Do not let the optics fool you, life is tough 

I have been reflecting on why everyone seems to be either recruiting or getting recruited for one cause or other. Apart from the obvious political parties, which by the way are doing a poor job at getting recruits, there are legions of religious groups, self-help communities and environmental conservation  all vying for our membership. 
To their credit, the players in these organisations have mastered the art of getting attention with their barely disguised phoniness, pretentious cliques and crafty utilisation of the limelight. The gullible masses lap up their carefully orchestrated perfect lives, relationships and flawless style. This is how so many sketchy people have ended amassing armies of followers.

The lost generation
I recently found myself interacting with followers of one such leader. The gang had camped overnight somewhere awaiting their leader’s appearance but because of some extenuating circumstances the meeting did not happen. The hapless and obviously penniless gang had to find ways of transporting themselves back to their own lives. 

Intrigued by their devotion to someone who did not care that much about them, I asked them why they were so loyal. The truth is they did not have any compelling arguments. It was easy to see that for them, their leader’s ability to be part of the society of the spectacle was enough.
 They chose this person for no particular reasons other than the fact that they happen to find themselves in a topsy-turvy world in which deceptiveness has become something many people are compelled to respect and even worship whoever excels at it. 

This interaction led me to the sad realisation that there is a whole generation out there that genuinely has no idea what is and what ought to be. A generation that knows nothing about hard work, failure and struggle. A generation, whose fast paced lifestyle demands instant results and so openly celebrates faking it until you make it. 

I do not want to be part of the lamenters, for whom nothing that happened after 1980 is ever good enough. But the reality is we have a lost generation floating within our communities.  This is a generation with no depth, no anchorage anywhere, no roots, no fixed identity and nothing to pivot on. Their beliefs are free-floating and their way of settling any argument is agreeing with the last speaker. 

How did this happen? 

How did we get here and what is the way forward? Who will take the mantle of taking the unpopular role of reeducating such people? How do you convince someone whose hopes are serially dashed by the world, that there is another way to do things? How do you remind someone who has known nothing but loss and defeat that hope is often born on the site of loss? 

As many of such people are wont to argue, they do not want hope, what they want is money in their wallet and job from which to earn a livelihood. What we all want is to join the club of the people who constantly remind us that they have made it. 

We might not have solid reasons, but we also want to drive luxury cars, send our children to fancy schools all while doing it with an arm candy of a partner. It does not matter how many times people remind us that what we see is just a magician’s smoke and mirrors that what we are chasing is nothing but fools’ gold. We just want to get the opportunity to live the lives of the privileged. 

Get rich quick schemes
We all know or have heard of a story of someone who was cautioned against a certain a relationship but because it was simply too good to give up, went ahead with it, only to get burned badly. 
We have seen so many people enjoy get rich quick schemes only to come crashing down lower than they were before. But our minds have been primed and conditioned to ignore such cautionary tales. 

We believe, we will succeed where they failed because we are different. It is sad but true that many able bodied young people will never live up to their potential because of this mindset. It does not help that their role models continually tell them they will make it since they did.
 
What they ignore telling them is the hustle they actually went through to get to where they are. They conveniently gloss over the tears and blood, the sleepless nights and backbreaking working they put in when no one was looking. And because that is what we want to hear, we do not ask the right questions, we just pick what gives us hope and run with it. 

There is a French saying that if only youth had the wisdom and age had the energy. Whatever army it is you want to join, have the forethought to check out the benefits and the disadvantages and whether you have the strength to reap the benefits the enlistment offers, because in the game of life you have join some army or other; you cannot be a dissenter in all matters. It is not enough just to know someone who made it or to speak the jargon fluently. 

You might even speak in tongues but if you do not roll up your sleeves and put in actual work, you will end up becoming one of those people always hanging around influential people, surviving on handouts for the rest of your life. 

Here is the good news though, with the tools technology avails, if we are vigilant we can be able to prise open the lies and misinformation of the people we look up to, so we can put things into perspective ourselves. Understanding how, for example, people who say are fighting for your rights can make decisions that will increase your misery and dreariness, will make you think twice before you choose to spend a night in the cold awaiting their arrival. 

This demystification of their aura should teach you that they, just like you, are still struggling, that they have not arrived as they want you to believe. If you are really serious about changing your life, with technology you will be able to do more things faster than before and have more impact than ever. 

The progressive possibilities are infinitely greater for everyone who is willing to weather the new threats and risks. Everything has been commodified and the aura that once surrounded some careers and professions is gone. You want to become a musician but lack God-given talent? No problem, auto tune will do it for you. You want to be a politician but you lack experience? No problem, get an army of influencers to talk you up. You want to become an activist? Simply make enough trouble to get yourself arrested and soon you will make international headlines and the world will be vying for your attention. 

However, while authenticity and honesty are no longer an objects of veneration, you still have to put in some effort in whatever instant success scheme you choose, nothing will come to you on a silver platter.