Like 'chips off the old block'. Someone once said about the 'Beat generation" that the reason for their gloomy existentialism was the recent occurence of the Hiroshima & Nagasiki bombings, and they saw... no... future.
Or should I say they 'saw an end'? A similar thing is occuring today, except it's an "economic (read lifestyle) Hiroshima they are sensing in their own... 'narcissistic' world. FWIW, I think this little piece of middle-age insanity driven comedy represents what I think in regard to calling the YOUNG narcissists: http://leighm.net/sounds/archive/mp3/boomerville.m3u (or .mp3 if you want a download, 3 minutes 16 seconds). "They were called 'tweeners, slackers generation X, and NOW they want to apply their little fuzzy little names to everything...." I see alot of symbolic 'activism' by students who instictively (subconciously if you would) know that 'degree in marine science' (for instance) allows them to spend alot of time at the beach, and will also end up landing them a job @ EXXONMobil or some US government agency who WON'T have changed to match their socially concious demands. That means the older activists didn't make it through the 'enemy's line of fire' or sold out. ...or they can do like my nephew with his environmental science degree... market water purification products. Right livelihood perhaps, but slim pickin's as ROII (return on intellectual investment) for a gradutes degree. Will they sell out? Will they sell out? It's a pressing issue for the euth (sic) of Amerikkka, and consumerism thoroughly obfuscates the root cause, with them, as it did with their parents. IMHO, that subconcious dis-ease, feeling that you are 'just another brick in the wall' that's collapsing, and attempting to drown the feeling in shopping malls Ipods & DKNY (consumerism) is a factor in adolecent drug/alcohol abuse. Leigh Jim Devine wrote:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-esteem27feb27,0,716236.story?coll=la-home-headlines Gen Y's ego trip takes a nasty turn A new report suggests that an overdose of self-esteem in college students could mean a rough road ahead. By Larry Gordon and Louis Sahagun L.A. Times Staff Writers February 27, 2007 No wonder YouTube is so popular. All the effort to boost children's self-esteem may have backfired and produced a generation of college students who are more narcissistic than their Gen X predecessors, according to a new study led by a San Diego State University psychologist.
