A follow-up to my post about the “lying down” movement in China. Many rejecting the incessant demand to work, work, make money, buy, buy … between the long steady strokes of the whip.
Each generation has its anthem, a cry and call for liberation from the yolk we are all expected to wear at an early age. Pulling someone else’s plow. Making money. Getting stuff.
The Who’s “My Generation” - “I hope I die before I get old” is a big one to recall and came on the heels of Dylan’s anthems for youth, “The Time’s They Are A’ Changin’ and “Mr. Tambourine Man” - “Let me forget about today until tomorrow.”
For me, Weezer’s - My Name is Jonas is a classic for Generation X. The workers are going home …
My name is Jonas
I'm carryin' the wheel
Thanks for all you've shown us
But this is how we feel
But take your song pick, we all have songs that represent the frustration and angst of having to be a slug and pick up the shovel to make other people big money. We all have a song that represents our anger at having to live a life of materialism sucking our soul dry of romance and the simple enjoyment of being alive.
Every generation has had their share of drop-outs. China now has theirs. In the West, we hear whispers of young people refusing to work, work, work. Quiet quitting they call it. Or The Great Resignation. I’ve seen it in action, my last trip back home. Go into any Tim Horton’s (Timmy’s for Canucks) and you’ll find zombies behind the counter, just barely existing, stuck in their McJob and not seeing much of a way out.
Minimalism - what the hell happened to that? Did they all just turn into Hipsters or did they all get forced back to work to pay the exorbitant prices for their few, small things? A tiny home in Seattle, 4 feet (yes, feet!) x 4 feet costs $500,000 and people are bidding for it.
But it is the same for so many, nowadays. And the end game doesn’t look so rosy any more. Work your whole life and whatchagot? Deeper in debt? Gold watch, handshake? A house - even that is not so certain. No wonder people just want to “lie down” and turn off. 50% of American households don’t have $400 in the bank. Let that sink in … Meanwhile King a-hole Charles is shining up a new carriage.
I find it hard to think of this world much these days. Why? Because my generation, like so many other generations has failed. We’ve failed to leave the world a better place, leave the next generations with time to live, love, enjoy. Perhaps it is inevitable, in the nature of things. Youthful aspirations have no place in this world of hard knocks.
Oh sure, ChatGPT and AI is going to give us all heaven on earth, universal income, time to do what we want. You can swallow that, I’m not. I’ve turned off my Instagram and my get rich now social media. Lies to keep us all going around on this unmerry-go-round.
We, each of us, has to start rejecting the dispiriting, destructive drive of “getting ahead”. The rat race, whatever you call it, reject it. Work it out in your own heart. Refuse to pick up the shovel. Head out into the unknown and let life guide you, instead of thinking you can control it and your destiny.
I’m proud of those Chinese dancing in the underground. I want to join them, if even only for an evening.
Let us live now, not postponing life for pipe dreams. That is what the demmies or commies want. Keeping you busy building and moving towards paradise when if you pull out their needle and remove the damage done … paradise is yours, right here, right now. It is not aspirational, this life we are gifted. It is what it is, full of grace, in the gratitude of those courageous enough to lie down.
A Life Postponed