The I Got Mine G-G-Generation

People try to put us d-down (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
Just because we get around (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
I hope I die before I get old (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)

~Pete Townshend

They say when you die your life flashes before your eyes.  I assume this is a metaphor for life itself, since the older I get the faster it goes; but if we do get one last chance to look back I’m not sure I would want to take it.   I already try to avoid certain thoughts that might trigger uncomfortable memories so I’m pretty sure I don’t want to be shuffling off my mortal coil heading to parts unknown while reliving my greatest hits.  But perhaps that’s the point.  If this is what is meant by standing before the “Pearly Gates”, I should see myself for what I really am.

As I grow older I am beginning to pay attention to these old clichés, to sayings such as “you can’t take it with you”, or “what goes around, comes around”; they mean more today than they did when I was still young and immortal.  I appreciate the simple wisdom in those sentences, so in advanced preparation for the inevitable I’ve begun my “life-flashing” today in hopes that when my time comes I won’t wince at too many more memories than I already do.  I don’t want to relive hour upon hour of T.V. programming, or recount too many rush-hours cursing at the car in front of me, or the animals I’ve abused.  Will I recall vacationing in luxury hotels or living in a private estate sheltered from the abject poverty around me?  I don’t know but the closer I get the more I care; if I checked out now I’d have too much baggage to carry.

On Christmas my personality would turn for the worse, and one Christmas morning I even shook my fist at my poor, dear grandmother, now deceased, for having given me the wrong Hot Wheels car while having given my brother the right one.  When I got older I attempted an apology for being such a young cad but it was stumbling and I doubt it made her feel better; I know it didn’t make me feel better.  This is one of those memories I try to avoid; nothing drives-home how screwed-up this society is like the glorified greed of the Christmas season.

We equate money with love.  Spending money on Christmas will provide us the joy of giving and at the same time allow us to show our loved ones just how much we love them.  But capitalism is a con, and Christmas is the sting to hook us before we’re old enough to know better.   It is training camp for the next generation of consumers, a yearly indoctrination exercise combining equal parts of Pagan and Judeo-Christian mythology with a shot of capitalism rolled into a delicious sugar cookie impossible to resist.  Despite my cynicism and the benefit of hindsight I still love decorating for the Holidays and I often overspend on gifts; so strong is the con-ditioning of Christmas.

Success is a con too; a pyramid scheme which the majority who play will lose, but to ensure we will play all we ever read, watch and hear must reinforce the belief that we can succeed if we work hard enough.  They even stamp the money with a pyramid, as if to challenge us to admit the obvious.

Full story here:

http://yankee451.com/2012/06/10/the-i-got-mine-g-g-generation/