This is not an exit...

For those of you who know me, you probably know that I have a borderline disturbing obsession with the writings of Bret Easton Ellis. Some of you may know him as the author of American Psycho and The Rules of Attraction (where - in the movie adaptation - James van der Beek makes out with another dude), but I'm guessing less of you know that his seminal novel was Less Than Zero and was published while he was in college. And Less Than Zero, in my humble opinion, is one of the most striking looks into the ethos of the "Decade of Excess" - the 1980s - as told by it's most tragic characters, the young adults who came of age during that time.

Set in Los Angeles, all of the main characters in the novel are young men and women with more money than they could spend in two lifetimes and absolutely no interest in the world around them. Their nihilistic outlooks are fascinating to me because they beg the question (and I would argue that Bret's dark imagination finds horrifying and likely accurate ways to answer) what happens when you don't care about anything and have the ability to do everything?

Now, it is this question that brings me to my topic for the day. How would my literary hero Bret, view our current decade as it draws to a close in a mere 38 hours? I ask this because, on inspection, there are some striking similarities between the 2000s and the 1980s that go beyond fashion and music (which have cycled back around to skinny ties, baggy sweaters and bubble gum pop) and delve into darker psychological themes that, unless we change our ways, will leave us just like Clay, Blair and Julian.

In this decade we have had two cycles of immense wealth creation (and expansion of the gulf between rich and poor especially as the internet created thousands of Generation X millionaires), followed byin the early 1980s through the Black Monday crash of 1987. We had near daily conflict with other countries (the Cold War and the Iran Hostage Crisis in the '80s and the attacks of 9/11 and subsequent wars with Iraq and Afghanistan in this decade) which engendered a sense in young people that the world may not be such a nice place after all.

It was these things and myriad others that, and this is the most salient point for Mr. Ellis, has once again created a generation of 20 somethings who are completely and totally disillusioned with the world around them.

Now I'm not saying that I believe there are roving packs of disaffected youth going around molesting pre-teen girls and snorting mountains of cocaine as is the case with Ellis's dystopia. I'm merely pointing out that as I look around at people my age, I see a lot of children who had to grow up emotionally very early and did that growing up in a pretty harsh world. And I'm sure every other generation will argue with me that there's nothing new under the sun, but who else got to watch round the clock news coverage of the death of 3,000 of their fellow Americans in one day? Who else got to see firsthand and with such clarity (I point to MTV Cribs and every other voyeuristic show on television these days) the gulf between the haves and the have-nots?

These are all debatable questions that probably don't have any real answers but they do ultimately point to the following broader question that I believe Bret could answer with the same sharp eye he had trained on the 1980s. With all the experiences that this past decade has offered us, have we become completely inured to the world and it's wonder?

Before you try and answer that yourself, think about this: how many times have you read on CNN.com that a woman was beaten or animals were abused and neglected and didn't even bat an eye? How well did you sleep on the night of September 11th? What about September 12th? Is Eric Cartman's completely amoral worldview really so hard for you to relate to? Why do we have a fad where "emo kids" go around pretending to kill themselves because they feel that cutting is the only way to feel anything?

It's a terrible thought to believe that you can't find something to be excited about in this phenomenal age we live in where technology continues to advance at lightning quick pace. Where the citizens of the world are coming around to the notion that we can't mistreat others and not expect repercussions (on both sides of the conflict). Where the business community is learning that social conscience and success are not mutually exclusive ideas.

There are so many reasons to feel alive and connected with the world around us and my hope for all of you, as we enter into this new decade, is that you take the time each day to find just one of those reasons so that, with all deference to you Mr. Ellis, we don't, "disappear here."