Malaise
The word to describe my generation is ennui. A buddy and I used to discuss it to death over drinks and pizza. The problem lies in that the easiest way to attenuate the ennui is to bitch about it to other people who are in the same boat - and you find those people in bars. Of course, bars can be depressing places, which only serves to maintain the personal level of ennui.
The short-term solution is to do a little whitewashing - everything's ok, or good enough to manage. That positive attitude gives you the breathing room to get your mind in a place where you actually are ok with things. It's not a true flavor of, but a sort of postmodern, nirvana. You focus on the good stuff, and kinda shrug off the bad stuff as something you work on, but you don't let work you into fits. Life is hell, as Matt Groening used to say, but you have to keep a sort of zen attitude. Instead of assuming things will be fine at some future point, you assume that things are messy horseshit and then you amuse yourself at the myriad ways the fractal mess (same sort of mess at both large and fine scales) of modern life presents itself.
Then again, perhaps it's my own personal form of mental illness.
The short-term solution is to do a little whitewashing - everything's ok, or good enough to manage. That positive attitude gives you the breathing room to get your mind in a place where you actually are ok with things. It's not a true flavor of, but a sort of postmodern, nirvana. You focus on the good stuff, and kinda shrug off the bad stuff as something you work on, but you don't let work you into fits. Life is hell, as Matt Groening used to say, but you have to keep a sort of zen attitude. Instead of assuming things will be fine at some future point, you assume that things are messy horseshit and then you amuse yourself at the myriad ways the fractal mess (same sort of mess at both large and fine scales) of modern life presents itself.
Then again, perhaps it's my own personal form of mental illness.
