2008 Woodie Awards
SectionsLetter: "Generation of tomorrow" fought with innocence
Issue date: 11/6/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
A lot of people are just unable to accept and adapt to change. When Rhett Butler said, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" a generation was horrified.
When Elvis wiggled his hips, a generation was horrified.
When they were breaking and burning rock 'n roll records, it was because a generation was horrified.
And now, due to the language of rap music (the overwhelmingly most popular music with youngsters), a generation is horrified.
Times change. There was a time it was unthinkable to not rise when a lady entered the room. It does not mean the current generation is a bunch of perverts, uncouth louts, misfits, etc. ad infinitum, ad nauseum. All it means is that many people are unable to accept changing times.
It was Jonathan Green who said:"The populist authoritarianism that is the downside of political correctness means that anyone, sometimes it seems like everyone, can proclaim their grief and have it acknowledged. The victim culture, every sufferer grasping for their own Holocaust, ensures that anyone who feels offended can call for moderation, for dilution, and in the end, as is all too often the case, for censorship. And censorship, that by-product of fear - stemming as it does not from some positive agenda, but from the desire to escape our own terrors and superstitions by imposing them on others - must surely be resisted."
We resisted, and it was important that we did. Many people will object to our efforts for reasons identical to those held by every horrified generation before.
But we are the generation of tomorrow. It will soon be our time, if that era isn't already upon us. For the first time we can realize that words are innocent - it is intentions and concepts that are either malicious or good. Words, by which we express our ideas, can only be offensive - they are incapable of harming anyone. And generation-by-generation, they are even having their power to offend slowly taken away.
That is why the chasm of difference between "God hates you" and "f---" is so conspicuous to us. That is why it is obvious to us how gravely some moral concerns have been misplaced. That is why we stood in defiance.
And that is why all of us would do it again tomorrow if we had to.
This will not be the last time our generation will need to flaunt authority, and it will not always be as easy as the execution and the aftermath of this rally has been. Altering the status quo has always been an arduous undertaking. Knowing this, decide for yourselves: were we a group of punks just out to offend people? Or were we a congregation of brave adults accepting our charge as the new stewards of society by expressing a powerful concept in a unified voice using a single, innocent word to encapsulate our message?
And more importantly, decide if next time you will have the fortitude to stand with us.
J.T.?Eberhard
junior, music
When Elvis wiggled his hips, a generation was horrified.
When they were breaking and burning rock 'n roll records, it was because a generation was horrified.
And now, due to the language of rap music (the overwhelmingly most popular music with youngsters), a generation is horrified.
Times change. There was a time it was unthinkable to not rise when a lady entered the room. It does not mean the current generation is a bunch of perverts, uncouth louts, misfits, etc. ad infinitum, ad nauseum. All it means is that many people are unable to accept changing times.
It was Jonathan Green who said:"The populist authoritarianism that is the downside of political correctness means that anyone, sometimes it seems like everyone, can proclaim their grief and have it acknowledged. The victim culture, every sufferer grasping for their own Holocaust, ensures that anyone who feels offended can call for moderation, for dilution, and in the end, as is all too often the case, for censorship. And censorship, that by-product of fear - stemming as it does not from some positive agenda, but from the desire to escape our own terrors and superstitions by imposing them on others - must surely be resisted."
We resisted, and it was important that we did. Many people will object to our efforts for reasons identical to those held by every horrified generation before.
But we are the generation of tomorrow. It will soon be our time, if that era isn't already upon us. For the first time we can realize that words are innocent - it is intentions and concepts that are either malicious or good. Words, by which we express our ideas, can only be offensive - they are incapable of harming anyone. And generation-by-generation, they are even having their power to offend slowly taken away.
That is why the chasm of difference between "God hates you" and "f---" is so conspicuous to us. That is why it is obvious to us how gravely some moral concerns have been misplaced. That is why we stood in defiance.
And that is why all of us would do it again tomorrow if we had to.
This will not be the last time our generation will need to flaunt authority, and it will not always be as easy as the execution and the aftermath of this rally has been. Altering the status quo has always been an arduous undertaking. Knowing this, decide for yourselves: were we a group of punks just out to offend people? Or were we a congregation of brave adults accepting our charge as the new stewards of society by expressing a powerful concept in a unified voice using a single, innocent word to encapsulate our message?
And more importantly, decide if next time you will have the fortitude to stand with us.
J.T.?Eberhard
junior, music
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