I was sitting writing lyrics, some to already existing songs, some to inspire future songs when I realized that some of them were provocative enough for me to actually think about them and delve a little more behind the scenes to examine why I was writing them. This happens quite often and thus it is not very surprising that I don't really ever finish songs. I'm going to post a bunch of little excerpts in a row so you can kind of see what I was looking at as I was thinking.
"Free though it may be, the draught parches my throat."
"Who guards the guardians? Who watches the watchers? Who shakes the lifeless?"
"An idea, plain as daylight, fragments in my hands and is no more.
If my thoughts are dark I must have seen the light."
"But for lost thoughts and misplaced words
If I were a blackbird I would sing at night too.
I broke my own wings to be like you, bound to earth.
I am the personification of a necessary evil.
We are many and I am you."
I started thinking about our generation again post-songwriting. I know I've written about it before, but I felt like it either needed clarification, or I did not draw strong enough conclusions to be worth the time for thought. The first question that popped into my head (there were many this time around so bear with me) was, "Do we even understand what duty is anymore?" I'm curious as to what young adults feel called to in their lives. For reasons I will make clear later, I don't think that any of us has a clue about what it means to be part of something bigger than ourselves. The loudest generation in history has nothing to say that's worth hearing. There is a reason for this of course: No one takes the time to learn how to think for themselves. Why take the time to learn to think when other people already know how? If there is one thing we, as a generation, are good at, it is taking credit for others' ideas. If there is a second thing that we excel at, it is feeling entitled to things that we have no right to feel entitled to. My next question based on this observation was, "What then is the cause? Selfishness? Ignorance? Pure stupidity?" I imagine the real answer is some conglomeration of the aforementioned, but I don't think that it really matters because it already exists so prevention is beyond our grasp. I do think that the existence of the problem, however, is just that, a really, really big problem. Where have the concepts of "absolute" and "final" gone? Who took the weight and severity out of decision-making? Why do we feel like no one has the right to say "no" to us while simultaneously harping the fact that others' opinions of us don't matter? It is like every single person thinks that every other person should think exactly the way we do and then gets pissed off when they all do. Where's your non-conformity now? I took a minute to be frustrated with people in general and then began again, eventually coming up with an idea that I haphazardly titled, "The Victim-Culprit Duality." This idea, which I will explain forthwith, stems from the idea that there has been a retardation of maturity in our generation. Basically I put together a statement that I felt characterizes, in varying degrees of course, the mindset and subsequent action of young adults today. It is as follows: "I know everything. Therefore, I do not need to create goals. Therefore, I do not need to work towards anything. Therefore, if things are not as I believe they should be, I must be being taken advantage of and I deserve better." Now you might say, "Well that is ridiculous, obviously no one reading this would ever admit to thinking that they know everything." Fortunately, the beauty of the statement is its infinite reductibility. I think that most of us would be able to say with certainty that they acted in what they thought were their best interests. In the context of any situation in which we act as though we are certain, this statement can be applied. Not to say that it does of course, as we do have the ability to not subscribe to this mindset. But, to reiterate, I believe this mindset is very common today driving people's thoughts, most likely unconsciously. The coincidence and the reason for the "culprit" half of my title are both that we are wholly responsible for this problem. As luck would have it, I picked up a News of the Day while sitting at the Grille and someone had written this little narrative paragraph on it that, if satirical, is exactly what I am talking about, but if serious is exactly the problem:
"Don't drink that, Timmy!" cried Mom as she snatched the bottle of drain cleaner out of his hand. He thought to himself in a confused daze that if they didn't want people drinking it, they shouldn't put it in such a pretty bottle. He waited until she left him alone again and went right back to the sink. This time the bleach looked good. He took a drink and twenty minutes later, he died. His mother cried for days, but it wasn't her fault. It was the fault of the company that sold the product. It was just too pretty for children to resist."
Sorry for the harshness here, but guess what? It was the mom's fault. Children have been curious and naive since the beginning of humanity. But for so many people today, the first thought that crosses their mind is not responsibility, it is blame. Let's sue the company, those bastards! This was a very extreme example, but as with a lot of my other thoughts, extreme examples are often reducible and applicable to other less extreme situations. But I digress. I thought of several people in our society that are wonderful illustrations of the varying degrees of my idea. The first would be our infamous overlord, "The Zuckerbeast" (all credit to Matt Inman for the coining). I loved The Social Network, don't get me wrong. Definitely one of my favorite movies that I have seen in a while. I can see a lot of myself in Mark's actions. This is exactly why I think it applies. If I had had the opportunity that he did, I would have been all over it. Screw over some guys and become the world's youngest billionaire? Come on, of course! What am I doing with my life? At the same time, who of us would deny that he is a complete asshole throughout the duration of that movie? Only the naive. It's not like he was required to act the way he did. He could have kept the people involved and still made a fortune, but welcome to the 21st century. My second example is of course Lady Gaga and her "Born This Way" ridiculousness. My question for that whole following is this, "How the hell has humanity survived for this long if we have always been so persecuted?" Regardless, what I want, when I want it, how I want it, and if you don't like it, fuck off. That's the gist. What a way to live. If you think that is what freedom means, you are sorely mistaken. This is simply another shepherd to which we can choose to be a slave.
On a related note, I refer back to an older post in saying it is no surprise that we are suffering in our relationships with God. There is no room for obedience in this mindset. In fact, our mindset becomes, well isn't it God's job to show himself to us? That's what he's there for. We are so caught up with being individual that the need for God cannot exist. This goes back to the idea Jeremy brought up way back when that sin is taking the role of God into your own hands or wanting to be God. I certainly would not want to be the one going through trial and error style figuring out that F=ma works well. Think about the universe where F=2ma. Not a pleasant picture. Anyway, I digress again. This isn't really a "conclusion" type of post now that I think about it, despite my earlier claim. It leaves me pondering the "whys" which is a successful enough result for me. I wish more people pondered the reasons of their behavior because I know that when I do, I am often disgusted by the way I act and therefore seek to become better. In closing, amuse yourself with this wonderfully clever parody of Descartes: Cogito, ergo doleo
As-Salāmu `Alaykum
