The-post-everything-generation.doc

The post-everything generation
Frank Thomas is a sophomore at Princeton, majoring in literary theory. He hopes to become a human rights lawyer.
I never hoped to understand the nature of my generation or how American colleges are changing by going to Lit Theory classes. This is the class where you look cool, a bit sleepy from too many late nights and wearing a T-shirt with some ironic comment such as "Been there, done that and yes, this IS the T-shirt". That's how I spent my time on the course, struggling through difficult subjects like gender theory and post-colonialism, and at the same time checking my iPod for something good to listen to. But when I started to study postmodernism, something clicked and made me sit up and take a fresh look at college life.
So what is postmodernism? Hard to say, almost by definition it can't be defined ... it's just kind of negative and against everything that came before it. And that makes it difficult to see what it is. The term was first used in 1949, but no one has yet decided what postmodern attitudes mean for the future of culture or society. Yet for me, it made me curious, because "postmodern" seemed to describe my cool, sleepy and ironic, T-shirt wearing friends.
We're "post" in so many ways, post-Cold War, post-industrial, post-baby boom, post-9/11. We're a generation that comes from what has been called the short century (1914—1989), at the end of a century of war and revolution which changed civilizations, overthrew repressive governments, and left us with extraordinary opportunities and privilege, more than any generation before.
And yet what do we do? Do we revolt and rebel, like all students of generations before? Do we take to the streets and chant, "We're not leaving until we see change"? No, we do the opposite, we go to war, and we don't ask why, we give up our civil liberties, and we watch death and destruction on the evening news every day.
At college, we sign petitions, join organizations, sign up for mailing lists, wear our Live Strong bracelets, and watch Live Aid and Live Earth on the television—go to the concerts even, if we can get the tickets. But what do we stand for? Like a true postmodern generation, we have no way to describe our political commitment, we have no inspirational characters, we have no philosophy, we have no direction or theme. We're only defined by what came before us, we're the generation of the Che Guevara T-shirt.
It's a movement which appears to encourage individuals to assert themselves collectively. It seems to be waiting for the revolution. And as young people, we're expected to be angry because that's what young people do.
But how do we rebel against our parents' generation which is nostalgic for revolution? How do we rebel against parents who sometimes want revolution more than we do? We don't. We rebel by not rebelling.
The real energy is not on the campus, it's on the Internet. It provides us with a developing opportunity to communicate ideas and frustrations. We don't do demonstrations any more, we go to chat rooms, instead of going onto the streets.
The American college as we used to know it is coming to an end. To my generation, radicalism is associated with al-Qaeda, not the Weathermen. "Campus takeover" sounds less like Berkeley 1968, more like Virginia Tech 2007. The resonance of the words belongs to another era and doesn't reflect the realities of today.
But the technological revolution is just as real and just as profound as the revolution of the 1960s—it's just not as obvious. It's work in progress, but it's there. Perhaps when our parents stop pointing out everything they were and everything we're not, maybe they'll see that the post-everything generation is speaking a language which makes sense. We're writing the revolution, and we're using our own words to do so.

后一切的一代
弗兰克•托马斯是普林斯顿大学二年级学生，主修文学理论专业。 他希望当人权律师。
我从没指望通过上文学理论课来了解我这一代人的特征，或了解美国大学在如何变化。 这门课是让你在课堂上扮酷的——带着一丝熬夜太多的困劲儿，穿着一件T恤衫，上面印着“去过那儿，干过那事儿，对，这就是那件T恤衫”或诸如此类带有揶揄意味的俏皮话。 我是这样在课上消磨时间的：一边费力地听着性别理论和后殖民主义这样艰深的话题，一边用我的iPod检索着好听的音乐。 可是当我开始学习后现代主义的时候，我突然咔嗒一声开了窍。 我提起精神，开始重新审视大学生活。
那么，什么是后现代主义呢？很难说，从定义角度来说，后现代主义几乎是无法定义的……就是有点儿否定和反对先前的一切的意思。 这就让人很难看清它究竟指的是什么。 这一术语于1949年被首次使用，可是迄今为止还没有人能断定，对于文化或社会的未来，后现代态度究竟意味着什么。 但对我来说，它令我感到好奇，因为后现代似乎说的正是我那些酷劲十足、困兮兮的和冷嘲热讽、穿T恤衫的朋友们。
我们在很多方面都是“后”的：后冷战、后工业时代、后生育高峰、后9.11。 我们这一代人来自所谓的短世纪（1914-1989），生于其后期。这个世纪充满了战争和革命，它改变了人类文明，推翻了强权政府，给我们留下了非同寻常的机会和特权。我们所得到的机会与特权比从前任何一代人都要多。
可是我们在干什么呢？像历代大学生那样去造反、叛逆吗？在街上一遍又一遍地高喊“不看到变化，我们决不离开”吗？不，我们做着相反的事情：我们去参战，根本不问为什么；我们放弃自己的公民自由权；我们每天在晚间新闻中观看破坏和死亡。
在大学里，我们在请愿书上签名，加入各种组织，把自己的名字添加到各种邮件通讯录中，戴为癌症研究义捐的标志腕带，观看电视转播的为非洲饥民募捐明星义演音乐会和为全球气候危机募捐明星义演音乐会——甚至去音乐会现场，假如能搞到票的话。 可是我们代表什么呢？就像真正的后现代一代那样，我们无法描述我们的政治抱负，我们没有可以激发灵感、鼓舞斗志的领袖人物，我们没有哲学，我们没有方向或主题。 我们只是被我们之前的一切所定义，我们是穿切•格瓦拉T恤衫的一代。
这是一场运动，好像是鼓励个人集体地表现自我，似乎是在等待革命。 作为年轻人，人们期待我们愤怒，因为那是年轻人的正常行为。
但是，我们如何反叛怀念革命的父母一代？我们如何去反叛有时候比我们更想闹革命的父母？我们不反叛。 不反叛就是我们的反叛。
我们真正的精力不是放在校园里，而是放在互联网上。 它给我们提供了一个不断发展的交流思想和受挫感的机会。 我们不再游行示威；我们不再到街上去，我们去聊天室。
我们以往所知的美国大学即将终结。 对我这一代人来说，与激进主义相关的是“基地”组织，而不是“气象员”组织。 “校园接管”听起来不大像1968年的伯克利分校，更像2007年的弗吉尼亚州理工学院。 歌词的寓意则属于另一个时代，并不反映当今的现实。
可是，科技革命就像20世纪60年代的革命一样真实而深刻——只是不那么明显而已。 它是正在推进中的未完成的事业，但它实实在在地存在。 也许等到我们的父母不再说他们样样都好而我们一无是处时，他们或许会明白，后一切的一代说的话也有一定的意义。 我们在书写革命，我们在用自己的语言书写革命。