Wait? Wait for What?

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Originally uploaded by artthrobb.

Way back circa 1990, pop author Bret Easton Ellis penned a New York Sunday Times article titled “Generation X”, a moniker my age group had recently acquired as part of a Fortune 500 marketing campaign seeking to identify and target new consumers, precisely young adults whose teen years spanned the ‘80s. The piece claimed “X'ers” to be a bunch of spoiled boobs who tooled around on mountain bikes, recycled and contemplated getting a job, thus, the slacker profile was born and movies like “Reality Bites” were made.

Incensed at Ellis’s self-important opinion, I fired off a letter to the editor including his counterpart Jay McInerney in my rebuke. The duo had been dubbed the de facto voices of my generation, writing characters I didn’t identify with; rich, bloated white people who snorted cocaine and hung out at New York hotspots like Nell's. I certainly didn’t endorse them speaking on behalf of me or my friends, most of whom were holding down two jobs just to be able to live in Manhattan and pay back student loans. It wasn’t all work; we did have a great time; and while most are married with children, the debt moving from Fanny Mae to mortgages, these friends, from childhood, college and those I’ve met along the way, continue to actively vote, voice their opinions and participate in their community.

Enter John Mayer’s new single, “Waiting on the World to Change”, hitting the airwaves almost two decades later and stirring the gumbo pot of controversy from the Mayfield estate to members of his own age group. The song muses about his peers facing criticism about doing nothing, but since the world is so fucked up, they are paralyzed, and therefore waiting for the world to change when they will be old enough to take over. The lyrics struck a chord in me, and I felt compelled to act in response.

I’ll give John this, when the CBS Morning show correspondent told him that he was the voice of his generation, he shook his head. Apparently, according to a Boston Globe interview, he’s just the messenger.

"I don’t read it as depressing. It’s honest," says Mayer, who co-headlines a concert with Sheryl Crow at the Tweeter Center on Tuesday. "Why aren’t people marching in the streets? The song is supposed to kind of come off a little irresponsible. I’m sure some people will say it encourages not doing anything. I’m an observer, and sometimes that’s the most damning evidence. It’s not in my drive or my skill set to want to write a song telling people to wake up and change."

Which seems a little hypocritical considering that the music video features a graffiti artist spray-painting the words “WAKE UP!” on a New York City building.

And if Mayer were really an observer, he would note that there are people all over the world, including more than a few of his music industry contemporaries, actually doing something so that others' future won’t be so fucked up.

I thought about the AmeriCorps and Habitat for Humanity volunteers manning the trenches in St. Bernard's Parish/Camp Hope with an average age of 25. I didn’t think they would appreciate being lumped into a catchy tune about apathy, just like I didn’t like being lumped into an article about idleness.

Given the exorbitant amount of work they’ve undertaken coupled with the meager support they were getting from the outside world, one can’t help but stand in admiration at the enormous rebuilding effort they are determined to pull off. They are the light at the end of a long, long tunnel, taking charge of organizing and orienting the hundreds of volunteers that may come in any given day (the week before we arrived, there were 23, our week brought 350), supervising transportation, housing, meals, work loads, obtaining and keeping track of tools, and maintaining the sketchy power supply.

Even with their weary attitude, something Mayer sings about, these “Y’ers” are truly committed people, members of his generation without his means, doing something meaningful with their time, living their ideals. It takes a lot of gumption and perhaps a little insanity to forfeit hanging out with your friends and working towards a career; instead living with strangers in less than comfortable conditions and shoveling out other people’s crap for free, but these are the actions that plant the seeds to a thoughtful future.

It’s hard work, being an activist. High profilers like Al Gore, Neil Young, the Dixie Chicks, Bono, the Flaming Lips, even Marilyn Manson face scrutiny on a very public level for tirelessly working to reignite voters of all age groups into caring about the democracy we live in and the earth we inhabit.

With a swelling population fused to easily accessible information on a global scale, the negative can be overwhelming. I’m not blind to the general malaise shrouded over society, but in this winter of discontent, it’s a damn shame that a Top 40 song melodically lamenting your contemporaries as hopeless is being touted, words that counter a course of action, in fact, inspiring disaffection.

Someone once said “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem”. And then you get to write a pop song about it. I applaud Mayer for saying he is what he is, John Mayer.

But I’d love for him leave the 100 pairs of sneakers, 200 guitars and 150 watches he's amassed behind and follow the advice of Mahatma Gandhi: “You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

Think of the inspiration someone with his talent could create.


P.S. My friend Jon writes: “It’s too bad that people like Mayer & Ellis are celebrated for the kind of glib generalizations that brand whole generations of people as greedy or lazy. Every generation has it’s own slackers and it’s own heroes”.

So for your information and continued reading pleasure, I’ve included some links to a few of my cross-generational heroes. After all, as my brother Phil puts it, we’re all in this together:

Katherine Brengel, organizer of Peace Vigils

Deirdra Serego, co-leader of LA's District 30 chapter of the Peace Alliance Initiative

Leonardo DiCaprio, eco-activist.

Lisa Snyder, a lobbyist for affordable housing.

Mark Zupan, Paralympic Gold Medalist

Ed Norton, founder of GreenBuilding.Com

Nancy Dolan, who consistently gets on the phone encouraging people to vote.

Tom Morello and Serj Tankian, founders of Axis of Justice

Pearl Jam, longtime activists for the Surf Rider Foundation

Barak Obama

Dr. Julie Crosby, Producing Director of Women's Project, an off-Broadway institution for women playwrights and directors.

Medea Benjamin, founder of Code Pink

Bono, Founder of One

Members of The Actor's Gang who aren't afraid to produce politically charged theatre.

Bill Clinton, founder of Global Initiative

Neil Young

Gorbachev, founder of Global Green

My parents, who worked tirelessly for Equal Rights for all people.


I encourage you to add your own!