Skip to main content

"You are the Generation that bought more shoes..."

Live Fast, Die Clown T-Shirt by TET
Live Fast, Die Clown T-Shirt by TET
Available from RedBubble.
"You are the generation that bought more shoes, you get what you deserve." This quote is a song lyric that I heard on the radio (my apologies to the writer and artist that it belongs too because I don't know who either of you are). It's a great line and I can only assume it refers to the apparent lack of interest today's eighteen to twenty somethings appear to have in more serious and deeper issues.

Not that I'm trying to hold myself up as someone who campaigns strongly for the greater good of human kind or that I spend significant amounts of time raising awareness of important issues. I'm certainly not a poster boy for changing the attitudes of people with too many shoes but lyrics like that do make you think.

It's at this point that I really don't know where to go with this article. Should I focus on the material nature of modern society and its obsession with having more stuff? Or should I mention a few important issues, like Human Rights Abuses, the Iraq war and Globalisation to make it sound like I'm a little less interested in myself and how I look in a great pair of jeans?

With so many big issues and hard questions who really knows what to think? Perhaps it's just easier to go shopping? Buy more stuff so that you can be a better person. It's all about status and what brands are popular this week in order to be hip and with it. People are defined by what they wear and what they own right?

Buy more shoes.

[Edit/Update Jun 2021 - Thought it would be worth noting in the main post that I have since discovered the song name and artist: 'You are the generation that bought more shoes you get what you deserve' by U.K. Band 'Johnny Boy'.]

Comments

  1. It's said that 'Clothes do not maketh the man!' It's 'manners that maketh the man' or to be politically correct by today's standards, 'maketh the person!' Let's not forget the ladies!

    In other words, it's what's inside and how you treat other people that make you the kind of person that you are! Today's young ones have alot to learn!

    I wore alot of 'hand-me-downs' from cousins, which fortunately were still good, and clothes from jumble sales, which showed where they came from in those days, not like the 'good stuff' that's given away today! What does that make me then!

    I actually didn't turn out bad, and can appreciate new clothes more. People today actually make an outing of doing the rounds of the op shops, as there is some good stuff to be had, including designer labels and things bought on the spur of the moment, so hardly worn!

    Cherrio!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I tend to agree with you but the point I think the quote is making is more to do with young people's obsession with having the latest thing or being in fashion etc. etc. and not really having an awareness of wider issues affecting them, that they do have control over, if they would take an interest.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've since found out that the song I'm quoting from is actually called 'You are the generation that bought more shoes you get what you deserve' by U.K. Band 'Johnny Boy'. Now if I could just get hold of the words because I can't make out a single thing they're singing about other than the title...the band's web site is no help whatsoever :(

    ReplyDelete
  4. I call it the disposable society, people around me seem to get new cats dogs etc and then "trade them in" for kids or smaller more convenient (or cute) ones for no reason other than boredom or something different. I love my animals as much as my kids and could think of nothing worse than letting one of them go for any reason, I think the youger generation need to have a bit more responsibility towards their pets and the RSPCA's would not have as big a problem.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I certainly don't understand people who treat pets like fashion accessories (it's all the rage to have a cute dog this week but next week kitten's are the 'in' thing). In my day (doesn't that make me sound old) you bought a pet and it was just a given that it was now part of the family. Till death do we part and all that.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Actually, I think it is in reference to Baby Boomers, which a lot of people forget are the first generation of selfish, self-centered, egotistical, narrow-minded hippy-crits. Naturally, the spawn of such a generation will lead to the world in its current state.

    ReplyDelete
  7. If I could actually get hold of the lyrics to this song I might argue the case re: Baby Boomers. On the surface though I don't think the song writers experience with Baby Boomers would prompt this song. More likely it would be prompted by their current experience of today's generation... I could be wrong though as I am only speculating.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Stumbled across a remix of this song on www.RCRDLBL.com a couple of months ago
    (I rehosted it here: http://www.box.net/shared/kg8ra79uvr)
    and I can't stop playing it as I train to run the Boston Marathon.
    I was curious what the actual lyrics were and after finding them thought I would post them here.

    I just can't help believing
    though believing sees me cursed
    For belief ignores the heathen's
    day by day sigh 'even worse'
    But for all we are receiving
    there's an evens key to turn
    You are the generation that bought more shoes and you get what you deserve

    Winter sweeps the streets of evening,
    this frequency my universe
    To reel a deep or meaning feeling 
    in seas where schools of fools be first
    But for all we are receiving
    there's an evens key to turn
    You was the generation that snorts for tunes and you get what you deserve

    Burberry Beamer Beakheads
    leaving Adidas sleek mystique reversed
    Without a dream or scream between 'em.
    Believing time does reimburse

    Suffer all we are receiving
    there's an evens key to turn
    You are the generation that bought more shoes and you get what you deserved

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks for that Roger. I'll have to have a closer listen to the song now...

    Doesn't leave me any less clearer about what the song is on about though. Perhaps baby boomers at first but that second verse sounds more like the generation or two afterwords?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Comments are moderated by an actual human (me, TET) and may not publish right away. I do read all comments and only reject those not directly related to the post or are spam/scams (I'm looking at you Illuminati recruiters... I mean scammers. Stop commenting on my Illuminati post!).

Buy Gifts and Apparel featuring art by TET.

Popular posts from this blog

I'm Confused About Why People Prefer to Say Discombobulated?

