Millennials suck. I want to get that in the open right off the bat, because really, we suck. I’m not some old-timer talking about the beep-boop of the phones, the "Jersey Shore," the Amazon Prime, the newly perfected sarcasm. I’m talking about how we're screwed as the human race. How finding anything of instinctual worth in this century has become impossible.
Most days, I walk around my college campus, suppressing the urge to scream. Most days, I want to grab everyone by the shoulders and say, “Forget the job interviews. The money, the class systems, the expectation.” Remember a century ago, when life wasn’t so cheap? People learned to live fast and die young. There wasn’t this modern mentality of “work now and have fun later.” Few of my generation know how to live in the moment—to not only appreciate every second, but to make use of it.
More than that, the “norms” of society are said to be much more tolerant, much more inclusive. We police each other in our conversations, our clothing, our everyday choices. But under the mask, we’ve become more intolerant, more stale, more rigid, because our ideas of the person have changed. Over the centuries, we’ve classified each other into invented categories upon sub-categories upon sub-categories. That way, we can erect power structures around and between individuals. That way, we can find out who’s winning. As Plato says, “To rule and be ruled, that is the honor.” We haven’t learned to live together over the past few millennia. We’ve learned to live on top of each other.
What’s made this century especially bad? Well, now we adapt ourselves, both personality and mannerisms, to any modern-day situation that arises, all in the name of "succeeding." What does that even mean anymore, “succeeding?” When we were hunter-gatherers, “succeeding” meant having enough to eat. In the medieval age, “succeeding” meant not dying from the plague or living past the age of 30. In the twentieth century, “succeeding” meant knowing how to dance and smoke like a badass. I suppose in today's world, “succeeding” means having a lot of money? Forcing your kids into the Iies? Being able to hold your own at a bankers’ cocktail party-turned-pissing match?
I suppose it’s not all on my generation. We’ve been on a downhill trend for a long time now. But it’s been getting ridiculous. The 24-hour media frenzies showing us how to fine-tune ourselves like the celebrities, politicians, and other depicted royals of the 21st century. This era is so vastly dominated by the chase for blue-blood/white-washed status, by reality television and salty teenagers (such as myself) reminiscing to the '60s. Sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll. That whole jazz. Back then, we weren’t quite as ruined. We knew how to be happy for happiness’ sake.
Just so we’re clear, I’m not arguing for the apocalypse (or drugs, sorry Mom). But maybe we should live a little post-apocalyptic. I’d say live on the edge, but the edge is so far from where we are now that living on the edge isn’t even a possibility anymore. "Imagine it," says comedic genius and scraggly bearded Louis C.K. "An entire planet of people eating, humping, waking up, repeat." No time to judge each other, no time to catalog, no time to figure out who’s doing better than who. None of that feel-good, arrogant, surface-level crap that society tells us is all part of “succeeding.” None of that "be better than everyone else." No. People being people—living, breathing, dying. That’s all I want. That’s all we should want.
