I'll tell you why you're upset. You're upset because you are precocious. And decided. And certain. And dare I say sometimes morally certain!
Aaron was an absurd hero who chose not to revolt. He just didn't imagine himself happy, so he agonised about the futility of living with every breath he took. He remained a stranger in his own life even with each new career summit he topped. Ultimately he chose to check out thinking that was the only way from the inevitable. Tragic. It needn't have been.
Like most of the high achievers of Aaron's age, your generation has achieved so much so quickly that you've missed the barely audible slow burning whisper of your own existential questions. The din of success, of the ceaseless twittering of Twitter, of the vacuous flapping on Facebook and the daily showboating wankery of blogging has made you forget that it's the SILENCE that matters. It's the silence of your thoughts to yourself that will answer your questions. Slowly and with meditated patience.
I'm upset too. I'm upset that his parents have to deal with this tragic loss, that his surviving loved ones are looking for answers to this tragedy. I'm upset that traditional methods of calming, of seeking, of surviving are lost to this generation - a generation addicted to instantaneous Google-fed answers and one that is now gyrating to hokey lyrics like "partying & bullshit", "we're gonna die young"* ... :-(
This generation that obviously knows a great deal about internet startups and computer science, and Batman and world peace knows very little about how to answer their own questions about a meaningless existence. Their parents did it. Same shitty world, shame shitty life - they made it! How??
Finally, I now know what a pointless Sisyphean desk job has to offer to a young person: how to suffer patiently without self-destructing. How to fold, without going all in on the flop.
<Quote>
Seriously, if you think this
generation has a monopoly on
glamourising the "live fast,
die young" ethos, you haven't
been around for very long.
</Quote>
I didn't say that really, did I?
I've lived long enough to hear more than one case of rapid success claiming a suicide victim in the field of arts. We all know them. Many of these cases are often dismissed as some sort of underlying pathology and the rest as inevitable result of the individual's pathetic circumstance. All of course inadequate in truly explaining the "storm inside".
But guess who the high-achieving rock star child prodigies of today are, if not the erstwhile artists? The new kids have given up their piano keyboards for computer keyboards ... and there are plenty more of them in every second suburban basement than there are talented musicians, actors and artists today. And they are winning! And good for them! But some of the winners are even dreaming, no - decided, about ideals like social justice, equality, freedom. No amount of black and white binary talent will help answer the grey of these concepts that have plagued humanity since the beginning of human conscience.
Wisdom is a slow cooking dish ... that's never going to be ready. I guess you'll just have to grow up, kid.
(I'm sorry to sound patronising but there's no point in blaming the morons at MIT, the tits at JSTOR, the vindictive FEDS or the rotten capitalistic system. All really irrelevant.)
Aaron was an absurd hero who chose not to revolt. He just didn't imagine himself happy, so he agonised about the futility of living with every breath he took. He remained a stranger in his own life even with each new career summit he topped. Ultimately he chose to check out thinking that was the only way from the inevitable. Tragic. It needn't have been.
Like most of the high achievers of Aaron's age, your generation has achieved so much so quickly that you've missed the barely audible slow burning whisper of your own existential questions. The din of success, of the ceaseless twittering of Twitter, of the vacuous flapping on Facebook and the daily showboating wankery of blogging has made you forget that it's the SILENCE that matters. It's the silence of your thoughts to yourself that will answer your questions. Slowly and with meditated patience.
I'm upset too. I'm upset that his parents have to deal with this tragic loss, that his surviving loved ones are looking for answers to this tragedy. I'm upset that traditional methods of calming, of seeking, of surviving are lost to this generation - a generation addicted to instantaneous Google-fed answers and one that is now gyrating to hokey lyrics like "partying & bullshit", "we're gonna die young"* ... :-(
This generation that obviously knows a great deal about internet startups and computer science, and Batman and world peace knows very little about how to answer their own questions about a meaningless existence. Their parents did it. Same shitty world, shame shitty life - they made it! How??
Finally, I now know what a pointless Sisyphean desk job has to offer to a young person: how to suffer patiently without self-destructing. How to fold, without going all in on the flop.
Much love,
AK
-----
* I like the songs, btw :-)