More Me Less Me

Is Canada still a safe place to work, live and play? Last night in its largest city, a five-year-old child was shot. The little girl – who is going to be okay after being treated at The Hospital for Sick Children – was an innocent bystander, hit by a stray bullet which whizzed through her home from some punk outside.

This isn’t the first time an innocent person has been caught in the crossfire of a gun. Just a handful of weeks ago another person in Toronto was killed, by a bullet not meant for him, and few will forget the accidental shooting of a teenage girl on Boxing Day a few years ago.

The problem isn’t necessarily that there are more guns and gangs on our streets, the problem stems deeper as these things often do.

Welcome to the “Me Generation.”

Back in the big hair, bold color combos, and pure attitude of the 1980’s we saw the rise of the “I” generation – it’s all about me, myself, and I.

Luckily throughout the 1990’s we began to once again drop our self indulgences and work together in society once again as a team. We realized that we were all in this thing called life together, or so we thought.

It appears we’ve not only come back to doing our own individualistic thing, but gone even further to the point of simply not giving a damn about anyone else.

Back in the 1980’s, people would dress however they wanted, spend money on outrageous hair styles, and even have their own attitude -- but never at the expense of another person’s comfort.

These days, people – not just teens, but many adults too – will walk down the street blasting music from their MP3 players, they will walk right through a crowded sidewalk, not caring if they bump into someone. And when they do accidentally walk into someone, it is never their own fault, as they scream “hey why don’t you watch where you are going?”

Road rage is all too common, often with people getting into fistfights over a simple lane change, or a parking spot. Neighbours in what used to be quite, family-safe residential areas are now coming home to yellow police tape, their quiet side street buzzing with police wearing hazardous materials suits as they tear apart a drug lab.

All of these things – and many more – are all about the new Me Generation.
As more and more people struggle to find themselves, in our constantly changing world, they have lost the need for you. It’s all about me.

Blame the economy, lax immigration laws, even that crazy uncle that everyone acknowledges but never talks about – it doesn’t matter, it’s all about me.

The problem is, in a “Me Generation,” much like the “I Generation” of the 1980’s, worlds collapse and societies crumble.

Just ask the parents of that five-year-old girl, as they watch their daughter recover in a hospital for a gun battle that had nothing to do with her.

But hey, why bother, it’s all about me?