An End of the Wor.... Decade! End of the Decade Wrap Up

I know that all of you are and have probably been doing a cataloging of the past 10 years of your own lives, and the interactions, adventures, ordeals, milestones, celebrations and anything else that you can think of to not only move forward in the oncoming years, but also because we all seem to be doomed to remember and reminisce about the past. Cool. We survived, so far.

I cannot deny that this decade has probably been the most important, influential, eye-opening, mind blowing and altogether most important decade of my life. Granted, I do have to take into consideration that this decade was also the decade that I entered adulthood, and is still leaving me while I am still within my 20's. This was the first decade that I had to do on my own. Sweet Baby Jesus. I survived tot this point, and even I question sometimes how.

This decade has seen some tremendous change in society. Yup, I just said it. You really think that there's a decade in history that was labeled as "a completely unchanging, plateau of growth as a culture" or "a decade in which we reverted, and un-evolved as a culture, and as humans"? I mean, we sure as hell tried it seemed; 8 years with President Bush? What was that? Oh. Yeah... Whoops, I voted for him too. For the record, I was 18 the 1st time, and had been raised and never really outside of Denver. The second time, I literally was living on a remote island, with no electricity or running water.

This decade we saw paranoia take on a whole new level. Yes, 9/11 did bring the country together quite a bit more than just the pride of being American. I fell that especially the separation of "what is your family heritage?" became a moot point. Just as "where are you from?".  Generally speaking, people are no longer looking exclusively within their religion, or within their heritage for their significant others, friends, co-workers, partners in crime and everything that you could ever want in a companion of any sort.

However, back to the paranoia, the fact that we've been on Alert Level Orange, meaning imminent attack. I'm not saying that I don't care, and that I don't think that it'll ever happen again. But, I think that our constant fear of it isn't helping either. Like I said in the "Traveling for Idiots" post, I'm pretty sure that little air-blaster thing isn't going to scare off anyone really trying to do something.

We also are so fearful of everything and everyone around us. We wash our hands constantly. We carry hand sanitizer everywhere. And then we wonder why we're always fighting the next Farm Animal Super-Flu. I don't know how old you are reading this, but if you're anywhere around my age, you remember the shit you used to pull (maybe literally in the right parts of the country) as a kid. You probably ate bugs, while locked outside in the summers, to pull stunts that could have fully killed you, if not at least broken bones and property. We played in the sewer water, or the open fields, gullies, forests, etc. Yeah, we got sick, but not near as much as kids do now. The way I see it, our parents were just weeding out the gene pool back then. You had to survive to make it.

I have had a great time watching the difference in generations this decade. I know that I'm not part of the Baby Boomers, but I'm not sure if I'm really part of Generation X either. I know that the new Generation, that is becoming prominent amongst society is Generation Y. We can thank this generation for Bottle Service, $250 jeans, frivolous spending and living lavish, whether or not it's true. This generation are also the kids that brought you that phone in your pocket, that you may be reading this blog from. Hell, they brought you blogs, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace (sorry it didn't work out Tom). This generation are the ones that made accessibility a mandate, not an option. Those of us on the cusp of the generation gap, or fully generations before it, do enjoy our alone time, free from the umbilical cord that never lets us feel alone.

Granted, I get it. Our parent's parents never left them alone. There was always mom (grandma) at home, for the most part. So, when our parents grew up, they wanted to be "free". Hello Hippy revolution.

Our parents let us do our thing. Most of us had a parent around, but also saw that they may have been working from home, or started the onset of Nannies and regular babysitters. So, we started rebelling in our own way. "Damn The Man!". Yay for Punk/grunge/rock movements! You're not my mom! I do what I want!

Then there's these kids. Their parents want to have everything, so they work all the time, thus leaving little Robert to wonder "parents?". These kids are familiar with the word, and what it's supposed to mean, but they do feel alone, and don't want to. Welcome to the mix Emo's.

Yes, the stereotype "Emo means suicidal" is a good joke and all, and maybe I'm playing into it with the whole "lonesome" theory, but these are the kids that have a phone in their hand at all times, that have blown up the social networking media as a super-beast, leaving everyone always in contact with one another, and no matter how hard you try, you will never be inaccessible. If you don't conform to the "right now" mentality, you can't survive anymore professionally either. It's a blessing and a curse.

To think that 100 years ago, phones were a luxury item. Most business and personal messages were either directly spoken face to face, or mailed via postal service. What ever business deal that now takes you 10 minutes to achieve, used to take almost 2 weeks.

This decade has seen things grown leaps and bounds like that. Our phones aren't just phones anymore. In the 90s families were starting to get a home computer. The Internet was kind of a luxury. Now, an iPhone does more than what any computer in the 90s ever did, and it does it faster. I maybe actually get on my computer a couple times a month now, and do everything else from my iPhone. In 10 years, I can't wait to see what's next. I joke about telepathy, but that's really the next advancement.

Still, WHERE THE FUCK IS MY FLYING CAR!!!

All in all, this decade has most certainly been an entertaining one, for all of us. You can't deny it. It may not be a classic inspired, or producing decade for entertainment purposes, but you have to laugh at so many of the things we produced, bore witness to, created and destroyed.

I'm not really going to go into the "Best of" lists for the decade. They're out there, you're going to have you opinion on them, as am I. I will list off things that I feel may have defined our decade the best, and have shown so in their ability to be in public the whole decade through.

The Song to best represent the 00s:
"Right Now" by SR71.
Honestly, it's still played in bars all over the country, and plays off the instant gratification mentality. Also, I feel, it kind of launched, or at least accepted the "crazy bitch" movement.

The TV show to best represent the 00s:
American Idol.
Not because it was on for most of the decade. Not because it's produced such amazing performers and promoted undeniable talent, because let's be honest, who from that show is the new Cher/Madonna/Frank Sinatra? But no, it's because it played and it preyed on people, and it played and preyed on people better than any scripted show ever could.

The Movie to best represent the 00s:
The Lord of the Rings (Trilogy)
These 3 movies set new standards for the movies. Length, adaptation, characters, nouns, adjectives. These damn movies are everywhere, and people reference them whether or not you were a fan. Have you called anyone a Hobbit lately?

I won't deny that this has been an incredible decade. I just can't wait to see what comes next.