The American Dream is so 1950's

Having to face a different reality than the preceding Boomer and Greatest Generations, many Millennials and Generation Xers express their disdain about both the pervasive economic environment and the overall quality of life they are able to obtain.  As the aftermath of the Financial Crisis of 2008 fails to level off, and indeed continues to enlarge the breach between the haves and the have-nots, the general feeling that emerges and is often expressed can be summed up in one single hopeless sentence: “We were told lies”.

Everything that they were told weren't lies... until they were. What lies were they told? If you go to College, you will have a good job waiting for you and, if you work hard, you will fare better than your parents did.  Now these generations mostly drown under the weight of student loans that they cannot get rid of even if they are forced to declare bankruptcy.  And where are the returns for that investment?  The few that may argue against that question are the exception that proves the rule.

The American Dream rests on the affirmation that, through hard work, each generation will fare better than the preceding.  Now, the American Dream has materialized in wage serfdom sprinkled with fairy dust over progressively shattering hopes and dreams. 

The script that our parents repeated were also repeated by their parents.  Hell, it was even in our history textbooks growing up.  For their generations, it panned out.  But they themselves dismantled or exploited the system that made it a truism.  Today, ironically, many people that don’t go to college are often better off than many of the ones that did.  Tuition costs have risen well above recorded rates of inflation for half a century, significantly hobbling the possible returns on that investment.

Recent economic research indicates that neither the Millennials nor the Xers will live better or enjoy a higher quality of life than the Baby Boomers. That is the new economic trend. In fact, Millennials and Xers will have to work twice as hard just to get to where their parents were, and even then there is no guarantee of that. 
 

Look at this graph. It reveals that younger generations really do face a difficult future. Every group through early-wave Boomers has seen upward jumps in their lifecycle income—all the way up until 2012. But every younger generation that has not yet reached age 60 has experienced no such progress.


From 1983-2010, the real median net worth approximately tripled for Americans over the age of 74 and doubled for the age of 65 to 74. And here is the kicker! It fell 30% for Americans aged 35 to 40. Why do younger generations lag behind?

An obvious explanations is their inferior median income growth. With less income, there is less to save.  A less obvious explanation is that previous generations used to share their wealth to a greater capacity as they became senior citizens, as can be easily observed in the graph above. The scenario we are looking at now is that the wealth will have to be pried from their cold, dead hands.

Combating anxiety in the morning - Ode to Joy

Many people suffer from constant anxiety.  The clinical prognosis for combating anxiety from a medical perspective is extremely poor.  Moreover, the medications prescribed for anxiety have terrible side effects; on the one hand, benzodiazepine type medications like Ativan, Klonopin, and Valium lead quickly to substance dependence and chemical tolerance, and on the other hand, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs; antidepressants like Prozac and Paxil) level off all emotions equally, resulting in, for example, a high percentage of users experiencing sexual side effects, both in the desire and the execution stage.  

From a pure psychotherapy perspective, the prognosis for anxiety is just as bad.  The most prevalent method used today, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, targets specific ideas and triggers that set off feelings of anxiety, but this is ineffective.  Why?  Because of the nature of anxiety itself.  Unlike phobias, which are fears tied to specific triggers like dogs or enclosed spaces, anxiety is entrenched fear that has lost its triggers and has become generalized throughout the brain.  If you take away some triggers, it just morphs into others, ever rearing its ugly head.

So what can be done?  Many relaxation techniques do relieve anxiety effectively, and I will be describing a lot of them in later posts, like in How to Relax Completely in 10 Seconds. But I wanted to begin with a very simple one - listening to the Ode to Joy in Spanish.

Beethoven's Ode to Joy not only holds a renowned place in the history of opera and classical music, it is also currently the anthem of the European Union.

The video below is a 1970 Spanish version adaptation of Ode to Joy composed by Waldo de los Ríos and sung by Miguel Ríos, based on the fourth movement of Beethoven's ninth symphony.

If you suffer from anxiety, it would do you well to listen to this song in the morning, singing along (what does it matter if you don't know Spanish?  It's an easy song to learn).  I have provided an English translation of the lyrics below the video.

For Mobile users who cannot see the video above, here is Oda a la Alegría.

------

Translation of Himno de la Alegría

Listen, brother, to the song of joy,

The joyul song of he who waits for a new day.

Come sing, dream singing, live dreaming the new sun

In which men will become brothers again.

Come sing, dream singing, live dreaming the new sun

In which men will become brothers again.

If in your path only exists sadness

And the bitter weeping of complete solitude,

Come sing, dream singing, live dreaming the new sun

In which men will become brothers again.

If it is that you cannot find joy here on Earth,

Search for it, brother, beyond the stars.

Come sing, dream singing, live dreaming the new sun

In which men will become brothers again.

If it is that you cannot find joy here on Earth

Search for it, brother, beyond the stars.

