I think I've at last come to the point where I can admit that folks my own age are probably not ever going to be in a position to shoulder the awesome burden of changing the world, sad to say.
So what are the young adults my age compelled by? Paying the rent. Staying on top of their bills, not eating overly industrialized foods. And religion? It's mostly an inherited thing, a scene whose benefits largely come from a pictoral sense of community and whispers of the occasional instance of crisis-management. But never our own. (Crises, that is.)
Purchasing is a big part of the life of folks my age. The things we purchase say a lot about who we are, or so we live as though they do. The production-conscious labels and names are an ideal we seem to have flocked toward. Clothing is not a big concern, and so, is less important. The key here seems to be to not put across the impression that we have tried too hard to find clothing which is of top-notch designer quality; but rather that our apparel says we are an easy-going people, not prone to stressing about status. Which, for the most part, we are not. But we feel the incredible weight of adulthood coming down on us in broad, uncomfortable ways that make us shift in our seat and go outside for air, for a cigarette, for something but it is an anxious response we have to this inevitability that is absolute adulthood.
We will fall into some career, we are sure of this. But which career we will wind up staying at in our 40s, it is not clear. It seems likely, and indeed we do fear this, that we could very well wind up falling into a family-honed career -- doing something very much like what our parents did. This is, in truth, not likely to pan out; but it is a fear we all have -- the fear of not striking out on our own successfully, not leaving our mark in a lasting and durable way. This is Freudian, back-of-the-mind stuff. And as I said, it is frankly sheer baloney.
Well over half have abandoned their college-born notions of what we will do with our lives. The stern, humorless ones are still on that track, still plugging away at what they wanted to do with their lives. For the most part, these people are an enigma to us, and we are suspect of them in ways that stem from a rather straight-forward mixture of admiration and jealousy. This is only human. But it takes no time at all for our own responsibilities to creep back into our consciousnesses and remind us how and why it is our decisions and mistakes and hard-fought choices have led to the life we lead now, the life of keeping things in order -- bills, communication with family, cutting loose and having a few beers with friends -- the life of "just enough," is what it seems like to this writer. Because these people, the "just enoughs," are the ones to which I belong.
We are our audience, our demographic.
Granted, this is on a micro level. On a macro level, we are still part of the highly coveted 18-35 demo., the group that is relied upon to spend impulsively, the group known to be led along like sheep by flashing lights, bright colors and new gadgets, apps, trends and so on. That is the broader group to which I am lumped. The smaller, truer, more intimate group to which I am a part, we know at least on a cursory level the techniques to which our broader 18-35ers are susceptible. We are aware of how we are incited to "obey our thirst." We are skeptical, and we are in many ways of humble origin. We were not born rich and we do not ever truthfully expect to become rich. We will progress, live and advance through life in a horizontal manner. Which is to say, we probably will not move much beyond where our parents did, and that is if we are lucky -- play our cards right, keep things in order, etc. And as for love, love will find a way. In most cases, it already has. But upward mobility is for us a straight, flat line into the horizon. It is horizontal mobility that we have inherited. And we will do just enough to keep ourselves content as the line takes us from here to the sunset.
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This entry was stimulated after reading about the MTV Generation. Those links are available here and here. Lastly, and related to the theme of what you've just read, I recommend you watch this movie trailer, then see the film itself. You may have to go to Netflix, it could be harder than most movies to locate at your local Blockbuster.
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