Though not a believer in any of the Christmastime gods, the holidays are still fun simply because most people get some time off of work and families get together. In my house visiting family means Daughters, Sons-in-law, and grand kids, and that means a chance to visit with the next two generations to pick up human history where my generation sets it down.
My Daughters are giving a serious re-think to all of American Society, along with virtually all of their friends and many of the extended family of roughly the same age. This re-evaluation includes rejecting excess consumerism and crass commercialism, and a stated rejection of the politics of money as practiced in the US today. They are bitterly opposed to the manipulations, greed, and lawlessness of Wall Street and understand quite clearly that exponential growth is an unsustainable economic model. They are experimenting with food co-ops and barter economies, and rigorously avoiding credit card debt. They dismiss the idea that banks, bankers, and Wall Street types making fortunes by loaning out other people's money, and then collecting interest on that money, as of limited benefit to society and seriously questionable morally. (College educated with Masters and PhDs in the bunch, they bitterly denounce the commercialization of education and the astounding school loan bills that come with it.)
Those who have bought homes have done so with modesty and efficiency high up on the list of "most important" qualities. Several have decided that, at least for now, owning a home is part of an "American Dream" that they don't share. With all jobs now best considered temporary, offered at the whim of an increasingly corrupt corporate / government system and retracted just as quickly, being tied to a mortgage is seen as unwise. (They may be swayed in that opinion after seeing the beating their parents have taken in this current downturn, along with the loss of about 1/3 of the family income due to "downsizing.") They have absolutely no faith in the idea that the money taken from them for Social Security and Medicare will ever be seen again. They also have no faith in the idea that this system will honor anything like a retirement or pension plan, fully expecting a large portion of such monies to be stolen by officialdom somehow.
They see an FDA that approves drugs much of the rest of the world will not touch, only to then see them pulled off the shelves a few years later due to health risks. (After, of course, the drug companies have made a few billion dollars.) It is their children poisoned by toys painted in China with lead paint and unable to digest the food grown and distributed by Agribusiness. They wish the bus and train systems in the US weren't decades behind the rest of the world because they don't care about cars or big oil profits. None of them believes that the car manufacturers are doing the best they can with fuel economy, and they all suspect that the government and the energy companies are in on the scam. They understand fully that the oil can't last forever and that alternate energy systems must be invented, coupled with massive improvements in efficiency. They don't trust people with guns. (Yes, you can read that in several different ways, they all apply.)
They are anti-war. Many have traveled and lived (or were born) abroad. The languages they speak include German, Spanish, and Korean. Several read Latin and Greek. They are big picture kind of people who know first hand that America's claims of superiority are nothing but propaganda. They have experienced the education and health care systems of other countries, seen the difference between countries that care for the environment and those who exploit it for short term profits with little concern for long term viability. I suspect they don't care much about America being #1 in anything if it comes at the expense of the rest of the people on the planet.
They don't watch much TV. They read a lot of books. They write and paint, play musical instruments and make movies. They are nothing like the society they grew up in and which surrounds them to this day. They may well be in the minority, but there sure seems to be a lot of them around.
They are not rebels or interested in revolutions. I am both puzzled and delighted by the fact that they are not even particularly angry at what they see. Part of that, I suspect, is simply that they don't see the things that are wrong as their fault. They didn't do it we, their parents, did. And they are kind of fond of us in spite of our failures.
Not much interested in the ill society we are handing over to them they basically ignore it; going about their lives in their own time and in their own way. They work around us as best they can, doing without cars, finding good food for their families, staying out of debt, living much lighter and quicker on their feet, and staying much better informed then I was at their age. I'm not sure how they vote, but they don't choose based on 30 second sound bites and are deeply skeptical of the motivations of anyone currently seeking public office.
Lest you conclude that they are simply children of an off-the-reservation-dad, I only raised 3 of the bunch. The rest are extended family. Though many have a take-it-or-leave-it attitude when it comes to churches, some are deeply religious and active participants in main-line Christian organizations. They debate abortion and gay marriage. (Really.) We disagree on a lot of things.
And on quiet holiday evenings they give me hope.
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