America's heyday witnessed its own twilight many moons ago and what Americans now exist in bears little resemblance to those "almost golden" years. The gold plating has completely worn off and we're all left staring at pig iron. Actually, sometimes I wonder what the statue of Liberty looked like before it turned puke green. Possibly it looks better this way.
T
hen again, I liked New York City Better in the days where I had to fear for my life at every turn. My tastes run a little hot and cold with regard to the norms of society, so perhaps this whole editorial may come as little more than the insane ramblings of a complete raving nut. I dunno. Oh well, you have the liberty to stop reading this at any time. Look at the rampant crime and vicious apathy inherent in our culture. Witness the decline of civility and respect among the skills at which an American citizen excels. People insist on parading their lack of driving abilities all over our roads. Then, they have the stupidity to direct their rage on drivers who have respectably mastered the use of a car.
We now pathetically accept Government corruption as a givin. Civil liberties for those that can afford them. Hard work gets one nowhere, and anyone who knows anything has to hate almost everything. These days, integrity's wages usually run about a few pounds of your soul.
The future of America now rests firmly in the hands of the most radically misinformed generation ever! Yeah, Gen Xers, you're in for a treat. You have officially passed your torch on to the Blind Generation. If generations were Roman emperors, then we'd no doubt be Caligula!
(For those of you that don't know Caligula, I'll give you the rundown. He was a Roman emperor that had amazing potential. Primed for the throne from birth, Caligula could speak multiple languages fluently before hitting puberty. Sadly, this child prodigy developed syphilis sometime during his reign. Left completely untreated, the disease ate away at the emperors body and mind until he went completely insane and started butchering everything that he wasn't raping at the time. Eventually, his subjects rose up and killed the whole Caligula family.)
Like Caligula, the powers that be primed the lost generation for a completely automated utopian lifestyle by pumping us full of wild new technological advances. They sheltered us from any wars. (look at the watered down coverage that we had for the crisis in the Persian Gulf.) We were too young to care about the cold war when it ended. We aren't familiar with anything other than the castrated news media that we have largely ignored. It's okay, though, because at least they warned us about drugs and AIDS, and free thought, but, like Caligula, something went hysterically awry...
We know useless slogans and symbols by heart. Fast food provides our sustenance. 24hr Wal Marts give us a place to hang out at night. TV filled us up with witty jingles and Mtv helped shape our monochromatic musical tastes and cultural attitudes. Either we love the music channel, or we hate it just like any other rebellious kid. We know our pop culture better then we understand our own history. For instance, I can't recite the Gettysburg address these days, but I can tell you where the kid in the 1980's drug commercial learned how to get high. ("YOU!!! Allright??!!! I learned it by watching YOU!!!!!") Everybody remembers that one unless they've smoked too much crack.
Some educated members of this generation give me hope, but unless we all open up our eyes, they will go unnoticed and we may as well just flush our future. God knows, we may face the damnation of repeating the same stupid mistakes forever, unless we not only learn our history, but also possess the ability to analyze, criticize and apply the past to the present. Then the future won't seem so bleak and uncertain.
I once had faith in the notion that everything turns out okay in the end,but, anymore, I truly wonder about its validity. Society seems poised for some kind of collapse. Ironically enough, those who fear this collapse most seem to push us all towards it at a frighteningly quick pace. I know some of us use our intelligence to fight this social decay, yet we need more help. Even the nastiest, most apathetic fool fears the possibility of a world made up strictly of their rotten kind. how much more pain must we endure before we realize that something about each one of us must change. We must first learn the truth about our lives. Then we must all stop lying about everything to others and to ourselves. A simple change of attitudes can ensure us all a safe, happy passage through our times. Like I said before, though, I'm a kook, so by the time this reaches publication, a comet has probably hit New York City and killed us all. Heh Heh.