As you'll soon find out, we asked our good friend Jonah for some words on a subject far too broad for one post. He's a wayfaring stranger, folks, and we hope to hear much more from him in the days to come. - Longlunch
“Because every thought, either philosophical or religious, is
interested in perpetuating itself; because the idea which has moved one
generation wishes to move others also, and leave a trace.” -Victor Hugo
I was born in the mid-Seventies, at the tail end of the marketing
scheme that some slick jackass stuck with the moniker "Generation X." I didn’t
really care about generational movements when I found out that they’d
tagged us, and I still don’t. I think that was the core of our
generation movement. Attempt to define us, and even if your definition
is dead on accurate, we’ll act like we have no interest in whatever
you’re talking about...at least until it returns to obscurity. I suppose
it's a knee-jerk reaction to the über-consumerism of the Eighties. Or
maybe it just looked cool. Who knows? And really, who gives a fuck,
anyway?
See. It's still as easy as breathing.
When I
look back at coming of age, I had no clear idea that that's what we were
supposed to be doing. I was too busy trying to figure out if the drugs
were really strychnine. I think like most kids of the late 80s/early
90s indie rock/skateboard counter culture, I got my politics from punk
records and Public Enemy. I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X when I
was 15 or so, and for a little while I got interested in social
movements. I joined a few grassroots anarchist newsletters, I wrote
blatantly political poems, I damned the Man and all of His tentacles. I
don’t know. I seem to remember at least believing that deep down inside I cared about something. It almost felt earnest, whatever it was. At
least for a little while, maybe I thought youth movements could affect
a change on society as a whole, but nothing concrete ever really felt
imperative. I wanted to find something to get up in arms about, but all
of the causes just sort of seemed either hopeless or doomed to fashion.
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