The Lost Generation (?)

[wilpuri]

Warning: Incoherent Rambling Ahead



This thread and the thoughts, ideas, questions and opinions that it presents have been born through the influence of a number of factors, ranging from May Day riots and the 'Precariaty' to the slow, slurring common-sense Dr. Phil. These thoughts have sort of been bubbling underneath for some time, but I will try to formulate them in writing in order to clarify them to myself and perhaps present you dudes and dudettes with some mildly interesting reading.

I think the most fundamental question my generation (Let's call them kids of the 1980's) is facing is this one: Where (both in the context of the individual and the collective) are we going, and the second most important one is: Why should we go there?

I, along with a great many of my peers, are confronted with a difficult situation, which looks easy enough for the older generations of common-sense guys like my man Dr. Phil. We are wealthier, healthier, better educated, more aware and freer than any generation before us, so why should we be complaining? "When I was your age I had finished my schooling, was working two jobs and had a wife and 5 kids to support" they tell us. Indeed, why should we get down about life when its all peaches and no lemons?

I have been given an amazing chance to get a good education: the taxpayers finance it, the schooling is of a good standard internationally and I've been gifted with a fairly gifted and inquisitve mind. Why is it so hard for me to follow-up on these 'diamonds in the rough' and actually capitalize on my potential? Why do I feel so directionless, why do I feel like I live in a time vaccuum, where the flow of events and information is rapid, but I feel like history has stalled? Our generation lives (or perhaps 'sleeps' would be a more appropriate term) in a deep state of illusion. Reality means nothing, it can be shaped and molded by anything and anyone, reality is what we choose it to be. As such it is not firm but fluid, and like water, it cannot be grabbed or held in the palm of your hand.

I am but one lost soul in a generation of such. We have no direction, we have no cause and soon we will have no roots. It all seems so pointless, and I cannot stop myself from returning to the very fundamental question: Why? What is the reason of our excistance? To get jobs, work and consume, to marry, reproduce and die, to participate in the seemingly meaningless political process and do our civic duty?

I think the so-called 'Precariaty' is a typical product of our times, so out-of touch with reality, that it is heart-breaking. Then again, that is their reality, as real as it gets. Mine is different. Anyway, here we have a group of people, who think that everyone is entitled to an income, a "basic income" paid by the state, that would sustain them and allow them to do what they choose. They argue, that they do a lot of things, which just aren't deemed productive and go unpaid, and that's why the state should pay for their living, because they do volunteer work in between joints. This logic shows how out-of touch they are [at least from my more traditional or conservative reality]. Society will simply not work that way, money doesn't grow on trees and people actually need to do something productive to be able to sustain themselves and society as a whole, but here they are, a group shielded by their ideological armour that dictates that because its a humane, nice, correct, enlightened, etc idea, it should/must work, not because it is practical. Political and ideological activism is one way to fight the avalanche of apathy, but not necessarily the solution to our problems. Youth unemployment is at an all-time high in many countries, people spend ages getting educated and getting their degrees and diplomas only to find that they have no jobs fitting their education. While I myself am interested in 'unproductive' areas such as social sciences, history and so on, I can see that the actual hard product I will be able to provide by pursuing these interests is very limited.

I so often wish I had been born a century earlier. Disease, starvation, war, etc all sounds so much better than a life of apathy, of simply floating around doing nothing meaningful. Simple life with clear objectives sounds so attractive, so much better, but I cannot bring myself to setting such simple goals for some reason and achieving them. The formula of life that I and my peers are meant to follow seems clear enough, but somehow the reason for it has blurred. We have access to so much information, so much knowledge, that the big picture is harder and harder to see and instead it is so easy to piece together your own picture, world-view. I realize that I am guilty of this very same crime, but how else can I possibly go about it? I tell myself to remain objective, to view matters dispassionately and calmly, and I do so to an extent, but I know I do not hold this absolute truth, I do not know what is right and what is wrong. Without a guiding force that steers one's perception of one's surroundings and the world, the huge stream of information quickly descends into patternless chaos.

