"Pretty woman walking down the street…pretty woman walking down the street…pretty woman…", and so the song goes. A 20-something year old is on his headphone while sitting in a still pose that resembles that of Pony Boy in The Outsiders on the bench of the stairs of some building while nodding his head in series as if he is constantly stating to the world to acknowledge his existence. But the world doesn't care and life moves on as it is. People are on their way to work, some people are walking their dogs, and others are just walking and minding their own business all in while looking down at their phone screen or at times having a conversation with their electronic gadgets. You rarely see people walking down the streets while their heads are covered in books or people walking down the streets and simply greet with one another with a simple 'Hello!'. And why…is that?
As people pass one another, in order to avoid any conversations and to have the social obligation to say a greeting of etiquette when confronting an individual on the street, their eyes gaze down on the phone screen. But as both individuals pass by one another, they see how both of their screens are either completely black or just in the home screen. The individuals cannot even laugh at this awkward and funny situation as the social timing of such prior precedents has already passed. Justification comes within the minds of the individuals such as "I had things to do and I'm in a hurry" or "That stranger looked like a weird individual and I had to avoid the person in order to protect myself from possible harm" or other long-form of justifications. And…the moment passes. Life moves on again and it continues. Never a chance again for the two individuals to greet one another. Slowly forgetting how to greet each other in the streets…losing the ties to the cultural formalities of the past.
But the funny thing is…people sometimes remember the past moments and have regret on the notion that they could have done something better at those moments. Or tries to remember those moments that were "done in the right way" and find comfort and consolation that they did something right at those certain moments of their lives. Just like the moments, obligations have time for it to be accomplished. But it seems that Millennials wants to avoid the obligations and instead blame the past individuals for creating such obligations in the first place and just like a rebellious teenager proclaim F the system and just move on with Life. The Yolo tribe with not much of giving their all to deal with obligations but very busy even managing their own lives while claiming that they have the rights as an individual to live their lives however they want. But the sad thing is that Life does not work that way. Life is almost as if… as soon as you're born into this world, whatever socio-economic/social status one may be…everybody is born with obligations befitting each individuals' circumstances. Because there are obligations and people fulfill the obligations in life…that's how Life moves on. But not understanding the fundamentals of Life and just live whatever, then perhaps it is like stating one's own death sentence. Life may go on a bit because of previous generations' fulfillment of obligations but it will go downhill for the next generations and the generations to come if we stop fulfilling obligations in life.
Just like how the past fulfilling moments can console us, the Millennials tries to rediscover some fulfilling moments of the past to relieve their current reality. Those fulfilling moments such as 'old' culture like 80's fashion, old hip hop, vintage look, old sports, and so on. Rather than fulfilling obligations in their current reality, the Millennials tries to remember 'old times' where many of the obligations of that generation had been fulfilled and find solace by having the illusion as if the obligations that the past generation had fulfilled is what the Millennials have fulfilled as well. This kind of action by the Millennials, perhaps it is more of escapism. Not facing the reality. Perhaps, the Millennials are scared. Many of them do not know how to fulfill their obligations in life as the previous generation such as the Baby Boomers were busy trying to rebuild the world after the devastation of the Second World War that they did not have time to pass on the knowledge and skills to fulfill obligations that Life tasks each generation with. The Baby Boomers, perhaps are the saddest generation since they had the obligations to rebuild the world in which their predecessor had screwed up with war while they had to fulfill further obligations to feed their family which is the next generation or the Millennials. The Millenials may perhaps live off of all the fruits harvested by the Baby Boomers…but if the Millenials just live off of it then there will be no future for the next generation (generation after the Millenials). The Baby Boomers created loads of debt for the Millenials due to economic mismanagement you say? Well, just like all generations, debt is not a new concept. The Silent Generations were busy rebuilding the nations and as well as trying to reshape moral obligations in society such as through civil rights (i.e. Martin Luther King Jr. is part of the Silent Generation). And therefore, the Silent Generations did not had time to train the Baby Boomers on how to deal with obligations in life. The Baby Boomers instead paid close attention to the Silent Generations on how they fulfilled their obligations in life and hence, the Baby Boomers in their best effort from their observation alone tried to fulfill their generation's obligations in life. Therefore, we have to give credit for the Baby Boomers' efforts and management. It is not the Baby Boomers' fault but in all honesty, the problem all started at the start of the Second World War since the GI Generations had no time to train the Silent Generation and the trend continued until the present. Henceforth, instead of complaining or yolo-ing, or swearing at the current reality, we, Millenials and the generations after, need to keep our heads together and actually work towards fulfilling our generations' obligations in Life. Otherwise, this whole cycle of blame, hate, and selfishness, and more casualties will continue as long as humanity exists. Henceforth, we cannot standby. We must fulfill our obligations in life. No excuses. It is time to face the obligations in life. And beat Life itself.
