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2005-12-11 - 8:54 a.m.
And I don't like the non-voting thing either.
From: http://www.johnshirley.net
"Why the American Young are Fully Justified in Neurotic Self-Loathing
by John Shirley
I'm disgusted with the American young. It's not because so many of them abandoned rock'n'roll for hip-hop, with its (not always, but often) misogyny and advocacy of brutal violence and greed -- they're entitled to piss off older people, just like I did. I liked punk rock, it was pretty damn nihilistic and "unconstructive" and those extremes are necessary, culturally. So it isn't that.
And it's not about their fascination with games like Grand Theft Auto, even though you can get points by beating innocent people to death in it and even though it's innately psychopathic: when I was young I liked horror stories and I wrote bizarre and brutal and megalomanical fiction, like Dracula In Love, which was really over the top. So it's not that.
No...I'm not disgusted with the young because they're so narcissistically fascinated with the possibilities of fame; I'm not disgusted with them just because they're convinced that you're not truly real if you're not on TV, so convinced of this that they're willing to act like the people in The Magic Christian, swimming through vats of shit to get to money: to leap headlong into Fear Factor and The Apprentice. So what if they eagerly sit at the Donald's feet to learn how to demean, dehumanize, demoralize, and downsize anyone who gets in their way; so what if they're downright giddy with the desire to learn from the people in the show The Casino how to become less human, more manipulative, more selfish, more effectively greedy...
I'm not even disgusted with their doglike snout-to-the-ass ball-licking engagement with onanistic entertainment systems to the point of looking for consoles they can play everywhere, everywhere, everywhere; nor even the eager way they're embracing televisions in cars; I'm not so terribly disgusted with the the happy Web-prancing flocks of Wired mag cyberpunkettes mindlessly delighting in the Internet and the latest software and never talking about the environmental destruction caused by the computer industry...
I'm not even all that disgusted with the young for their irresponsible Bumfight videos and their idiotic binge drinking and for letting that Girls Gone Wild asshole film them and for thinking that films of people getting their heads sawed off in Iraq are "tight"...
It's not so much that I'm disgusted with their eager coupling with the notion of Attention Deficit Disorder (which is for most people an illusion) or their unconcerned capitulation to having chat-room attention spans; or their rejection of long thoughts and complex ideas...or their tendency to use beaches for ashtrays and to throw trash on the ground within four feet of a trash can...
I resist being disgusted with their having become cellphone-cyborgs, with their gossipy little world of parties and whining till their Dad buys them a car; with their taking "X" and speed and casually smoking salvia and smoking pot before class and partying on 'shrooms and insisting that this "recreational" idiocy is somehow an important exercise of freedom...
I do not allow myself to be disgusted with their turning away from books...
It'd be hypocrisy to be disgusted with those things. Because the baby boomers and Gen X made the young the way they are -- We created the systems they're caught up in and the goods they're consuming so indiscriminately. We trained them, by example, to use the world for a dungheap. We created the world of haste they're hastening to take part in... And we engage in much of it ourselves.
But you know what we did do that too many 18-and-over young people didn't do? We voted in the election.
We didn't register to vote because it was cool to do that for a day, and then not show up at the polls because Latisha was having a party.
We showed up at the polls. And we voted.
It turns out that many of the young, though often registered, didn't show up. A few more voted than in previous years, it's true -- but many others didn't. They didn't give a damn. They were too busy licking their own balls and sniffing each other's rectums. They really don't understand the issues and they don't care if they don't understand. It would take too much work to understand the issues. It's even too much work to show up at the voting booth and vote on the advice of others. So they simply didn't show up. They're too shallow and narcissistic, too "busy."
And now, here in the USA, we have a theocracy.
And that's why... that's really why...
THAT is why I'm disgusted with the young."
-- John Shirley
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So, how do you like them apples?