LET ME OUT OF HERE!

[Romanos]

Nicely done wilpuri, but I found life wourght living you dont need to get a job or reproduce you live life on your on terms.

[Halie Satanus]

Interesting, I think you'll find though that every generation considers it self lost, well since the sixties anyway, your 19, i guess you've either just left or are about to leave the education system, well you may feel lost but take it from someone who's been there, all be it long ago, this is the golden time, this is where you get to make all those mistakes that every body says you should learn from, and honestly the more fun you have making them the better.

Sure there will be times when you think to yourself why did i do that or how did i get in to this, but those are the thing that will shape you into the person you will become, i'm sure as with most people you think you know who you are but that's not really true, i think you need to get out into the world and meet different type's of people. don't try to analiyse life because it will pass you by, why only just the other day i was just like you and then nearly twenty years flew past my window, i was lucky when i left school at 15 and started my first job in a small print shop i met a man who changed my life compleatly, he force fed me music most led zep and hendrix, after a year of me running around the shop playing air guitar he convinced me to actually learn how to play a real one.

I did and that change my life from going nowhere to here, his name was Martin Haywood and he died of lymphomic cancer two years later.

As for worrying about politics and duty, well my view is it's a nonsense, it's your life and you only get one shot, it has a habit of not letting you waste it, but you have to give it a chance. I think it was Noel coward or perhaps oscar wild who said ; your not bored your just being boring. i live every day by that little gem.

Anyway what i'm saying being a child of the sixties, get up and get out, drink to much, sleep with women you should'nt and if possible some you should, make freinds with odd balls, burn the candle at both ends, don't let the bastards grind you down, start a revolution from your bed, eat junk food, partake in the **********l wonderland, never say no on the basis of ignorence or trepidation, grow a big beard, grow your hair, live on a beach for at least a month, let your mind go, and most of all be happy with your choices.

and lastly do all of those things and come back in twenty years time and tell me i was wrong. and i'll say "Treacle you just didn't do enough of them, now go do some more", :wink:

[wilpuri]

Nice response Halie!

However, I would be interested in looking at this question from a slighly broader perspective, as I did highlight some social issues that I think are very real and bother other people besides myself: an entire generation to be exact.

I feel that we are living a bubble here in the Western World, and that bubble will burst sooner or later.

[Garbarsardar]

Since it's the family thread, let me add my three drachmas Wil.

The past

In this and other posts you present an increasing anxiety over culture, roots and tradition. Sometimes I feel that you have in your mind some form of binary representation about all this; as if there was ever a pure tradition, a pure culture or a pure nationality beyond the level of the clan or of the tribe. All these ae artegacts Wil. We arbitrarily take historical snapshots aas if all the friggin thing happened in stasis, and then we create for ourselves notion of immovable realities. Being Greek I can easily reach in to my history and pick one moment of cultural despair for every cultural achievement. We lost our roots because of the Doreians, then because of Christendom, then in the Byzantine melting pot, then during the Turkish occupation then during the Europe-isation and lately due to the globalization. WBK can assure you that similar laments are heard in every culture, and I have in mind the sorrow of Tanizaki for the electrification of the Kabuki theater, or Missima and Tsikamatsu for the loss of honour and cultural depression twice in a space of 200 years. You are your culture Wil, you select those before you and you try and teach those after you. Always was, always will be.

The present

You know that the present is not to be trusted. Not only because it does not exist but mainly because it occludes both past and future. You have trouble living with ambiguity and contradiction? So what, welcome to the club Wil.

We are a bundle of contradictory desires, and the only reason to create this animal we came to call self, is our need to fall in love

as Durrell said. How many moments can a thought last? How many Wils are in this post of yours? I understand that we all have the need to define the space we occupy, to "read our ground", and I'm sure you will fail and succeed equal times in the this task. The sooner you learn to accept it the sooner you will be fre to set yourself upon more interesting trips. Like action and like your body, which our civilization cheerfully neglects.

