Our Generation's Greatest Strength/Weakness

I have to say that our generation's great strength is our snazzy fashion sense. Seriously, I think we're the first generation in a long time that won't have to look back and cringe when we see old photos of ourselves. Think of the '80s with their scrunchies, neon and shoulder pads. Then there's the awfulness of the '90s grunge movement.

I once had a black t-shirt with a cat on it that I wore with plaid black-and-white SKORTS. Insane, I know, but we've all gotten better.

Our greatest weakness must then be that we suffer Bai Ling to live. 

The Fug Girls are right. She's got heinous fashion sense. And if her pictures are the only ones that survive the nuclear meltdown or next Ice Age, then we're all in for some heavy mocking from the future.

Our Generation's Strengths Vis-à-vis Despair

I was thinking about the division of our generation's identity in relation to global problems. On one hand we've got an extraordinary messed up world to deal with and the scope of the problems are overwhelming in their complexity and numbers. Yet, when I look around on campus, I see little to sour my belief in human ingenuity and much to bolster my optimism.

To my eye, environmental issues are the most threatening challenges facing us and future generations. Studying them is something of an exercise in zen-defeatism. The literature reads like a manual to disaster. I've become a connoisseur of the openings to books about the environmental. They all open in the same way - a one or two page wrestling match between author and issues that attempts to condense apocalyptic evidence into a manifesto of imminent destruction. They all pretty much say the same thing - that we're screwed. Of course, most academics are of the more optimistic type, and they follow their doomsdaying with brilliant suggestions for prescription and proscription... but their initial stomach-punching introductions leave me with a sinking feeling even through the most hopeful of articles: Why haven't the solutions been implemented? What has gone wrong?

Those questions have no easy answers, but it's easy to weigh ourselves down in the non-answer of apathy or lack of political will. Discouragement abounds in activists. A professor told me once that "if you're protesting you're inherently a loser." This is true. But so much the sweeter is winning after you've tasted defeat. Something has changed on campus recently in relation to environmental issues. With the establishment of a green residence next year, the expansion of on campus recycling, and the overwhelmingly positive response of administrators to student efforts to spearhead environmental initiatives, it seems clear that the University has hit its tipping point. Last year I would have been skeptical of NU's commitment to the environment, but this year I am sure that it is strong.

And what did it take to finally hit our green stride? A combination of things - years of little-noticed pressure from within the administration, building student support, and finally the efforts of a few dedicated student activists to galvanize green sentiments into useful political clout. The initiatives that we're seeing now are the tip of the iceberg, with a complex set of committees, actions, and individuals floating beneath the surface. Locally, change is coming from top, bottom, and all points in between.

So - our generation's biggest strength and weakness? Our weakness is defeatism - if we take our raison d' etre as improving the state of the world and humankind, the problems are overwhelming, and it's easy to just sit back and be comfortable. Or strength is our ability to look locally at the positive political changes, positive coalitions, and positive attitudes that prevail - and then to take action on the basis of that hope.

Answers to Trivia Questions

Acceptable Answers to the trivia quiz:

1) Retsina is a resinated white wine from Greece. Though its historical connection to Greece goes back 3,000 years, its association with Greek nationalism is a relatively newer phenomenon.

2) General George Marshall (also Secretary of State and Defense) was the only general to have won the Nobel Peace Prize, for his namesake Marshall Plan (so called because Harry Truman didn't think that the 'Truman Plan' would ever get off the ground).

3) The most common answers are the Babylonian names Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednago, but you get bonus points if you remembered their Hebrew names: Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.

Response to Question #1

I originally posted this as a comment - apologies.

I think our greatest strength is the enormous boost in flexibility and intellectual development we're able to cultivate due to the increases in standards of living we've enjoyed as well as the age of information in general. Our greatest weakness is that in the midst of such potential, we are more self-centered than ever - we choose to use our gifts insofar only as they increase our own comforts, and then we are quite happy to waste the rest of our time watching television programs which, as our parents once told us, are actually quite mindless. Previous generations did not have the long lifespan we expect, and perhaps that made them treasure more fully the time they had.

