The Writting Writing on the Wall
Written by Sarah MacMaster
A year ago a loyal reader took me to task for a column that accused the members of her generation of spoiling everything precious and good they had inherited from their parents. She wrongly, perhaps understandably, interpreted my attack on The Boomers as a defence of my generation – which it certainly was not.
I hope that what follows clears the air somewhat, and demonstrates that when it comes to the respective foolishness of Boomers or their Brats, I don’t play favourites.
An extra-terrestrial visitor viewing the activities of the educated segment of our population, would probably decide that as far as human life on earth is concerned, the end must surely be nigh. What other conclusion could he possibly arrive at after viewing the insanity of the past few months? Protest after protest, and most of it (on this continent) from my generation – the most pampered and sheltered collection of little snots that this world has ever known. It is truly the fruits of the Boomers’ labour coming home to roost. After all, thanks to their parents, these fair-weather anarchists learned from an early age that a ‘no’ was merely a prelude to a ‘yes’ and the benefits of a full-blown tantrum certainly outweighed those of a semi-sulk.
As I write this, Quebec students are still out there rioting, despite the fact that they enjoy the lowest tuition fees in North America – and would continue to do so even after the modest hike in tuition fees is pushed through the Assemblée Nationale. A tentative deal has been reached between the government and the student leaders: a “provisional council” will be created to review university spending and any savings that can be made will be used to reduce ‘extra fees’ that students pay on top of tuition. But even after all of this, students federation leaders “are not recommending” that the students accept the deal – so the striking may continue.
Support and solidarity flows in (of course) from the unionized media, but empathy (maybe even sympathy) came from some surprising quarters. David Frum, writing in the National Post, assured us that the anger and violence is simply the natural consequences of the younger generation realizing that it is doomed to support the lucrative pensions of its parents and grandparents with no chance that it will enjoy the same fruits. With all due respect to Mr. Frum, he may have the economic part of the argument right, but I have yet to see an iota of evidence that even one of the bleating sheep regularly interviewed by SRCTV thinks beyond the extra deux cents piastres Mamman et Papa might have to shell out next fall. They aren’t even concerned about their lost semester; because they have been assured by their sympathetic professors that they will ‘get their year’.
And on a related note, although January’s sleet, snow and sub-zero temperatures sent our tough friends at the Occupy Movement into comfortable rent-free hibernation in their mommies’ basements, like squawking Canada Geese, they have returned. To be honest, I’m still not quite sure what these 99%-ers are protesting. I think it goes something like this: I went to university, I’m not making millions in my field (whatever that is) while people working in industry and commerce are. Imagine that. Years of Sociology, Drama, and Women’s Studies – and you expected what? In terms of prospects, I’m not much better off with my History/English degree, but I knew that long before I graduated. Graduated I might add, with no debt, six grand in the bank, a car, and an apartment – all that on a waitress’s salary and tips, and I still had time to party. So cry me a river.
And there’s more foolishness. In case you folks missed it, we now have two days dedicated to the elimination of bullying: Pink Shirt Day in February and April’s Day of Pink. Why two? It must be about ‘accommodation’. It wouldn’t be fair to discriminate against the pink shirtless if they’d agree to put on their pink pants a month or so later. In some areas of the province elementary students were instructed to participate in Mr. Dress-up Day or face consequences. As Mark Steyn put it, “Nothing says ‘celebrate diversity’ like forcing everyone to dress exactly the same.” Apparently, bullying has reached a really critical stage – because our vote-sniffing premier has proposed legislation to stop this epidemic dead in its tracks.
The message (prophecy?) for society is the absolute absurdity of it all. When our little Lady Diannas and Lord Faunterloys protest their silver spoons; when the Utterly Useless demand sympathy and accommodation for their self-inflicted incompetence; when our educators do a better job of enforcing ‘progressive’ conformity than teaching vowels and consonants; when our legislators can’t see the economic elephant (maybe it isn’t OSPCA protected?) in the room, but can spot the pink shirts in the visitor’s gallery, maybe we had all better start thinking about our futures in ways we have never done before.