Youth / OPINION : Generation X: ‘We Tend to Value Things Instead of Life’

Every generation has had its trademark. The “lost generation” of the 1920s had the flappers and bathtub gin. The ‘60s saw a surge in free thinking and even freer drug use. The ‘70s gave rise to the “me generation” and the ‘80s glorified greed.

What characterizes the ‘90s?

Violence, racism, AIDS, drugs, mothers killing babies, kids killing kids, people killing themselves. Generation X is the second “lost generation.” We’re not lost in the emergence of new ideas or new social reform, though, we’re just lost.

It seems no one in this generation has a hold on anything important. As a whole, we tend to value things instead of life, rewards instead of honor and getting high instead of facing reality. We’ve made some progress: People have started to value the spotted owl and the hump-backed whale. But that’s not enough. We have to start valuing humans and everything humans, at their best, have to offer.

Young people have a lot to deal with, and yes, it’s hard, sometimes impossible, but there’s always a solution. In the age of instant gratification, too many people don’t give problems time to work themselves through. Instead, they go for the quick fix: drugs, alcohol, abortion, revenge, suicide. Patience is a virtue Generation X has not yet learned.

Much of the media have pointed fingers at River Phoenix and Kurt Cobain for sending “the wrong message” to America’s youth. I think it’s the other way around. Phoenix and Cobain were not the cause of the current ugliness, they were the result.

We tried to attribute these tragic deaths to their victims being overly sensitive and creative, but that’s not it. It’s not just Hollywood that can’t cope with problems, it’s everybody.

In the past few decades, life has been degraded. No one takes it seriously anymore. My dad’s friend, Mike, recently had to face having his legs amputated. The doctors didn’t expect him to live until the end of the month. But he is still holding on. He’s alive because of his sheer will to live. That very will that is keeping Mike alive is all but vanishing everywhere else. It blows my mind to see such disrespect for human life while Mike is struggling to survive.

When I look at my generation, I don’t see the hope, the passion and the faith that I would expect to see in young people with the world at their feet. In place of such vibrancy, I see emptiness. Cobain put it well in Nirvana’s multi-platinum album: “whatever--Nevermind.”

Look at tennis star Jennifer Capriati, who seemed on to be top of the world. But last week she was arrested on a marijuana possession charge. That didn’t used to happen to average 18-year-olds but nowadays it’s becoming increasingly common.

It’s too late for blame; we couldn’t possibly pinpoint where society took a wrong turn. Generation X hasn’t been taught the value of life. We haven’t been taught a lot of things, things we’ll learn the hard way somewhere down the line. Somehow we have to turn our lives around so that drugs, despair, and suicide don’t become the trademarks of our generation.

The future is in our hands. We have the power to overcome the problems we’ve inherited and the ones we’ve developed on our own. We have the power to bring meaning back to life.