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Paris, December 21st 2012
I am from a generation that has not been faced with war, cold, or hunger. My parents rebuilt Europe and the world after the nazi's fall. They opposed to the communists, who first looked appealing, but turned out to frighten them. They fought against colonialism and apartheids. They sawthe birth and the independance of African, Asian, and South American States. They supported Gandhi, Mao, Castro, and Patrice Lumumba's struggles. They applauded Jackie and JFK in Paris. They saw Israel reborn. They blamed themselves for not having done something against the genocides in Biafra, Cambodge, Serbia, Rwanda.They also fought for the right to happinness, which is held so dear to little girls' hearts and to the American cinema, to be recognized for everyone. They demonstrated so that women can vote, get an equal pay with men, and be able to have a checkbook. They gained the right to abortion and the abolition of the death penalty. They tore themselves, and cried a lot, for divorce and free love to be recognized.
While I went to the Studio 54 in New York, le Palace, les Bains and le Baron in Paris, the Mint in Hong-Kong. I enjoyed Megève in Easter, and Ibiza in summer. On New Year's Eve, and for the rest of the year, I would stay in bed until noon. In the middle of the 80's, I worked in advertisement, because it was trendy. I voted for Mitterrand because it was time for a bit of change.
Since nothing serious, or harmful, happened to me, I never protected myself from AIDS HIV. I got married, and then divorced. Like all my friends, I bought my first Mercedes before I was 40, and a Rolex at 49, just like everyone else. At the Flore Café, I met the most smart girls, and at Castel's, the funniest and rudest guys. I will marry again soon, I will have a child, maybe two, and will go on living my happy-go-lucky life. I am from that transitional generation that never fought for anything, that was never asked to get involved.
My parents carried out all the struggles before me, I just had to live. In order not to traumatize us and allow us to regress to a scandalous age, these Superheroes offered us psychanalysts, so that we can put the blame on them for everything. I know that I will only leave a polluted world, over-exploited natural ressources, basically a devastated planet. We are witnessing the end of a world, and the beginning of a new one. A deeply changing world with an uncertain future is on its way. And I don't care;-) I am not the one to blame, that's how those of my generation raised us, without any sense of responsibility whatsoever. Not even regarding our future.
When suddenly, Bam! Here they are. Soft and Bearded. They don't stare down.
They are just as impudent ad those who don't have the time, they're young. They share this astounding with those who know nothing. They want it all, right now, starting by our death, we the useless, the incompetent ! :-)))))
I watch them with amazement, without any desire to be in their shoes. Those who are under 25, from the Baby generation, will have to face the climate imbalance, natural disasters and the ones caused by pollution. They will have to face the revolutions and wars, which are off to be many.
They will have to undergo repetitive financial crises, in the form of I, II, V, W, confront to the overwhelming Asia which will take their jobs, with products which will soon be " Thought in Asia ", and all raw materials. Water will lack. They will have to face migrants, hundreds of millions of migrants, starving at their borders.
To fit in the society the descendants of Salammbô(1), the young suburban people, who waited too long. They will have to struggle against new dictatorships ending by " ism ". Struggle against new mass destruction weapons. In order to keep their jobs, they will have the duty to stay young and efficient during all their professional life. They will use all the options offered to them by plastic surgery and technology. In order to beat their anxiety,
they will abuse new synthetic drugs. Boys will have to find how to carve a place within a new world where women will take the power. And they will be the ones who will put them to work.
Together, they will have to reinvent a new family and love order. And, they will also have to pay for my retirement;-) But nothing will stop them.
This century is a 12-year-old tempestuous teenager. And it's gonna rock :+}
(1) Salammbô from Gustave Flaubert