Generation Why

It seems like the majority of the western world has come to agree that today's youth could well be the most useless generation ever to stumble around aimlessly on this planet. Although the same has been said for every generation in living history, this time around they may be right.

As a member of this useless generation, I get the feeling that I know where the problem lies - and it sounds strangely familiar. The thing that makes this generation so useless is that we simply don't care. You may think: "well that's exactly what they said about generation X" or something along those lines, as I said, it sounds strangely familiar, but it's not

The difference between lack of concern about anything and that textbook 'I don't care' attitude of generation X-ers is that our predecessors were pretentious in their attitude, while as far as I can see, we are dead serious about it.

People born in the late seventies and, possibly, the first year or two of the eighties were said to be useless because they spent half their youth watching MTV and worshipping bad music, once again, it sounds similar. They didn't have anything productive to do so they rebelled against the status quo. The big difference between their time and ours is that it was all new back then. By acting like a bunch of useless slobs they paved the way for a generation who wouldn't consider such a lifestyle an act of rebellion, a.k.a. us.

While the above explains part of our behaviour, it doesn't completely separate us from our predecessors. As far as human memory recalls every young generation has used the youth movements of the preceding group to become, as parents always put it, "kids these days".

This generation has another unique characteristic which enables its utter uselessness, it has nothing to live for. All the way back to before the second world war, a life-changing event every decade or so has distracted youths from their day-to-day uselessness and helped them develop a reason to care.

With issues such as the economic downturns, (relatively insignificant) international conflicts and political changes no longer defining the daily lives of western youth; priority is generally given to popular culture, gadgets, myspace and other essentially trivial passtimes.

From the Great War, through the roaring twenties, into the great depression and the beginning of another world war, past reconstruction and the start of the cold war, all the way through the love generation and equal rights, the further development of the youth movement, the fall of the Berlin Wall and...nothing serious enough since then. That's what makes us generation Why.