The big stories.

Early morning. I overslept. But still managed to attend a morning conversation where the topic was ‘generation Y.’ A sociologist by the name of Gunnar C. Aakvaag engaged in an open conversation on basically how lazy generation Y and the millenials are.

[tweet https://twitter.com/hbrors/status/387482534965444608]

To boil it down, Aakvaag argued that our generation does not have a collective project like what his generation and preceding generations had. The collective project of generation x was to tear down the remnants of the authoritarian rule left by the 68-generation.

According to Aakvaag (and mainstream media) our generation is lazy, self-centered and without purpose. I think there’s a bunch of causes but our society has become much more decadent in general due to the oil-fueled welfare state which we’ve immersed ourselves in. Our individualistic freedom which preceding generations fought hard for is also an obstacle towards us acting as a collective. Finally, there are many of our generation participating/debating/protesting through many media outlets. However, because such polemic texts are many and singular they don’t spark movements.

We’re missing big stories #

Aakvaag finished off by declaring that we’re missing big stories, big narratives that will help focus our generation. For me, this brings things to mind like the movie Pandora and world religions. However, Aakvaag emphasized that viral videos do not represent grand stories instead he called for grand academic narratives.

Grand academic narratives.

Hmm. Sounds a little pretentious but we could do with a little research based purpose. Actually I wonder if the UN-climate report would prove more mobilizing if it was packaged in a more gripping narrative.

I’ll add this video at the end because it explains what science could learn from religion, and I think it’s important because religion has the power to mobilize. Science needs to get better at mobilizing. We need to get better at mobilizing.