"With an old and tried swordsman like myself, knowledge of the use of his weapon is everything; but with a young Hotspur of your temper, strength and energy go for much."
- Arthur Conan Doyle (Micah Clarke)
Internet experts state that in the early prehistoric days of mankind, when men were men, and women could have as many boyfriends as they felt like having, climate change created an extinction event that wiped out all of the man eating dinosaurs and saber tooth tigers, who in their hungry heyday made sure that no human being lived longer than, say, ten years. This removed one of the biggest reasons that cavemen and cavewomen didn’t last very long; leaving only disease, starvation, minor injuries, warfare, and marriage.
The longer life spans created new social phenomena, such as villages, condos, Kings and Emperors, celebrities famous for being famous, organized warfare, government, poor people, and of course, reality shows.
However, the most pervasive sociological innovation was the “Generation Gap,” as it was called in the 60s. The first recorded instance of the younger generation pissing off their parents and calling them old farts was in Ancient Greece, the first civilization that had an alphabet that didn’t consist of pictures of animals and Gods.
...the earliest travel blogger...
As recorded in a fragment of Book 13, Page 2, paragraph 10, of the ancient Lost Gospels Of Murgatroyd discovered in the recycle bin of a Chicago Hair Salon, the legendary Greek travel blogger, Herodotus O'Grady, describes an inscription on a newly manufactured vase that reads, “Achilles, Eiste ena palio fart," which was later unearthed in 1994 by an Ebay seller who found it at an flea market sale in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Some Internet experts claim that the purported vintage Greek vase is actually a bottle of pressed virgin olive oil bottled in New Jersey in 2010, and of dubious quality, but as we all know, Ebay has strict measures in place to prevent the sale of fraudulent items, so the claims of the seller can be taken at face value. [citation needed, please define "at face value"]
...the generation gap...
The Generation Gap has certain aspects that haven’t changed throughout mankind’s history, and the most egalitarian is that everyone gets to be the vivacious, know it all whippersnappers who are sneered at by the cynical, beaten down by life old farts who bridle when their achievements aren’t treated on the same level as Taylor Swift winning a Grammy.
Then in few years, longer if the older generation tries to extend adolescence with cosmetic surgery and asserting that 50 is the new 20, the young snots are confronted by a new crop of sass mouth delinquents who can eat junk food and not gain weight, and aren’t aware that the Beatles were the greatest thing since sliced bread and adult diapers.
This generational conflict was, at one time, muted by social controls such as teaching respect for elders to young minds not yet able to produce audible cuss words, corporal punishment, making kids stand in corners or bedrooms without supper, cutting allowances, and Lifetime Movies, but history has proven that it’s a losing battle, and time is on the side of the pups that gradually become aware of their awesome power and love for death metal music. Commercial advertisers, who follow the more sensible outlook of money grubbing, know all this, and focus on the younger demographic.
...childhood's end...
This blogger is aware that childhood and adolescence is a time for discovery, wonder, sexual awakening, and the assumption of greater responsibilities in an ever changing world, but that’s all been beaten to death by Hollywood and the media, and is boring even to the young target audience that now prefers the joys of making millions on social media, eating various chemicals in Tik Tok challenges, anonymous Internet trolling, and cancelling artists for the slightest reason.
Though in all fairness, this sort of thing has been going on since the Ancient Greeks wiped out the city of Troy just because someone stole a King’s wife. If Achilles, the big stud warrior of the Trojan War, had paid more attention to his brand, we’d be seeing his face on cereal boxes. Todays young heroes are much more saavy.
...Jack London and Tom Wolfe...
Two definitive stories about the Generation Gap, besides my latest Punk Rock satire, "The Quitters" (retitled from the original Electric Fog Factory, see the included first chapter later in this blog entry), is Jack London’s classic “A Piece Of Steak,” which covers the concept from a Darwinian perspective, and Tom Wolfe’s “Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” which has a more sociological angle, and is one of the definitive studies of the formative years of the Baby Boomer generation.
