Letters to the Editor
-
Questions.
Why aren't we going into the trades?
Why do so many of us automatically go into university without knowing what we'll do afterwards?
Why do we think life is tough if we have a small TV or can't afford an iPod?
You're right, it is a trap. We grow up, we finish high school, which doesn't really say anything and we know it. We don't know what to do. So we do what we think we're supposed to do without really thinking about it -- we go to university, we buy all those shiny things we're supposed to get -- and we come of it soft, in debt, and still purposeless.
When do we grow up? How do we grow up?
-
Now you've got me stuck on this Gatsby era comparison
Someone who's sort of like Jay Gatsby now is 50 Cent. He took the money from his first album and invested it in crack. He sold the crack and made enough to live on while he produced more music and promoted his career.
Now he has his own brand of vitamin water, he's a wealthy VIP, and he's delving into philanthropy.
Get Rich or Die Trying -- 50 Cent's motto could be Jay Gatsby's motto.
I think the Gatsby era comparison was quite perceptive of the writer. The comparison holds in more ways than one.
-
Found My Balance
I am a recent college graduate - 2006, University of Oregon - with a B.A. in International Studies. I am a fluent Spanish speaker and have devoted much of my studies to cross-cultural communication and advocay of different kinds. Right out of college I took a stab at selling out. I submitted my resume to Target and Cargill - both corporations have headquarters in my home state of Minnesota. To be honest, the first several months of my search were difficult. No call backs, no interviews, and few interesting prospects. But I persisted. I decided to use a local website - Minnesota Council of Nonprofits - to use for all of my searches. I submitted resume after resume and finally got two call backs, one with a food bank and another with a nonprofit that connects low income clients with free law representation - 2 great organizations.
I ended up taking the job at the food bank, I am the site coordinator here, and feel great about it. I make $27,000/year and receive full medical and dental benefits with 403b Thrift Plan options. Not bad for nonprofit work; and combined with my girlfriend (who works for an environmental nonprofit), we do pretty well together.
So this goes out to all of those people who think that you have to choose between selling out and being dedicated to change. The only thing that truly matters are your expectations. Material wealth is one thing. Knowing that you are making a difference AND living a decent material life, is another.
IPKM
-
we do blame the system. We just haven't figured out how to challenge it effectively yet.
"Parents blame their offspring for failing to succeed (they gave them every advantage, after all), the offspring blame themselves (they jumped through all the right hoops), and few blame the system."
Unfortunately, blaming the system is exactly the trap that Brooks seems to be describing when he speaks of hegemony, and a generation that wants to do something, but doesn't-- in terms of time and money-- know how.
I graduated from an elite liberal arts college just over one year ago now. Moving to New York last fall, I was aghast to find how little possiblity there seemed to be here, and, even seeking out alternative enclaves off the L train, how little idealism my slightly-older peers could muster. Especially after years of excelling in academic institutions that rewarded idealism and independant thought, it was a shock to find how little these attributes are awarded in the hyper-competetive New York workforce.
In my first few months here, working at a cafe, and barely managing to make rent (remember, I was eating free food). I was searching, in my free time, for a job that would shoulder my commitment to non-profit enterprises, the arts, and various personally relevant political causes... and still pay the bills. I spent hours and hours writing cover letters and sending off various permutations of my resume. In the end I was lucky enough to get a position at a large non-profit, that paying over 35,000 a year, sounded like a dream.
Six months later, I can tell you that I end up taking home about the same amount as friends who are landscapers. I still don't have any savings, I have comparatively cheap ($600/mo) rent... and I'm doing WELL. Except that I don't have any time to go to protests, I surruptitiously read the news at work, and my art-- one of the things that I came to New York to pursue-- is still on the back burner. I may be outraged by the state of affairs, but without free time, or a politically motivated community of peers, what can I do?
I had a boyfriend briefly who, a few years deeper into teh post-college conundrum insisted that the only way to "make it" in this city these days as an artist/journalist/filmmaker/actor/activist is to have wealthy parents and a trust fund.
It's not that we don't see that the system needs to change; it's not that we don't understand hegemony; it's not that we don't revere our parent's era of activism... we do blame the system. We just haven't figured out how to challenge it effectively yet.
I hold on to my idealism, though. Maybe one day my generation of exceptionally motivated, talented, and educated individuals will be older, a little wiser, a little more financially secure... and have the cultural capital to change what the papers say and how the corporations act. OR, maybe we'll all just take that 10,000 raise, buy a brownstone in park slope [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/realestate/08cov.html?em&ex=1184212800&en=783a6f1163b86233&ei=5087%0A], buy some pleasant objects to furnish it, a farmshare, and a stroller. And each generation, the sparkling crew of middle class yuppies who make it to this promised land will get smaller and smaller.