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My complaint about the lack of engagement in the culture here is one made by pretty much everyone who IS engaged in it. There's an awesome duo from Calgary called Dave & Jenn, they sort of do quasi-paintings that really play with the form and their whole schtick is kind of a contemporary young Canadian take on Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. Their stuff is really cool, and the production of that sort of stuff is what I basically live on with regard to culture, here. Calgary has an urban core that is desperately trying to breed a real culture, but the problem is that my generation, who should be at the core of this, are so completely disengaged and completely apathetic that they genuinely treat even art parties as just an excuse to get drunk. The vapidity and emptiness of my generation is appalling. I've had loads of wonderful discussions with older fellow Canadians about local art, film, and literature. I work at an independent theater in Calgary and people my age only come to see 'cool' American and European stuff. Very few people below 30 give a damn about Canada anymore. You should be scared by that. I am scared by that. Montreal and Toronto are practically carrying this country on their shoulders, culturally speaking. And the situation there is hardly ideal. Note hte difference between Toronto and New York in terms of cultural output.
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I just quoted one segment, but really I'm kinda responding to the entire direction this thread has taken
We're agreed on apathetic youth. For example, I'm a UofC student. I don't stay up all night discussing philosophy, culture, music and the arts. I go to pubs and drink with my friends, and, when I was in residence we went to The Den on Thuursday nights. Whether this is longing for a past that never existed is certainly up for debate. Nevertheless, it is a recognized aspect of Generation Y that we are disengaged and apathetic - mainly because we feel that we can't realistically make a difference in the institutions that were founded by the generations before us. We might have a few good ideas, but we have learned to keep them to ourselves for the most part, lest they be trampled on.
Why do you think Gen Y is so focused on work-life balance? If you're working for an institution instead of it working for you then work gets a lot less meaningful. And there is little hope of that changing until the boomers move on. We might see youth emerging from their defensive positions as the boomers relinquish their grasp over societal institutions.
The comments about other countries, however, are particularly interesting to me. I think that we've grown comfortable. Canadians have one of the best standards of living in the world. We don't have the same need or desire for change as those living in developing countries. It is kind of unfair to compare the political discussion found on the streets of Amman to that of Calgary for this reason.