Generation: Anticipation

All things that come to pass must come to an end... so they say.

Looking back in our history, there have been some incredible cultural movements: the rucksack-toting, hitch hiking Bohemian bodhisattva Beats, the West Coast flower-child, LSD hippie craze, the fuck-all freedom and grunge of New York punk in the '70s, ecstasy crazed ravers in the '90s. So many I can't begin to name or remember. The point is... so many different counter-cultures have come and gone, each with their unique style, music, and general attitude... its hard to even keep track. Thus enters the social tradition of generational monickers! Generation X, Generation Next (thank you inane corporate sycophants at Pepsi for that one), MTV Generation... some catchy term so that newspapers and conservative pundits have something to bitch about and socio-anthropologists two decades later have something to study.

That brings us to today. This generation. My fellows and peers who are gradually dwindling from the academic system... dispersing out into the nonsensical maelstrom of full-time employment. I've heard us called the Millennial Generation and, thanks to Newsweek, Generation 9/11. Frankly... I have my issues with both of them. I think that grouping us mid-eighties rejects with the dilettantes of the later nineties makes no sense, because our influences were totally different. So Millennial is out. Generation 9/11 is, aside from being fucking morbid and totalitarian, too late. And although I was already a rampant degenerate by the time I hit high school, as most of my compatriots seemed to have been as well... it wasn't until I hit college and my twenties that I entered into myself. So I make my claim that this generation, my generation, has made its definition in our early twenties. 

And what are we? I walk around the preciously hip streets of Greenwich Village, the Lower East Side, and SoHo... and I see an entire generation of people simply waiting. Waiting for something to happen. Waiting around in Starbucks, drinking disturbingly overpriced imitation coffees. Waiting around in Washington Square Park smoking clove cigarettes while playing pawn-shop purchased guitars. Waiting around in bars and dives, minds warped on all sorts of drugs and booze. I assume now, you catch my drift. We are a generation utterly devoid of purpose and motivation. At this point, it feels like life is a generic blueprint. Over-privileged and under-appreciative yuppie by-products who attend colleges and universities, only as a means to secure a job. Job obtained, they then collect a family and possessions. And then they're dead.

The problem is lack of interest. We're a generation that consciously wants to do the bare minimum in order to get by, just so we can then leave our "lives" and kick back into the world of frivolous excess, where consequence and responsibility don't mean shit. But you older, "wiser" generations can't criticize us because frankly... it's your fault. You had your great fights and your great causes, and OUR whole lives we've heard about the virtue of integrity and hard work. Guess what, you antiquated, pedantic, obtuse narcissists..... we've had nothing to go on. There has never been an exceptionally poignant cause to get behind, and we're taught self-preservation and interest from the get go, so we really don't care.

iPods and cappuccinos. Unemotional sex and cigarettes. Cocaine and indie rock concerts. Cheap drinks and cheaper thrills. This is our generation. Like it or not... this is what the world has come to. Rapidly we are taking the reigns from your hands and taking charge. God save us all...