2008 Woodie Awards
The last generation
Adam Franz
Issue date: 10/24/06 Section: Forum
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There must be little doubt that these are desperate times. We are fighting a futile world war of attrition with an idea, an idea that is perpetuated with each of its followers' deaths. Corporations, on a daily basis, assassinate our Individualism (both collective and personal) with slogans, logos, and facades of perfection and luxury. All the while this present generation is reaching its Youthful Harvest. We are graduating from universities and academies. with a spirited hope of the future.
I do not believe it would be too treacherous to confess that, with hope, we stand still in fear.
There have been two generations in the last century to react to global conflicts, The Lost Generation and the Beat Generation.
The Lost Generation was disillusioned by the First World War, and was cynical of Victorian mores. They were doubtful of gods (whether Jesus Christ or Reason). The question that plagued them collectively was "Why are we living?"
The Beat Generation, some years removed from the horrors of the Second World War were as disillusioned; however, where the Lost Generation wallowed in the confusion brought by war, the Beat [Generation] harnessed spontaneity and chaos - they looked towards spirituality as a solution. The question in their unconscious seemed to be "How do we live?"
Both generations rekindled the joie de vivre in American society.
Our generation, with young, attractive eyes sits on a pedestal unprecedented in history; we've wealth, technology and knowledge. We live in comfort and with, unfortunately, distractions. It seems collectively that we have opted for the value of entertainment over inspiration.
The two roads diverged in yellow wood, of the Frost's poem, are now paved over with the bleak gray of concrete. One road boasts a Wal-Mart Supercenter, a Starbucks, the cacophony of traffic and the other: the void of the future, the restless potential of the present.
Where do we go from here? Ever-present in our lives lurks the dichotomy that "nothing is sacred" and "everything has been done." We are constantly filling vacuums, "the next Bob aDylan, Beatles, FDR, Hemingway, Kubrick, Dr. King, Woody Allen, et al." have come and gone, and yet we look to these figures still.
I do not believe it would be too treacherous to confess that, with hope, we stand still in fear.
There have been two generations in the last century to react to global conflicts, The Lost Generation and the Beat Generation.
The Lost Generation was disillusioned by the First World War, and was cynical of Victorian mores. They were doubtful of gods (whether Jesus Christ or Reason). The question that plagued them collectively was "Why are we living?"
The Beat Generation, some years removed from the horrors of the Second World War were as disillusioned; however, where the Lost Generation wallowed in the confusion brought by war, the Beat [Generation] harnessed spontaneity and chaos - they looked towards spirituality as a solution. The question in their unconscious seemed to be "How do we live?"
Both generations rekindled the joie de vivre in American society.
Our generation, with young, attractive eyes sits on a pedestal unprecedented in history; we've wealth, technology and knowledge. We live in comfort and with, unfortunately, distractions. It seems collectively that we have opted for the value of entertainment over inspiration.
The two roads diverged in yellow wood, of the Frost's poem, are now paved over with the bleak gray of concrete. One road boasts a Wal-Mart Supercenter, a Starbucks, the cacophony of traffic and the other: the void of the future, the restless potential of the present.
Where do we go from here? Ever-present in our lives lurks the dichotomy that "nothing is sacred" and "everything has been done." We are constantly filling vacuums, "the next Bob aDylan, Beatles, FDR, Hemingway, Kubrick, Dr. King, Woody Allen, et al." have come and gone, and yet we look to these figures still.
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