“Gen Y: The Rebuilder Generation (A vision for Spokane’s future)”
How many of our readers use LaunchpadINW?
With various social media options these days, perhaps we had not checked out the local networking site as frequently as hoped. However, that changed after reading blogger Sam Fletcher’s thought provoking post on Generation Y and the response it had in the comments section. It seemed like a burgeoning form of online journalism, a more direct connection between author and audience. With his blessing, we’re going to repost it in its entirety to spread the dialogue on his project. Check it out.
“Gen Y: The Rebuilder Generation (A vision for Spokane's future)"
By Sam Fletcher
For the last thirty years, it’s been common to refer to human beings as “consumers”. Conceptually, consumers have little to say or do in the world. They buy or don’t buy — that’s it. They might produce as well, but to no other end than to collect money so as to make more consumption possible.
Are we truly consumers, here on Earth to simply chew our way through abundance of the world ‘til it is no more? Do we exist simply to fulfill our biological and emotional cravings for material things?
And yet, those who call us consumers have a point! Consumerism has been like a powerful earthquake. Consumption has created a nation overloaded with debt and joblessness. In our thirst for more combustible resources, the sludge of our consumer culture pours into the Gulf of Mexico. Our determined quest for cheaper, lower-quality imports has slowly impoverished all but a tiny fraction of our people, while an elite few are richer than we can comprehend. Our nation has consumed its glut, and we are living with the consequences.
It falls to Generation Y to rebuild a nation and a city ravaged by the excesses of McMansions, gas guzzlers, and irresponsible spending. Whether wanted or not, it is our job. We must take up the pieces of American infrastructure and create a sustainable culture and economy.
We must first seek a purpose in life. We must become a generation of rebuilders, innovators, and educators. We need to become helpers, neighbors. We must be authentically human, living to experience more than the daily routine of consumption culture.
We must stand united as a generation, with a common goal of creating a new American dream. Life is hard; but uniting for each other’s common benefit can overcome enormous obstacles. I can’t do it, but we can do it!
We must think locally. Change comes through the small decisions we all make every day. Decisions driven by vision and conviction add up to a tidal wave of movement. Will we choose to buy locally, or send more money away from our community? Will we respect the dignity of our co-workers, and later, employees? Will they receive fair wages for their labor? Will we understand that cheapening products does more harm than good to the economy? Will we take the time to learn the lifespan of a dollar as it circulates through the local economy? These questions seek answers that are gravely important to the vitality of Spokane in ten, twenty, thirty years.
The answer to our problems does not lie in fleeing Spokane. If only it were so easy! I’ve lived across America. I’ve lived in Europe. Things are no better in the big cities, where there is so much less room to grow. We should start in Spokane, to spark a flame that sweeps America.
We are the future of Spokane, and the future of America. Some day, we will be the generation with the positions of leadership and influence. For most of America’s lifespan, consumerist culture was unknown; consumerist culture shall pass. What will be in its place? When Generation Y takes leadership, I hope we are known as the Rebuilder Generation.
http://launchpadinw.com/group/geny
