The Jetsons and Post-modernism.

My biggest concern about American life as we know it is not gay marriage, the economy, our dependence on foreign oil, or the apathy that has spread across our political institutions.

It's our imagination.

Look at the products our imagination has produced in the past 20 years, especially with regards to our future. There's Blade Runner, the father of modern cyberpunk (and hardly a happy look into what will be...), the Mad Max movies, Terminator, Children of Men, Babylon A.D... The list could go on.

What about our video games? Video games have thrived on sci-fi and fantasy tropes. Post-apocalypse is what we do. From Fallout to the Metal Gear Solid series, video games hardly have a positive vision of the future. It almost seems as though humanity knows and/or fears that we are nearing the end, that we're not going to make it without some serious cataclysm.

What happened to the Jetsons, cheesy as they were? Or Star Trek? These shows captured our imaginations and showed us that the future, despite what the present seemed to indicate, will be bright.

Which brings me to my fear: if we cannot even imagine a solution to the multitude of problems our generation faces, how will we overcome them? Without even an unrealistic solution, how can we begin to work towards anything?

In part, I think the problem lies with post-modernism. (No, I am not a post-modernism hater. Actually, I am sort of post-modern to post-modernity.) Post-modernism has (justifiably) rejected the hope that modernism had in the progress of man. But at what cost? When will we allow ourselves to have hope in anything again?

This thought has become somewhat of a conviction. I've mostly stopped working on one of my favorite story ideas because it is more post-apocalyptic than I'd like it to be. I believe it is the task of the storytellers and artists to craft a more positive vision of the future, giving us, if nothing else, the hope that we can go on.

Entitlement

Remember that one time I had a blog? Yeah... that was a good time.

I'm working on learning a little bit of Game Maker right now (search it on Google... I don't feel like linking...) It's good times.

As I was sitting outside in the beautiful sun today, I was watching some bugs move around on the grass. I figured maybe it looked fun. Maybe I should make a gameplay experiment about jumping around on different sized platforms, just to see if I can make it fun.

Then I remembered: I want to be a game designer and I should probably learn and make some...

Church was good this morning. We've been going through 2 Chronicles something or other: "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will hear their land." Today was "turn from their wicked ways." Good times.

Jason said something this morning that resonated a bit with me, though, that I'll share here. In talking about sin and specifically some things in the congregation, he mentioned that "out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks." But how much moreso our bodies act? What is the heart behind my actions? (A question that has been plaguing me for some time...)

I guess lately, I've had a bit of an entitlement attitude. I've been expecting life to go my way without any hard work. I have not been learning how to design video games, I have not been spending time outside of my schoolwork writing or concepting. I only applied at a few places to work this summer - no wonder I'm stuck at a movie theater working weekends!

If I feel entitled now and act this way now, how much more so will I act when I have a college degree? In my observation, jobs don't come from hard work. I've always been taught that "It's not what you know, it's who you know." It's not how hard you work, it's knowing people that will give you a job anyway. That's not how the world is going to work out of college. We don't know anyone (at least, I don't). I need to kick this entitled attitude right in the rear now.

Another thought I had in church: In America, we feel entitled, like it is our right to freedom, our right to riches, our right to upper-middle class subdivisions, an SUV, and 2.5 children. This is exactly the attitude that our forefathers fought against! We feel like we deserve what we get - they worked hard to get it. There are many days that I wish I was more like generations past in work ethic and attitude.

Anyway, that's enough rambling for now. (These things are always longer when I look at them than when I type them...)