Draft

/tired draft

I think the problem, since that's what we are calling it on this thread, is that my generation (or, I guess, it could just be my contemporaries) doesn't give a shit about your feel good-debt free, secure, low standard of living-American Dream.

From the beginning we were raised to be consume. From the Saturday morning cartoon characters that Mattell and General Mills provided, we have grown up in the world of consumption and commercialization. A lot of us had to have Reebok Pumps, Girbauds, Jordan's, Tommy Hilfiger, and Polo's before we could even go to school, comfortably.

In college we didn't want to work because we needed to ensure that we had enough bandwidth to pull in B's and C's whilst pounding beers at the fraternity house or staying out all hours downtown with our weekly ration/allowance. We still needed a vehicle, though, to get around West Campus and by this time we required Burberry, Lacoste and Brooks Brothers.

Then we get into the real world and it is time to work. The idiots fell by the wayside in some shitty jobs and the intelligent ones realized how awful our first jobs were and had to cope with the sickness that, like heroin withdrawals, low pay dealt us. But, being that we have evolved into such greedy individualists, we we able to do some soul searching between dry heaves and shitting ourselves to investigate the world in order to ascertain the best movements. We are a very clever and resourceful bunch. surprisingly. We gauge what is working, what are the dead ends and then we calculate a plan on how to get the best job and how to be the best at it.

Then, once we get to be the best in breed, as was our destiny, we reap our just rewards- the right to be the alpha consumers we were raised to be. The ones a lot of you created.

We don't care at all about owning, free and clear, a nice brownstone in a neighborhood with a domestic vehicle that gets good resale value. We don't particularly give a shit about our retirement fund (fuck it, we'll work forever) and the idea that people once rallied around a single "American" framework of morality and values seems not only archaic and silly, but barbaric and uncivilized.

We will spend up to our income because, fuck it, we deserve it. Besides, we are fatalists and everything always works out in the long run. Hemingway had it wrong, we are the "Lost Generation" in a lot of ways.

But, even though I don't really believe what I just wrote, I think that there are fundamental problems and our culture, in some respects, is worse, but the whole "American Dream" thing is really annoying and tired and I can't wait for simpletons like slorch to die off. Not the real "greatest generation"ers, but the simple simon motherfuckers with just enough smarts to make them dangerous or, at least, obnoxious.


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What about those who say the American Dream represents being able to live a truly Epicurian life? Are they then living within their framework when they consume until they are full? Get hungry again and then look outwardly, again, to binge?

To live in a society that is absent of pain (and/or struggles)? Too weak and unsophisticated.

I want my sensory pleasures tiitulated from the word 'Go' and I will work towards being pleasured because, ulitimately, this world has no meaning and rhyme or reason. Work unto itself for reasons of morality and responsibility and 'the right thing' is egregious and insulting. If one were not endowed the ability to work or create for themselves the type of world they desire, then they have the recourse of hard drink and drugs. That is pretty merciful, if you ask me.

This Dream is decidely American because America is (perhaps, I should say 'Was') the best canvas to allow us to imbue our wants and desires with only the muted critique of a bunch of pussy traditionalists.

That's right, you guys who have it "right", you men of responsibility and reason (i'm looking at you xminus, xmins's parents, troph, etc.) are the American dolt's bitches. Name another country where the intelligent and strong (and dare i say fundamentalist's?) are so marginalized.

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When I say you are marginalized, I mean powerless. At the mercy the desires and wishes of others.

We are a generation of the technology bubble, Social Security with no possiblity of a recoup, Cheap homes we dumped when payments inevitably went up, convenient bail outs (seriously, im about to just say fuck it on my student loans and just wait for that balloon to pop, why not?), and general shitdick tomfoolery as a guide.

I have very little faith that you honest and enterprising individuals are Masters of Your Own Universe and the controllers of the destiny you think you are. So, I (we?) live it up now.

Your version of the American Dream and the heroic life you have carved out for yourself (which you really seem to enjoy, btw, so there's always that to fall on) is not a testament to individual ability and moxy, but is contingent on the whim of others; specifically, the irresponsible and short sighted Alpha Consumers that I referenced earlier and those in power who manipulate the aforementioned majority. Maybe it isn't just America and it is a global thing, I don't know. But I think the perception is that in America with respects to wealth, jobs, and generally, power, the inmates are running the asylum, the guards are gaming everyone, and the reasonable voices are beaten into silence, save optimistic, happy and borderline braggadocios posts on internet forums and messageboards.

Doing all those wonderful things you referenced and then the next year being broke or possibly bankrupt sounds a lot like what I am saying, but maybe, and it's a good possibility, I'm just not capable of fully understanding all the details and in's-and-out's just yet.