Atomictumor

I’m a child of the early 90s.  I mean, I was born in the ’70s, grew up in the ’80s, but still see the early ’90s as my cultural “ground zero”, simply because my formative “create who AT is” high school and beyond years hit then, and it was an interesting time.

So, I’m in a contemplative mood lately, and was talking to my pals MJF and SuperT about this last night at their new house (which doesn’t have internet yet, damn you Bellsouth).  They grew up in the same era, and we all agree that despite the dress clothes, the mortgages, the kids (in my case), and the age, we still have the same ingrained desire to “be different”.

What is it about our generation that was so determined to be unique, not in an achievement way, or in a “get rich and famous” way, but in a “I’m reflecting my cultural individuality differently than everybody else” way.

The irony of this in the 90s, and something that Eaves and I have discussed, was that with all of our tattoos, mohawks, piercings, hair dye, Dead Kennedy’s t-shirts, and bumper stickers, we all looked damn near the same to an outsider.

So, by that rationale, we were only working on displaying uniqueness within our own peer group.  This behavior, I’ve noticed, makes no sense at all to people who grew up a decade before us, but seems to also be the trend to those growing up now.

Thing is, its stuck with us, or at least those that I still know that grew up during that era.  We have nice cars, but put bumperstickers on em.  Either we never outgrew that subconscious urge to be different, or we’re kinda watered down bon vivants.

Like I said, a contemplative mood.