(no subject)
Posited: history is seen as the enemy of the Millennials.
Previous generations-- the Baby Boomers in particular and Gen X to a lesser extent-- achieved the first stable recordings of their popular culture. History has accumulated in quantity among them; because of both these generations' peculiar quirks (baby boomer obsession with youth and power retain their pop culture because it is seen as keeping them young in spirit, Gen X using their pop culture as ground to search for meaning in a world where it is withheld from them), they accumulate it in large doses-- and in the way that generations often do, they used it as bludgeons against one another, and against the Millennials as well.
How long has Hollywood's default been to rustle through what is old and present it with a Fresh New Twist™? How many new ideas, new concepts, new vitalities have the people in their twenties had for themselves that weren't already shellacked with the varnish of older generations (the Baby Boomers' "we had it better yours is crap", the Gen Xers' "surely this is how the world works!")? How many of those ideas -caught on-, ignited a generation, set fire to the imagination and the anger of the world about them?
(The answer to that: take a look at your monitor. No, not the excited particle-waves being thrown out by the truckload-- the monitor. The device casting that light. Look at your computer. Observe the network connectivity... It is the only out that many of us see, and it is... woefully imperfect.)
History is the enemy of the Millennials because it has been used to shackle them at every opportunity. Never mind its functionality, it's use as a tool to carve something new out, and its function as a sounding hammer for the idols of the old generation-- it is tainted. To make use of it is to be of the oppressors. Is this why we are so eager to forget? Why the only thing worth chasing is the eternal right now and this next coming minute? The obsession with change for change's sake?...
Like everything, there's something there, but I can't see it yet through to the end. I'm Gen-X enough to suspect I'm grasping in the dark, and I'm Millennial enough to be suspect my motivations for chase it down.
I'll probably do so anyway, in time.
Previous generations-- the Baby Boomers in particular and Gen X to a lesser extent-- achieved the first stable recordings of their popular culture. History has accumulated in quantity among them; because of both these generations' peculiar quirks (baby boomer obsession with youth and power retain their pop culture because it is seen as keeping them young in spirit, Gen X using their pop culture as ground to search for meaning in a world where it is withheld from them), they accumulate it in large doses-- and in the way that generations often do, they used it as bludgeons against one another, and against the Millennials as well.
How long has Hollywood's default been to rustle through what is old and present it with a Fresh New Twist™? How many new ideas, new concepts, new vitalities have the people in their twenties had for themselves that weren't already shellacked with the varnish of older generations (the Baby Boomers' "we had it better yours is crap", the Gen Xers' "surely this is how the world works!")? How many of those ideas -caught on-, ignited a generation, set fire to the imagination and the anger of the world about them?
(The answer to that: take a look at your monitor. No, not the excited particle-waves being thrown out by the truckload-- the monitor. The device casting that light. Look at your computer. Observe the network connectivity... It is the only out that many of us see, and it is... woefully imperfect.)
History is the enemy of the Millennials because it has been used to shackle them at every opportunity. Never mind its functionality, it's use as a tool to carve something new out, and its function as a sounding hammer for the idols of the old generation-- it is tainted. To make use of it is to be of the oppressors. Is this why we are so eager to forget? Why the only thing worth chasing is the eternal right now and this next coming minute? The obsession with change for change's sake?...
Like everything, there's something there, but I can't see it yet through to the end. I'm Gen-X enough to suspect I'm grasping in the dark, and I'm Millennial enough to be suspect my motivations for chase it down.
I'll probably do so anyway, in time.