Friday, January 7, 2011

Stoned

I can't tell whether today's culture is doing a better job of glamourizing drug use and underrage drinking, or making it more taboo than it's ever been. Either way I think the youth today is as, if not more, dead set on experiencing drugs and alcohol as those teenagers living in the summer of love.
But our drug culture isn't that of our grandparents. We do drugs as a way of rebellion, yes, this we may have in common. But we don't do them out of innocent curiosity, we do them with a purpose. We want to say we've done them. Be part of a group that does these types of things. We aim for the free love of previous generations but we end up in a jaded place that is a more of a passage into other things then anything else.

We get drunk in the night clubs of the world. We party for a purpose. We feel a connection to those who do the same. We broadcast our inebriation on MTV and we make shows on VH1 about our overdoses and we hang onto the idea that we are all the same when it comes to this one thing.

That is the main difference between how things used to be and how things are today. In the 60's people did drugs to be different, unique, new, revolutionary, something completely unrelated to their parents.

Today we do it because it's what you're supposed to do. It's a natural progression. It is justified BECAUSE our parents did it, not in spite of them.

My concern for our generation is that we will never do anything new. We will not have a revolution. We will not forge our own paths but simply follow those who have gone before.

I hope I'm wrong. I realize that this generation has things to offer, things that are individual only to those of us born recent enough to understand we are modern, things that should be embraced. Maybe I was just born in the wrong era.

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