"I wanna see movies of my dreams. Wanna see it when you get stoned on a cloudy breezy desert afternoon. Wanna see it untame itself and break it's owners."
COINTELPRO (an acronym for Counter Intelligence Program) was a series of covert, and often illegal, projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at investigating and disrupting dissident political organizations within the United States. The FBI used covert operations from its inception, however formal COINTELPRO operations took place between 1956 and 1971.[2] The FBI's stated motivation at the time was "protecting national security, preventing violence, and maintaining the existing social and political order." [3]
According to FBI records, 85% of COINTELPRO resources were expended on infiltrating, disrupting, marginalizing, and/or subverting groups suspected of being subversive,[4] such as communist and socialist organizations; the women's rights movement; militant black nationalist groups, and the non-violent civil rights movement" such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and others associated with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Congress of Racial Equality, the American Indian Movement, and other civil rights groups; a broad range of organizations labeled "New Left", including Students for a Democratic Society, the National Lawyers Guild, the Weathermen, almost all groups protesting the Vietnam War, and even individual student demonstrators with no group affiliation; and nationalist groups such as those "seeking independence for Puerto Rico." The other 15% of COINTELPRO resources were expended to marginalize and subvert "white hate groups," including the Ku Klux Klan and National States' Rights Party. [5]
The directives governing COINTELPRO were issued by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who ordered FBI agents to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" the activities of these movements and their leaders.
I'm a cliche of a cliche of a cliche of you and everyone you know (Commentary on the 1977-1989 Generation)
Excerpt from "Millennials: Worst Generation in the Workplace?" by BuisnessWeek "A generation stripped of its competitive and capitalistic background through coddling and technological overkill. They are categorized as rude, poorly mannered, overly tattoo'ed, pierced and lazy. This generation truly has been coddled to believe that everyone else is here to make their job available."
Excerpt from "Millennials – Themes in Current Literature" by Azusa Pacific University, April 24, 2006 "Consequently, enthusiastic self-expression flourishes under the perspective that everyone’s opinion of how they look or act is equally valid. Older Generations cite the explosion of tattoos and piercings as an example of this trend."Excerpt from "Rise of the Millennials: Why They Know So Much…Yet Understand So Little" by RealTruthMagazine "Theirs is the first generation to grow up surrounded by the modern, “instant gratification” technology of digital media. They have no memory of a world without cellphones, digital cameras, email, text-messaging, instant messaging, personal digital assistants, mp3 players, handheld video game devices, blogs, do-it-yourself Internet videos, online virtual worlds, web browsing—you name it."
On the subject of a normal Millennial "a pimply blonde with streaks of orange, lime and other unnatural colors swirling through her hair, a butterfly tattoo on the inside of her left wrist, and body piercings on parts of the flesh that should never be pierced."
Excerpt from " ’Youthquake’ shakes up electoral politics: Millennials fired up over jobs, health care, and debt" by MobilizeMagazine "The 46-year-old Illinois senator's surprise victory in the Iowa caucuses and close second-place finish to New York Senator Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire Democratic primary were fueled largely by hordes of twentysomethings in hoodies — the oft-pierced-and-tattooed generation that has come to be known as the Millennials, or Gen Y."
Excerpt from "The Millennials: Generation Enlightened or Generation Lazy?" by The Wall Street Journal "They don’t play by the same set of workplace rules as their boomer parents did. Their sense of entitlement and refusal to follow corporate dictates blindly - not to mention a couple of tattoos or piercings, - make them very different than their colleagues."
Excerpt from "Tattoo Youth" by The Herman Trend Alert "A 2006 Pew Research survey found 36 percent of people ages 18 to 25 had tattoos, while a full 40 percent of those 26 to 40 sported them.
As members of the Millennial Generation will readily share, acquiring a tattoo or body piercing is their way of expressing their individuality and their availability to members of the opposite sex. Tattoo parlors from Brazil to Malaysia have seen an upward trend in business over the last ten years, as the Millennials have come of age and can afford these displays of uniqueness."
