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Thursday 23 July 2009
Generation of Sarcasm

But where does this deep reservoir of sarcasm come from? Why does it saturate my generation the way a strong work ethic once saturated the Greatest Generation or the way free-thinking saturated the Boomers? Here’s my best guess: I think our sarcasm is a socially acceptable way for us to vent the mountain of anger we feel.

We are the first generation born after the passage of no-fault-divorce. We come from broken homes.

We are the first generation born after Vietnam and Watergate. We live with a broken government.

We are the first generation raised on cable television and 24 hour advertising. We are suspicious of marketing and spin.

We are the first generation to fight a war on drugs. We are over-medicated and under-achieving.

The anger we carry under the surface can’t stay there. It must find a release. Some of us find very destructive ways to alleviate that pressure. The rest of us let it out by laughing about things previous generations took seriously—government, work, family, relationship, the future. We are a generation that believes nothing is sacred. And if nothing is sacred everything becomes profane.

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