"I Can't Even": How One Incomplete Sentence Defined a Generation

I cant.  I literally cannot.  I can't even.

Our generation is so distraught that we can't even form complete sentences.
We "can't even" what?  Nothing?  Everything?  We "can't even" so much that we literally can't EVEN!!!
That last sentence made no sense.  Include it in an English term paper and you'll receive a failing grade in return.  However, most of my peers will understand exactly (or most of) what that statement meant.  "I can't even" has become the phrase of 20-somethings (and some 30-somethings) across the nation.  I've seen it transcend the counter cultures of the US.  You will hear young people lamenting this from Texas to New York City.  Mostly, it is young women who will use the phrase, but from time to time, you'll see the occasional male who "simply cannot".  Such little words, but yet, it is understood within this age group.  We understand it and we identify with it.  In a way, it has defined us.

So lets' break it down: When someone says "I can't", "I can't even", or the most extreme, "I literally can't even", what are they really saying?  First, lets' start with the most simple - "I can't."  Whenever someone says that they cannot do something, they usually mean that they are incapable of either physically, mentally, or emotionally dealing with something.  It may be a task, person, or situation.  For example; if I say that "I can't drive," I am saying that I have declared myself incapable of operating a vehicle (whether this is actually true or not, because people can say they cannot do something when, in fact, they are fully capable).  The phrase, "I can't" is usually said by individual in response to a situation, statement, or any sort of stimulus that they find ridiculous or subjectively "difficult" to deal with.  So to speak, the state of being in "can't" is a subjective experience.  If I am watching a show on television that is so absurd to me, I may exclaim "I can't", in response to the absurdity of what I am witnessing.  Another example of the use of "I can't" may be in response to a certain stressor in one's environment.  If I am having a hard time with a course assignment, complaining to a friend that "I can't" with this class, is another way of saying, "the class is hard for me to mentally deal with at the moment."  Essentially, "I can't" is more of a feeling.

How are you feeling today?

I Kan't.

The phrase "I can't even," is similar to the former, however it kicks up the English language a notch by adding the adverb, "even."  The addition of this phrase turns the complete sentence, "I can't" into an incomplete one: "I can't even."  And older person may ask in response, "you can't even, what?"  This phrase is also just another way of expressing one's frustration or disbelief in absurdity of a certain stimulus they find difficult to deal with.  Another adverb that is added to the "can't" phrase is the word, "literally."  Many experts (or "experts") of the English language will audibly groan every time they hear a Millennial use this word incorrectly.  The word "literal" means to interpret something in its most basic sense without means of metaphors or allegories.  For example; if I take Homer's Odyssey literally, I will actually believe in the real-life wrath of Poseidon.  So, if I tell my sister that I will literally kill her if she eats my slice of cake, thinking in terms of the dictionary, she should never eat that cake because I said I would literally kill her.  Here, the word "literally" is indicating that I am not using the mention of murder as a metaphor.  However (and thankfully), many young people now use the word "literally" as both a means for emphasis and something that is a precursor to a metaphor.  For instance, saying that I will "literally" kill my sister, means that I am serious about the state of my cake slice.  I may not really kill her, but I may do something like yell at her or fight her (or just hold a short-term grudge).  In other words, "Do not eat my cake Dora, or I will be really, really, really, really, mad at you."  But, since we are Millennials I speak like this: "Don't touch my cake, Dora.  I swear, I will literally murder you, if you touch it!"  We don't intend literal murder; only figurative.

I literally could not resist this meme.

So now that we've defined the meaning of the phrase, "I can't even," now we must determine how this relates to our generation.  It appears as though the current mental state of 20-somethings may be a bit disgruntled.  We face the frustrations of struggling to enter the workforce with our freshly obtained college degrees.  Some of us are over-qualified, working for jobs that we may have just settled for.  Some of us can't even find jobs in a field which we worked 4 years in school for.  Many more of us can't get hired for a simple job.  Period!  We are constantly having the most expensive gadgets advertised to us, each company proclaiming that we need their product, yet we can barely pay this month's cable bill.  In addition to financial woes, we also struggle with basic companionship.  Many say that the dating scene is crumbling; that it is uncertain, confusing, and stressful.  Not to mention, the music industry is messing with us...  One week we are exposed to the smart lyrics of Twenty One Pilots, then the next week we are expected to believe that people actually enjoy listening to "Anaconda."  On top of all this, the VMAs will never be as good as they were in the 90s.

