MD cultural evolution

hey all,

just a few thoughts....

i read an article on generation Xers in The Age newspaper (melbourne) a few weeks back. it was on the front page and it was pretty interesting stuff. get this: nearly 50% of 25-35 year olds in australia are out of full-time work. shit! that's some big time unemployment!!! the article however was not doom and gloom. indeed it was upbeat. although kids were -  through lack of financial independence - staying at home well into their thirties, they were also more educated and better travelled. the lack of good secure jobs is depressing - don't get me wrong. my friends and i are ridiculously overqualified but we are still in vocational limbo: student-cum-tutor-cum-barman-cum-backpacker...but lately my attitude towards this has shifted a little more into the positive.

travel and education are now experienced by the *majority* of young adults in australia. this is a good thing (regardless of how crap tertiary education is. the free time and exposure to new experiences are the point). the era of secure, lifelong and loyal employment is gone, and good riddance i say. by necessity families are retaining closer ties for longer and this is probably good also. maybe a strengthening and broadening of family ties will end  the stupid 'nuclear family' routine of the West. That shallow farce that culminates in the elders being shipped off to die in indignity and loneliness.

but i want to settle down and start a family one day; one day in the not too distant. this protracted adolescence has its ups, but *independence* is necessary for full human development. so eventually my generation - and by eventually i mean in the next few years - will begin having to choose from the not-too-tasty choices on offer OR, come up with a *new* menu.

i believe that a well educated, travelled, highly interconnected (via internet and phone) and disenfranchised youth will start to explore other options than those laid out before them like so many stale sandwiches  (don't know about that simile gav?!). why work in a meaningless office job when your friends are building a new culture? you see our culture is already starting to mutate....yoga and tai chi are now extremely popular; people are growing more of their own food (local food production will be foundational to any new culture(s)); and perhaps most importantly there is the project of which this list and moq.org is an important part: the reconnection of the individual with others and the world. for it is this intellectual evolution that is the key to transcending the social imperatives of a culture that is past its use by date. - the truth shall set you free.

goodnight

gav

risky,

 i am not giving corporations a PR shake up; i am simply stating a fact - corporations were given the status of immortal persons in law in the early 20th century in the USA - and deriving an MOQ moral judgement from it: this is immoral because it accords a social entity effectively more value than the individuals (intellectual value) that comprise it. this is a simple and irrefutable point.

on the bush family: have a look on the web for yourself - there is plenty of good stuff out there on dubya and co. try 'harken' for oil and 'carlyle group' for... well.. everything. you may also be unaware that bush snr was a drug lord (i should say THE drug lord) during the reagan years. Drugs (cocaine mostly) financed the US organised military actions in nicaragua, guatemala etc.

cheers

gav