Responsible

I haven’t seen a cute meme on this yet, so I’m just going to bring it up. There’s a movement of offended Millenials pointing out that the bulk of spring-breakers ignoring the pandemic are actually Gen-Z. Demographically, that’s probably true. But focusing on that is missing the forest for the trees.

We have, collectively, over several generations, promoted a culture of selfishness. What’s in it for me? That’s not my problem. Behold my field of fucks.

All of us. ALL OF US have actively engaged in this culture.

I am not surprised to see crowds on beaches. I am not surprised because for 12 weeks we were told by our leader that it wasn’t a big deal. Then we were told, it’s a big deal, but only for a certain group of people. Now, we’re being told it is much, much worse than that–and young people enjoying the frivolity of youth are incredulous: It’s just the flu. Didn’t they say it wasn’t a big deal? What do you mean, global depression? What do you mean, I can’t fly home? What do you mean, my brother, neighbor, coworker is dead? What do you mean, I don’t have a job? What do you mean???

Blaming Gen-[LETTER]ers or Millenials or Boomers or Republicans or Democrats or the media or China is POINTLESS. It’s pointless. But we are all RESPONSIBLE.

Because the core definition of “responsible” is the ABILITY TO RESPOND. It doesn’t mean fault. It means we have the ability to respond.

And we do.