I’m not sure if it was Jack Kerouac who said that the only requirement he asked of his acquaintances was an uncontrollable fascination towards life. I guess that’s too much to ask nowadays. The twentieth century has passed away and the young have forever changed. But still, I must say that there is something we should expect from people in order to be able to communicate with them: that they own their opinions.
Today my words may sound grumpy, annoying or probably just overstated, but in my defense I’ll say the Celsius scale may be triggering them. The truth is that I feel sadly amazed when I witness the lack of genuine thinking from some of my classmates. They have already graduated, yet sound as hollow as a balloon drifting through the air. But even worse than the boredom they generate is their inner apathy. What is the point of getting a certificate, a score, a grade, a stamp on a resume if you have nothing worthy, when not nothing at all to say? Then, what on earth are you learning a language for? Think for yourself kid, it doesn’t need to be out of the box, it doesn’t need to be brilliant, it doesn’t need to be right or wrong, but at least think! For God’s sake… and then speak out loud! Someone please explain this point to me. I’m not talking about shyness, or speaking a language fluently, but about a dangerous pandemic of a lack of real interest among those who should be eager to know, to learn, to ask, to search for answers somehow.
I have to admit I’ve seen this before, and it is probably not a generational issue but a matter of sincerity. It must be hard to state something original if you don’t dare to be yourself, if you have been terrified by a society in which falsehood is the only other alternative to succeed, apart from shallowness. I wish I could ask Kerouac where the youth are, where is the passion, where is the thirst... I guess he’d probably say "where there is no water", hitchhiking, heading to Mexico and listening to Charlie Parker…
