Rule 1: Get Mad, You Son of a Bitch!

After naming this blog "Smooz's Rules" as a semi-clever take on the brilliant "Brule's Rules" segment from Tim and Eric Awesome Show! Great Job, I sat around and tried to think about what to write about. I decided that since it was already my title, I would turn my nuggets of wisdom into rules to live your life by. I don't know if this will aid me in making clever posts, or if it will just hinder my ability to say anything valuable. We'll just have to see. Anyways, here goes rule number one, with its necessary explanation.

One of the most upsetting traits of my generation I've noticed is complacency. Everyone seems to be perfectly content with the world, and their status in it. Apathy is the new anger. Most people I know, if they are even aware of it, aren't really all that concerned with any of the completely fucked up things that are happening in this world. Regardless of your stance on the following issues, off the top of my head, our generation is growing up with a war overseas, debates over gay rights, abortion, stem cell research, and the sustainability of our current lifestyle on this planet. I don't want you to agree with me. What I want is for you to act like you care. About anything.
I must admit, I am just as guilty as you are. I have never in my life been part of a protest, written letters to senators, or before this, really made a public plea to my fellow generation whatevers. Its only in the past two years that I've even really found things in this world that truly upset me. I never really encountered anything other than Fox raping the X-Men franchise that I felt like getting up in arms about. But now that I have, its really troubling to see that our generation, the young people of this country, isn't really doing a god-damned thing, as far as I see it. I want to see that the people I grew up with can take to the streets and damage public property and get arrested for something more substantial than winning the NCAA championship. I want to hear debates, to know that there's more you're worrying about than what's going to happen on the next episode of The Hills.
But here's the thing, I don't entirely blame us. I don't think that it would be right to blame a bunch of kids who have been fed homogenized, corporate bullshit designed to make a quick buck their entire lives for their ignorance. You see, I don't see anything in our popular culture that represents me. Going to the movies is an excuse to turn your brain off for 2 hours and not have to think about anything. You're not going to go to the megaplex and see a polarizing, radical movie. We don't have Taxi Driver or Apocalypse Now. We have Meet Dave and National Treasure. Almost everything we take in is dumb, and while I am not going to deny that I am a huge fan of dumb action movies and pointless comedies, we need something else. We need something to make us think. Not hand us opinions like Bill O'Reily and Michael Moore. THINK.
So here we are, a bunch of kids (yes, every last one of the people I see on a regular basis. Kids.) Who grew up without any real role models. In the monkey-see monkey-do concept of learning, we haven't really had anyone who in the past few years, has come to the masses and shown us all how to be really, really pissed off about something. Here's a few of our top-selling "musical artists"- Nickleback, Britney Spears, Lil' Wayne, T-Pain. What the FUCK do any of those people have to say? Where once our culture was dominated by intelligent people with something to say, we now have a bunch of assholes auto-tuned out of existence preaching the all-important, unfaltering pillars of culture- fucking hoes and big rims. Goodbye, Chuck D and John Lennon, your music is now outplayed by a song titled- and I shit you not- "Birthday Sex". Big surprise we're not too much into the political or social activism scene, eh?
And its not like our "alternative" scenes are any better. At a so called "punk" show, you're most likely going to see a bunch of scenesters parading around with ridiculous hair and stupid t-shirts, not a riot and Henry Rollins flipping a cop car. While its true that this is a bit more civil and a lot safer to attend, you have to bear in mind that at least back then they had a reason.
So, in closing, please, start thinking about things. Write letters. Get in your basement, and make music that's loud, fast, and angry. I know, all your favorite artists by now have "matured" and "evolved" to where they can "express themselves" so much better with slow tempos and pianos. Fuck them. We need to define ourselves as something besides the generation that coasted by. How do we do that? Follow Smooz's Rule #1: Get mad, you son of a bitch!

Blogs. I have one. You'll read it. More news later.