What does it mean to be my age?
May 20th
What is it to be me, a Gen Y? What do I see in myself and others who share my age that is not found in those who fall outside of that specific category of our experience and perspective? What do I share with my other generational siblings, be they culturally, nationally, different, at another value based stage of consciousness (at a primary traditional, modern, postmodern or more integral stage), or of a different sex or subculture.
If I take a look around, trying to see beyond all of our apparent differences, what comes to mind is “adrift.” No solidness. A “being adriftness.” And also a freshness, but that must come from being as young as we are, no different from the freshness that boomers expressed and experienced when they were twenty something.
But my question about“adriftness” is whether this is just an expression of postmodernism’s relativistic personal experience? Is being GenY just a specific type of the ‘green meme’ value system, of the relativistic, pluralistic, sensitive experience? So what is it distinctly like to be GenY? Read the rest of this entry »
Rebels Without a Cause
Apr 30th
Hipsters have been on my mind lately. Not because I’m particularly interested in the edgy, ironic music and fashion trends that these millennial generation rebels are known for. I’m curious about the deeper cultural predicament that this strange youth movement seems to represent—one that I think has some serious implications for the future of humanity.
So what is a hipster anyway and why should you even care about this back-to-the-future cultural trend? Read the rest of this entry »
Sex and the Media
Apr 7th
Have you ever noticed how many billboards with some kind sexual content or reference we pass every day?
Yesterday, I took the time to count them: 7 in total. But it’s not just billboards, sex seems to be everywhere these days, be it TV commercials, newspaper columns, music videos or just about any other form of media. In fact, it is so omnipresent, that I noticed I wasn’t really paying attention to all the sex in the content. I shut myself down to all the stimulus around me, and apparently I’m not the only one.
Two generations after the sexual revolution and free love, when 11-year-olds walk around in mini-skirts and an 8-year-old sexually abusing a 6-year-old makes the headlines in Switzerland, we’ve reached a point where sex is a public matter. Promiscuity and sexual prowess are highly held values in the minds of many growing up. At least, that’s the image the media conveys.
This leaves our generation with a pretty heterogeneous and confusing picture of sexuality coming from society.
Is God Coming Through a Gen-Y’er and Fueling Obama’s Speeches?
Apr 2nd
Recently I saw a fascinating documentary about a real example of someone to admire and look up to. And someone our age no less!
The documentary is about Jon Favreau, and he is the 27-year-old writer of Obama’s amazing speeches. We don’t get to see Favreau live in the documentary, but on account on what we know he has done together with President Obama, and going by what others have said about him, a Gen-Y’er can’t but feel proud and humbled.
The documentary is in Dutch, but all of the people speak in English, so it’s worth it for anyone to watch.
Jon is a Christian, and you can’t help but get the feeling that he must be inspired by, or get his inspiration from God or Spirit him, her or itself. The inspiration definitely comes through!
From X to Y: Tracking the Evolution of Gen Y Consciousness Through Music
Mar 27th
One of the things we are trying to investigate with this blog is the question, who are we? And because all of us writing on this blog are 30 or under, we’ve naturally been interested in what it means to be Gen Y– how the time period and cultural context we’ve grown up in have shaped the way we see and live in the world than someone who was born earlier.
One of the most illuminating ways to look into who we are as a generation that I’ve found is through music, so I thought I’d give you my take on the evolution of Gen Y consciousness through the popular rock music of the last 20 years. This is just the beginning, but hopefully it will open up some larger questions about who we are as a product of Gen Y culture. Read the rest of this entry »
The Fresh Prince of Self-Mastery
Feb 6th
I always knew that Will Smith was a great actor…and a pretty good musician too. I’ve also always admired the positive down-to-earth spirit that he conveyed on and off camera–a rare quality among Hollywood megastars. But I never knew what made the Fresh Prince so fresh until this week when I came across this video compilation of TV interviews with Smith in which he waxes eloquent on his spiritual philosophy towards life. He’s a true self master. Check it out: Read the rest of this entry »
Fight for: a) your right to party or b) freedom
Feb 3rd
A few weeks ago a young man of 23 tried to crash a plane by blowing up the chemicals he had sewn into his underwear. The reason for this extreme and insane deed: to give his life for what the man saw as a higher purpose, a holy war. Now of course we can all recognize fundamentalism as we see it; the use of force and violence perpetrated by religious extremists is horrible and shocking indeed. But as much as I am shocked, I am also intrigued by the fact that this man, 3 years younger than I, is willing to give his life for a moral cause. The young generation in the liberal Western world is commonly known better for our willingness to fight for our right to party than for higher causes, but this young Islamic fundamentalist is a contemporary example of someone who has such a strong belief that it overrides the fundamental human survival instinct (even though I am by no means condoning his cause!). A similar, but a much more positive and romantic expression of self sacrifice for a moral cause are those gentlemen who followed cultural code when the Titanic sank and gave their place on the life boats to women and children. Read the rest of this entry »
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