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| What, you didn't think I knew what a eugoogaly was? |
We find crisis in everything. The 2000's show some clear examples: The Y2K crisis, the Great Recession crisis of 2008, the global warming crisis of the early 2000's (still continuing for neo-hippies), and the Justin Bieber crisis of 2008-2011 (I chalk this up to America being temporarily insane due to the Great Recession).
In our personal lives as well we experience crisis: the mid-life crisis, the I-hate-my-job crisis, the I'm-going-to-listen-to-Backstreet-Boys-again crisis (millennials). In each of these times, we have to find some identity to break out of the cycle of chaos, either as a group of people or on a personal level. This is why I am very glad that we have Facebook.
In my most recent crisis, I was despairing over my lot in life. You know, times are changing. It's not enough to have a loving family, supportive friends, education, and job opportunities. Why am I not wildly famous? What's wrong with how I'm living my life? Why do I not own a $23,000,000 mansion? Why don't I fight crime on the streets? These were the crises that I was struggling with. In desperate need, I turned to the one source of consolation: Buzzfeed.
Buzzfeed helped me answer all my burning questions and really turn my life around. I found out that if I were a Teenage Ninja Turtle, I would be Raphael. If I were an actor I would be Jack Black . I'm most like Ron in Harry Potter, and if I were a famous Canadian band I would be the Barenaked Ladies (BNL). Now, if someone were to ask me what food I am, I could quickly respond that I am a cheeseburger ("because I'm a classic but still exciting and always there for a good time" - this article sponsored by Wendy's). Thank the good lord I was able to find myself.
Armed with this incredibly useful knowledge, I was able to refocus my path. Those entirely unrelated questions I answered, sponsored by big-name corporations, really made me able to understand who I am as a person in comparison to fictitious characters and what we know about famous people from the disgustingly biased media! Then I can even share with my friends so they can find out what fake people they would be if they could be famous!
In the present day, the crisis that our culture is facing is the identity crisis. No one knows who they are, because society has confused them regarding who they should be. Authority is not respected anymore. Our teenagers have Justin Bieber or characters from t.v. shows as their role models. The virtue and sacrifice that built this country to what it is has been found more and more stagnant in the genealogical pool ever since World War II. As in every change, this will not be effected from the top down. Each and every one of us has to realize who we really are in terms of faith, convictions, and ethics, because frankly all three of those things have become obscured and relativistic. Now, I know the question that you are dying to ask: "That's all well and good, but IF you were a TMNT, would you for real be Raphael?" Yes, I would be. I consider him very balanced, plus his weapon is unique and I respect that.
Let's figure out who we are as people here and now. I don't know what the next generation will be called, but to be honest I'm sick of our societal generations being named after a letter of the alphabet or a uptrend of child birth. Let's get a future generation to be called the Golden Generation or the Flourishing Generation. The only way we're going to do that is by figuring out who we are and what we can be, not who we can never be.
~Worley
Well said! As trivial as it may seem, things like the dangers of technology and the social media are very present. People spend a lot of time making up fake houses, wardrobes, and general lives on Pinterest boards, instead of focusing on the reality. People spend way too much time forming their most prevalent relationships over places like facebook, where actual human intimacy is disconnected. Society focuses on, more than ever, what they (often unreasonably) wish they could have. People daydream about life and wish to be something better, but the execution of those hopes and making the most of one's life is much less present. Also, like you said, our role models today haven't set the bar very high...at all.
ReplyDeleteI think one massive variable that sets our generation apart from a century ago is a whole new world of choices. We are taught to expect vast opportunity and freedom to determine our destiny if we work hard enough and play the game the right way. The problem here is that, if we gain that freedom, we can easily fall into the trap of indecision as to what we are meant to do. We aren't brought up in the family trade; we have to choose our career path. Many of us haven't lived in one small town our whole life, and attend large colleges and live in transient areas; our choice of potential spouses is enlargened. Thus, the wandering aimlessness of so many today. I think this article makes that point in an excellent way: http://www.artofmanliness.com/2009/07/20/modern-neurasthenia-curing-your-restlessness/
DeleteAnd I swear this is the last post, but here's another (much lengthier and more complex) article on choice. Totally worth the read, though.
Deletehttp://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=17-08-042-f