The future

Times they are a' changin' right? You think that the "western bubble" is about to burst and drench us all in the puerous content? or do you mean a kind of safety airbag aroundthis other imaginary construct, the "west'. I know I cannot persuade you on this and my only contribuition I can ofer is my advice to go ahead and travel. Take a trip to Peru, Syria and Vietnam (and if you come close to Taiwan drop by for some rice-wine). From all my travels what I have seen is that everyone wants the bubble Wil, and nothing is going to threaten it ever, bar a meteor, a solar flare or the illuminati. People as so boringly and mindnumbingly similar Wil.

Take care, and for the rest I would go with Halie's advice.

[Farnan]

It is true, our generation is lost. There is no great opponent or great struggle we live through. Our parent and grand-parents lived through the Cold War where they have something to view as something to survive and every action their taking they can say is hurting the US or USSR and are watching and wondering what will happen next. Our great-grandfathers trudged through Europe and Asia fighting either Axis or Allied forces on a death-struggle or supported the homefront helping the soldiers. Our great-grandmothers waited for our great-grandfathers and worked in factories helping defeat the enemy. Our great-great-grandparents lived through a world-wide depression. But our great-great-great-grandparents were just like us. Thier fathers fought or watched World War One, but they had nothing to do. They had no great struggle. Will we eventually? Maybe. May we be another lost generation? Maybe.

[Nihil]

It is true, our generation is lost. There is no great opponent or great struggle we live through.

But our great-great-great-grandparents were just like us. Thier fathers fought or watched World War One, but they had nothing to do.

Are you suggesting that without something to shoot at and/or be paranoid about, that life is not worth living? That's a rather negative view to take. Isn't there more to life than war and conflict?

[Dirk Gently]

I don't think anyone argued that. The point is that, in most modern western societies, the struggles and activities a man can undertake to give his life purpose (at least, if he has difficulty with that sort of thing, because not all do) are not as plain to see. War is the most obvious of all manifestations of this - that is to say, something that mobilises people to action and drowns out doubt, in favour of a unified purpose.

[Farnan]

Are you suggesting that without something to shoot at and/or be paranoid about, that life is not worth living? That's a rather negative view to take. Isn't there more to life than war and conflict?

No rather it is that our actions don't seem important. There is nothing pushing us to do great things, because it seems there is little left to do now to most people. There is nothing to energize us to do great things.

[Dromikaites]

I think the so-called 'Precariaty' is a typical product of our times, so out-of touch with reality, that it is heart-breaking. Then again, that is their reality, as real as it gets. Mine is different. Anyway, here we have a group of people, who think that everyone is entitled to an income, a "basic income" paid by the state, that would sustain them and allow them to do what they choose. They argue, that they do a lot of things, which just aren't deemed productive and go unpaid, and that's why the state should pay for their living, because they do volunteer work in between joints. This logic shows how out-of touch they are [at least from my more traditional or conservative reality]. Society will simply not work that way, money doesn't grow on trees and people actually need to do something productive to be able to sustain themselves and society as a whole, but here they are, a group shielded by their ideological armour that dictates that because its a humane, nice, correct, enlightened, etc idea, it should/must work, not because it is practical.

Precisely because money doesn't grow on trees eventually this system would collapse. It's nothing new, in one way or another it has happened before. The only noticeable diference up untill the mid of the 20th century those symptoms were affecting mostly the upper classes. In the 60's and early '70s the middle class young people started to feel the same. We know what happened - we're now in the 21st century, still alive

Political and ideological activism is one way to fight the avalanche of apathy, but not necessarily the solution to our problems. Youth unemployment is at an all-time high in many countries, people spend ages getting educated and getting their degrees and diplomas only to find that they have no jobs fitting their education.

