Monday, March 11, 2019

The Generation That’s Lost Its Way or “We’re All Bozos On This Bus”

I’m not blaming them, they’ve been subjected to anti-capitalism pro-Gaia propaganda since they were old enough to watch Sesame Street. They were praised for everything and nothing, collected gold stars and participation trophies without ever even having to try. They’ve been taught that the culture they were born into is nothing but the summary of 9 evil isms: Capitalism, Colonialism, Racism, Sexism, Classism, Ableism, Ageism, Heterosexism and Anti-Semitism – although that last one is now open for negotiation. Current proposal is to replace it with Islamophobia.

The five “faces” of oppression - violence, exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, and cultural imperialism - formed the backdrop for their entire educational experience. And in case it isn’t obvious, white males were the primary source of all of the above thus leading to a generation of self-hating white guys.

So is it any wonder that so many of them emerge from their biological childhood uninformed, misinformed, and confused? Many are so unsure of their own mind and identity that they don’t even recognize themselves anymore. Take the case of the guy who raged at the MIT Technology Review article titled The hipster effect: Why anti-conformists always end up looking the same which is a recap of a Brandeis University’s research paper illustrated by a photo of a young man wearing a plaid shirt and a beanie.

Hipster

Right after the article was published, MIT Technology Review promptly received an email from someone who claimed he was the man in the photo and hadn't given his consent. He accused the publication of slandering him and threatened legal action – NPR

Only problem: it wasn’t him. When the MIT journal’s editors checked the image license it turned out that the photo was of a totally different hipster…who apparently looked just like him; hence inadvertently proving the paper’s thesis.

Which just goes to show: you never were as special as everyone always said you were.

“Why efforts to reject the mainstream merely result in a new conformity.” – MIT Tech Review

Related imageAs are my tats and piercings