Wednesday 18 November 2009

The World Was Moving

And she was lying in the grass,
And she could hear the highway breathing,
And she could see a nearby factory.
She's making sure that she's not dreaming.
See the light in the neighbour's house,
Now she's starting to rise,
Take a minute to concentrate,
And she opens up her eyes.
-The Talking Heads , And She Was

Our generation is one that is spoilt and accustomed to getting anything they want without working for it, believing in their rights without earning them. We're a group of people characterised for knowing who we are, and being faithful to ourselves, but if we do not do anything with this gift that we have, are we getting anywhere?
For years now I have been jealous of other generations, because they all had a clear identity. Upon reading the papers a few days ago, I realised our generation is THE generation where finally we can be who we please! Never before has there been this much liberty to follow your heart, at least among members of the same age groups. However, if we don't take this to the next level, we are nothing. We must organise, become a whole and use all our talents (which just become more and more diversified) for the greater good.
What this greater good might be, I'm unsure of. We've been spoonfed all our lives, absorbing family money without knowing the value of a dollar (or euro, or yen, or peso). We must become conscious that we too will take part in the real world, only this way we shall survive. Since material satisfaction is greatest nowadays, we should focus on leading our society away from its evils. Destroy consumerism, once again cultivate unity and altruism, working together and helping each other out, and not being obsessed with money and objects but also directing ourselves to exploring ourselves and others and the spiritual joys of life.
However, a revolution is not just demonstrating. Nowadays, demonstrating only stops traffic and annoys neighbours. We must find new ways of making our voices heard. They need not be violent and they definitely must not be cliché. In fact, a revolution can be started from inside our homes, I bet: you just must speak your point of view and establish connections with those that feel the same, making the group larger and larger. Express it publicly, privately, nobody can stop you.
Students that start demonstrations are just hypocrites, demonstrations do nothing, especially when a sentiment is not heartfelt or for the wrong reasons (read, the people that protested against the Plan Bolonya last year-- pseudo-1968ers who try to avoid hard work).
What is worst about our generation is the conformity and the hypocresy, in the sense that somehow we all think we have ideals (like open-mindedness) and we really don't. I don't really understand why everybody feels that they are all open-minded when they are not. To me, this is the biggest issue, the falsity with which things are done. One must combat the schools that pay no attention to them because they don't do IB (even though they pay the same amount as any IB student), the people patronising enough to make you feel you have a say when you don't, the people who talk a lot but do little, the people who talk a lot but believe little (one can tell when somebody does not know what he's talking about).
You should say what you believe, believe with all your might, but not with blind eyes, and you should put those you believe are wrong into doubt. Also, you have to try to extend your viewpoint and get others to support you and extend it themselves. In turn, this will spawn new ideas for bringing about change, and only this way will we get any progress, and stop living in a hypocrite politically correct society where we let our days fly by for financial and social success. Look for the truth and have everybody around you looking, share ideas and form a global philosophy, and let humanity take that final step towards civilisation. Let us escape consumerism and enter a new era.

4 comments:

Kaxu said...

very strong voiced post, i like itt!
I wonder though, with our habits so deeply embedded within us.. are we really able to change them? Can one really start a 'revolution from home'? I wonder..

sidenote: the plan bolonya demonstrations were ridiculous, point taken. :)

Johanna said...

I like this post, very strong :)
however, "Express it publicly, privately, nobody can stop you." - unfortunatly we have not come that far yet... and it's very few parts of the worls where one can actually express oneself however one pleases. We might live with the illusion that we can, but when reality hits in, that illusions shatters, sadly.

Johanna said...

but, i really loved this post, got me very inspired since it's so so true :) great writing too.

Anonymous said...

speech?
me pareció muy bueno, very powerful