Text: Kendall Pfeffer
Photography: Caroline Hargreaves
“We are born at a given moment, in a given place and, like vintage years of wine, we have the qualities of the year and of the season of which we are born.” I borrow this quote from one of the fathers of modern psychology, a rare mind who argued for the resilience of humanity. Over a half a century later, I humbly take up his cause and request that we seek to discover, rediscover and understand our self.
First of all, we should consider how and why this term originated. Was the term Generation C coined because we, as a generation, posses a common and unique potential? Or because a great need for change has been detected and we, by necessity, were selected to find a means of achieving it? Could this term be an example of propaganda, albeit in its most positive form, to inspire our action? The mama bird pushing her chicks out of the nest so they can fly, perhaps breaking a wing in the process. Whichever it may be, the result of a natural occurrence or a construction, if we do the groundwork, we should be able to take advantage of this growing enthusiasm. But there is a lot of work to be done.
For instance, who is this we? Who is this Generation C? If we, as Generation C, do posses a common birth in a specific moment of history, an insertion into the same time, the same metaphorical place within the narrative of humanity, then the qualities we share, which define us, demand analysis. Creativity, Cooperation and Change – all clearly positive concepts, within a specific context that is. Here we would be wise to take heed of Jung’s counsel.
We aim to be a generation promulgating change. Yet for all our optimism, all our promises for the future, we often seem to neglect the minutiae in pursuit of our end goals. We can be summoned to an uproar of communal hysteria at the mere mention of words like change, opportunity, future, potential and the list goes on. In his arguably prophetic work The Undiscovered Self, Carl Jung warned of the creation of a mass, driven by common beliefs and aims, which threatens to “crush[es] out the insight and reflection that are still possible with the individual”. Within any positive, even essential, call for change lies a potential for reason to be uprooted by “slogans and chimerical wish-fantasies”, a “collective possession” which could degenerate into a psychic epidemic of vast and indeterminate proportion. The Inquisition and the rise of Nazism come to mind as particularly potent examples.
But here again, a vital step is missing. We must start at the beginning. Work backwards if necessary. Who are we? Who am I? What do I want, need? And how do I fit into this bigger picture? Once we are willing to look inward to discover our potential as individuals, then we can really evaluate our potential as a generation.
Let us not allow our strengths to morph into weaknesses; nor our enthusiasm to translate into reckless, wanton or whimsical action. We share a tendency to rush into things before we even know where we are. If we don’t Stop, Look, Consider, at some point history will catch up with us. My family discovered that my grandfather had Alzheimer’s after he experienced an episode. He woke from a loss of memory in his car, at a stop light, with no idea where he was, how he got there or where he was going. We must be vigilant so that we are not one day stopped dead in our tracks, turning around stunned, a whole generation struck with Alzheimers, wondering “ despite all our best intentions,
I am by no means advocating that we all furrow into the depths of our unconscious to the extent of Jung’s personal experimentation. I merely suggest that we be responsible for our own mental health before we tackle such monumental issues as global peace, economic security, political stability, poverty, etc.
One final quote from Jung: “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens.” Our future is bleak if we refuse to address the present. All I ask is that we take a minute to look inward before we proceed. If we expect to take our endeavors seriously, let us first learn to take ourselves seriously.
Kendall Pfeffer is American and studies at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.