Fads, or On The Ephemeral Nature of Things and Life.
In 2 years the first decade of the millenium will close...
The only thing noteworthy of what passed of this new century is how easily it is for a president, a nation, its people to 1) Bring back a huge deficit after the previous one got rid of it (thanks to the .com boom). 2)Declare wars that became unpopular yet for some reason not everyone is calling out for a pull-out. 3) Come into a recession that has escalated into what seems to be a re-enactment of the Great Depression.
I also saw: 1) The rise of a resistent left/nationalists/populists/etc in Latin-America. 2) Rise of gasoline prices. 3)etc
But in this chapter I'm not to discuss those things, since they might have a much much more larger impact to the future.
Instead I'll talk about fads and some other things.
I think, as far as fads go, the early 2000s suck.
Personally, I prefer the old grunge fad, but that's long over.
Let's see...we had "mainstream emos", then turned into scene kids, we had hipsters, and saw how rap/reggaeton (this one invented around the millenium) turn away from a more serious note (gangsta rap, etc) to become crap about nightclubs, crunk cups, etc.
Harry Potter, LOTR movies, the new Star Wars movies, Twilight series (I detest),etc
We also seen a small growth somewhat into the mainstream of manga and anime from Japan...I think it's also an opposite trend compared to Japan in which manga/anime may be in decline of popularity.
Etc.
Well, I'm sorry to break it down, but all that might be brushed away and replaced in the future. As it where with the past generations and their stuff.
The subcultures will be the first to change, dissapear, be replaced, etc, if lucky you might last a span of 2 decades or so.
Those books and all the "I love Edward Cullen" crap, that'll dissapear faster for sure. In the future people might be able to critically re-critique the book and find out it has the level of writing as an amateur fan fiction (in respect to Twilight). I mean it has all the problems (Mary Sue-Garry Stu characters, Author-Posit Character, etc) that many fan fiction written by dorks have. Harry Potter might not be put down...but if one did a historical comparative review they'll see that it wasn't a trend-setting book (such as the Beat generation's Howl, On the Road or Gen X lit like Fight Club).
Manga/Anime will grow in popularity...maybe. However, it only demonstrates that people are blind. Most mangas/anime are copies in plot of each other. Unless I'm mistaken, Yuu Watase, makes mangas with the same "skeleton" basic plot (mostly the romantic content and characters, all the same) over and over again. Other mangas, the newer ones, will feature stupid-ass stories (like the girl who worked in a dog-shop, probably has a special ability, and was able to make all the dogs piss when she entered the room. I kid you not!). It's rare to find a "good" anime or manga. Currently, U.S./European comics have recently became more serious and darker in tone (and so have their movies) while the Japanese have taken a generally opposite route. I mention this because there may be a small rivival of U.S./European comics that hasn't (yet) reach mainstream.
One thing that helps people see clearly their collective past yet at the same time not is by viewing through retrospect.
In retrospect, we may find out that many of these (to be in the future) old fads, subcultures, etc are dumb, was fun, was good, etc yet we can't help but be botherered into nolstalgia.
Another ephemeral aspect of humanity is many aspects of out social lives.
I bet many of us have had past friends, who maybe were our best friends, and lost contact with them/never heard of them again.
(I had 2-3 who fit this decription). Interestingly, in this age of technology, this has become substantially harder to occur (but considering that I was born during the acendency of this tech, not when it was already established, it's probably still common among my generation).
Also in relationships many people had different lovers, etc.
We also move from place to place...meet new people...live in new places.
Although all this is pretty obvious, life in general is affected by change.
The only thing noteworthy of what passed of this new century is how easily it is for a president, a nation, its people to 1) Bring back a huge deficit after the previous one got rid of it (thanks to the .com boom). 2)Declare wars that became unpopular yet for some reason not everyone is calling out for a pull-out. 3) Come into a recession that has escalated into what seems to be a re-enactment of the Great Depression.
I also saw: 1) The rise of a resistent left/nationalists/populists/etc in Latin-America. 2) Rise of gasoline prices. 3)etc
But in this chapter I'm not to discuss those things, since they might have a much much more larger impact to the future.
Instead I'll talk about fads and some other things.
I think, as far as fads go, the early 2000s suck.
Personally, I prefer the old grunge fad, but that's long over.
Let's see...we had "mainstream emos", then turned into scene kids, we had hipsters, and saw how rap/reggaeton (this one invented around the millenium) turn away from a more serious note (gangsta rap, etc) to become crap about nightclubs, crunk cups, etc.
Harry Potter, LOTR movies, the new Star Wars movies, Twilight series (I detest),etc
We also seen a small growth somewhat into the mainstream of manga and anime from Japan...I think it's also an opposite trend compared to Japan in which manga/anime may be in decline of popularity.
Etc.
Well, I'm sorry to break it down, but all that might be brushed away and replaced in the future. As it where with the past generations and their stuff.
The subcultures will be the first to change, dissapear, be replaced, etc, if lucky you might last a span of 2 decades or so.
Those books and all the "I love Edward Cullen" crap, that'll dissapear faster for sure. In the future people might be able to critically re-critique the book and find out it has the level of writing as an amateur fan fiction (in respect to Twilight). I mean it has all the problems (Mary Sue-Garry Stu characters, Author-Posit Character, etc) that many fan fiction written by dorks have. Harry Potter might not be put down...but if one did a historical comparative review they'll see that it wasn't a trend-setting book (such as the Beat generation's Howl, On the Road or Gen X lit like Fight Club).
Manga/Anime will grow in popularity...maybe. However, it only demonstrates that people are blind. Most mangas/anime are copies in plot of each other. Unless I'm mistaken, Yuu Watase, makes mangas with the same "skeleton" basic plot (mostly the romantic content and characters, all the same) over and over again. Other mangas, the newer ones, will feature stupid-ass stories (like the girl who worked in a dog-shop, probably has a special ability, and was able to make all the dogs piss when she entered the room. I kid you not!). It's rare to find a "good" anime or manga. Currently, U.S./European comics have recently became more serious and darker in tone (and so have their movies) while the Japanese have taken a generally opposite route. I mention this because there may be a small rivival of U.S./European comics that hasn't (yet) reach mainstream.
One thing that helps people see clearly their collective past yet at the same time not is by viewing through retrospect.
In retrospect, we may find out that many of these (to be in the future) old fads, subcultures, etc are dumb, was fun, was good, etc yet we can't help but be botherered into nolstalgia.
Another ephemeral aspect of humanity is many aspects of out social lives.
I bet many of us have had past friends, who maybe were our best friends, and lost contact with them/never heard of them again.
(I had 2-3 who fit this decription). Interestingly, in this age of technology, this has become substantially harder to occur (but considering that I was born during the acendency of this tech, not when it was already established, it's probably still common among my generation).
Also in relationships many people had different lovers, etc.
We also move from place to place...meet new people...live in new places.
Although all this is pretty obvious, life in general is affected by change.