Some stuff about things
I was mucking about on OK Cupid and I found a somewhat cute little 20something had written this in their "I spend a lot of time thinking about..." section
"Also, there is my whole worry about my generation... we are the most educated, supposedly forward-thinking lot the world has ever seen. We have free access to all the knowledge compiled for the past several centuries, and then some. We have the brains and the bodies to turn history on its ears. So then why aren't more people willing to make a difference? I'm not asking for Gandhi, here. I'm asking for one less kid sitting at home smoking pot, going to school instead. I'm asking for one less college student drinking to death in a bar. I'm asking for one less musician on the streets. I'm asking for one less teenager losing themselves in old social standards.
...is it too much to ask?"
I send them the following, and thought whoever might still be reading this might be interested:
In my opinion, you're right...but then of course you're wrong, aren't you?
You're right. More people could do these things. More people SHOULD do these things. You are absolutely correct. On the other hand, what I feel like you're missing is that more people ARE doing these things. The number of people from our generation getting involved in improving our world is unprecedented; not since the sixties has the youth of our nation been so active, and even then it was largely an internal movement. It was more about living their lives how they wanted to rather than changing the world around them, and what external energy WAS expressed was largely unfocused and violent; more like a grenade lobbed wildly in some vague direction and exploding in the air rather than a skillfully aimed gunshot at a precision target.
I feel like, for the first time the youth of america, and perhaps even the world, is answering some silent call to arms and at least on individual levels are making concentrated efforts to effect change in the world around them. I understand that saying "more than ever!" isn't really saying very much, but I feel like it's a start. I feel like we've learned from the generations before us, and we are better equipped to make use of that knowledge, and I feel like this is the first time where our social and political climate has been in a position where a generation of our demographic has a valid chance not just to stand and make ourselves heard, but both to get others to LISTEN and, perhaps more importantly, to lead by example.
Will it be enough? I don't know, but I feel like this is the best shot people of our age have ever taken, and that we might be at the beginning of something really big.
"Also, there is my whole worry about my generation... we are the most educated, supposedly forward-thinking lot the world has ever seen. We have free access to all the knowledge compiled for the past several centuries, and then some. We have the brains and the bodies to turn history on its ears. So then why aren't more people willing to make a difference? I'm not asking for Gandhi, here. I'm asking for one less kid sitting at home smoking pot, going to school instead. I'm asking for one less college student drinking to death in a bar. I'm asking for one less musician on the streets. I'm asking for one less teenager losing themselves in old social standards.
...is it too much to ask?"
I send them the following, and thought whoever might still be reading this might be interested:
In my opinion, you're right...but then of course you're wrong, aren't you?
You're right. More people could do these things. More people SHOULD do these things. You are absolutely correct. On the other hand, what I feel like you're missing is that more people ARE doing these things. The number of people from our generation getting involved in improving our world is unprecedented; not since the sixties has the youth of our nation been so active, and even then it was largely an internal movement. It was more about living their lives how they wanted to rather than changing the world around them, and what external energy WAS expressed was largely unfocused and violent; more like a grenade lobbed wildly in some vague direction and exploding in the air rather than a skillfully aimed gunshot at a precision target.
I feel like, for the first time the youth of america, and perhaps even the world, is answering some silent call to arms and at least on individual levels are making concentrated efforts to effect change in the world around them. I understand that saying "more than ever!" isn't really saying very much, but I feel like it's a start. I feel like we've learned from the generations before us, and we are better equipped to make use of that knowledge, and I feel like this is the first time where our social and political climate has been in a position where a generation of our demographic has a valid chance not just to stand and make ourselves heard, but both to get others to LISTEN and, perhaps more importantly, to lead by example.
Will it be enough? I don't know, but I feel like this is the best shot people of our age have ever taken, and that we might be at the beginning of something really big.