I Believe The Children Are Our Future, "Sorry Kids"

I find it quite interesting that my generation has a very hard time imagining a positive vision of the future...I mean what with all those regent exam's writing practices chipping away our imagination for several of the most crucial years of mental development. There is no surprise that we not only expect a zombie apocalypse but are rather looking forward to it! So how did this happen? Simple American Culture has a way of perceiving thing/event throughout its history, so at certain decade(1950's 60's and 70's) this can e seen in most of American's music, fashion and activities have been shaped by major events that has previously occurred. So what makes literature the exception? Nothing. In literature like Anubis Gates Tim Power's creates a world in the present of 1980's in which time-travel and other mystical things can take place in 1800's Egypt as the main character Doyle who simple absentmindedly discovers he is there, in order to not re-create the past but to be freed of a predestined future.

So why is it important that we are able to have the ability to be able to envision a future at all? Well its like they say: “If you can dream it you can achieve it” “Where do you see yourself in 5or 10yrs?” The answer is simple... Because we as a nation have to know where we are coming from to see where we are going. With this said we have come a longs as a nation so why do we still have such a negative out look on the future. It because its a cycle it comes in waves based on the political climate, the educational sphere and other events related to the post 9/11 world we live in here in America. This is some examples of how the climate of the political sphere in America effects the way people envision the future.

The 1950's imagined the future like retro futurism everything was positive, bright and constantly advancing so people were so concerned with working extra hard rather working smart and living well. People wanted to enjoy the finer things in life and they still believe in the ideology of “The American dream” which was: get a job and married,move to the suburbs have two kids and a dog. Perhaps take a family each summer and go for Sunday drives. And with technological advances in science and military people were optimistic about “the jet age” and all that robots could do to further enrich their lives. People imagined a prosperous future with robot with artificial intelligence babysitting the kid as they went swing dancing and meals would no long be cooked but expand from pills with a simple drop of water. And the cultural imagination was just overflowing with optimism. All this happened instead:

• Bay of Pigs Invasion
• Berlin Wall Built
• Soviets Launch First Man in Space
• Cuban Missile Crisis

• First Person Killed Trying to Cross the Berlin Wall
• JFK Assassinated

• Martin Luther King Jr. Makes His "I Have a Dream" Speech

• Beatles Become Popular in U.S.
• JFK's Assassination
• Los Angles Riots

• Malcolm X Assassinated
• U.S. Sends Troops to Vietnam

• Black Panther Party Established
• Mao Zedong Launches the Cultural Revolution
• Mass Draft Protests in U.S.
• Three U.S. Astronauts Killed During Simulated Launch Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated
  Then the most controversial yet the 70's. The 70's literally divided the Nation. America was in the middle of so much political and civil unrest and these are some of the results:
• VCR's Introduced

• Terrorists Attack at the Olympic Games in Munich
• Watergate Scandal Begins

• Abortion Legalized in U.S.
• U.S. Pulls Out of Vietnam
• U.S. Vice President Resigns

• U.S. President Nixon Resigns

• Civil War in Lebanon
• Microsoft Founded

• North and South Vietnam Join to Form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
• Tangshan Earthquake Kills Over 240,000

• Elvis Found Dead
• South African Anti-Apartheid Leader Steve Biko Tortured to Death

• First Test-Tube Baby Born
• Jonestown Massacre

• Ayatollah Khomeini Returns as Leader of Iran
• Iran Takes American Hostages in Tehran
• Nuclear Accident at Three Mile Island
• Sony Introduces the Walkman

Its an understatement to say neither the 60's or 70's deliver what Americans had seen for the future. So fast forward to the 1980's Now with all this new technologies and especially with computers becoming a household product people began to fear modern technology. The 70's had already thought Americans how to miss trust the government. This is a post modernist era. Any number of these anxieties help to spark Tim Powers imagination to help create this ideal for a new genre such as “steam punk' as a alternative was to envision a future concentrated on the past. A sort of pre-destined future in the sense that its based on the past. This was the web that his character Doyle was tangled up in from the moment he has gone back in time, werwolf, Ka's and body switching he made it out okay due to the secret knowledge that was secret even to him. At first I thought he was trying to cheated death only to find out he was trying to cheat time. Specifically the the future. While people in the present (1980's) began to have more question then answers. People questioned the morality of technological and scientific advance especially at the loose of life it most was insuring. These people has felt the taking over of technology replacing human manual labor. They know about the destruction and chaos war cause due to television. The children which are “considered our future” are facing new social issue. And if just became easier and progressively easier to see a bleak vision of the future as a wasteland (in the aftermath of global warming ) and with “confusion of faith” the promise of the apocalypse doesn't seem so far fetched. The ideal of civilization ending in total destruction at the hands of human advancement. And the saddest part is we are in control of this but cant stop it.

Which brings us to present day 2000's in which the mood is post-post modernity. We have brought back every fad from every other era we are the perpetual copy cat-re's and we see not mean to an end only because we cant imagine a good future. Its human nature to side more with fear then hope and to this my generation says as we look up from our millionth text message in a higher educational institution of college and curiously as we are being re-taught how to think again. We say “Screw the tea party and bring on the zombie apocalypse”