REVIVE

Holy mother of fucking pearl. This blog has been MIA since December. In my opinion, that is sad. I find myself at a loss for words. This project, I had so much passion for it... and I let that passion die. But no more! This is the time to revive, reinvent, re-everything this blog. This blog will be a canvas - a canvas of my likes, dislikes, thoughts, opinions, shit I find interesting, bull... Though, the blog will be much more. It will also showcase the brilliant thoughts of others and what they are doing to change the world, one action at a time.

XOXO

THE PEOPLE SPEAK

YOUTH AGAINST ESTABLISHMENT

Do not misconstrue my words. Establishment is a fundamental part of society. Without it, what would separate us from regular beasts? Rules and regulations typically exist for the protection of the people, note the emphasis on the word "typically." What I am trying to get at is that we should question everything and everyone, even those who exercise legitimate power. Some examples of legitimate power would be the police, the military, etcetera etcetera. That was what revolutionists did. They thought outside the perimeters of what society created and expected of its members.

I find the establishment we should be questioning is that of corporations and the realm of sellers in general. As aforementioned in another post, marketers have taught us to hate ourselves in order to foster this dependent relationship we have on their products. I want to see real people using real products. For example, I find the Dove campaign to be a very powerful one. It evokes this message that we are all different and that it is important to have a positive self image.

I guess what I'm calling for is to be a lot more careful in the establishment we function within. Those saviors we are looking for? We immediately look to those who are so unlike ourselves that we forget we have the same opportunity to be saviors of our generation. Love yourselves, Echo Boomers. Embrace yourselves, Echo Boomers. It's only a matter of time that one of you changes the world.

XOXO

MAD WORLD

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow


SFZ5PDRTYUVH


NOTE! This is a mock post for verification for Technorati.com. Sorry if this confuses anyone.

It's all about the motions...

Ever stop in the middle of your day - or at the beginning or end of your day, makes no-never-mind to me - and say, out loud, what you're going to do that day?

1. Take a shower
2. Brush teeth
3. Class and/or Work
4. Dinner
5. Homework
6. Down time (maybe?)
7. Sleep
8. Repeat...

Not a bad day, huh?

OF COURSE IT'S BAD!! What a horrible day! Awful! And this is what my days are like Monday to Friday. Depressing, right?

Now, ask yourselves: What do you REALLY want to do with 8 hours everyday? Don't give me some bullshit answers like sleep or drink...we all need more of that. Really though, what do you want to do? What do you want to see? What do you want to happen? What shouldn't be happening? What can you do? I'm positive the latter question has crossed all of our minds, and it scares me shitless into doing nothing because what could I possibly accomplish? Everything my friends. Everything. We're an innovative generation; if we really want something, we'll get it. And we'll fight, kicking and screaming until we get it. But unfortunately, we haven't found that one, unifying ideal/icon/symbol/person/what-have-you that will make us lose our shit throwing temper-tantrums to get our way. We're all going through the motions, playing it safe, waiting until someone will bail us out of the pile of shit we've gotten ourselves into. That's all we're doing: waiting.
No more waiting boys and girls. No more standing around twiddling our thumbs. No more bidding our time. Our generation inherited this mess and we're the only ones who can pick up the pieces.

The "how's" will come later. But right now,

What do you want to do?

**

FREE THE SELF

To the deep end, to the heart line
Hold it straight together, man
Hold it straight together, if you can
Little fevers wrapped in medication
All strung out on novelty
Collapse yourself and try to comprehend
An angry island, a bitter bee sting
Severing and shattering
Free the self and fix the in between
It's isolation, mark the earth around you
Guess who's on the waiting list
I'll let you in on something secret

Disappear -- Motion City Soundtrack

I've been listening to this song nonstop. I can't get it out of my head. I don't know exactly what Justin Pierre had in mind when he wrote this, but it spoke to me. Earlier this semester, we had a shocking epiphany that we are a generation that has been taught to hate itself. We are a generation that hides behind a mask called cynicism. We are a generation that fakes confidence to hide the fact we know jack shit.

So where do these lyrics come into play? We are strung out on novelty. We buy into the bullshit corporations feed us. Don't get me started on the crap out in the market available for purchase. What we all need is to take a step back and re-evaluate everything. And I mean everything. Our hopes. Our dreams. Our likes. Our dislikes. Our friends. Our enemies. Ourselves.

We have to look into ourselves and ask what's really important. Tune out the noise so to speak. We have to start being honest with ourselves. Question is, do we really know what's honest anymore? Everything is so mixed up that it's difficult to sort out. The problem becomes "Is this what I want? Or is this what they want for me?" We have to stick it out, no matter how much we bitch and moan about shit. "Freeing the self" goes a really long way. It's a difficult journey but well worth it in the end.

In the previous post, I asked who is our generation's voice. Who or what is it that unites us? That represents us as a whole? I had the opportunity to ask Motion City Soundtrack's frontman himself. After nominating figures like Anderson Cooper of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360°, he jokingly slapped a handful of promotional stickers on the coffee table.

"This is gonna unite America like nobody's business," he stated with a firm shake of his fist, even opting to slap a few more stickers down. "If everybody in the world buys that record, we'll have peace."

All joking aside, Justin Pierre arrived to the very spot my class finds itself at. He admitted that this question - Who is our generation's revolutionary figure? - is a difficult one to answer. Ever stop and think that it could be you?

SOUND OFF!

ATTENTION!

Generation Echo Boom, we are faced with a challenge and a great one at that. Who the hell is our voice? Where is our damn revolutionary figure? Generations of the past had theirs. Lennon, Dylan, King, Ghandi, even fucking Guevara. Now, let's get one thing straight. "The Voice" doesn't have to be a political or artistic. It can be as inanimate as the iPod or as fictional as Cartman. Who is the one figure that we unite under? Who? And you can't say Obama. Whether you like his politics or not, that is too easy an answer.

Who speaks for this generation, the children of the Baby Boomers? Do you even care? Or are we the generation who just doesn't give a flying fuck? Are we just that into ourselves and that blissfully ignorant? Nowadays, it seems that it takes a sledgehammer to get people's attentions.

This is my sledgehammer.

While this post may come off as abrasive and may be a turn off, you should give a damn. Why, you ask? We are due for an enlightenment. This whole "Peace, Love, Happiness" movement? Sorry to break it to you, sweethearts, it's already been done. We're proving to be quite un-original, no matter what we'd like to think, Echo Boomers.

This is not an easy pill to swallow. I don't expect people to immediately come up with answers. This is meant to make you think. This is meant to make you question. This is meant to piss you off. You are only hurting yourself if you brush it off completely. Why? YOU could be the voice, the Messiah of sorts, we are looking for.

So, Generation Echo Boom, SOUND OFF! Prove me wrong. Prove me right. Just prove something. I'm waiting...