It is now brought to public memory that perhaps we are reentering The Gilded Age — an era marked by rapid prosperity, technological advancements and economic growth, its golden exterior of prosperity disguising the destitution within.
If there’s one thing today’s older generations love, (besides posting Confederate flag minion memes to Facebook) it’s lazily pathologizing young people. This isn’t new, of course. Despite slight modifications, complaints about “the youth” have remained consistent since the ‘60s: Kids are narcissistic, entitled, overly sensitive, strangely consumed with technology and the opinions of others, and lacking in motivation.
When I think of culture I think of pain — at least, for most of my life, I did. I felt this pain because the culture I was raised to appreciate, black culture, ended up being more oppressive and suppressive than understanding and progressive.
We used to be more ambitious in this country. Early 20th century lifestyle magazines were littered with images of flying cars and space colonization. Today, we’ve seem to have fallen short of most of these goals.