The iGeneration

What do you think is the greatest fault and greatest strength of our generation?



According to the Almighty Wikipedia, there are several names by which those of us born during the years from 1983 to 1994 are called - Generation Y, the Echo Boomers, the Millennials. My favorite, personally, is the "iGeneration." Our generation is defined by our consumption of the instantaneous. We are attracted to products that advertise ease of communication and instant gratification. We can download movies in minutes, songs in seconds and make plans for the evening faster than you can say T9. Our generation is defined by an über-connectivity that has made us the most educated, communicative, and technologically-savvy generation ever.

And if you don't mind minimizing your Facebook chat for a minute, I'd like to explain why this connectivity encompasses both the greatest strength and the greatest downfall of the iGeneration.

Our creative drive, aided by an infinity of outlets, defines us as a generation. We are a generation that does not feel bound by institution or traditional societal structure. Because of exponentially-advancing technology, we can do whatever we want with out lives, within the law of course. Growing up with the Internet at our hands has enabled us to become experts in arguably the greatest movement in our society today. Businesses are getting younger. Baby boomers are retiring. And the most skilled people in the working world are no longer the most experienced. The old saying goes "you can't teach an old dog new tricks." Well we are the puppies, and the tricks we know are changing the world. Whether it be grassroots campaign fundraising, getting the word out about major issues like the environment or Darfur or the Jena 6, or producing the next viral video hit - our generation is doing alot more than previous generations have had the opportunity to do at our age. Our creative minds are behind a lot of the change happening in an increasingly globalized society.

But I also think that the creative, sky-is-the-limit mindset is having some negative effects on our generation too. We are at a point in our lives where we want to free ourselves from the binds of childhood and escape the traditions of older generations that have "held us down" for so long. Our generation has developed a certain arrogance that has branched off from that natural feeling of growing up - where we know we are instigating change, and we don't really feel like the values of our parents or grandparents really apply anymore. We seek easier, more convenient methods of moral exercise, just like we do with all other aspects of our lives.

My worry is that, if our generation tends to buck tradition in favor of convenience, we will forget where we came from. It is easy in an increasingly interconnected society to pretend like where our parents and grandparents came from isn't really relevant anymore, but we have to have perspective. We may be the best-educated, most technologically-savvy generation ever, but we must have a respect for those who came before us, and understand that it was the work of previous generations that led us to where we are today.

1st Weekly Question

What do you think is the greatest fault and greatest strength of our generation?

Welcome to Spring Quarter '08

Hi Blog readers,

I'm the Forum editor this quarter and I wanted to introduce you to a few new things we're doing on Forum this quarter. Each week there will be a question up for our columnists to answer. They will each pontificate about the world for a while, and you get to enjoy all of their crazy thoughts. This is also where they will be responding to any comments they feel compelled to respond to or elaborating on their columns so check often!

:)
Talia Alberts

Addendum to Column #1

Now that I am finally up and posting on the blog, I will try to start adding the extra information that wouldn't fit on each column I've written so far.

This is the addendum for my first column on Nobuo Uematsu - I think some School of Music students rightly thought I didn't substantiate my claim that his works are similar to compositions by Verdi and Mussourgsky. What I originally wrote was that the opera "Draco and Maria" from Final Fantasy VI seemed highly reminiscent of the style and tone of a Verdi opera, and that Sephiroth's theme, "One-Winged Angel," from Final Fantasy VII, could almost be a note-for-note recasting of Mussourgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" - I am referring especially to slurred tritones in the French Horn part on both pieces. Since I perceived those pieces to be among Uematsu's most popular works, I think I was justified in saying what I did. I'm sorry I couldn't be more specific, but apparently space is limited in the newspaper business. I will be adding more information for other columns shortly.