Sunday, November 13, 2011

An Open Letter to the Future Stock Brokers and Alimony Queens of My Generation

We are a disgusting lot. A savage crowd of spoiled potential, half-filling the jar of our elders' expectations. But we are not lost yet. While across the country, amateur organizers struggle to replicate the days of Ohio State, taking the lumps we normal folk are much too apathetic to handle, we must support them; not only with our enthusiasm- which to be fair has almost been completely spent by Viacom. Its endless team of Nazi scientists hell-bent on turning youthfulness into fascism in their quest for the almighty dollar. But we must back these Dobermans- with our respect and acknowledgement; the two most powerful weapons we have left. Choose to acknowledge them over something else- a more instantly gratifying pursuit such as tolerating another episode of Secret Life of the American Teenager, or relishing in the smugness of listening to This American Life.

Realize! Consuming does not make you powerful. We have grown all we can from spoonfuls of bubblegum pop, and now we must start producing

This is terrifying, I know. We are not bred for such real work, but believe me we have it within ourselves to separate and start again. We need not relegate the "tough" decisions to anyone but ourselves. Take charge and dare the police, banks, HR department, and your loved ones to say something to you about "unnecessary radicalism." We must learn from previous mistakes and move ahead. From a technological revolution, let us enter a humanitarian one. By recognizing your pursuits as equal to everyone else's. The American dream is still very much alive for those who have not forgotten how to side step the bread lines and start hungering for something more substantial. Trust me, if you stay on the hunt, you will never go hungry.

Respect everyone else's toil as you wish them to respect yours. We all work for the same dirty scraps. Some scraps just pay dividends. Let us not hate our grassroots competition, but call them to excel alongside us. Let us be better than ourselves, and stop trying to make all right with the world.

In twenty years, the only thing America has seemed to discover in my lifetime is that there is no magic pill, and we youth had to swallow a lot of bad tasting medicine to prove it. But now is not the time to seethe with hatred toward anyone, we must use it to fuel ourselves toward improvement. Acknowledge the disaffection we all carry and overcome it- be not afraid of the word "comrade" as we look together for a horizon we have constantly been told we would burn ourselves on. Let's take the Golden Fleece from the mouth of the serpent and feed a village with it- not simply because it is right, but because we fucking CAN.

So tomorrow, wake up- and to the first person you see, grab them by the ears, look them in the eyes and say "I understand" because we only have one shot; a strange and crooked shot to make the best of things.