An article I had published in the student paper at my university You Don’t Have To Go There, Or Do That, To Buy The T-shirt. Is there anything more utterly boring than acceptance? As a young woman with a whole life ahead of me, I believe that people of my generation are more trapped than any of our predecessors. For my future I do not foresee trouble, nor major social conflict, nor anything but business suits and boredom, for what is there left? Exactly where is the room to extend into undiscovered territory. The parents of my generation have taken it all and left only books, tales and remakes of bad movies behind for us to absorb and accept. No longer does one have to “Go there, and do that to buy the T-Shirt’. These days, the T-Shirt comes without the experience, a commodity and a well-marketed one at that. Making the effort just seems too hard I’m not excited by my future. I do not look forward to finishing my degree, because I know what looms ahead. Not only for me, but for most people my age: A job that is not quite what we were hoping for, sufficient to provide us a with an income while we sit around waiting for life to happen to us. There is a point in every child’s life where they come to accept that they probably won’t become rock star, or a fireman, or a marine biologist who swims with dolphins, but rather a Process Worker, a Sandwich Artist, or any other ordinary occupation with a ridiculous euphemism for ‘boring paper processor’ . What reason are we given for this? No reason, “That’s just the way it works honey, now eat your happy meal.” Teens and Twenty something’s are dead the moment they are born. Despite our early aspirations, we are quickly conditioned for acceptance, the acceptance that as a grown up, you will buy a house in the suburbs, eat your breakfast, lunch, and dinner at MacDonald’s, and furnish your front and back yard with moss rocks or jigsaw bricks. You will buy a barbeque, you will probably buy a jeep to drive to the supermarket, you will get married, you will have children and then you shall proceed to quash their dreams as yours have been. So history repeats. What I see before my eyes is a return to conservatism and conformism, with a sharper bite than ever before. What is even more unfortunate is the fact that this is not pending doom… It has already arrived. Under what other circumstance would half the world stand by and watch as their country ‘leaders’ dictate their rights in the name of supposed democracy? It is just not practical to think outside of the square. To accept the idea of living to consume and die, making sure that one does not think to far ahead, is the best possible route to being content and calling it happiness. Most people these days do not go to university because they want to enjoy learning and extend their knowledge, but rather to have a nice piece of paper that will land them a comfortable job, so they can afford to buy a comfortable home or travel to all the tourist destinations of Indonesia or India and really discover themselves. After which they shall come home, resume their comfortable jobs, and occupy their stately homes satisfied that they have “really lived”. We are a sedated generation with a future on valium. How easy it is to access an alternative to the norm. How over stimulated we are with choice. For my generation, we choose the ordinary, or at least attempt to make the extraordinary seem ordinary. Where is outrage? Why is it that we can’t get angry anymore. Why do we not cry or feel fear when we hear that somebody had been beaten, raped or murdered. Feelings have been willingly surrendered to the mundane processes of everyday life. Anger on the roads, laughing through a sitcom, crying through a movie, fear of missing out on the latest clothes. Why was it that we protested the war in Iraq, and when nobody listened, we all went home to watch it on the television? All I can put it down to is acceptance, ‘Oh well, if you can’t beat them, you might as well join them’. Maybe if we wait long enough there will be another war, and we can all go out and scream until were told not to all over again. Never again shall we see Cultural Revolution as our parents did. It’s been done to death, no one is interested anymore. Even if they were, there are movies about it. When we can be bothered, we’ll experience it by osmosis and pretend that we know what it’s really like to live.
hmph yeah well that's groovy and you staple your ideas to the brains of your readers but i dont think your ideas have any real weight to them man i think its a cool article but i dissagree with the last commenter. it seems you are less an articulate obverer and it's more that your eyelids have slid down your eye balls in boredom and disdain at what i assume to be your very comfortable life. youre not really seeing anything....just writing i am of the opinion that life is exiting and scary and it doesnt take that much back bone to open your eyes fully but woohoo for your creativity
hmmmm well they dont seem to be responding so.... you want me to explain to you how come i just do not share with groove girl the idea that universally weve come to the point now that living has become like so last generation. There has always been conformities to every generation. There has always been globalisation. People have always tried to sell stuff and make money ( for eg t-shirts!) our generation isnt more or less bored than the last. it's up to the individual to be inspired. there's plenty of inspiration, grab it goddamit....(here for the opening eye bit...well done! now you see) must i say more? Everybody is a me. sex, for eg, works the same as it always did. so? it still feels good. fire still burns and destroys. famine still kills.Rain is still wet. There are things to live for and die from. yeah its the same as when yer mammy was your age...but momma earth is ready for you chile yeah youre right groove girl, the earth still spins in the same direction but to notice that hardly takes "a gift of observation". would you really want it anyother way??? satisfaction and sinning are still at reach. go ahead and take yer pick. there are so many fruits to try. i dotn know what else i can point out....?
Ahem, I dont think I need to do much in the way of explaining, I did 700 words or so of explaining in my orgininal post. but I will say, when I speak of my generation, I am talking about 15 to 25, but primarily the middle of that so, 20 or thereabouts. I am mostly speaking from an Australian point of view about a mostly australian subject, however not entirely. Of course everything goes much like a radio wave but to be honest, is there really any other option, is their really any possiblity, viable possibility, in light of the past, for revolution or major social change like the kind that many of our hip parents hoped for and in some cases facilitated and followed through? Anyway, if you disagree with the cultural dope theory to such an extent you must then acknowledge that it is impossible to staple my ideas to anyone because we have the capacity to acvtively engage in a text rather than passively consume it. By the way, its not like I ever claimed this little piece of cultural awareness to be some form of bible.
This dictates the contrary: "hmmmm well they dont seem to be responding so...." is that all you've got? "I'm not talking to you." and why does it have to be arguing, why not discussing, no need to take an agressive stance.
it's not "i'm not talking to you"- if i had more to say i would. i merely dissagreed with bacchus's statement about your observational skills and then responded to the vagueness of his further question about my dissagreement. your article is nice but i dissagree with you when you say that revolution or major social change is impossible in our day and age. in my view it's as inevitible as evolution. revolution is captured within bats of an eyelids, smalls that seem insignificant. i have no further proof of this other than like dude the world is still spinnin on it's axis right? were going somewhere. this, my friend is THE time to be alive....as like erm last year and last century and last millennia. advancement, social political environmental anything! is inavoidable as the human race grows... and meanwhile have kids and buy their house in suburbs, for example, and eat their prefabricated vegetable lasagnes. and the only agression lies in your interpritation of my words man.
seeing there are only three people previosly posted you no who im talking about who is not i agree you have an accute sense of observation and are on the ball from a global point of veiw
