Miami Quarterly

Issue date: 4/13/09 Section: Opinion

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COLUMNIST BOBBY PIERCE CHALLENGES OUR GENERATION TO CHANGE PERSPECTIVES IN A SEEMINGLY BLEAK SITUATION.

In 2006 The Oxford Dictionary of English, Revised Second Edition added a new verb to their lexicon. To eighty-six (North American, informal) means to reject, discard or destroy, and I couldn't help but think of our generation. The etymology of the word apparently comes from bartenders who say eighty-six to cut off patrons who are very drunk; they use it because it rhymes with nix (Our generation never drinks too much...).

 I am a senior, leaving in a mere few weeks, and I was born in 1986, as well as many other seniors. Are we a generation that could be rejected, discarded or destroyed? This was my first thought when I stumbled upon the word. I cannot help but think that we are about to graduate from a university that is wealthy and white to live and work in a world that is neither. We leave with an education and four (or three or 5+) years of the college lifestyle. We hope that this experience and degree will have some material value, but we know that it must have some human value, identifying that value is the real problem.

This magazine's package chronicles the overall despondency of the job market right now, and this isn't just for journos but for finance and communications people too. The way it looks, the next couple years could be spent working retail, living at home and waiting for the vague construct known as the economy to pick up, at which time the degree could mean something. But there are other options. This economy could be turned into a great adventure for our generation to prove itself.

So far we have produced a culture that rewards Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Paris Hilton, the Jonas Brothers hosing down tween girls with white foam at concerts and the no-talent offspring of Billy Ray Cyrus. We have produced a culture where little girls wear $200 velour jumpsuits and carry expensive handbags, one where little boys idolize professional athletes who pop in and out of jail for gun crimes. The Twilight series tops the literary charts. It is very difficult to think of the redeeming features of popular American culture right now. I do not think that every cloud has a silver lining, mainly because I tend to avoid platitudes, but if there is one for the recession it may just be that it could have a cleansing effect on our culture.

 We have become good, very good, at consuming and rather bad at producing much of anything. And now we have these years in which we become the lost decade or the decade when we discover the human value of critical thinking. One of the last things I am ready to do right now is have a job I hate and live for the weekends. If you are passionate about helping people, join a nonprofit or the Peace Corps. If you have always wanted to write a book or a play or a song do it.

We have been given an opportunity in which the normal path no longer exists, so we will have to use what Miami has given us to forge a new one. Three and a half years ago we all complained about the Miami Plan and having to take classes we would never "use," but what we should have gained more than any other skill is the ability to think. People go to university to learn how to think, and our final exams will not be in May, but in the coming years. The American Empire is collapsing into our laps. Will we be a generation that is eighty-sixed or could we save our culture?
Gloom is the last feeling we should have about the future. It will be an opportunity, an adventure and a challenge.

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