A Generation of Access

It was a cold night—the kind that can be expected in Utah in the middle of January. Snow was piled up on the sides of the roads, but there were people everywhere. It was the Sundance Film Festival after all. Filmmakers, actors, and other celebrities, as well as film-enthusiasts were out in full force despite the frigid alpine climate. That night was a special one for me. Under the stars of Park City, there would be two experiences that solidified a lifetime of conditioning, and revealed who I and a segment of my generation had become.
The first experience was well-thought out and required the assemblage of a large group of people. Hours were spent in preparation. It was the year of a controversial new movie, and we wanted to let our friends in the film community know how we felt about it. The plan? Lots of myspacing, and text messaging in order to mobilize the hands and mouths that would reveal the truth behind the film…oh, and about 500 tennis balls.
Main Street in Park City was packed. About 100 of us began combing it up and down passing out fliers as we went. The fliers connected the new movie’s plot to the life story of a famous tennis player. Our intent was not to belittle or humiliate this tennis player; I, in fact, happened to be a fan. Yet our access to the event, the controversy of the film, and the ridiculous parallels found in the life of the star, were too much to just stay at home and watch a movie. After intriguing the crowd with our literature, we gathered and, posed as the director’s nephew, I began spewing a nonsensical speech about the truth behind the film. Did people believe us? Absolutely. However, that wasn’t the point. At the end of my speech we charged across Main Street and released the tennis balls. It was beautiful. That wasn’t the point either.
I’m not sure that my generation created the controversy or whether or not we even cared, but we definitely took notice of it, and despite a lack of real interest we still found enough motivation to take issue with it. I really don’t think that there is any generation more comfortable with confronting controversy than mine. Civil disobedience is so institutionalized that it has almost become trivial. How many generations can claim that free-speech demonstrations, and anarchists marching on the state capitol, were either applauded or disbanded without incident, and that they took part in both without any real motivation? Further, I really don’t think that there is any generation that takes issue with more things than mine.
As a result, we have to find release. We just can’t take life too seriously all the time. You see we’re kind of schizophrenic. At the same time that we have created a standard of social elitism through taking stands and raising awareness on pretty much anything, we are also very conscious of our overall well-being and quite simple-minded. We need to laugh. When the news media exposes us too aggressively to the world in which live, we turn to John Stewart and Steve Colbert.
Thus, when I say that we took issue with this movie, I don’t think convention will be able to define our position. The sides drawn over the controversy, and even the controversy itself became subordinate to the humor and release found in celebrating our access to it, which brings me to my second experience.
This experience was not deliberate at all, and perhaps is more indicative of the deeply engrained principles that were illustrated in the previous anecdote. Walking and mingling with the crowds during the Sundance Film Festival gives the average person access to the ideas and personalities of a very diverse array of minds. I really enjoy that type of free-access to interpersonal interactions, and that night I happened to run into a guy that personified the generational essence I am trying to articulate. He was a documentarian and his film was about moustaches. His purpose was as lacking as the hair on my face. Perhaps that was the point.
The irony behind the film was as stratified and complicated as the irony behind the moustache. Like many things that have become chic recently, the moustache was not cool at first. It was mocked and laughed at. That was until some cool people who grew them as a joke persisted in wearing their jokes until the lines between serious/funny/ironic/sarcastic were so blurred that acceptance had to be decided by popularity, and popularity was wearing the moustache. Well, we still laugh about them at the same time we grow them. That was about the gist of the film. We didn’t take each other seriously at all, but we both took very seriously our prerogative in being able to make such a ridiculous documentary. Sure, the film didn’t serve any didactic purpose really, but that wasn’t the point.
The point is this: life is much too serious to go through it without laughing. Mine is a generation of access. This access has submersed our worlds into a sea of ever-changing issues and conflict that at once can be stimulating and motivating, as well as overwhelming and depressing. I learned on that cold night in January that without proper release of the pressures associated with the rigors of our world we might just miss the point. If we can unite more over the punch lines, even if we have to go to great lengths in making them, maybe we will be able to be more united over the things that really do matter.