Let us consider the emo kid

So, today's topic will be the emo kid. It's easy to rag on mopey morons who cover their faces with retarded haircuts and whine about everything, but it is sometimes difficult to articulate why they suck so bad. This is my take on 'why'

When one thinks of a stereotypical 'emo kid' one thinks of: self-absorbed, pretentious, pre-occupied with pain, narcissistic, victim mentality, wussy, pathetic, pessimism, mopey, etc

But why do we attribute these things to them? What makes one emo? We've all heard "I hurt to feel" but how does one get there? Well, let me begin with some preconceptions.

There is an innate sense of justice in us all. We know when we are wronged. We know when something should not be. (Where this comes from is to complicated for this post, but I use it as a presupposition.) This has never been clearer than in our current generation. Divorce, social pressures of conformity, broken families, medical issues, etc. One does not have to be an honor student to see that there are problems within our society.

It seems to me that emo kids are in touch with a particular nerve that reminds them all is not right, not well. While it easy to look around our world and see that there is a multitude of thins wrong, the average person has a way of either accepting or ignoring this fact. Emo kids on the other hand, tend to embrace this pain that something is wrong. They revel in it, acting as if the violation of an innate sense of justice gives them liberty to be self-absorbed. While the average person may recognize that things within our society are wrong and in a state of disarray, there is a sense of detachment, jadedness, or cynicism that lends them functionality in the face of such issues. The average person knows that "life's not fair" but they accept it. They don't spend time brooding over how screwed they are because 'life's a bitch.'

So, why does the emo kid brood over this pain, this acute awareness that life is not as it should be? Because we've told them that it is. This is America - land of the free from pain. home of those who have reached the pinnacle of existence. Somewhere along the line, the American dream morphed from "life, love, and the pursuit of happiness" to "The right to life, love, happiness and anything else I decide I want." As we have worked harder to provide for ourselves, we have found it within our capacity to derive and finance creature comforts past the point of excess. We have told ourselves that this is our right. We have supported our lifestyles and our culture, ignoring the fact that materialism does not answer or ameliorate the human condition. The root causes of our needs, our failures, our desires is no more filled or matched by materialism than spraying Glade at a filthy toilet disinfects it. It is a band-aid on arterial bleeding.

This is what the emo kid feels, broods over - the fact that we've been lied to. That life doesn't work like we've told it would, like we want it to. Instead of moving on out of either apathy, ignorance, they sit, dwell, brood, embrace the pain. They also personalize it - they are the ones being affected. They are the only ones aware of such wrongs and pain being inflicted upon them. What have they ever done? They're Americans! They have a right to be happy!!

It is this personalization of the pain that bothers me. Not that they embrace that there is something wrong with the world - Chuck Palahniuk is great at that- but that they pretend that it is important. While they may be more consciously in touch with some nerve somewhere that reminds them that everything is screwed, they're not better or worse off for it. We're all human. We're all broken. The world's broken, and not like it's supposed to be - so shut up and see if you can't improve the world around you.