The outcast's haven

(Clockwise from Left; An icecream of the Earth, mmm... A colloquial sea of red, and a GPS for kids, that can track them to an accuracy of 5m)

(Warning, the following blog post may be offensive to anyone above the age of 27.)
(Appropriate listening whilst reading this post would be 'What I've Done' by Linkin Park)

Generation Y. The Generation with 'Hover Parents' an 'Obesity Epidemic' 'Terrorism' and untold horrors, like 'Kidnapping'. The Generation with high expectations, with obsessive grooming. The Generation born with a disinfected silver spoon in their mouth, with a chain on their wrist. This isn't just a tale about the failures of society, or the damage that it has caused to our children. This is about MY generation.

Well, let's look at our world before I start making racial/stereotypical generalizations full of abrupt idiocy, and whatnot. Firstly, we're living with a generation that's facing the realities, caused by the sins of our fathers. I'm talking about Global Warming, and the scarcity of natural resources. Also, I can include on this list, lets say... Terrorism, and perhaps, the prevalence of media in our society. It's not a pretty future I'm painting right now, and it's perhaps getting worse with each passing day. A recent Financial Crisis, worsening relations between countries, more acts of terrorism... Perhaps, in our world- our generation do have a right to be scared, and after all, we will soon be the leaders of our dying Earth.

This isn't something that'll just disappear in an instant, even if the current generation in power- the Baby Boomers, take immediate, and unwavering action- there'll always be a problem lingering behind. And this will never happen, thanks to our good ol' friend Capitalism, and his friend Greed. I'm no communist, but Capitalism is flawed, flawed in such a way, that it doesn't take the environment, nor sustainability into account. Perhaps we are sending our world to hell because of it, but at least some measures have been put into play to increase stability- such as the Kyoto Protocol, and of course- the Carbon Trading Emissions scheme. There are also more, smaller ventures, such as the movement Greenpeace, and even Sea Shepperd, an anti whaling piracy organization.

But... the problem is, with every environmentalist that is in our world, they are surrounded and flanked by at least four more environmental destroying capitalists (No source, imagined facts or whatever). Will our generation adapt and grow to save our environment? Or will we be the first generation to live in domes, because our atmosphere has deteriorated to that level. Only time will tell... My guess would be that, well- with our generation being almost completely dependent on technology- we would be the ones that really do devastate the world- especially with our cravings for iPods, and computers... etc.

Second problem to deal with today, is well, the upbringing of Generation Z, and the upbringing of our generation, by the Baby Boomers. Trophy kids, ever heard of that term? It's a disease, with almost epidemic proportions, this disease has almost completely infected asian circles, and is starting to spread to Australians, and other races... The notion is simple, make sure that your kids have the ultimate privileges, and educations, then compare them to everyone else's kids. Whoever has the best kid, wins. You know what the saying is though- winning isn't everything, it's the ONLY thing. And of course, parents will certainly want to protect their investments, there's a lot of money in Private Schooling, and even Kindergarten. Here comes the onset of Hover Parenting, or what I like to call 'Clinical Paranoia'. It's true that there are atrocities committed towards Children, but in a lot of kidnapping cases, the perpetrators generally know the kids in person (ie. Babysitters, etc.) This fear is practically unjustified, I mean... some parents will practically buy a GPS system, in order to track their kids movements with each PASSING SECOND... It's insanity, it's madness, and we can't even do anything about it. You do know this is actually a breach of privacy, perhaps even a breach of Human Rights, am I right? We are brought up with paranoia in one hand, and a focus on achieving in the other. And, of course, the iron fist that is wielded by parents, to allow them to have this control...

Generation X, imagine the way that they will parent their children. I've already seen some early examples, an almost exact repeat of the Baby Boomer parenting scheme, except with twice the vigour, and twice as inclusive. I've actually been asked to teach a kid poker at two years of age... Why you might ask? His parents want him to be an economist, and it's to help him learn probabilities. Like seriously, that's not good, trust me... I've seen a world that's being eaten from the inside, by the poisoning of our children, and I can't do anything about it all, one day, we'll all bear the consequences, every last one of us. Can generation A survive parenting by Generation Y? Only time will tell. We are supposedly one of the most indulgent, and anti-social generations, and that's probably true. I wonder if we will buck the trend, and not have these parenting methods, otherwise, who knows what will be the resultant product? Or will we be a generation of change? Enough to warrant starting the alphabet system again?

The media is also one of the biggest reasons our Generation has been portrayed as one of the worst in history. It's wormed it's greedy, ugly hands into every part of our lives, from advertising, to the news that controls the world. Even the economy is based on speculation, based on confidence. It's almost safe to say, that whoever controls the media, controls the world. And well, look at our problems of Anorexia, of Bulimia... Did these problems happen in previous generations? Yes they did, but not on such an epic scale. And whose fault are these problems? Of course, greedy old Baby Boomers. Good on you, the people running Fashion magazines, and whatever, (*Claps hands*). The entire economy is basically controlled by the media- after all, shares are based on confidence. If the media turns against a company, regardless of their response- the companies share price and value will CRASH. Why? Because the smart investors will realise that the public will sell their shares, feeling that it's their moral obligation, or duty to make that company suffer. What else does the media control? It's almost horrifying to think about it really, Social Control is a reality, it's just that our world is too blind to see it. There is no such thing as a Utopia, we live in a Dystopian world, right here, right now.

What will happen at the turn of the century? No-one will be able to predict that. All I can do, is hope that we will leave a world for our children, that isn't doomed, nor a generation that will not be nothing but machines, fooled by the lights and tricks of the media.