Also known as--How I console myself for being on the verge of graduation and having no fucking idea what I'm going to do with the rest of my life.
1) Technology
2) Finance
3) Privacy
Technology
Okay, so follow my rambling for a minute. More then ten thousand years ago we realized we could plant food. We began manipulating the physical world. This changed shit. The course of humankind changed. This was our first paradigm shifting revolution.
About nine thousands years after that, we started manipulating our senses. We started shaping glass to see further and see smaller. This spurred the scientific revolution. This is the second paradigm shifting revolution.
Instead of waiting another nine thousand years for a revolution, we had one in a couple hundred. The Industrial Revolution. Instead of waiting a couple hundred years for the following paradigm shift, we had the information revolution 150 years later.
Here we are, a decade or so since the explosion of the information revolution. Looking back in the cultural wake, we see the exponential turnover rate of these paradigm shifts. They are coming faster, faster.
My generation will be the first generation in the fucking history of humankind to experience multiple paradigm shifts. I say multiple because two seem certain, but if the exponential turnover continues...10 years, 1 year, 1 month, 1 day...this train of thought creates a strong urge for me to roll into the fetal position.
Why this is such a pain in the ass is that even if I had a goddamn team of data gatherers to plot and predict future trends, we would still have little to no idea what the fucking world will look like in 10 years. How am I supposed to pick a career? What industries will exist in 5, 10, 20 years?
I'm hoping we don't reverse engineer the brain for a couple decades but that hope lingers bleakly.
Finance
Okay, where the fuck do I start? I live in a country where my government buys its 'money' from a private institution at an interest rate. At an interest rate. If all dollars ever issued are done so at interest, there can never be enough money to pay said interest than interest owed (I desperately feel like I'm understanding this wrong, so if anyone can clarify for me, please help me). These debt notes are backed by nothing of material value. It's value solely exists due to the collective social opinion that these slips of paper mean anything. A currency value hinging on the mobs opinion...what can go wrong.
We have banks that have created an artificial branch of investing where they invest in the likelihood of an investment failing. These investment's return value is affected by the rating agency's judgment of the likelihood of these investments failing. These rating agencies who determine the return rate of these bank's investments are employed by who...uh, the same finical institutions making the bets...the fuck? Oh, and the banks in charge of issuing the world wide interest rate at which banks loan to each other ...yeah, they've found fraud happening there too.
The bottom line is we, as a collective, have the resources, technology, and ingenuity to feed the world. We could give all people shelter, clean water, heat, and medicine. Yet we don't. Why? Money. Capitalism. The fuckery is wide in scope and sick in nature.
Work hard for 30 years. Retire and relax. Oh, but the company I work for can take my savings, huh? Oh, due to inflation I better not live more than 10 or 15 years after I retire. Why would my generation want to continue this cycle? I have no urge to do so.
Privacy
Facebook, Twitter, texting, sexting...No one in my generation can run for public office.
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What worries me the most is that despite these new and overwhelming obstacles, I am surrounded by apathetic peers. I've met two people my age who I think have a better grasp on this chaos than I do. One teeters the verge of alcoholism and the other has the social skills of an aspergers patient. I truly hope my experience is the exception rather than the norm.
It isn't so bleek though. For those without the personality quirks that cause a nearly neurotic motivation to improve and contribute to society, life has never been better. Entertainment is cheap, abundant, and in HD. Taco's come in Doritos. There is a new Call of Duty every year. Your pictures can be filtered automatically. We have the drugs to fix your discontent. We got da Soma. Welcome to our Brave Present World.
It isn't so bleek though. For those without the personality quirks that cause a nearly neurotic motivation to improve and contribute to society, life has never been better. Entertainment is cheap, abundant, and in HD. Taco's come in Doritos. There is a new Call of Duty every year. Your pictures can be filtered automatically. We have the drugs to fix your discontent. We got da Soma. Welcome to our Brave Present World.