I've heard many names for our generation. The official term is the Millennial Generation, by merit of our coming-of-age during the turn of not only a century, but a millennium. But there are plenty of others that strike our fancy and the fancy of those who came before us; "Participation Generation," "The Snowflake Generation," "The Me Generation," and of course, "Those Rotten Kids." But I think there's a name that suits us even better: The Cynical Generation.
What's with all the cynicism these days, anyway? It seems you can't turn left without being reminded of how life sucks, how the world is an unforgiving, unfriendly place, and how the only person worth looking out for is yourself. Gone are the days of "Let it Be" and "Nothing but a Good Time," pop music today has bought into the rampant consumerism that preys upon our generation. After all, as long as you can incoherently mumble triplets about extravagant, no-holds-barred debauchery, you've got it made. The message being sent to us is simple and clear: unless you're filthy rich (or can fake being filthy rich), you can't be happy.
But it goes deeper than Hennessy and Pandas. This recent election cycle was deeply cynical, with the American public clearly saying that they've had enough of the way things have been. When good ol' Uncle Bernie was denied the Democratic nomination despite having significantly more support than uber-establishment candidate Hillary Clinton, many Bernie supporters turned their backs on the party and voted Trump. And when Trump won the electoral vote despite losing the popular vote by 2.8 million votes, the public outcry was enough to wake the Founding Fathers.
We can hardly be blamed for it, though. After all, it's hard to remain idealistic in a world like ours; the lifestyles of our parents are simply unattainable in today's economy. Capitol Hill has never been smugger in exercising powers it doesn't have than the past eight years. We've grown up in a conflicting, confusing world of consumerism and inflation, of unavoidable transparency and insurmountable dishonesty. But that doesn't mean we should just give in to the cynicism.
There's a bright side to all this: piece by piece, we are taking back our idealism. For the first time in decades, consumerism is on a downswing as the housing market moves towards downsizing and people spend more on experiences and less on things. Most of the Millennials I know would rather be poor and happy than rich and miserable. Even pop culture is moving away from the cynicism of post-modernism and into a sort of neo-romanticism, especially in foreign music. Themes of simplicity and willful optimism are becoming more pronounced, as in French-Canadian artist Coeur de Pirate's "Comme des Enfants," in which she describes a relationship that keeps moving forward, "holding hands like children," (in French, of course) despite the obstacles in their path.
The key is this: don't get bogged down in the mess. Life does suck. But that doesn't mean we have to succumb to cynicism. To do so is to admit defeat. Don't let the world get you down. There is friendship and there is hope out there to be had. Keep moving forward, no matter what. It can be hard, but you can't give up the fight. I'll leave you with a quote from Francis Manapul: "Life is locomotion. If you're not moving, you're not living. But there comes a time when you've got to stop running away from things and you've got to start running towards something. You've got to forge ahead. Keep moving, even if your path isn't lit. Trust that you'll find your way."
