21.3.10

We Want War

As a disclamer, I have only read a small amount of nietzsche, which puts me in a possition of one of those ideots who attempts to inturpret and cast their ideas on something they have almost no knowledge on. I meet them all the time, hell, my older sister is the biggest one in the world, so it pains me to breifly join their camp here. but nonetheless.

I've been thinking about Nietzshe's god is dead concept. Though, again, I haven't read it from his actual text, as I understand it's stating that we as a culture, as people as a whole, have for some reason lost the ability to beilieve in god. I understand that, I've spoke about it before. in my own experience I went for years, years, trying to beileve go exists, telling other people I believed, telling my self I believed, but I could not. even though I was raised with religion, and rased with that belief, I was unable to think it true. and i REALLY wanted to, I tried so hard. I could not.

and I'm thinking about our generation, and about the two or three previous to us, and I'm thinking, they had a concept of romance. of grand gestures and intence ideals, and we do not. this came up after meeting two pairs of my friends' friends. one pair being adam's friends nick and kelly from texas, and the other being paige's friends anne and garth from richmond virginia. Both pairs, in relationships, figured themselves very alternitive, in the old kinda way. which is to say, not hipsters, more punky or grungey. comited to peircings and talk of graffitti and being drifters and drugs and rebelling against money and so on. and I couldn't buy it. and I thought, these are just pale imitations of the punks of the past. but then I thought, why do I think that? what makes punks circa 1978 more authentic than punks circa 2008? and besides, I've met people who were punks when punk was alive and they are fucking horrible. if anything they didn't believe or understnad they're ideals more than the current ones.

and really it made me come to a realization. we have lost the ability to believe in romance. romance is dead and we have killed it. and I'm not talking about romance in love, though many have argued that we can't believe in that either, I've not found any trouble finding romance there. what I'm talking about is that believe in grand gestures, and that we can change the world, and stong princeipals and so on. these punks exist in small numbers and honestly it doesn't seem to me that they even beileve it themselves. and so there are no new scenes, exept for the constantly self-mocking and contredicting hipsters, who are compleatly opposed to all grand gestures, to all romance. there are no real punks, no real hippys, no riots, no full hearted protests, no drama in that way. in a way we have become a country of reluctant nihilists. we can't believe in anything, at least not that strongly.

and I think, well, isn't this a good thing? that people have calmed down and are opposed to summing up the world in one sentance and so on? that people have become realistic? and I think YEAH, of course its a good thing. its a great thing. i truly believe that for it our generation is better than ALL of them that have come before, and that when we are older we won't come off as such compleat ideots to the young.

but of course on the other hand, the world is a different, less intence place as a result. New York is not like it was in the seventy or the nintys and this is to blame. that crazy shit is not going on. that kids are going out to become designers instead of artists. that everything gets equily insulted and degraded on the internet and on tv. because when we all supsend our truth slightly together wonderful things happen. of couse things that are bullshit and devoid of truth, but wonderful anyway. Think of when everyone used to walk around in suits and dress clothes all the time. That kind of imposed formality was useless and bull shit when informality is more honest, alows for deeper connections, but what a site it made. how brillient that everyone looked sharp all the time.

so its this crappy conflict, that wide eyed romance that doesn't lead anywhere. and so I don't know. I didn't live in a time of romance, and its so likely that it was actually much more terrible than this, so I can't really talk. I don't know.

sea breeze sea breeze