SONNET 94, by William Shakespeare

They that have power to hurt and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,...
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow,
They rightly do inherit heaven's graces
And husband nature's riches from expense;
They are the lords and owners of their faces,
Others but stewards of their excellence.
The summer's flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die,
But if that flower with base infection meet,
The basest weed outbraves his dignity:
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

Ancient Mesopotania Song by Mr. Nicky

UPDATED:Thanks to my own direct request to Mr. Nicky, he uploaded the original video, which cut off halfway.  Therefore, I have replaced the lyrics only video with the original filled with all sorts of informative visual imagery.



Many of the ideas we have today come from Ancient Mesopotamia.  This is particularly true in the spiritual or religious realm (e.g., think Zodiac) and in the domain of politics and history (e.g., think Empires).  The following is a brief and fun primer concerning the Ancient Mesopotamia.

The Hierophant, one of the most important

of the Major Arcana in Tarot decks.

A proper Tarot deck shows the Hierophant

with two fingers pointing towards the sky,

two towards the ground, and his thumb

toward himself.  There is another, lesser card,

that has the same hand expression.  Find it.

I wont spoil the surprise.

I have posted elsewhere historical primer parodies by Mr. Nicky, specifically on Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece.

This particular primer is set to the beat of "Crank Dat" by Soulja Boy Tell'em.

Enjoy!

For mobile users who cannot see the video above, here is Ancient Mesopotamia by Mr. Nicky.

Be kind, by Charles Bukowski

we are always asked
to understand the other person's
viewpoint
no matter how
out-dated
foolish or
obnoxious.

one is asked
to view
their total error
their life-waste
with
kindliness,
especially if they are
aged.

but age is the total of
our doing.
they have aged
badly
because they have
lived
out of focus,
they have refused to
see.

not their fault?

whose fault?
mine?

I am asked to hide
my viewpoint
from them
for fear of their
fear.

age is no crime

but the shame
of a deliberately
wasted
life

among so many
deliberately
wasted
lives

is.

now does our world descend, by e.e. cummings

Edward Estlin Cummings displayed
an innocence in his eyes that he would
never recover following his experience
as an ambulance driver during the
First World War, even if this hopefulness
was replaced mostly with an intense will to—
and a joy for—life in later photographs.

now does our world descend
the path to nothingness
(cruel now cancels kind:
friends turn to enemies)
therefore lament,my dream
and don a doer's doom

create now is contrive;
imagined,merely know
(freedom:what makes a slave)
therefore,my life,lie down
and more by most endure
all that you never were

hide,poor dishonoured mind
who thought yourself so wise;
and much could understand
concerning no and yes:
if they've become the same
it's time you unbecame

where climbing was and bright
is darkness and to fall
(now wrong's the only right
since brave are cowards all)
therefore despair,my heart
and die into the dirt

but from this endless end
of briefer each our bliss -
where seeing eyes go blind
(where lips forget to kiss)
where everything's nothing
- arise,my soul;and sing



--------

For an informative background of the life, style, and historical context encasing e.e. cummings' exceptional body of work, please read the article immediately after the following poem—

"since feeling is first" by e.e. cummings

You may also enjoy these other poems by Edward Estlin Cummings:

• "love is more thicker than forget"


• "if you like my poems"

If, by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!

Who were the Ancient Greeks?

Strange ritualistic lifestyles dotted the landscape of the Ancient Greek wide array of cultures.  The following BBC documentary provides a glimpse at many different facets of Ancient Greek life that seem strange to us now.  Though long, these videos are definitely worth watching.

For Mobile users who cannot see the video above, here is Who were the Ancient Greeks?  Part 1.

For Mobile users who cannot see the video above, here is Who were the Ancient Greeks?  Part 2.

Bohemian Gravity

Here is a quantum physics primer for anyone willing to listen to it, produced by A Capella Science.  It is both funny and fun, not to mention surprisingly complete, exploring the specifics of String Theory.  Watch the chalk boards behind him; these are extremely informative of the current state in quantum mechanics.

This musical parody is based on Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.

For Mobile Users who can't see the embedded video above, please see here Bohemian Gravity.

Yawp and Whisper

by Javier Simonpietri


Vulnerable winds caress so mountain ranges whisper
despite owned waterfalls’ foreboded screaming
which resounding yawps engorge
to bleed farther toward tomorrow—
whispers are forgiven every chastised every,
with emblems searching every furrow.

Even if surmise, hardy branches tremble,
but growing seeds become,
discover, rising tall with pride,
happily repent and swear:
screams are sometimes worth more than whispers,
yet whispers yearn all dawns the same.

(Notwithstanding any I eternally encaged)
Never more lovely is spring than autumn;
fungi bore yet warlords weep;
everything is forever suspect and still
never more spritely is autumn than spring.

Just when (and true is) replaceable,
lump-sum comfort remains entertains,
seldom tastier than senses amiable,
or waking love, or living possibly ending,
or even an awe-striking random be.

Drink and sing, you wherever soul, a toast
in a lone prayer for the complacent undying:
All rejoice! The world’s colors are mine and yours.
It’s true that never more lovely is spring than autumn.
Sown seeds become though hardy branches tremble
yet both still feel pleasure, unlike whispers;
and never more spritely is autumn than spring,
since growing is whispering unlike screams.

The road not taken, by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.