Excerpt from "TATTOOS, PIERCINGS, BODY ART AND SMALL BUSINESS TO HIRE OR NOT HIRE?" by Metropolitan State College of Denver "Current statistics on the extent of body art vary but point to an increasing trend in the U.S. and other countries (Matthews, 2008). A medical telephone survey found that 35% of the respondents in the 21- 29 year old age group had tattoos (Price (2007) A Canadian survey found 42% of the respondents either had a tattoo or body. A scientific survey reported in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that 1 in 4 Americans have at least one tattoo (Lauman & Derick, 2006). Gardner (2007) reports increasing usage by younger workers: over 40 only 10% usage, 26 to 40 years of age 40% usage (a 14 year span) and 33% for18 to 25 years of age (a seven year span).Gardner estimates that 40 million, Americans have tattoos (Gardner, 2007)."
My response
Okay, so there is a lot of stuff I could discuss about Gen-Y. I could even defend us by mentioning what we've endured in our era (Instant gratification, Excessive expansion of technology, Massive Decline in Musical/Artistic Expression, Clinton Sex Scandal, Columbine and school shooting trend, The 2000 Teeny Bopper explosion, Hanging chads and the fall of democracy, 9/11, Bush, Corporate corruption scandals like Enron and WorldCom, The War on Terrorism, International Anti-Americanism, North Korea going nuclear, China and India emerging, the dot-com-boom, Hurricane Katrina, Economic depression, etc, etc, etc). But instead I'm going to focus on how we are perceived, or stereotyped: lazy, tattooed and pierced douche bags with eccentric hair. Unfortunately I think there is some truth to that.
The percentage of the acceptability among peers on the subject of piercings and tattoos has boosted significantly in the last ten years. Almost everyone I know has tattoos and piercings, and we might not admit it, but we feel unique. Unfortunately that makes us statistics. We use piercings and tattoos as a way to be different from our prior generations or to express ourselves and feel like individuals, but instead we've only classified our entire generation as a whole, and so we fail, we have become cliches. We are not counter culture, we are current culture.
Well, fuck it, I'm okay with that. It's reassuring to know, statistically, that I'm not the only one who gets shit constantly from my workplace about how i look.
I can't blame us when our country and our era never gave us anything to live for, I BELONG TO THE "BLANK" GENERATION! Fuck em, power to my lazy bastard brothers and sisters.
Here's some fun facts about us
- 97% own a computer
- 94% own a cellphone
- 76% use instant messaging
- 15% of IM users are logged on 24 hours a day/7 days a week
- 34% use websites as their primary source of news
- 28% author a blog and 44% read blogs
- 49% download music using peer-to-peer file sharing
- 75% of college students have a Facebook account
- 60% own some type of portable music and/or video device such as an iPod
- 90% have had premarital sex (This is awesome)
Take a wild guess on the one thing all these slang terms are used to describe?
Hot Pocket, Tunnel of Love, Peach Fish, Rubyfruit Jungle, The Pink Panther, Countess Olenska, Muffy McMufferson, Tang, Nappy Dugout, My Barbie Doll, The Capt'n Chair, Pink Slip, Lady Doodiddle, Boner Graveyard, Patsy Incline, Thigh Master, Cruelty Free Fur Muff, [INSERT NATIONALITY] Sausage Casing, Lil’ Miss Muffet, The Center Ring At The Three Ring Circus, Pandora’s Box, Wizard Sleeves, Queenie,Coochie-Snorcher, Hoo-Ha, Your Breakfast, Man's best friend, Man's worst enemy,
Memories fight not to fade, I suppose...as much as we sometimes hate feeling, we love to feel,
im no sadomasochist, but i like to make things worse for myself,
we all like to listen to miserable music when we're miserable,
kind of strange, aint it?
my current fix, the ever so appropriate "Album of the Year" by The Good Life
Currently Listening to: The Good Life
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