On Parentage, Aliens, and Generations…
My parents don’t look like one another.
In fact, they look pretty much opposite from one another, in all respects.
I don’t really look like either of them, though I’ve been told that I look similar to one of my grandmothers when she was young.
I don’t really care either way, I’m just me.
I like all of my ancestors equally, and really do crave information about their lives and histories.
I have often wondered how it is acceptable for a person to recognize that s/he had ancestors from various cultures, religions, places of origin, and walks of life but only claim ONE set of ancestors as “real”.
Where does it say that a person MUST choose one ancestor of all of his or her ancestors to honor with recognition? Furthermore, why are children with parents of varied ancestries pushed (forced?) to make a choice as to which PARENT they will honor with recognition?
Claiming to be singularly genetic is denouncing the rest of your genetic makeup.
One cannot be “real” unless one admits that one cannot be categorized.
I have been told, as an adult, that I should just “accept” those classifications people love to give me; that I should “give up” on my ideals.
But, why should I succumb to the pressure to fit in, when I don’t?
I’ve always been very resistant to peer pressure. In fact, the more people try to get me to do something, the less likely I am to even consider doing it. Mostly because I prefer to think about things on my own and carefully weigh the pros and cons; I don’t like being told what to think. And, I will think about stuff for a long time before I make a decision. I guess this is why people try to ramp up the pressure – they are impatient and do not want to wait around for me to decide what I’m going to do. But, what’s the rush?
I used to pretend to be like other people, mimic the things they did because that’s what I was “supposed” to do. I didn’t understand the reasoning behind it, I just knew that if I acted like my [old lady-ish] self, people would pick on me more than they already did. Realistically, this is why I have always had so many walls up around myself – it was difficult for me to let people see the real me because people always criticized the real me. And, it hurt.
Luckily, I don’t care anymore.
Why does it bother people that I celebrate all of my ancestors? Every single one of them (regardless of practiced religion, country of origin, social status, sexual orientation, ability, profession, or pigment of skin) is still alive, in a sense, in the shape of my double helix. Is it wrong to acknowledge this?
According to the society I currently live in, yes. I have been told my whole life by society – magazines, books, television, schoolmates, teachers, parents, even the government – that the answer is yes.
I do not and will not accept this answer.
I will concede that society doesn’t care if I hold my point of view in private. But it is all too apparent to me that if this were an acceptable public opinion, the world would be a very different place. The course of the world’s future would be completely different and nowhere near as bleak to behold. The history of the world would, by and large, be written in different words.
Oh, history: so full of blunders, so rife with death – that lamentable stepping stone to the noble present.
It is said that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
But, consider how similar the current era is to the eras of the past!
What, really, has changed? Humans are still exactly the same, we just have smartphones and faster cars now.
If extraterrestrial beings landed on Earth and made themselves publicly known, would anything change? Would people realize that humans are all the same – that a nose shape here or a skin tint there makes no difference at all in the scheme of things? Or, would humans just forgo their cruelty against other humans because there were a new set of Others to judge by their physical differences regardless of intelligence or philosophy or behavior?
If aliens wanted to integrate themselves into Earth TODAY, how would people explain the change in the definitions of “race” or “gender” or “religion” to their children?
How would the human race present itself to another intelligent species?
Perhaps as a species dedicated to progression of knowledge?
Perhaps as a collective of people who can’t look past what their eyes see to understand one another because of fear, but would be willing to try to add another group of beings to the mix?
Perhaps as a collective of superior and separated beings who don’t care about understanding, because nobody needs to understand when we have nuclear bombs – and we’ll kill anyone who dares disagree?
Perhaps, we will attempt to obliterate them before they get a chance to learn about the humans of Earth. The only thing that could be better than a World War is an Intergalactic War.
How would the aliens perceive us? Would they feel honored to have found our planet, or disgusted by those they found here? Would they try to take over and impose their own beliefs upon us? Would they recognize what is wrong with the world and try to make people understand the faults? Or, would they think just like us and cheer at every demeaning or degrading joke their comrades made?
Of course, nobody can definitively say what species from other solar systems or galaxies are like (yet!), but I personally have wondered many times if there are other “humans” in the cosmos.
I’ve wondered how they turned out, if there are any. I’d imagine that if there were planets full of humans, they might behave differently based on one gene that developed uniquely. And, if their genetic makeup were identical to that of our own, I’d imagine that their behavior would depend largely on their collective conscience and whether or not they based life on fear or based life on improvement.
There have been generations of Earth inhabitants whose driving force was change or improvement of one kind or another. It seems, however, that this force tends to skip a few generations. It’s almost as if the latent generations wait for someone else to stand up and bring about a new era.
From what I have seen in my life, there are predominately five generations living in the United States. The oldest generation is a generation of singularly stubborn elderly folks who grew up working hard and complaining little. They raised their children with a firm hand and were hated for it.
Their children are the second generation, a generation who as young adults pooled resources and didn’t settle for anything less than the change they wanted. A generation who grew into a new set of middle-aged people content to accept society for what it is and who gave up fighting to settle into the grind, driven by materialism and comfortable lifestyles.
The third generation is my generation, late 20s-late 40s: a group of fearful people who are more interested in entitlement than enrichment. These people are all about materialism and bringing to life stereotypes. They love to exclude, love to hate, and love to rage. It is taboo, among this third generation, to be your own person. It’s just not politically correct anymore. There have always been “in-crowds”, but it seems as if my generation has no other purpose than to be followers of mindless antics and frivolous self-indulgence. There are few willing to go against the grain. The majority of these people seem trapped in a perpetual state of immaturity, not wanting to be responsible for themselves or their actions, and blaming their problems on everyone else.
The fourth generation is a set of young adults. These people seem more concerned with social statuses, smartphones, and fashion than anything, and are impatient and explosive. They live through screens and wander aimlessly through the real world when there are no screens to look at. It is disconcerting. I wonder what they really do see and what it is they think about? I wonder if they are a lost generation?
The fifth generation is comprised of our youngest children. From what I can see, they already have great compassion and appear to be a generation of optimism and strength of character. I cannot say what changes they will bring about, but it seems that if these children are allowed to show their true potentials without being smothered by mediocrity and uniformity, they will usher in a new era.
This gives me hope.