I recently viewed a video, one of Craig
Ferguson's monologs. This video has been floating around the net for
quite some time. None-the-less, the video got me thinking. Please
view the video below before continuing on. It's only a couple of
minutes.
This is some-what of a far cry from Craig's usual monolog, but he makes a lot of solid points. I had some thoughts that are different, but I believe directly related to his theory of imbecilic youth.
We now live in a society where people, relationships and items are tossed aside rather than fixed. The coffee that table wobbles, rather than tightening the screws it gets tossed. A relationship hits a speed bump, forget communicating the issue, forget loyalty to the other person who saw you through difficult times, drop it like it's hot! A button falls off your shirt, toss that bitch! What's a needle and thread? It's a terrible throw away attitude that plagues us.
There are times when I think the current generation, our generation, is the worst. But we're not...we're just the worst so far! The next generation is going to be far worse off. The current crop of up-and-comers are steeped in defeatism and are coddled in warm comfortable lies. The system is failing. Now most schools have done away with failing grades, you get as many tries as you want to get something correct. This mirrors absolutely nothing in the conventional world we live in. Slowly but surely, trophies, medals and even the term 'winning' are being done away with. Everyone wins, everyone one gets to feel good. NO! That's not how it is at all. Sometimes you lose, sometimes you win and sometimes you ALWAYS lose. It's not about that, it's about putting yourself out there and doing the hard yards, gaining experience from both the wins and the losses. If you don't understand how good it feels to win and how terrible it feels to lose then why would you strive? They answer is simple...you wouldn't.
Everything is written off to bullying. Look, I'm against bullying...legitimate bullying. Think about the way you gently tease or rib your friends; today that would be considered bullying. Everything is called bullying. Kids will bug each other a bit. A little is ok. A lot is not. Physical altercations are never ok.
Then there is the current generation of adults, the 25 to 35's, a category which I am in. Most of these 25 to 35's are the ones raising this dim future. We're doing them no service, we're not showing them how to fight for things...the rate in which people divorce or break-up is bananas. Nobody wants to try and work on anything, be it a toaster or their relationship. Guess what, the toaster is fucked. Unplug it, open it up and TRY fixing it. Hell, if you can't fix it you've lost nothing! It was already fucked. The same goes for relationships, if something is wrong then dig into the relationship together and try to fix it. These are concepts that are lost on most. Can-do attitude has been replaced with excuses and bluster.
The sad result is a generation of young people, on their way up, who have no idea what it feels like to win or lose. They've never learned how to do anything with their hands. They've never witnessed what it takes to make a relationship work. They've never been subjected to any cross talk because it'd be considered bullying. So what happens in the future when they, for example, mess up some big proposal at work and their boss has cross words with them? They crumble. They've suffered a defeat, something they have no idea how to handle because they never won or lost growing up, they've never seen anyone fight, they don't know what it is to pick themselves up and try to fix something and they perceive that their boss is a hot headed bully.
Now, I'm NOT saying children need to be bullied and called losers in order to develop a thicker skin. I'm saying we need to pump the breaks a little bit. Failure happens, they need to know that. Winning happens when you grind it out, they need to know that. Shit breaks... Relationships, Coffee tables or a Button falls off a shirt. Sometimes those things are irreconcilably broken, but you still need to make an attempt to salvage them. Coffee tables can be re-screwed, relationships can be salvaged and buttons can be re-sewn. If you don't work you don't get to reap the rewards. Not everyone gets a gold star.
We keep throwing everything out; be it People, Relationships or things; there won't been any of us left. We're all a little broken...but we can be fixed.
