Our Generations Inheritance

This originally appeared at America's Future Foundation's Conventional Folly Blog on 6 Dec 2011

I was born on Oct 14, 1989. A month later, the Berlin Wall came down. 1991 saw the collapse of the Soviet Union.

That was 22 years ago, and now members of my generation- the children of the Cold War- are coming of age, finishing school, getting married, having children, beginning careers, and voting. As we step into the spotlight, we begin to replace the eldest ahead of us- the children of World War II.

This transition of power will not be easy, seamless, or painless. It will be hard for everyone. It will be hard because no two generations value the same things, nor do we view problems in the same light.

There is a growing murmur amongst my generation: a realization that we are reaping what our fathers and our fathers’s fathers have sown. It is 66 years of the same politics. 66 years of “us vs. them”. 66 years of traversing the globe to establish puppets, whose final “useful” function is to absorb our surplus missiles while we find a new puppet to manipulate.

Many Americans wonder why the world hates us, and the answer is blatantly obvious. We kept fighting the Cold War after the Cold War ended: Iraq part I, Somalia, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq part 2, Libya, and Uganda. And even as I write this, the drums of war are beginning to beat toward Syria and Iran.

As a generation, we are beginning to realize the unforeseen fallacy of our fathers ways. We are waking up. We must take the helm and steer our ship in a new direction. We can no longer afford to be careless; we can no longer ride the same current.

Movements like Occupy Wall Street do serve a purpose and demonstrate one clear fact: that people are angry at the status quo. They do not know how to fix it, but they show that the support structure exists for those who are willing to lead.

So Cold War Kids, will you be content keeping up with the Kardashians, or will you take the helm and steer our ship to new waters?