I dont think we can save the world anymore. There’s too many problems with too many things that we can’t possibly solve. Too many variables gone the wrong way.
But hey, that’s pretty darn vague.
Well it should be, cuz I don’t know where I’m going with this. But we’ll find out soon enough.
So…
My generation happens to be, happily, one of infinite wisdom. We just happen to know how stuff works. Not because of experience, but because we’re generally more intelligent than our predecessors. And by all means I mean that in the best of ways. Kudos to you older peeps for consistently making us better than yourselves. Commendable job. You have my utmost respect. But, yeah that’s the truth. We are better. We’re better at understanding our problems and our peers, we’re better at predicting the repercussions of our actions and we’re ultimately better at figuring out solutions and I honestly think a bunch of teenagers with a good internet connection could solve all the world’s problems in a couple of days.
Compared to the old farts in power who’ve taken decades just to come a situation where at least not everyone is secretly pissed at someone or the other, and plotting far reaching revenge plans. Acceptable progress I guess, but it’s too slow. But anyway that’s a different problem. What I’m trying to answer here is why I think we’re this way.
You might say vanity, or a bloated ego or maybe even delusions. Which I suppose is possible. I’ve never denied proclaiming my genius. But listen to my point. I think it works.
What’s the one thing everybody out there is these days? What’s the one thing that you’ve probably said to somebody sometime today? What are you, right now?
I’m pretty sure about the answer. But I’ll give you a second to think about it.
…
Moment of truth? Okay.
You’re done. Aren’t you? You’re ‘so done’. Be it with your parents or your friends or college or work or whatever. Maybe even life if you’re feeling adventurous. There’s invariably something or the other that’s made you go, ‘Oh I’m so done right now.’ And that’s the secret. My generation is so over the concept of life itself that we couldn’t care less about who gets a bigger piece of the pie. In fact we’d rather just get a couple of spoons and dig in straight from the pie dish.
I don’t mean to say we’re all suicidal. What I mean is that we know existence is just a momentary hitch in the timeline of things. We know there’s no point to it, and it’s useless to try and achieve anything. It’s better to live happy and free, be kind to others and enjoy what’s good in life. Music and books and art and science and movies. We just want to do our own thing and let everybody else do theirs. We don’t want the world. We only want our little spot on it.
And that’s precisely why we should be handling the world. We’re okay with letting others breathe. We’re okay with sharing. We want everyone to be happy. But that’s just not rubbed off on the people who ‘matter’. And that’s the greatest tragedy of our time: that they couldn’t learn to adjust for the benefit of everyone. They didn’t learn to accept differences. They didn’t learn to be kind. All that’s ever in their agenda is to satisfy themselves. Which is probably the root cause of all the unrest that exists in the world today.
Live and let live is, in my opinion, the motto of the 21st century.
Shame it wasn’t the same for our priors.