The Apology Of The Millenials

only an artist can believe in an illusion

and only an artist can believe in themseves as an illusion

The apology for the Millenials. 

Its not that we're somehow inherently different, or willfully try to be disconnected. Our environment wasn't rid with difficulties and challenges like yours were. Even small stuff, like I don't have to wait around for someone to call my landline. Patience lost, efficiency won? You lived in a magical era where if you wanted to goto a show, you had to goto a show, and there was big band and swing then rockabilly and blues. if you wanted to have fun you grabbed someone and started dancing. Naturally, blindly, you were conditioned to become comfortable inside fear and try to thrive and meet someone, dance, kiss. Today, if you wana goto a show, you can go on YouTube, you don't HAVE TO, shows are so much better, but if you watch muddy, jimi, and janis live in 65, you're not paying 10 bucks to go to the punk show every night. We're not conditioned, per se, we're not predisposed to handling the same fear and turmoil and challenge. Everything thing is at our finger tips. Food. peabody. job. monster. house. craig. cell. sex. love. cupid. friends. face. and the motors, the drives, the sensors aren't conditioned to fear and feel pain and all the necessary vital qualities someone needs to live in the era. You baby boomers and flower children, you guys faught, and struggled and, college cost 500-1000$ don get me wrong, not that i blame you , totally, but instead of pointing finger at each other,  maybe someone should ask wait, but why did this happen. maybe someone asks we the created the conniptions at lend itself to new mentalities?

 we were not conditioned to survive, perform, rise to the challenge, face your fears because we live in an environment where none of these senses were threatened. Thank you. We live in an environment where we had to voluntarily chose which one of these thrills you wanted to blunt with your head, and then we take too much fucking pride in our dumb challenge WE created for ourself. I'm gonna sign up for yoga! Yay everyone on Facebook! (arms flailing, tutu) i finished yoga! i finished yoga! (farting, falling) Yay i put a little saw horse in front of me and stepped over it and I'm telling everyone I did olympic hurdles. Awesome, you achieved your individual self cock sucking challenge. This is the environment we had laid out for us. We didn't burn like you boomers and flowers, we didn't scrape by and keep going and fight against the current. you laid us out this beautifully confused land and looked out from your green and yellow mountain and said, " what do we do?". We didn't have to scrub counters and wash dishes and bust tables and push brooms. We did, cause you had us chip in so we grew up with the right standards and manners and respect for good work, you can never have that taken from you. But it wasn't urgent, survival, it wasn't helping mom pay the bills, dad wasn't at war he was playing war craft on his 90 inch iPad at work. You had to works your fingers down to a nub. Even if your parents had money, and you dug it or ditched it, you didn't have Facebook and craigslist instant job fair to fall back on, you had to self promote, make a few hundred posters, record a bunch vinyl or tape or cd, get your name out there, create a character on the template of your soul not a website, smile, meet people get big, meet more people. You didn't have online dating and sex sites. You had to go out, take a shot, fess up, stand tall, if your scared be really tough, if you're jumping in blind be really sweet, either way, you went in, go go go. and you did it,  you were military, like it or not you either fought in it or fought it, and either way you hated it, half of you went nationalists and the other half indies and greens and techies and you were bread to be warriors, you scraped by, you always survived,  you had to. and it became an American thing, the industry you created with piss and vinegar and elbow grease, and skin of our teeth, it build into this giant, amazing, (amazing thing. thank you. but now its a teetering machine globe and we all went 'huh?" Even the pacifists and protesters applied the same warrior sprit and you were all waving wooden swords at each other from high above or way below. We wish we had your gumption Elvis Presley, to walk into Sun Studio at 19 and record blue kentucky like a fucking angel fallen forgotten delta black man superstar. We don't though, we grew up on Plasma TVs (I'm falling) video games and computers. All the things you worked your fingers down to bloody knobs to build, we grew up on. You guys killed it. Great job. You hit the ball out of the park. You invented and extracted and developed and diminished and efficience and every thing, every invention, you guys rocked. Thank you. All that broom pushing and climbing and reaching of our ships, our buildings, our heads, into the stratosphere -thank you. You have succeeded in your mission of survival and industry, thank you. 

