than our older brothers and sisters that we aren’t even deserving of a wholly new and different catchy description. Though, really, aren’t we just more of the same? We don’t care. We have stuff to play with instead of social issues to take a stand for (or against). Generation Y is truly appropriate.
Except that, I guess, since we were so young, we missed out on the dot.com boom and instead caught the dot.com crash. We could have catapulted ourselves right up into yuppie-dom with our older siblings if the market had held out just a bit longer. But it didn’t, and we missed it. And so our hopes of being a rich computer geeks really didn’t pan out. So we’re left with… nothing. Kind of a big emptiness, maybe.
Oh, I mean, let’s not forget about the corporate scandals that ruined countless lives. Oh wait, been there, done that. These types of stories are boring, old news. Some might say hackneyed. How about the political scandals of late? Yeah, well, after Nixon and even Clinton, Bush will have to do something pretty wacky to get us to care. The war in Iraq? While the comparisons thus far to the Vietnam war are interesting on a purely academic note, I don’t think that Iraq will ever, ever be to me and my generation what Vietnam was to our parents or older siblings. Or crazy people on the side of the street asking for loose change. But then again, maybe I’m wrong.
And it is in this seed of doubt that I have hope for me and my friends. Maybe in between hopeless despair and grave indifference is a sliver of hope. Maybe. I want to believe so dearly that something has to give. Something has to change. There has to be a spark that will wake up all of the 20 – 30 year olds in this country. Hell, maybe even knock some sense into everyone else, too. We have sat by and done nothing more than watch our country go to hell. Maybe we’re about to realize that we can do something about that.
Granted, to do so would mean ignoring the painful failures that our parents experienced back in the day. Oh, sure, improvements were made, but by and large, we’re not the Utopia that everyone was demanding. They were kind of beat down, so why should we experience any better luck? Any government or corporate institution against which they were fighting have only been made stronger and more incorporated into our society. But maybe, just maybe, we’re ready to take risks and try things out. In the end, can things get much worse?
And besides, maybe Vietnam is too distant a memory to truly be forceful in our minds when we discuss Iraq. Really, as much as I may know about that war, what I can I really say about it? The Vietnam war, I think, means a great deal more to those that lived through it than to those who have seen Apocalypse Now and Platoon. I mean, really, talk about “duh”. My point remains, though, maybe Iraq will register on an unsuspected level.
I learned during my Thanksgiving dinner that five companies own/control every media source in this country. That’s it – five. Or, in case you can’t read letters, 5. V. Etc. The same five companies that own the major networks also own the movie studios, record labels, publishing houses, and so forth. True media conglomerates. And is this the exception to the rule? I would imagine not. I think most of the companies in the world today are much more strongly connected than we might like to see. And maybe we’ll finally get worked up enough to demand that these companies obey such laws as there are to prevent these monopolies.
Perhaps I am a little naive about all this – perhaps all this back-room dealing is nothing new, and every so often, a couple of people get it into their heads that Things Must Change. And said Things wind up Never Changing. Ce la vie? Eh, maybe.
And yet, I want to hope. So dearly, like I said. I think that this is why I’ve latched onto Dean so much. Like I’ve said before, I was initially on the fence about him. He is a doctor from Vermont, after all, and was that state’s governor. And… that’s kind of it, as far as I know. But as others’ have said, and with whom I now agree, he has inspired people. Maybe he’ll just keep getting bigger and bigger, and he’ll come thundering into Washington a year from now with the people firmly and defiantly standing by him, willing him to make things right again. Or maybe not.
Maybe those same five media companies will just show us more boobs to placate us, and we’ll give up our foolish hopes of peace and prosperity. While the legacy that we will leave those that follow us may not be as illustrious and important as the one left to us by our parents, and grand-parents, at least I’ll have my fair share of bright shiny pieces of plastic and boobs. And so, with this attitude in mind, my generation will be known not for bringing about great social and political upheaval, nor for demanding that our government do their job better, nor even for getting ridiculously wealthy. Whereas apathy was the cute, charming and novel word to describe our older brothers and sisters in Generation X, as with all hand-me-downs, we may find that when applied to us, the fit will be outdated, uncomfortable, yet ultimately, the best we can hope for.
email me
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