Progress...

There will always be a time when you look back on where you came from. A time when you reflect on where your life is now to where it was before. You will also find yourself reflecting on where you are headed or more like where you are going. Sometimes when looking back, we might find that in our current state that we aren't where we expected to be based in what we felt in the past. Meaning "when I grow up I'm going to be a fireman!" Whereas now that we are grown we are an insurance salesman. Not to say that there is something wrong with being an insurance salesman but we deviated from our original goal growing up. Now my example is quite a big leap but let's take a look at that for a minute.

When we were younger our view of the world, especially in the last quarter century or so, had greatly been affected by the ever-changing and rapidly changing modern society. Now when I say "we", I am talking about the generation before the Millenials and Gen Y. We saw a change in the way people dreamed...in the way we made goals. We saw how society right before our eyes were creating things that made it easier...maybe easier is not a good word for this point. Let's say...we have witnessed with the advent of the computer and the super information highway, a means of progressing through life in some aspects with ease. Again not necessarily a bad thing but still something that has contributed to the rise of lesser need of certain older skills and practices. I mean I graduated from college 10 years ago. When I was in art school there really wasn't direct degree programs for video game design. You had to take a more traditional approarch to video game design...i.e., graphic design, illustration, etc...I mean about 5 years after I had graduated, there was an influx of schools that offered BFAs in Game Design. I mean this is a burgeoning field that Millenials,Gen Y'ers and Gen Z'ers will more than likely dominate for the foreseeable future. Something complex yet simple, has changed the way we for the most part view success in some circles.

Sometimes now we are judged and we judge ourselves based upon how we adapt to this ever-changing world. Some of us cope, some of us find it a struggle. I am always finding myself question whether or not I am doing all I can do to better myself or to get to where I believe in my heart and my psyche, where I should be. Whenever I enter into this discourse with myself or my peers, I find it easy to sometimes forget that "you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet..." Now I know that nowadays there are things such as "egg beaters" and "egg replacers" that can probably make a better omelet (LOL) but at the end of the day, we should strive to measure our success not by our progress but our struggle to get where we are going.

Frederick Douglass said it best, "...If there is no struggle there is no progress..." I hope this post came off coherent and not too all over the place. Until next time...

 

-Namaste

 

The Generation that is, was, and should be...?

In this age of Millenials, it seems that the youth of the nation are obsessed with putting themselves in front of the camera for all the world to see. What's sad is that they aren't showing themselves in a positive light. They are going around filming themselves either committing acts of violence or do some extremely stupid thing. i have seen some footage were the kid was screaming at the camera "this is going on WorldstarHipHop" or "imma youtube this" These kids are so brazen...have so much disregard for the law and other peoples feelings that to them its ok to do these things.

Todays youth, with the way modern technology is, has so many ways to express themselves in more productive way. instead they strive to get themselves noticed by filming themselves doing flash robberies and beating up people. What goes on in the mind of these kids? Who's to blame for their behavior? Some would argue that its societies fault. Some would say its the way the kids were raised. You could make a case for the lack of opportunities presented to them because of their environments.

Back in the day I would say that could very well be the case but some of these kids...no...some of this people is more like it do it purely for the sheer love of it and to see how many possible views they can get. And society being the pure voyeuristic junkies that we are cant help but take notice. Its like seeing a really bad train wreck. Empathy will have you feeling a great deal of concern for the victims but your lust for knowing whats going on will have you unable to look away. These people who make these videos on some subconscious level hone in on the "lustful eye" of the voyeuristic junkie. We all scream, "they don't have any home training" or "what if that was someone they love," all the while we are clicking on to the next video. This type of engagement not only helps fuel the longevity of this behavior but also helps along the slow degradation of our society as a whole. Don't get me wrong Americas youth aren't the only ones that have gone to extreme measures to be heard in a violent voice but american youth have taken it to levels that this author would liken to caged beasts trying to survive an impending meeting with their maker by bastardizing survival of the fittest. In this case its survival of the hardcorest waste of time.

Some people will complain about "why society doesn't do things for them"..."or why is it they are targeting me" but then they turn right around and film themselves beating up some defenseless person just so they can film it and make the front page of some video site. It's like where does this animalistic nature come from. What drives them? What gets them to this point?

When I was a kid growing up, I was taught when out in public; "act like you have some home training"..."don't do anything that would put yourself in a bad position, you never know whose watching"...and so on. As kids we didn't want to draw too much unwanted attention to ourselves. Kids today do just the opposite. It would be one thing to document yourself doing something productive but "showing out" to achieve views and/or notoriety is just plain barbaric, demeaning and immature.

As we move forward in the future, we are supposed to look towards our youth to carry on the progressive advances that we as a supposed strong nation have been enduring the past half a century or so. But if we only have their "gladiatorial" ways of presenting themselves then I fear that this generation will set us back a ways.

Sorry it took me so long to post this for you guys but it been a crazy last couple of weeks. Crazy! And can you believe this heat half of the country has been getting. Wow!

-Namaste

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