My Soap Box Is Better Than Yours

Every generation has their predilection for demise; every generation has their revelation. Ours is simply this; we are what we eat, but we are not what we play. In a society where more than half of its members are unhealthy and overweight, and almost 1/4^th is morbidly obese, this fact adds verification to my statement. My point is not to slam a vain fist on the table, Atkins’ book clutched tightly to my chest, preaching the abomination of man’s gluttony and apathy. Rather, I take a well-known statement and add another level to its complexity.

Being the first generation to “grow up” with video games and computers unlike our predecessors, our technological advances, instead of our accomplishments, became our labels. Labels, like it or not, justified or pure fabrication, put a burden on he whose lapel it is pinned. Branded like cattle, we lumber around the convention known as life with a plastic smile and a “Hello, my name is Samus Aran” slapped crookedly on our chest. This very label is the cause for alarm, not cartoon violence and simulated sex.

We have an escape from out realities. In turn, we’ve grown weaker than our parents and our parents’ parents. They too had minor distractions: booze, drugs, music, films… but our's is truly an escape. Video games are our Narnia. The reason being is we have been groomed to believe that we can create our own reality. We don’t have to answer for our actions or face our fears; that’s what the reset button is for.

This is our great revelation. Life doesn’t have a reset button. We can’t apathetically lumber through life, then simply fix our fuck-ups by reloading to a previous save point. Unfortunately, we actually have to work for our money, practice to hone our skills, take caution in our steps, and understand to learn. It has been vigorously argued that our modern technologies have corrupted our youth. To this, I agree, but not because they put the ideas of violence, sex, war and death into their minds. This is all in our nature. Rather, these vices have taken away our sense of reality, our accountability, our motivation, and worst of all, our imagination.

Perhaps this too, is in our nature.