The Great War

Jesus in Brazil, falling on 2012 (still one of the most breath-stopping scenes from the movie)

For Western Literature we were assigned to read short parts taken from Chuck Palahniuk's famous Fight Club. And as a supplement, the movie came along with the assignment. I enjoyed the movie and it did teach me how men of our times think. One of the most notable things I remember from the movie was Brad Pitt's take on our generation and how the people before us have gone through great measures of suffering like the World Wars and Depressions and all that while we, are sitting in the middle:

"We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war...our Great Depression is our lives..."

This could be true...But then there's Iraq, Poverty, Terrorism and all other things we're fighting for and against. Maybe it's cause I've been pretty free lately which grants me all this time to watch prophecies of the end of the world and of course, there's 2012 which was shown last night on HBO, which makes me think that probably our generation's "Great War" just might be the Greatest War ever waged on Earth...The end of the world. Imagine that. After 2012 I checked out what people have been saying about this supposed end. And if you're like me, who gives just about everything the benefit of the doubt, it will scare you out of your bones to see what the present sees is in store for us in the very near future. By 2013 the internet would probably dead thanks to all these beliefs of scary solar storms that would rob us from our huge dependency on technology. By 2014, some economists are seeing great troubles that are waiting for the United States of America concerning governance and economics. 2012, they say, will be the end of times. It's part of a certain cycle the Earth goes through...Maybe the sun will release it's hot whip-like flares unto the planets closest to it, maybe the Earth's crust will shake and dislocate and relocate what we know now as our geography, maybe this whole issue on the weather will grow worse as the coming months pass, maybe Noah's Ark ought to be constructed again for a possible flood that will flood all other floods ever experienced. All of these are backed by science, they believe, and it seems like there will be people who could survive these. Now, I forget where I got these theories but I'm sure it's on Google. Type away the years and you'll see these results.

Point is, maybe this is finally it, the Great War our generation's been unconsciously waiting for. Sure we're the spoiled, have-it-everything-in-a-click generation. I mean, look at me, when the internet's running slow, even when it's just 3 minutes of loading, I get awfully cranky (that's really a bad, bad, bad trait). We're the pampered kids who have it easy because our troubled parents and grandparents had gone through the crap and they want us free from it. Well at least, that's what they say in books, movies and all those brilliant things you think about when you're high on caffeine in the middle of the night. Imagine that, the easy kids facing the end of the world...And maybe all of this is true. And I ask myself, being the Catholic that I am, maybe every generation has to face what God has prepared for them. Maybe this whole end of times/world we oh-so love talking about and making movies out of just might be our generation's coming war. Wouldn't it be nice to be all warm and hopeful that the entire planet would unite for the fight against the end? Well it is nice. Especially when you believe in the fact that you wouldn't be faced with the prospect of things if you aren't built to face it. No matter what others think of us, I believe it's possible that even when we have it easy, we're built like diamonds inside ready to face whatever great war it is we're destined to face...Yes, even the end of the world.

It's nearing Christmas and nearing 2011 and I am actually scared and excited to see what happens of us in 2012. I wish I was Nostradamus or that suddenly the Holy Spirit comes down to me to tell me to do so and so to prevent the end of the world, or at least save ourselves from the wrath of it, but I'm incredibly normal. I know deep down that all of this hype is just like the hype of the entire Y2K. Even in the days of my grandmother, they believed the world was to end. Besides, every generation always fantasizes that it'd be theirs that would come face to face with those gigantic tsunamis and those huge earthquakes just because every generation wants to believe that the end is humanly conquerable. We're quaking in metaphorical boots for sure, because we damn know that nobody really knows when the end will come. We're quaking in our boots cause we know that we want to be brave enough to actually face it, like all those other end of days characters have. We die or we get pass through it, it does seem like the world will be facing great things up ahead. Be it for the better or the worse, one thing's for sure, this generation's great war is no different from the ones the others have battled with. It's always all about courage and surviving the worst life has to face you with...

Well, I hope I'll be brave enough to face whatever it is the future has in store for me...Like that philosophy grade I'm still waiting for, or that decision between staying here or leaving for good...Somewhere in those selfish apprehensions I have, I believe is constantly the "bigger picture", that famous one that always takes all of us away from our tiny worlds to look at the world and what the forces that be has in store for it...I am afraid, but I won't let it consume me.

Besides, after watching Meet Jo Black and crying (hahaha...I know) to the last beautiful scenes of the movie (and all you could hear is "What a Wonderful World") I always tell myself that despite all this crap, the world is still one hell of a beautiful place.

Here's to our generation's great war...

P.S. I'll probably go easy on the end of the world documentaries and movies...It's almost school soon and I don't want to keep talking about 2012 on quizzes and homeworks. hahaha

-Gerard