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"Jump! You might fly, you don't know! Jump....Fer shur!....
Well, maybe Darwin was wrong."
- Robin Williams (talking about two X'ers under the Golden
Gate Bridge waiting for jumpers.)
"Because the mind is a terrible thing to waste."
- Slogan for the American Negro College Fund
"Duuuuuuude. Sweeeet."
- Either one of the two dolts from "Dude, Where's
My Car?"
"Be excellent to each other."
- Bill or Ted from Bill And Ted's Most Excellent Adventure
Summer 2001
Let me get one thing out of the way.
Technically, I am a Generation X-er. I emphasize
the term technically. There are a lot of things that
are technically true, but in real practice they are not. For
example, communism is technically supposed to work and be a
great social plan. It looks great on paper but in actuality
it fails in practice.
So, agewise, I am a Generation X-er. In every
other respect, I am not. As a matter of fact I really think
there should be another category for the "vanguard"
of Generation X (like me). People my age and 5 years my junior
really don't belong to that group. We are too young to be baby
boomers and too old to be the biological vegetation that is
currently out there. The cut off point is 6 years younger that
I am. Those are your Generation X's.
A friend of mine, who owns an ISP, has classified
today's youth into two categories. People he'd hire and People
he'd NEVER hire.
I really don't know what happened. Maybe it's
the hole in the ozone layer. Maybe it was the absence of "Schoolhouse
Rock". Maybe it was the changeover of Lincoln and Washington's
birthday to President's Day. Maybe it was all of the drugs done
during the free speech movement… or better yet, the lack
of them. In any event, the kids out there today that are currently
under age 30 are, basically, "breathing wood". I don't
mean to say that they breathe wood. I mean they are wood that
breathes. They have the intelligence of a not too bright tree
stump. Look into their eyes. The lights are on and no one is
home. They have a vacancy that I can't fake as an actor and
I would not even attempt to try.
Let me give you a some examples:
- I know this kid. She's twenty. She thought
that Eskimos and penguins were not real but something made
up for a cartoon. TWENTY!!!!!!
- Summer help that worked with my wife at age
18 and member of her high school student council did not know
who Abe Lincoln was. (It was bad enough that she didn't know
he was shot.) EIGHTEEN!!!!!!
- An intern that I worked with that currently
goes to MIT did not know what the "Peter Principal"was.
Let me just say that if there is a nuclear meltdown you may
not have to know that, but at a Fortune 500 brokerage firm,
It might be pretty handy. I didn't expect future software
engineers to know business basics. I was a marketing major
not a computer major.
And those facts they don't know may not seem
important in practical application but in regard to general
knowledge they are appallingly obvious. But unfortunately, that
seems to be the philosophy that these dunces have adopted. "Unless,
it directly affects me, I don't have to know it." That's
not necessarily so.
One of the most prophetic novels to come along
in the 20th century was the Orwell novel, 1984. This is not
something that directly affects the Generation X-er directly.
It will not affect their shopping. It will not affect their
CD buying or their video game playing. Hell, it won't even affect
their social calendar. Most people my age and older consider
it required reading.
Let me give you another example of Generation
X thinking.
I was in a Dreamweaver class out in Princeton.
One of my "classmates", a working mother of 22, was
curious on how the Norstar system worked in her car. I explained
to her that it had something to do with the relative positioning
of where her car was to where a satelite was. That information
is sent back to her to help her navigate. I went even further
that a wrist watch sized prototype was recently developed so
that people could be tracked as well. The reasoning behind this
had to do with Alzheimer's patients. If they wander off, the
care takers could find them. The new mother thought it was a
great idea for her child. I, on the other hand, was attempting
to point out the Orwellian implications of such a device. Her
reaction was "What's an Orwellian?"
AAAARRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!
The lessons lost on Generation X are "those
who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it"
and "knowledge is power". We live in a world where
at the very mention of "molestation" parents are taken
away whether the charge is true or not. Where the school system
is more concerned with "good touch" and "bad
touch" than reading, writing, OR arithmetic. We've successfully
cloned sheep. When are the days of Huxley's, Brave New World?
What will happen in 5 years when the "Baby Tracker"
is introduced to the consumer market? What will happen when
the penal systems start placing chips under the epidermis where
the prisoners can't remove them? When will the government always
know where you are?
When is "Big Brother"?
All of these things happen under a guise of innocence.
It is up to us to recognize when we have lost control. How are
we going recognize anything when "broccoli heads"
start running the show? It scares me because these are the future
doctors and lawyers of the world. These are the congressmen
and politicians of the 21st century. When I go to a hospital
and complain of chest pains at age 60, I do not want to hear,
"Duuuude! Bummer!"
When will it happen? It's happening.
Why will it happen? Because we let it.
I weep for the future.
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