I have always felt that I was born into the wrong generation. Every time I closed my eyes and immersed myself into my favorite Pink Floyd album Umma Gumma, I thought for sure I belong with the beat generation.
However, my infatuation with the 60’s and the 70’s went beyond psychedelics, flowers, and Tie-Dye – there was something incredibly courageous about that generation that I so desperately wanted to be a part of.
I can recall the countless times I sat, after a long shift at work, talking with my friend Lisa about life. One night, we were discussing how we wished we were alive for the incredible social movements that happened in the past. These discussions lead us to ask the question: why is our generation so apathetic to social change? I could not answer the question back then. It always baffled us how little social change our generation was willing to achieve. How could other generations propel beneficial changes for society such as the civil rights movement and the sexual revolution, and our generation leave no footprint in history? Are we, the future of tomorrow, too comfortable with our lives?
For example, I can’t recall a time in the states that I didn’t have my phone glued to my hand at all times. We text when we drive, when we are in class, when we are eating dinner, and in the middle of conversations with our loved ones. Have we become so aloof to other peoples feelings that we fail to give them our undivided attention? We read Perez
Hilton’s blog and memorize futile celebrity gossip instead of reading the New York Times. This leaves us, a generation with nothing to fight for – nothing to care for except material objects. Our angst has no positive channel except, perhaps, self-destruction. It seems that we begin to hate ourselves and forget about the system that is truly oppressing us.
This is a system, in which our success is defined by what we posses, how much we are worth, what car we drive, and the tag on the clothing we wear. A system, in which we are told that perfection is feasible, but it has a price. We spend billions of dollars every year on materials, which make us feel better about ourselves. The new Marc Jacob boots, the Channel perfume, the new Ipod and the new car, have become our new sources of happiness. But when we fail to amount to society’s standards (an impossible feat), we get low about our lives. We become depressed because for societies standards we are never
beautiful enough, thin enough, never have the right clothes on, or earn enough money to afford the American dream. I mean did you want to be the only kid on the block without a bike when you were 9?
But money is not the only price we are paying. This takes me back to what I was discussing before I began to rant about consumerism. The true price that we are paying is the lack of real values that we posses. We could spend less time in front of the computer and TV and begin to read some books here and there (Twilight and Harry Potter doesn’t count!) that might teach us a thing or two about current affairs. We could become passionate about something other than fashion,
and perhaps, make a difference. For example, where has the feminist movement gone? Simply because women in the U.S. have certain rights does not mean that, systematically, they are not oppressed. But, we are all just sitting back and not getting angry enough about this to induce further change to occur. Take, for instance, child care and house labor. Although women now have the privilege to have a career, many still come home to what sociologists call the “second –shift”: house work and child care. And I am aware that feminism is not everyone’s favorite subject (partly due to the misuse and misunderstanding of the word and cause itself), but there are enough topics out there to be angry about.
This is why I love South Africa; because people here are angry, creating an environment in which change is possible. Every movement is alive and well. Ending apartheid was simply not enough for South Africans. South Africans have continued to fight for an20equal system for all. Chapter Nine was specifically designed to ensure that these rights are exercised. By no means am I saying that South Africa has a perfect government or society, but they are trying. People take to the streets and they protest. Take, for example, the minibus strikes!! So I guess we don’t have to go back in time to the 60’s and 70’s to be a part of something that is leaving a mark in history. I guess social movements are always happening, we just have to look out for them and make sure we part take in them.
When I am older I want to be able to tell younger generations what I was a part of. I want to be able to say that I impacted the world in one way or another. Like our professors Vernon, Vincent, and Marita, I want to be able to recall those times that we fought for our beliefs.
