we are a little whimper.

irrelevant in a haze of mediocrity. there is no more cultural or generational cohesion. we have been splintered and splintered and splintered into tinier bits and pieces and niches and obscure subcultures to the point where our generation is formless; our only identity is that of containing multitudes. and though diversity is something to be celebrated, though individualism obviously has its perks, it’s demoralizing to see our cultural zeitgeist being that of having no real one at all. what are we to do? how are we to establish ourselves in the world, with its unrelenting amount of issues, how are we to address them when we our enthralled in our idiosyncratic preferences to the point where our view of reality grows more and more detached from its unadulterated state?

the internet is likely the most important invention of all time. technology and mass communication have connected millions and millions of people, our entire growing global population able to share each other’s worlds instantaneously, yet what is the significance of one’s world if it fades into oblivion and is lost in a stream of infinite other ones. my point being, is that though we are connected on a practical scale, we are conversely more and more being compartmentalized. and the internet could potentially be the most important medium for sociopolitical change given to us. but without an element of cohesion, without a zeitgeist, ideas will only pass and fade into the haze. if the internet is to be an instrument of change, we must establish cohesion and organize ourselves. not be partitioned further and further into miniscule, fragmented little subcultures of nostalgia.

diego and i have recently been delving more and more into the branch of existentialism called absurdism. the absurd is the contradiction between our human need for personal significance existing in the vast expanse of the seemingly meaningless universe, clearly showing our existence to be beyond irrelevant in the grander scheme. the answer to this universal quandary, according to absurdist thinkers like Camus, is to embrace the absurd. conquering it is futile. the absurdity is the only reality, one that can either be ignored in faulty forms of meaning such as religion, spirituality, etc, defied and destructed in suicide, or embraced. we see a similar question of absurdity arising in our cultural surroundings; the pressing need for change, and for value, for significance both individually and socially. with our globalized and technological culture, we are more and more confronted with our insignificance. this very blog is a perfect example; amdist the thousand and thousands of other, similar blogs, this will likely be unnoticed and remain unnoticed. yet, the very act of me typing this is confronting that absurdity. and though it’s seemingly futile to confront the absurdity of our existence in the face of the universe, it seems quite manageable to conquer to absurdity in our current world. and how else can i conquer it by confronting it?

i am meaningless, this post is meaningless, and yet i persist.

and, possibly, this absurdity is conquerable. the internet is young, the future awaits its unification, its propensity for being a powerful force of change. and diego and i are merely among the birthers of this movement. anxiously awaiting its awakening.

-bradley

/thoughts