These works delineate the two classic points of view in any generational type story; the older viewpoint of experience and wisdom, and the younger theme of discovery and exploration.
...a piece of steak...
Jack London’s short story, published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1909, is about an aging boxer named Tom King, who in his younger days had been a dominant fighter, flush with cash that was spent as soon as it was earned. The scene opens with Tom eating a humble meal of bread and gravy, that his wife had to borrow the flour for, and who sits by and watches, as there's only enough for one. The two children have been sent to bed early in the hopes that they wouldn't notice that dinner was being skipped.
The scene isn’t as dire as it might seem, as Tom has been given the opportunity to fight in a winner take all match, with a prize of 30 quid, which would change his fortunes for the better. That sparse meal is a final effort by the family to send him off in the best condition possible, though he still feels hungry afterwards. He grumbles that even a single piece of steak would make a huge difference. A passage about trying to pretend that his pipe has tobacco adds to the picture of destitution.
London, as usual, does a good job of creating a vivid picture of the fighter’s inner thoughts as he heads for the match, mixing seamlessly with the details of a once vibrant life and career. The account of Tom's struggle to defeat the younger boxer is textbook live action narrative, a superb piece of writing.
Like many of London’s stories, it’s about how age slows down the vitality of youth, and evolves into guile and skill gained from experience. However, London’s message is consistent, you can slow down Father Time, but in the end, you’ll always lose.
...acid test...
Tom Wolfe's book, "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test," about Ken Kesey and his Pranksters, has a youthful outlook, that of exploration and rebellion, though it's a complex, detailed chronicle of the rise and fall of a movement. I've discussed this book in an earlier blog, but here will focus on a different aspect of the story.
The tale isn't just about a generation gap, one could say that Ken Kesey's aim was to build a new society based on the widespread use of acid to, for lack of a better term, free people's minds.
In fact, one of the purposes of the "Acid Tests" was, as one of the leaders put it, to learn "how to function on acid." As history has shown, the end result was psychedelic style rock concerts, complete with light shows to simulate the acid trip experience and of course, make a lot of money, which is the American Way.
...intentions..
Kesey's intention wasn't to create a new class of millionaires in the entertainment industry. Tom Wolfe said, in a later interview, that Kesey's (and his followers) early experience with acid created an ecstacy type experience that was common to new religions, though perhaps a better term is revelation or paradigm.
Kesey's group, The Merry Pranksters, did make a sincere attempt to create a new, freer society based on a sort of nonauthority, where the leaders suggested rather than gave orders (much like most Native American tribes).
The movement was bankrolled by Kesey, who used the royalties from his book, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, so most of the problems in creating a new society, like food production and other such things weren't a factor. Everyone just followed his lead and embarked on a series of journeys and spiritual exercises, albeit with a lot of partying, sex, and the occasional hazing of squares and other unhip types. In the end, the whole trip did end up depending on one leader, whose rise and fall determined the fate of the Pranksters.
I'm oversimplifying, of course, the interpretation of the events can range from cynical to florid romanticism, and Wolfe masterfully navigates a middle course in his book.
...opinion...
My opinion is that Kesey was on to something, but it takes a lot of moral courage to reject the system and to live outside of it. Basically his followers eventually chose safer courses and built a society based on an outward change in appearances but followed the time honored Western principles of structure, commerce and heirarchy.
Another way to put it was that Kesey was heading in a metaphysical direction and was willing to make mistakes or explore what could be dead ends for the sake of enlightenment, which someone from an Eastern culture would understand, but not a Westerner used to leaders who at least behave like infallible winners of the game.
The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe is an examination of a youthful, if not young, attempt to supplant an older system, which one could say was a partial victory that created some change but in the end was as far from the original conception as the Catholic Church was from what Jesus preached.
Both works are worth reading for more than that idea. Both have passages that would be considered politically incorrect now, but any perspective from a writer who has the ability to stand outside of the box and describe what's going on inside is worth reading and learning from.
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