Re: 4chan: The Skeleton Key to the Rise of 45
Dear and fluffy Cato the Elder...
This generation-gap thing has been going on since Leonidas was a pup. Elders thinking the younger generation is lazy and messed up and the destruction of society, youths thinking their elders understand nothing and struggling with existential despair and angst trying to find their place in the world.
Every generation thinks it is a new thing, and every generation is WRONG. It's been around in one form or another for millenia.
The Hipster Refuseniks are just a recycled version of the Hippies who were a retread of the Beatniks and whatnot. There are variations and details but the theme is fundamentally about the same.
Some generations its worse than others, but it is rarely ever the world-shattering drama those in it think it is.
You think it is harder to get a job or find a place in society today than it was in 1933? During the Great Depression?
You think the divide between the generations is wider than in 1968?
You can't see the forest for the trees.
And one of the worst mistakes people make is failing to differentiate between normal coming of age, and shifts in society.
Goshin, we're not coming of age anymore. I'm a lot closer to 30 than 20, and so are most of us. We're already there. The kids coming of age now aren't even Millenials. We're all adults now, and the oldest of us are closing on in middle age.
This is not a coming of age. This is a change.
These men are the biggest group of terrorists in the US. They are chronically unemployed. They have astronomical suicide and overdose rates.
Just because you've never lived through one before doesn't mean it's impossible for it to be happening now. Society always changes eventually, and nearly everyone who lives for a good amount of time will see a change at some point in their life, because actually, changes are common. They happen every single century.
This is yours -- and mine, and your son's. Just because it didn't happen sooner doesn't mean it's impossible for it to be happening. Everyone who lives to see a change thinks it couldn't possibly happen to them, and yet it does.
It isn't just about how hard it is or isn't to have a job. It's about how hard it is to have a life. It's about the lack of the human need for community, and to see results from your labors. All the stuff that's in the article. I won't re-write it for you. This is a society where playing the system as it's intended only puts you further behind. What have I told you every time you've asked for my help on advising your son? Don't play by the rules. Don't EVER play by the rules, or you're trapped.
Does that sound like a healthy mood for society to exist in, for trusting society to be the worst thing you could do? Clearly not, but it's also true.
My dad lived through 1968. And he was the right age too -- about 20. He died in 2014, but towards the end, he told me that things looked like they were going to be at least as bad as they were in his youth, and possibly worse. I'll take his word for that.
The last thing he ever asked of me was to not delay my plans to move to the UK due to his death. I kept that promise, but Jesus was it awful. But he was right. If I had moved later, I'd be losing my home again now.
I have felt guilty about thinking this, but there's a part of me that wonders if it isn't a mercy that he never knew what wound up happening in the US, and also in the UK where I am now living as an immigrant under a reactionary anti-immigrant government. He would be losing his mind with worry if he knew.
I do not know what this change is going to lead to. But I am pretty sure we are in one, and given that a substantial part of that change seems to include anti-society tones, it would be unbelievably stupid for us to not handle it with care if we want this change to not cause any huge disasters.
Oh and btw...
That was an ugly thing to say, or certainly came across that way.
I didn't mean it to. It's a thing that I think fails to be acknowledged when older people are doing stuff that is going to affect their children more than it ever affects them, was my point.
ETA: Do you mean what I said about his friends? That isn't personal. Every single one of us many, many blighted friends. They're just as intelligent and goodly as anyone else -- just unlucky, in many cases. Because our entire generation is suffering from blight.
Actually, in my wording I am continuing to be hopeful that your son won't personally be one of them. But there is no hope that he won't know them and watch them struggle. Let go of that pipedream. Not gonna happen.
