My Generation

People try to put us down
Just because we get around
Things they do look awful cold
I hope I die before I get old

--“My Generation”, The Who--

The Who had perfectly summarized the sentiments shared by young people all around the world, living in different times. Young people are eager to speak up, righting wrongs, and make a change for the better. But as always, the older generation is always there to shut them up, repress them, and keep things as they are. The older generation is often disrespectful towards younger people simply because of their youth and that’s despicable. Being quite young myself (twenty something), I can definitely relate to that kind of feeling.

History shows us that young people truly have what it takes to make a change. There are three major events in my country which were driven by young people’s movement. First, it was the declaration of independence which would probably wait until 1949 if it’s not for the young people who persuaded our nation’s leader to proclaim it sooner than later. Second and third events were rather similar in essence, the fall of dictatorial leaderships which were driven by students’ protest all over the country. The “it” factor was certainly there, no doubt about it.

Unfortunately, the “it” factor seems to fade away as they’re getting older. And soon enough, they’re transformed into the likes of the older people they used to despise: oppressive, egotistical, arrogant--you name it. I happen to know these kinds of people, and there are many of them.

How does this degradation happen to people anyway? I think the answer is plain and simple: self-contentment.

There’s nothing wrong about being proud of yourself, to a certain extent. It might even be a good sign because it’s rather depressing if you’re growing old without the sense of achieving something. However, it’s not good if, out of self-contentment, you give yourself credit (because you feel that you deserve it) while hurting somebody else in the process. It’s not good to put aside the opinion of those younger than yourself just because you feel that you’ve “been there, done that” (and therefore, wiser and more experienced). Too bad most of them, the older generation, don’t realize that. They used to, but now, not anymore.

People never learn from the past, though, and there’s a good chance that my generation too, will turn out to be as despicable as the older generation. If that’s the case, I think Roger Daltrey made a good point when he sang, “I hope I die before I get old”.