This unemployment issue is quite interesting if looked at from a Romanian perspective. We have over 1,000,000 Romanians working abroad, most of them in the EU. This means there were at least 1,000,000 jobs in EU the EU citizens didn't want to take. To those we could add the jobs taken by Bulgarians, Russians, Albanians, Turks, Africans, Indians, Pakistani, Chinese, etc. Some people might say those jobs were "stolen" because the foreign workers accepted a lower wage than the natives. Most likely that is indeed one of the reasons. However a foreign worker is capable to live with that lower salary in an "expensive" Western country and send money to his/her homecountry (Romanians working abroad sent at least 2.5 billion Euros to their families in 2005). Granted in many cases the foreign worker would live in slums or at least in those areas of a city where no westerner would chose to live.

Of course the best solution on long term would be for the western governments to offer only minimal social security. This would force people to accept the jobs currently taken by the foreign workers at the wages now paid to the foreign workers. That would eliminate the need for the foreign workers and save those societies a lot of headaches caused by the cultural diferences. But of course since all the western countries are democracies such a solution won't be ever chosen. An EU government offering to its citizens a 3rd world welfare system would be voted out (isn't the right to vote great?). Then, when the unemployment hits 20% - 30% of the young people and when cars start to burn on the streets the same voters might decide to get tough on immigration, ruining many of the businesses in the proces and chasing away many others. Eventually things do turn 3rd world anyway because of lack of resources and then people are not living boring and pointless lives anymore

While I myself am interested in 'unproductive' areas such as social sciences, history and so on, I can see that the actual hard product I will be able to provide by pursuing these interests is very limited.

The thing is those areas are not 'unproductive' in themselves. What happens is there might be too many people having studied such things and who insist in earning their living by doing what they've studied. But let me give you again an Eastern European example: people who have university degrees in Romania go to pick strawberries in Spain. Just because one has a PhD in anthropology doesn't mean one cannot work as an unskilled agricultural worker if the money is good (by that person's standards, of course). Or if there's no other choice

I so often wish I had been born a century earlier. Disease, starvation, war, etc all sounds so much better than a life of apathy, of simply floating around doing nothing meaningful. Simple life with clear objectives sounds so attractive, so much better, but I cannot bring myself to setting such simple goals for some reason and achieving them.

Go to Spain and pick strawberries, look for a job at a construction site in your native Finland or simply see what jobs the immigrants are taking there and apply for one. No need for plague, war, starvation if you want to get rid of apathy

The formula of life that I and my peers are meant to follow seems clear enough, but somehow the reason for it has blurred. We have access to so much information, so much knowledge, that the big picture is harder and harder to see and instead it is so easy to piece together your own picture, world-view.

I think it's not the excess of information that causes confusion. It's the fact you probably would die of starvation only if you go on a hunger strike. Wanna live an adventurous life? Join one of those organizations who work in some 3rd world country and go there.

I realize that I am guilty of this very same crime, but how else can I possibly go about it? I tell myself to remain objective, to view matters dispassionately and calmly, and I do so to an extent, but I know I do not hold this absolute truth, I do not know what is right and what is wrong. Without a guiding force that steers one's perception of one's surroundings and the world, the huge stream of information quickly descends into patternless chaos.

You are not guilty of anything. Yet You would only become guilty if you don't act to change this. I have a Canadian friend who has 2 university degrees (business and communication). However he wasn't happy so he decided to learn how to cook and then moved to an Asian country where he earns his living as a chef.

[rububula]

Well, culturally we try and avoid conflict and struggle as much as we can, when in fact that's the opposite of what we should be doing. Life is struggle, and if you have to struggle against peopl ewho think life should be easy, then so be it. Don't let worries about the state of the generation hold you back from doing what youv'e got to do.

Really, every generation has issues. Even the so called "greatest generation". However, there's always a minority that's on the cutting edge and realizes how wrong everything is. In the 20s it was the original lost generation. In the 40s and 50s it was the beats. In the rennaissance it was Galileo. In Athens it was Socrates. Don't worry about the mass of people, they're largely unchangeable. Instead, actually do something with yourself.