Where has this wonderful thread been hiding?
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Above, all young people seem not to believe or care, and that's even sadder. You and I remember well how angry so many members of our own generation were back in the 60's and early 70's; and some of it was misplaced and some of it based on ignorance and some of it was entirely justified; but it was an anger that had much in it of compassion, and a belief that it was possible, and indeed imperative, for groups and individuals to become a force for positive change.
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I think this is a fairly inescapable result of the sixties. As much as that generation had hope in creating a new world, it tore down a lot of cultural institutions and assumptions, and as it failed, it left our world half torn up. The political assassinations, the growing problems with drugs, the unending and confusing Vietnam war, the Cold War... by the time I graduated from high school, 2/3 of the students came from divorced families, making broken promises the norm rather than the exception. We grew up in a completely different world, socially if not materially. There's also an element of a rebellion against rebellion; the sixties generation rebelled against the order of their parents, and so the younger generation rebelled against the only thing their parents' generation had left; a hollowed-out sense of hope. Furthermore, I think this country (and a lot of the world, really) has been on a high since WW2, and we've been gradually coming down off of it.
I do get a little frustrated with the cynicism, because a lot of it rings a little hollow. I notice it more in the music than in fantasy, but that's probably because I stick mostly to dead authors. It's almost like a discussion among the young as to how we would handle such trials and tribulations, were they to happen again. But after a while, you just want to grab them and shake them out of their self-pity and tell them to get on with it; that life isn't that bad, that
their life isn't that bad. (Fanfiction is particularly bad- 2/3 of it is self-indulgent angst and trauma for its own sake-blech!)
The above's hardly all-inclusive of what's been happening in society, but then all-inclusive is pretty much impossible; there's so much happening at any given time. As has been said, these things are somewhat cyclical.
If I ever get published, I will most
certainly be helping it to pass.
