west uptowner

self portrait as an alien doctor on the subway, originally uploaded by plastictaxi.

I had thought that we would do something that would shock the world into a different way of thinking. We would bring ideals and practical work and real information together: the synoptic generation.

Growing up in the 70s - submerged in the glow of the sexual revolution and with civil rights movements actually making headlines on the evening news - we all knew the problems: I knew that littler was pollution from that TV ad with the Dakota Chief shedding a single poetic tear over garbage on his land. I knew that injustice was recognized and abhorred. I saw images of poverty from Africa, war from Vietnam, and of the moon from NASA. It was an exciting challenge to consider growing up in a world that would steadily be getting better.

well.

It would be idealistic to say now that my generation is revolutionary is any significant way. Our moments of political protest - Seattle and perhaps Quebec City - were a brief blip. Our concerns are many, and valid - but the cohesion and strength and endurance of anything resembling a political movement has not been exercised.

And I fear losing the generation that lived through WWII. They went through hell, rebuilt the world on a simple and practical basis, and in so doing learned things about the human character that we no longer cherish: the value of struggling in doing, how we already have most of what we need...

We are not allowed (or don't allow ourselves) to say that we have enough. Integrated media and mobile devices shower us with unprecedented information daily. We know less about more than ever before.

# posted by trev @ 11:51 a.m. 3 comments