Dear Joe,
I recently read your essay "The Simulacran Republic" and I want to let you know that it is not just the old hold-overs and consciousness experimenters of the 60's who realize that our American reality is a televised sham. Many young people my age are awakening to the fact that we live in a hyperreal world. I'm twenty years old, and as such I grew up watching hours and hours of television and playing mind-numbing video games, much like most people in my generation, but over the past few years I've awakened to the fact that I live in a simulated, media-based reality.
While it may be hard to believe that a generation raised in this hyperreal world can ever wake up, I want to tell you that most of us, whether we admit to it or not, realize that there is something fundamentally wrong with the reality of our daily lives.
Few people I know have truly woken up and grasped the entire scope of the problem, but the deepest seeds of human nature planted within people's minds reminds them that not all is right. It may take some time for most people to wake up, but I do feel a wave surge coming.
Best wishes, and see you under a bridge somewhere with other fellow suburban cave-dwellers.
Perrin
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Dear Perrin,
What a heartening letter! Sometimes I forget that, conditions allowing, it only takes a few young people to change the many. Sometimes I forget that those who were active in the Sixties -- which was actually quite in the minority -- shook off the the illusions of the Eisenhower generation (their parents' generation). Most who joined the ranks were not especially intelligent or brave but simply sensed that something was wrong and were looking to define just what it was.
I think that deep seed you speak of is an innate desire for personal freedom on the part of young Americans who may not have even experienced it, thanks to the increasing tradeoffs most Americans have willingly made in order to feel safe and secure in society. And of course the administration crying terrorism every other minute gave them quite an incentive to do so.
At any rate, your nose for change within your own generation is far better than that of an old coot like me. Beyond that, I have been quite startled to find out how many young people bookmark or endorse my works (judging from looking at the personal profiles). Hell, these days I'm just happy to be able to keep up with anyone under 50.
In the end, it seems to come down to naming the beast. People need words to describe things so they can think about and discuss them. I hope I am at least modestly successful in providing such language from a firm position rooted in experience and honesty.
Meanwhile, do you get the sense that any kind of movement is emerging around which young people could coalesce? For instance the Vietnam War brought many together in my generation, and not just young people either. Thanks to the conservatives' revision of social history, people have forgotten (or never learn) that there were more regular people of all types demonstrating than there were hippies. Whether such a movement is possible today, I do not know.
Anyway, regarding this country's future, your letter is far more heartening than the news this morning that Democrats are regaining the majority in government.
In art and labor,
Joe