K, now that thats over. New GUYs! Yessir! What do we do with this giant mechanic shit wad? on top of our soil! Oh no, thats the old style. We gotta be civil and docile now. No that won't be as effective. Wait? theres certain attributes that we can share from them and apply it to our goals, even though are goals are different? Wait, so? people can, even if opposing can share and learn from each other? Woah? so opposition isn't a bad negative thing, opposition means i can broaden myself and strengthen myself and make myself happier? Millelials don't try. Are you gonna go talk to her? Na, we'll end up face book buddies, its cool. Hey did you grab an application? To that school? Na I found 10 jobs last night on craigslist. Did you apply to any of em? Na, the guy said just show up so I'm gonna go in the morning. Wana beer? How are you gonna afford college, its 250, 000, plus isn't theres 250,000 other ideas I can think of that would be great for you. Are you sure you wana do this? Now? Yea, I'm gonna get loans. Once I have a degree obvi Ill get a good job and pay that back in a few years. 4 years later. How you gonna get 250K? Ill find the biggest white hornets nest and sit in my comb for the rest of my life pumping up the queen. We don't try hard enough. We don't have to. It's easy to point the finger and get whatever you want, or a really close illusion of it. It's easy for you to point the finger at us I'm sure. I want to too, point it in the mirror and say cmon wtf man!. I feel your pointer sometimes. It's easy for us to feel guilty. Compared to you, we've done nothing. According to your values and standards we have made little. we are nothing in your footsteps.  Because we are working in totally separate directions and some are working to tear some of it down. According to certain standards its okay to bludgeon a poor old orangoutang to death in the african rainfforest, the fucking vagina of our mother is getting raped,  the most sacred fucking thing is being destroyed in the worst way and certain standards legitimize that in the name of the industries and markets and standards that existed before WWII even. We're not dying to jump through that hoop. You gave us an internet of infinite knowledge and awareness and expect us not to be curious, skeptical, alarmed, defenseless. Kids end up on couches and basements in their late twenties because they weren't challenged enough, stimulated enough, by the sega and the HBO and dunkaroos you raised them on. you guys weren't raised on that shit and you blossomed into one the greatest awesome generations this countries ever seen. What the fuck were you thinking giving us this new glowing neon technology from outer space thats remotely military looking that has an aspect of everything you love and hate plop it on our laps and run to work by honey be safe. You were so caught up in this castle of industry u dripping together, and making it, make myself better, win, accomplish, try, scrape, that you didn't realize this incredible machine that you were building around you, it was your mechanical robot child that doesn't really need any attention, it can develop infinitely and play with my children. We didn't have to try because everything was new and it it wasn't new they had a new and better one and well, i like this, oh! theres more now? What a brilliant carrot cake into front of the rabbit little sniff and nibble every time. Nothing has been more perfectly catered to the consumer than recent technology. Before, someone invents the gun or car, what you bought was good for most of your life. a yoyo, the first one, just as good as the last. Now, the shit that you really want, TVs, computers, video games, every six months you got the old shit. not cool, not as fun. the allure of temptation is always present. then the shit that you need, fridge, stove, car, it deteriorates at nearly the same speed. Its brilliant! Great job marketing and consumer statisticians, you aced the blow a crater in the market exam. Some people, are just totally disheartened by it that they refuse to participate in anything. They get a dog, a buddy, live in the woods, travel, busk, go where it's warm. Theres always been drifters, but they hoard now in groups and sizes in city squares. Right at the heart of everything they hate, like a bug zapper. I don't respect their approach but I respect their rationale, their attitude. I don't care if its not 'political' motivated, everything is political, everything fits some where in para political terms, just everything can find a place in religion, art, music, geography, politics are never off limits. These protestors come in different forms. all from the same drive. travelers, picket signs and 30 year old pot head playing ps3 on the couch, its personal protest of life. In fact he's not protesting at all. He's celebrating with open arms and ribbons and confettii and trumpets he's celebrating, he's honking and champagne cannon fire and women dancing, he's celebrating all the sweet joys you worked your fingers down to knubs too build. he is a good kid and he's saluting you. Some people goto University, get forced there cause clearly, "look at everything I've built", his dad grabs you by collar, college taught me how to make this, you will do this too, you need it, its for your future and the future of this american gag ball, flag pole too. And you go and you drink, smoke, dance, sleep, eat your way through a quarter million dollars and get your business degree that you have a 60% understanding of and you don;t care about, you don't make it. Theres no jobs for you, you don't even like business, you've locked movies your whole life, I've known you, you were gonna make movies you told me, you were gooood. now you're either gonna claw ur life away in an industry you're removed from or play a simulation of dads war stories on the tube. Whats more sad? We didn't have to try like you. It wasn't a part of our grid, radar, daily grind. You guys made it sweet for us. Don't apologize. God dammit please don't apologize. You've made us into something different, not worse. 

