"Shit Happens"

A couple of decades ago (?), perhaps during the Reagan years, maybe later during Clinton's presidency, a very common bumper sticker appeared. At first I reacted negatively to it, assuming it was a kind of existential brush off, we can't do anything about it so be it. Well, this attitudinal slogan has stood the test of time, and now seems ingrained in our way of doing and accepting things. It doesn't have to be utterer or displayed anymore, it just is part of the "boilerplate."

Whether it is the corporate or wall street executives appearing before congressional committees, or the stereotype responses and actions of "Tea Party" activists on the media, the cynical descriptions of their "realities" and expectations resonate with this now timeless slogan. As far as I'm concerned it is part of common mindsets which assume a negative base combined with a personal expectation of self fulfilling prophesies.

There is an absence in all of this of a resilient, active, determined attitude of positive change. As a version of personal shortfall, of a willingness to bow down to misfortune and chaos, it seems tailor made for the Boomers and the following generations. But perhaps it predates them as well, I hope not, and my hope is the the so-called Millennials and their successors will turn it around and then a new bumper sticker will appear. And I don't mean "Expect a Miracle."