Herrington: No More Fantasy Football

Who is it nowadays that speaks for the youth? A lot of people complain that kids only want the ATM card and to party, but every hero they’ve had who opens up his mouth gets killed or dies burned out. The price for thinking for yourself and speaking the truth is so high in our society that it’s a social death sentence. Who gets listened to are those how are in control. No matter who you are, someone seems to be telling you what to do. It’s the government, the corporations, the Illuminati, the church, the media, the establishment, the trifecta of some non-solution to the problem: gridlock, emotional vampirism, and the moral hammer.
It’s no wonder the kids just check out. Maybe if they buy something, retail therapy, life will matter. Maybe if they get high enough, drunk enough, feel enough pain, cut deep enough, skip enough meals, become dispassionate, bomb a few countries, and make enough money they will find peace in the eternal city of I-did-not-think-about-the-consequences-of-throwing-away-my-humanity-while-I-objectified-everyone-else-and-demanded-my-entitlements; it seems to be working for their parents.
I watch their walk as they saunter on across the digital black board, an eraser in one hand and blind texting while they stare you down. It does not matter if 1000 years goes by, plugged in with their headphones blaring more rough puff twang booty bopbam, and the signal pushes out so that wherever they go, they push back, like advertising that pushes in on them from all angles, and so the only way to drown out the constant pitching and harpooning is to fill the space ahead of time and if they care enough to talk to you they take the headphones off and start from scratch like they are taking time out from having surgery.
When students are asked what they want to do with their lives, they will say they want a good job and to make a lot of money. This is like saying, “I want to go out to eat and eat a lot of food.” Nutritional value is never even a part of the equation. We all know that the day of working for a company and then retiring from it later is a project that holds no water, that dog won’t hunt, and that cow has left the barn. Why should they go to college and end up with a $200,000 student loan? Even if they go, 90% of the jobs that will be available to them in the future have not even been invented yet. How will they know what courses to take to get them prepared?
Okay then, who is going to straighten this out for these kids? They feel like they are on a treadmill. They often feel that it is no use getting going in the first place because they are simply going to be behind some slow driving older person who is taking up the whole lane of traffic, so they will wait until 3 AM to get going themselves. They need some hope, someone to give them the straight dope.
Will it be some spokes model for a corporation? A lobbyist? A rap artist who has learned the ropes of life and is now capable of laying the cards out? What will it take to make sure that everything turns out just peachy for these little turnips when in fact the world is getting more and more complex and stressful?
It seems the time is ripe for someone to add to the records, to the state of the literature and of letters, to come to the foreground and state the case, and not only that but to also give something to take in besides platitudes and bumper sticker logic. What we need is a person like George Carlin, Gary Cooper, and Tupac, all wrapped into one, the multi-dimensional love child of Catherine Hepburn, Bruce Lee, General Patton, and Gogo Blackwater.
In the meantime, the kids will be texting and learning to listen and then when the beat is put down, they will know it when they hear it, and the opening act will be the Dalai Lamas. Ladies and Gentleman, for your entertainment, “The Enlightenments.” And the lead singer is Bruce Blackwater. Move over fantasy football.
runningturtle87