Live through this and you won't look back

(I have no idea why I kept writing and writing, I had nothing in my head when I started. I wasn't even upset about anything. Shit happens. Enjoy this novel of a rant on American (lack of) culture and competition)

One of my favorite bands is a little group called Stars. Before one of my favorite songs they have a man speaking. He says "When there is nothing left to burn you have to set yourself on fire."  This shall be our topic of conversation today and to start I will state: "Today, your life should be about constantly setting yourself on fire."

Fire used to be all around us. Hell, humans at times in history have boldy walked around in those conditions while doused in kerosene just to make life that much more difficult. They reveled in the flames. They ate coals and belched lava. These people were the leaders of mankind. They were the generals and statesmen who we remember thousands of years later. They were the great thinkers, the masterful artists, and the inventors. 

It is rare to find a person like that these days. It was not too long ago you could find them hanging around, probably even in your family tree. My grandparent's generation has been called "The Greatest Generation" and while previous generations may be able to raise an argument, my generation and my parent's can say nothing.

Perhaps it was The Greatest Generation's fault, perhaps it was just the times a-changin. Regardless, something drastically changed in our society in the 1960s. LSD led to the hippies which led to free love revolutions. Those revolutions succeeded in ways no one could ever have imagined. Free love reigns in our society today. You don't slip into bed with a stranger to find it either. All you have to do is try.

Sometime between the realization that you cannot sit around stoned at music festivals to change the world and the 1980s the hippy movement did something remarkable. They ruined our culture. I love hippies. They did not mean for this to happen. But it did.

The hippie culture became so widespread and well known from the news, TV, movies, musicians, your friends, your children ... anywhere that the counter-culture became culture. This happens often. If something can get its foot in the door of the "normal culture", no matter how hated, a water-downed version will become widely accepted. Since most people are sheep, most hippies tucked away their tie-dye, hid their bongs where their future children wouldn't see them, moved to the suburbd, picked up an L.L. Bean catalog and started making house. (Meanwhile, the real hippies rolled their eyes, said "whatever, man", and just went on livin')

Well, sadly nothing gives you a false sense of enlightement and intellect like trippin balls or being stoned for the better part of a decade. So these people began raising children and decided the rules would change for children. No more winners and losers. No more picked last in gym class. Bullies were going to be a thing of the past. Everyone will love each other! Competition breeds jealousy, violence, and social stress! Get rid of it! This is where they fucked up.

To put this in terms we can all relate to: my parent's generation is the United States government and my generation is the U.S. automobile industry. We got special rules to live by, a sweet allowance for making our bed (or sometimes just for pretending to try), and best of all we didn't have to compete! As long as we put forth effort and made it look like we were trying we were big winners! Yay us! 

Instead of shittily updating classic car designs of the 60s and 70s my generations shittily began updating the classic clothing of the 60s and 70s. Instead of lazily trying to emulate the styles and mission statements of other car sompanies, my generations lazily tries to emulate the styles and personality of other people, especially celebrities (or the first peer that emulates the celebrities). Instead of asking for a bailout from the US Government in a time of crisis, my generation stays in school longer or moves back home until we figure it all out. Instead of being able to compete on a global market in a globalized, shrinking world both the car companies and my generation are beginning to realize that learning how to compete, even if it meant blows to our self-esteem and finding out we need to work harder at something, was an important step in our lives that we were somehow cheated out of.

So we are a nation's industry on the brink of extinction. We are the confused college graduates who have absolutely no idea what they are doing. My generation (I have been and will continue to refer to the suburban, predominantly white culture as that is the most spoiled and the one I grew up a part of) has lived a special, safe life. We have heard about this fire that used to consume life, but have any of us experienced being burnt? What have we had to compete for in our lives? The handouts, allowance, and trophies we "earned" by showing up and giving a good try?

America got fat and soft. We got stoned and put life on cruise control. When you are top dog you get to relax. You earned this for us didn't you? Well, your parent's earned your right to give us a life of leisure and stress free childhoods. Not really you, you just stepped in and gave us all of this. Good intentions only get you so far, and sadly, good sense never won out. 

We are a culture where dodgeball is banned. Schools are taught for the lowest ranked kid in the class so everyone gets dragged down instead of trying to drag that child up. We no longer fight to conquer outer space, we fight for parking spaces in our SUVs outside our strip malls. Achievements are not something to be remarkably proud of, anyone could have done it ... but why put in the effort when we all get the same ribbon?

It is time for our society to stop being enamored with the average best. Being called "competitive" should not be a put down like it is in our culture. For god's sake our most popular celebrities are musicians who either "sample" music and lyrics from other generations or people or they lip-synch words written by other people to music written and played by other people (or- have their voice digitally enhanced because they cannot really sing) while they "dance" on stage. That or they are "Reality" tv celebrities.

It is time to set fire to it all. Set fire to Hollywood and their endless remakes and sequels. Set fire to the music industry and radio that force feeds us Britney Spears. Set fire to the tv stations that mass produce the same shitty type of reality shows because they cost nothing and people will evidently watch anything. Set fire to our Starbucks and chain restaurants, where are the mom and pop businesses ... or did they fail to learn how to compete as well?

I am sick of people playing down to the lowest common denominator to my generation. I am sick of playing along. I refuse to do it anymore. I am tired of the fake. Fake breasts. Fake tans. Fake lips. Fake meat. We even have fake sugar.

We buy water, that tells you it is tap water on the label, that we can get for basically nothing from our sink. We have been babied and spoiled as an entire culture so much that I think we actually have completely gone stupid. People spend enough money on water in a given month to feed entire villages in other parts of the world. We are ridiculous.

Oh no Global Warming is going to kill us all. We all need to do our part to stop it! Well then shut the hell up and stop beinga consumer whore. Consume less useless, pointless shit and the world would be a lot better off. If you eat beef don't ever complain to me about Global Warming. Cows are worse for the environment than all the cars and trucks in the world.

One last thing, since this is an epic rant already. No competition in a culture does not breed people who are free to be who they are. It breeds people who are so used to being lumped into the same generic group that they a) are afraid of not being part of a group and b) have no idea who they really are. So now my generation is made up of mostly fake acting people who seemingly care more about the lives of celebrities they will never meet than the people standing outside the homeless shelter every winter morning waiting to get some breakfast.

Individualism is no longer free. It is manufcatured by 8 year old slave laborers in Micronesia and sold in America at a premium. If you know where to look, you can even see it being advertised. There is no such thing as sub-culture anymore. It is just the culture some network executive is eyeing to bring mainstream at just the right moment. It is hard to be unique in a consumer based economy. It is even harder when uniqueness is the new trend.