Senior Will Kasten has a few parting words for the class of 2008 and the rest of our supposedly self-entitled and ego-centric generation.
Text transcript:
We’ve heard a thousand times about our generation’s overwhelming sense of self-entitlement, so I’m not going to talk about that; it’s old news. Instead, I want to address something that worries me more than any ego-centrism our generation may exhibit. What worries me more than anything else facing our generation is our overwhelming sense of apathy.
It’s not a question of if there is an overwhelming sense of apathy which pervades our generation’s collective unconsciousness; we know it’s there. What we need to know—the question we need to ask—is ‘why?’”
We see past generations and it looks so easy—so simple—like it all ‘just happened.’ But that’s not how it worked. Those who came before us had real issues do deal with, and they dealt with them. Desegregation and civil rights, women’s rights, Vietnam—all these changes came about when the generation they are now identified with went through enormous cultural upheaval. This is not to say that our generation does not have its own issues which, but we choose to neglect these issues rather than confronting them head on like our predecessors.
What I find particularly disturbing is that our generation’s defining characteristic is nothing new or special to us. We try to prove we are different from the previous generations of youth by stressing just how much we don’t care—by how much we make a point of having no point at all—but this isn’t something unique to us; it doesn’t define us in any way aside from making us known as the generation that doesn’t care about anything. What generation of youth has in its time not asserted the exact same thing?
I am disturbed about our generation. I’m worried about the stance we’ve taken. But what concerns me most is whether or not we’re going to find some way to define ourselves in the coming decade. Are we going to have a cause? Will we take up a rallying cry and truly stand for something we care about? So far, the answer has been no.
Perhaps we’re preparing ourselves for a giant reaction to something, swinging one way before we swing another. People (not just those in Spiderman) say that with great power comes with great responsibility. So why is it that we, as a generation with an alarmingly large amount of power—the driving force behind the development of our technology and culture, not to mention our economy—seem to believe that with great power comes great apathy? What is it which drives us to so pointedly stand for nothing?
I know that I’ve asked far more questions than I’ve answered, but maybe answering those questions isn’t my job. It’s yours.
Understanding and assembling your belief structure before acting is a wonderful thing. Perhaps your generation is wiser than you think.
yaaaaaaaah trik
part of the problem is that we’re the most overworked generation since the early 1940s, for different reasons. Back then it was because of a much more rural nation where kids were expected to help with jobs, especially once the older men were off to war. Now it’s because of the immense competition between students to stand out academically in a world where a Bachelor’s is the equivalent of a high school diploma in the ’70s and a masters is the equivalent of a Bachelor’s in the ’70s, yet, workload-wise, it’s flipped around and high school students are doing as much, if not more, work then college students used to be doing. Students are having to study more hours for more years than any generation before them, and it’s taking a toll on them culturally.
I agree with Mac. I am afraid that maybe the next generation will have even more pressure.
This is hilarious coming from Will, arguably the most apathetic person ever.
I heard (read) that!