Reflection on the Future - NYE 2006

It's new years eve

and time to offer some reflections. Currently, I'm listening to friend of my little brother downstairs in the basement. They arrived expecting to have a party and are asking why there's no ice in the icebox. My little brother is lying to himself and his family in order to say that he's not throwing a party - even though it may well happen.
I was put off by young men such as Chris and Darren and others who have a sense of entitlement about the future. It reminds me of the recent letters by Washington Post readers in today's Free for All. Laurence B. McCullough and Timothy Barnum respond to Robert J. Samuelson's Dec. 28 column, "Our Entitlement Paralysis." I found the Samuelson peice to be a fair portrayal of our current predicament. We cannot sustain the current Social Security when the Baby boomers retire, therefore we should rexamine the rationale for wealthy retirees to receive benefits.
It was the sense of entitlement that struck me. Baby Boomers through no perceivable forethought of their own, populated and developed the world according to their vision, a result of Manifest Destiny \ American Dream myth.
As we can see, the world is rejecting that worldview that says, I'm entitled to something if I paid for it. The wealth derived from war and turn of the century sweatshop industrialization, and the great depression was used to create capital for subjecting the world and its populations to the whim of the ruling elite class.
Now, we see the that capitalism depends on infinate growth through the burning of finite fossil fuels to sustain the current level of comfort and luxury for the ruling class and much of middle class USA.
What bothers me about the kids in the basement is they don't seem to get the big picture. I see them watching Ultimate Fighting Championship on New Years Eve, waiting for me to leave so they can start binge drinking and listening to really really shitty music.
I suppose some of my concern results from the fact that they treat me like an "adult" (and for the most part I feel compelled to act like one if only to show them a good example) which means that they are still very much kids. But they are commercialized and socialized kids, who do not seem to care about the true meaning of Christianity or to be concerned by the increasing suspensions of civil rights designed by our founding fathers to guard against oppression.
We've heard about the Washington state patriot test given to 10th graders. What we Gen X people are learning should be that an intervention is necessary with our younger brothers and sisters. We need to be active role models of community alliance and awareness. I was inspired by an Indymedia comment which directed readers to take action and then report on the experiences. That is truly what is needed to show our empowerment-needy brothers and sisters the way to gain the Future.