D iscombobulated. Is a word that I think someone rediscovered about three or four years ago (maybe more because the pandemic years have thrown out my sense of time) and now I hear it a lot. It's not a new word by any means, but when I started hearing multiple celebrities using it in everyday sentences, I actively had to look up what it meant. Define it with as many synonyms as you like but essentially it's just another word meaning 'confused'. Seinfeld Quotes: Quotes.net The words are pretty much interchangeable. He was discombobulated by too many choices. He was confused by too many choices.  My confusion is the length of the word. It's unnecessarily long with too many syllables. There are many other words that mean confused, and therefore also mean discombobulated. Most of them are shorter and easier to say. So why not just say 'confused'? Perhaps discombobulated sounds more intelligent, maybe?  Hawaii Five-0 Quotes: Quotes.net I've noticed it gets us...

Introducing the Second Sunday Skateboard Sessions - Doing Less to Skateboard More

This was my second heelflip attempt of the day. I was pleased I at least got the full rotation even if I didn't land it. I  am determined to keep skating for as long as possible, though, since my last post in May 2024, about reigniting my kickflip battle at age 54 , I've probably been skateboarding less than I had hoped. Still haven't landed that elusive kickflip either. Strangely I've been wanting to film myself skateboarding again but have been reluctant to do so because it can be a bit of a hassle trying to create interesting content, not to mention a lot of editing, if you want to capture the full journey of learning a trick. I really hate editing. Looking at my camera equipment the other day I was thinking what is the most minimal setup that I can put together that would make it easy to film skate videos anywhere? I landed on using my Samsung A13, Android phone, mounted on a GoPro selfie stick that has a tripod base in the handle, and a wireless mic I bought some t...

TV Series Review: Skeleton Crew (2024) (Disney+) *No Spoilers*

I f you saw the trailer for  Skeleton Crew  and decided the show looked too much like Star Wars for little kids, and didn't watch, you missed out on a real treat. While I will say this show was definitely targeted at bringing in younger fans to the Star Wars universe, it is very much more like family viewing than kids only TV. Not to mention, characters are literally gunned down or murdered on this show, but without the really graphic violence you might see on a more adult orientated show. It's actually no more kid only orientated than the first series of Stranger Things  (2016), or even the original  Star Wars  (1977) movie. In fact the whole show is a not so subtle homage to original Star Wars (1977), Treasure Island  (1950), and eighties movies like The Goonies  (1985), ET  (1982), Explorers  (1985) and others. The plot is very straight forward. A group of children, living in the Star Wars equivalent of the suburbs, find an aband...

The Princess' Butterflies - Using an AI Image to Video Generator to Animate Art That Started as a 23 Year Old Rough Pen Sketch

B ack in October of 2023 I used Prome AI's Sketch Rendering feature to color a 23 year old rough pen sketch I did of a princess watching butterflies, sitting next to a waterfall in the forest. You can read more about that in my previous article,  The Princess' Butterflies - Using an AI Art Generator to Color and Enhance a 23 Year Old Rough Pen Sketch The three images I used to create my final image (bottom right). Notice how closely the AI has followed my line art sketch (top left) but in the first image (top right) has misinterpreted the waterfall as some kind of large tree stump. Prome's render of the artwork was pretty good but I did end up creating a composite image myself from two of the best renders, to get my final image. Since then AI Image to Video has come a long way, particularly when it comes to creating animation from artwork and maintaining the art style for the whole generation. AI still does much better with turning photographic images to video but I found ...

Two Former Right Wing Australian PM's Call Out President Trump and His America First Approach

Q uite often, leaders on all sides of politics, once they've retired from office, become the kind of person, with a political view that I would've supported, if they had been that person with that viewpoint, when they were leaders. Case in point, two former right wing, Australian Prime Ministers were individually interviewed about President Trump's negative impact on Australia and global politics in general. Both said things that even a left leaning 'woke' voter like myself could get behind and nod in agreement with. Keep in mind both these former PM's are right wing politicians that should be aligned with the US Republican party, and President Trump's views on many issues. Malcolm Turnbull Mr Turnbull, like President Trump is a businessman turned politician. He's a person I was all set to vote for until he aligned himself with the Australian Liberal Party. Which was a little unexpected for me because up to that point his politics sounded more left than ...

Meanwhile, In Australia... The World's Most Boring Government Is Fine... We're All Fine.

That's um... What's his name? T o be honest, I stopped following politics in Australia years ago. The only time I check in is usually around election time just to see which set of woke lefty independents, I'm going to vote for, ahead of my fallbacks of the Greens, and then Labor. Despite my sister trying to categorise me as more of a 'left brained' person I definitely lean 'right brained' more at home with my cry baby, woke, alphabet, lefty people. (For the record, if this is the first musing of mine you've ever read, I'm a straight white male who identifies as an artist... Male artist - just in case you were thinking artist is some new kind of gender you hadn't heard of). This year is an election year for our Federal Government, potentially the world's most boring government, for no other reason than during its entire term, if you asked me who was our Prime Minister I'd actually have to stop and think for a moment. Maybe our 31st PM shou...

TV Series Review: Creature Commandos (2024) *No Spoilers*

O fficially, Creature Commandos is the first show of James Gunn's kind of reboot of the DCU. Technically though, it starts with James Gunn's, The Suicide Squad , and includes his series, Peacemaker , as the events of both are either referenced or felt within the show. Potentially that means Margot Robbie is Harley Quinn in the DCU, but I'd be surprised if she would even want another crack at it, let alone that James didn't recast the role. However that's a whole other rabbit hole for a character that may not appear again for at least a few more years. Creature Commandos is Suicide Squad but with monsters, and no real threat of Suicide - well, having your head blown off if you stray from the mission at least. Though I don't recall that being a thing in Gunn's Suicide Squad movie since the team was renamed 'Task Force X'? Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) somehow still has a job, but is no longer allowed to use humans on her team, so she assembles a team of...