Reflecting upon my earlier post I thought of examples that illustrate what I was trying to get across.

I remember discussing with my older sister about frivolous lawsuits years ago when she mentioned that there are no diving boards in the U.S. state of Virginia. When I asked why, she explained that too many people had jumped off the diving board and hurt themselves. People would then sue the pools. When pools put up signs that explained proper use, they were still getting sued. Eventually pools got rid of diving boards all together.

Young as I was, I could still tell that it was stupid that people were suing pools for endangering them when it was they, the people themselves, misusing the equipment. I imagine plenty of those lawsuits were encouraged by zealous parents, who convinced their spawn could do no wrong, did what they could to “make swimming pools [the world] a safer place for their kids”.

When I was in high school, in the international dorm, there was a food committee that I was a part of. The purpose of the food committee was to give the dorm perspective of cafeteria food, in order to improve it, seeing as dormers had to eat cafeteria food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There was no question about it. Dorm food was horrible. I even joked with the cafeteria staff when I went up to get my meal by asking for different types of poison.

“I would like some chicken poison with an extra helping of the poison gravy to wash it down.”

“Ha! I am still alive. Clearly, you had no made your food poisonous enough, for I am still here.”

“I hope you made this poison extra strong tonight. I really would prefer if I died and didn’t have to eat this crap any more.”

The cafeteria staff would laugh with me as they filled up my plate. I eventually got the feeling that the food committee wasn’t doing anything to improve the food. In my mind, it just gave the illusion that dormers had some say in their food so that when people complained, the cafeteria staff could tell the complainers to submit their complaints to the food committee. I later learned, at the end of my senior year, that one of the house parents was kicked off the food committee because she made too many complaints.

The food was bad in military school. The food was bad in high school. The food still sucks in university.

In theory, my university deals with the nation’s finest, and therefore, should offer food worthy of their palate. Yet I see the opposite. The nation’s finest are fed with the nation’s worst. Recycled from yesterday or yester-year, it does not matter, it is not good for you.

The worst part is that is appears as if the people behind those examples think you don’t notice. They think you are too stupid to figure it out. They act as if nothing is going on.

My generation is known as generation 0. A generation of slackers, lay-abouts, and underachievers. A generation without hope or a future.

Maybe we’re Generation 0 because one day we’re going to reset the clock. Until then, I’ll act as if nothing is going on.

~Wald