The Generation War


Right now, there’s a huge war going on, but it’s not a physical one being waged. It really isn’t class structure either, although part of it involves classes. The war being waged is a generation one where there’s a lot of older views that are conflicting with the way the world is evolving. This isn’t to say that it’s just old people vs young people. Instead, the situation is which side of the equation you belong to.

When I look at the Occupy Wallstreet movement and see the political battle being waged over SOPA, I feel as though at first what seems to be going on is class warfare. Essentially, the have’s vs have-not’s. But not every powerful person or group are necessarily on one side or the other. For instance, in the situation with SOPA, you have numerous major internet companies (such as Google) fighting against SOPA, which is heavily supported by Big Media. In the case of Occupy Wallstreet, you have some famous people lending support and their voices to the cause (I’ll name Rowdy Piper as one person as he mentioned it in his tweet).

And the chaos isn’t just in the states. Britain, Egypt, Libya, Greece and Italy all have shown internal turmoil. Sometimes it’s a matter of economics. But on many occasions you’ll also see that it’s the young people who seem to be the most vocal in many of these situations.

This has led me to ask why this all is. I think part of the issue is that the internet has been able to spawn a new era of consciousness in the world where countries, people and cultures no longer are isolated as heavily as before. The internet with services such as youtube, Facebook, Twitter, blogging, wireless networks, cellphones, peer-to-peer networks, etc. have created methods to share information freely that has disrupted governments, industries, cultures and ways of thinking at a pace like no other in history. We, as a species, are more connected and bound to each other in some way because of how information now can be delivered in mere milliseconds once something occurs.

The problem I see is that the people who have been able to adjust and embrace these technologies are the ones who are reaping the most benefit while the others have been horridly slow to accept this new way of thinking and handling things. This is why it’s not necessarily an age issue. I work with older people who manage to keep up and even have a wonderful vision of how technology can be utilized. At the same time, I know people who are younger than me in other countries who distance themselves away from technologies either out of fear, lack of knowledge or laziness to adopt it.

That said, no matter how much the people who refuse to accept this new era of thinking remonstrate, things have changed and cannot revert to whatever format they’re used to. Even if legally they gain small victories, the number of people who have embraced and wholeheartedly accepted into their lives the technology and ways of thinking aren’t going to disappear in a day.

The people in charge are losing and will eventually lose because I truly believe that this new era of thinking already has penetrated with their children. Those that control the older mode of thinking, imo, are fewer. Even if they are able to indoctrinate their children with similar thinking, those numbers will likewise be fewer. As a result, the real issue to me is just figuring out how to deal with these people who consistently blockage progress. All I can say to that is just look towards Libya, Greece, Italy and Egypt to see how their people have responded. Is America next on that list?

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