The first decade of the 21st century. Almost done.
So what have we learned so far, kids?
- Ideological fanaticism is bad;
- Religious fanaticism is bad;
- Mixing the top two items can create one hell of a mess;
- There will always be people who claim to be more "chosen" than others in spite of evidence that points to the contrary;
- Pounding chests and rattling sabres will always tip off your enemies;
- Never assume that your "backward" enemies would never attempt to pull off another great act of infamy;
- Regardless of stance, not being able to deliver is much worse than not being able to do anything;
- The lowest common denominator will always go lower;
- Expediency is not resolve - there is no such thing as a "feel-good" victory: just a weary satisfaction that something was done;
- War is hell;
- Peace had been given many chances. Unfortunately, some dumb human will screw it up for the rest of us dumb humans;
- Saying "no to drugs" means nothing: if you have a problem with immediate gratification, anything is a drug;
- It's hard to be sincere if everyone seems to be lying;
- "American Idol" is killing pop music, not MySpace or mp3's
- Is it just me, or is the glut of "reality" shows a sign of a decaying civilization, especially the ones on VH1?
- Speaking of which... does anyone really give a fuck who Brett Michaels fucks in "Rock of Love"? I sure as hell don't!
- Will Barack Obama really save the United States, or will it be the United States saving itself in spite of itself?
- Liberals will always claim that they can save the world, no matter how faulty their claims can be;
- Conservatives will always claim that they can save the world, no matter how faulty their claims can be;
- Come to think of it, whatever happened to "power to the people"? Have all those idealists, dreamers and schemers from the "Summer of Love" contracted Alzheimers? Have all the flower-children gone grey and cynical and ever more skeptical of a hazy, uncertain future?
- Kids are being more corrupted than ever. Back in the day, people from my generation never had a culture delivered on a silver platter - if we had to meet someone, we'd go out and meet that person. Now it seems that the kids would rather rofl while some n00b gets pwned on YouTube/MySpace/Facebook/etc...
We grown-ups may have succeeded in dehumanizing youth, reducing them to snarky little automaton versions of what we would've wanted to be when we were their age - bulletproof, future-proof, blameless, shameless and brainless. - One day, sometime next year, we might say to these kids while sifting through the rubble left by war, fiscal stupity, environmental mismanagement, cultural mental regression, social/political/spiritual pettiness and overall collective apathy:
THIS IS OUR MESS: IT'S NOW YOURS TO CLEAN UP.
Then again... I may be wrong all along.
I thought that this century would be a combination of the Jetsons tossed in with a little Haight-Ashbury for some progressively good measure.
But we're Humans, aren't we?
And so far we have the potential to kill each other into extinction. Right?
People will always complain about the environment and how we're killing it, and yet many of us are killing ourselves with the pettiest of issues such as class, race, religion, politics, gender and orientation.
Each one of us seem to be carrying out one form of personal jihad just to cope with a world left by those who came and conquered before.
This year will neither be any better or any worse that the last. It will be - as it was in the past, as it will be in the future - what we make of it.
For better and for worse.
Have a fine 009!
