to think or not to think?

Lately my friends and I-- both here in Argentina and at home in New Jersey-- have been asking ourselves the question we've been asked since we learned to read: what are we going to be when we grow up? Now it seems that the question has turned not only into a query of a future career, but has also been spun into the daunting: what are you going to DO when you grow up in a world that the news predicts to implode at any moment? There are many layers to the new question, and it scares us to know that one day soon we will have to peel these layers ourselves. Living in a new country that has problems all of its own only seems to amplify the issues facing the United States right now. The fantasy-study abroad life I'm leading shields me, protects me, from tackling the terrible economic-political-social reality that is. At the same time though, I find myself growing more and more terrified about returning home, where I must finish school and soon become adult in a world no one wants to take responsibility for. This article I read this morning in bed, in addition to this one, written by oracle, Thomas Friedman, both made me want to crawl further and further under my covers. Obviously, this is the wrong response. In addition, given that Gabler's whole point is that my generation only passes on, rather than thinks about information, it feels wrong to post, and share, these articles. But for now I'm doing it anyway.

For the most part, I think he, Gabler, is right. There are so many problems to process all at once that it is easier to just know what's going on, rather than think about what's going on. The worst part about the extraordinarily complicated mess in the United States right now, one, I admit, I've only scratched the surface in understanding, is that it is one predicted to affect me and my generation for a long, long time. But then I think about the most recent conversations I've had with my friends, and I begin to relax a little bit. I think-- yes, I think-- Gabler, that we have the capability to stop the impending doom; it just calls for my generation and those that follow to restructure our priorities and adjust the expectations for living that have been passed onto us. That's not an easy thing to do, but I think it's do-able.