You rocked us sleep to mama loves me by simon and garfunkel, you took us to the zoo and to the mountains, the orchards, all the beautiful places of the world, you traveled us around well, you bult a strong industry and support then, we smoked weed with you like the day we turned 18, you gave us guitars and paint and notebooks and cameras. You gave us access to all the wonderful things life has to offer and we built a god of it, a goddamn strong foundation, a respect for the art, the hills, the songs that you drove us to and picnicked in. We are softer, lighter, different, confused, disconnected, disengaged, cause we can't figure out why you brought us to the zoo with a fur coat on. We have a different aim, different goals, different values, priorities, not just for ourselves but for the whole world. Some peoples priorities are simply fixing the very thing that was created. That's great but that won't help too much because more will keep popping up. Boomers seed, seeds of seed. And that game will be like the alligator game at chuckie cheese arcade. What we need is to first realize that the way millenials are is mostly a product of the environment that we grew up in, of the environment fathers and mother and grandmothers created. just as they were a product of their raising. You had the greatest economic and music and culture burst in American history. We are a product of incredible "success". which if this is the case, we need to determine or rethink or reevaluate or reconsider what success really it. what you created is amazing, breathtaking in its own right, but out of control. Remember, people who seem distant are either 1) discontent with the environment, 2)suffering debt from the education system, 3) unable to find work, unwilling to support a consumer system that chews up and spit out a lot of innocent people, eats em up whole. We should have your drive that you did in the 60s with civil right, vietnam, pollution, everything but we have Facebook and smart phones, we dump any of our political passion, whats left of it, in fragments, like pennies in lake, to the internetlapping up air like a dogs tongue in the windows, getting little done, we are hardly ever on the streets aside Occupy and little flares. We wish we had your will and your warrior spirit but we've seen what the warrior spirit brings. Even the best most positive things, religion, money, happiness, people get killed over everyday, with the warrior spirit. It works in strange ways. You could be saving whales, rain forests and ozone and carry such a warrior spirit to it that you offend people who are different or even indifferent and you make yourself a target and you prod and you jab and you instigate and you stick out your warrior spirit of "good" and people who are empty turn bad, the bad ones whip their muskets out and now you have not only made a bad name forever for your good thing but you have actually enraged and enflamed the very thing you're trying to make peace with and change. The warrior spirit isn't always necessary. Millenials are saying, in their own skateboard, beards, beanies, tattoos, art, music and comedy, way: life is more enjoyable than you made it seem. You showed me all the arts and cream and wonders. Thats where we should be. Protecting all the great things you showed me. Millenials are saying, we may not know what yet, but theres way more to this place thanthat we;ve yet to see, way more than rush hour traffic and Hunger games. If your kid is empty and on the upholstered recliner coffin, don't feel guilty either, you did it! you gave them everything they wanted, you were the best fucking parent in the history of man and the bible and Facebook and you did everything any parent would do if they coiuld. do not feel guilty, it will immediately slip and program into him. do not feel guilty, help him tear your world down. help him build it back up the way it should be. reach way back. remember all those seeds you planted and weeded when you first started scraping and pushpin and investing. plant those again. remember that dumb ass dance move you learned in NYC in 59, dance it. learn from him, see whats bothering, see what you can do, change.    Never had to try.   but warriors in only one given direction, can be dangerous,  is not what this planet needs. We were laid out this magic land with big chimney in the back, and loans, and credit and identity theft. We need to look other people in the eye and understand them more, especially if they're an opponent' and think much differently from us. Boomers should be hovering over new guys and learning from them and adapting. But a lot of them they say, tats, plugs, VW, tight jeans, what a jerk off, young fucker, cut ur hair, dumb ass young guy. Millenials, don't mistake every restaurant with more than one location a "chain", don't mistake someone as cool or intelligent just because they know this one obscure line in a movie you know. Just cause someone has short white hair and a black mercedes doesn't mean their an evil CEO, corporations and money are only as good or bad as the hands holding them. Even if it seems like an old duesche, fuckin clean cut penguin, polo wearing dick, some rich old fuck, talk to him, meet his eyes, he has everything you want to know, as you do for him, especially if you are opposites. Make compromises, learn how to work together, work in pieces. Respond to him but dont just be a response to him and his life. Make yourself however you want, despite the strange new wires and roots we live among. Learn from eaachother. Teach each other. Combine.