ReGeneration Page #2

and the government to answer

a lot of these things when really,

where things get done is people.

You have to care

and if you don't care, then,

I don't know man...

I don't know.

7 days before graduation.

On the bigger issues, the war in Iraq,

global warming,

you know, the big worldwide issues.

I see less activism.

Some of that, I think,

is they've just been overexposed.

They know it's important

but it seems so big

and so, "What can I do?

I'm just one person".

Leo Durocher was a baseball

manager decades ago.

Famous guy, very cantankerous

and clever and witty.

And he used to say

nice guys finish last.

And everybody thought it was

so cute and so accurate.

If you think about it a little,

it's a gigantic condemnation

of a social structure

that being nice should

consign you to failure.

But that's exactly

the world that we live in.

We live in a world whose institutions

are structured in such a way

that you have to be nasty to get ahead.

The culture communicates,

"Nice guys finish last, garbage rises.

Learn that lesson and you'll be okay."

In bailout news,

top managers continue to offer

multi-million dollar pay outs

to senior employees.

The culture communicates,

"injustice is forever",

"poverty is forever",

"violence is forever".

Eek out a niche,

do the best you can.

But it's all forever.

If some of these negative things

were happening on my street,

you'd better be out there

trying to fix it.

But today it's not,

it's not happening in front of me.

The word that you've used throughout

this whole deal is 'apathy,'

and I'd say that we're very apathetic.

It's not that people think

that poverty is fine

or war is fine,

or degradation and cynicism

and violence is all over...

that all that and all

that we know is fine.

Nobody thinks it's fine.

It's just that everybody thinks

there's no alternative.

Everybody thinks that's the way it is.

Like gravity, or like aging.

In other words,

"What are you talking about?

There's no point in a social

movement against aging.

There's no point in a social

movement against gravity."

In our reality, nothing will change.

Unless,

I don't know, unless some more college

students stand on street corners and picket.

Maybe that'll help.

And so, when you say,

"Come be an activist,

oppose that stuff,"

it's an actual belief

that it's a fool's errand.

That's the problem.

This is the violence of institutions,

indifference,

inaction and decay,

and only a cleansing

of our whole society

can remove this sickness

from our souls.

We live in a 'Me' Generation.

Therein lies the conflict.

And the conflict is how do we live

in a 'Me' Generation?

What is the 'Me' Generation?

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes