whyroots

School's out for the holidays, so I get to feel like a real, live blogger, typing this post in my PJs. With the world collapsing around our ears and the weight of history on our shoulders, this might seem like an incredibly luxurious thing to do. But if our generation is to have any shot at solving any of the world’s problems, our approach will involve the interwebs.

Back when I was 14, my biggest problem was finding a girl to make out with, and AOL Instant Messenger was there. Back then, it was much easier to flirt from behind a keyboard than face-to-face. Sadly, we can’t spin-the-bottle our way out of the mess we’re in, but the interwebs are still the sea we swim in and can still be useful. We’re creating networks of friends that span the globe; we are constructing political coalitions that win elections; and we are spontaneously freaking out hundreds of people in Grand Central. I don’t really need to tell you how transformative the internet is – you know this -- I just wanted to tip my hat to the hero before moving on to the villain: irony.

Yes, irony, protector of hipsters, destroyer of worlds. Irony started as harmless fun, and a dash of irony is still preferred when opening a blog post with a saccharine ode to technology (see above ironic use of “interwebs”). But as the dominant mode of contemporary discourse, it’s completely bankrupt. Many of our generation’s brightest lights ran off to make big bucks as modern day alchemists in the financial sector. Irony came for many of those that were left, leading them off to wallow in ironic over-privileged gloom and designer T-shirts. Those that remain need some help in turning this thing around.

So, in these times of economic hardship, with bankers returning to grad school and hipsters too poor to silkscreen, I say let’s give irony a rest and stare the problems of the world and our own failings full in the face. That will be the only way to take up the mantle as the next "Greatest Generation." Seriously.

-- Nathan Huttner

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