Perhaps the incomplete sentence, "I can't even" serves as an allegory for the state of our generation as a whole.  This is what it is; an incomplete sentence.  First, it is incomplete in the sense that our lives really have only just begun.  We are only in our twenties.  Granted we have good health, we have so many more years to look forward to.  The phrase may also represent a general incompleteness in our lives.  Many of us may be lazy; never completing anything.  Many of us may have voids in our lives; absent parental figures or friends.  Many of us may be missing elements within our love lives.  Any of these situations reasonably illicit the emotion: "can't!"

We are a generation of weirdos stuck in between that time where it was necessary to go to an actual library to complete a research paper, and using Google; between the AOL dial tone and 4G cell phones; between bunny-ear antennas on the television set and flat-screen, high-definition televisions.  Let's face it, we've seen quite a bit of development in our lifetimes and we aren't even halfway through our lifespans.  I'm not saying we are the only generation to experience so much societal stimulation, but we definitely have found some type of way to convey the feeling.  Through the frequent use of this phrase, "I can't even," it seems that we are constantly exasperated.  Some of us may be over-exaggerating our frustrating experiences, but the feeling still remains.  So much is going on that we can't.  We can't even.  We literally cannot.
  

"It's a philosophy book!": A "Mockingjay" Review

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After completing this series, I can say that I was satisfied. The first two books left me feeling bitter and HUNGRY for more... Eh?! Like that?...no? Ok.

All puns aside, I really enjoyed reading this book. At times, I did get bored, or sped through certain part which I felt were "fillers", but for the parts that mattered I was kept on the edge of my seat. This is definitely NOT a children's book. Heck, I barely consider it a book for teens. The depictions of violence are raw and Collins has no mercy while describing scenes of horror and bloodiness. Despite the lovely cover, this is not a warm-fuzzy read.

I really do admire the clear path to maturity that this series has gone through. I'll admit that I absolutely hated the main character, Katniss, for the first book. In the second, I was terribly annoyed by her and her inability to let information pass through her skull that the reader had most likely already figured out pages ago. I started Mockingjay expect to be just as annoyed, but the character finally grew on me. Throughout, she slowly developed into a mature adult, albeit not the way average children should grow. In this book we see her as a human, scarred by the atrocities of war so much that she breaks. I don't believe for a second that society would ever become as barbaric as Panem or as idiotic as the citizens of the Capitol, but you certainly can draw similarities to events in history. Just because it was anceint Rome doesn't mean real-life human beings didn't watch prisoners being torn apart for entertainment. In essence, Collins illustrates to us a point which we all already know: WAR IS BAD. DON'T DO IT. Yeah...we know. (So why do we keep going?)

Now, the reason I like this book the most is because of the varying forms and displays of morality. We see Peeta, who seems to be a genuine dove of peace. (Although, he did coldly murder someone in the first book. No one's going to bring that up again? Anyone? Okay, moving on.) Gale who is definitly bent on serving revenge on the coldest plate in the freezer. (By the way, I still don't buy the Kat/Gale romance. Totally dry.) And even the good ol' Prez Snow with his utilitarian attitude (also, he's a vampire... I'm obviously kidding, but read the book and you'll see what I mean). Katniss constantly flows through different morality models, which makes total sense for a person in her position. Hurt them before they hurt you first? Do eyes for eyes really make the world blind? Does a chance at freedom really justify the slaying of innocents? Conflicting views and questions of morality and human rights in a time of war and opression. Gotta love it. It's the philosopher in me...

So if you're like me, wondering wheter or not to finish the series, my answer is this: Just finish it. You may not like it as much as I did, but it's a series... What kind of lamer just quits halfway through a series? You wouldn't quit watching Merlin after Season 2, would you? (Okay, I did...bad example... Still, go read the darn book!)


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Homosexuality a Mental Disorder?

This blog post has nothing to do with dance.  Please read it anyway, please. :)




I didn't think it would be necessary for me to have to write this article, but sadly, it is becoming more and more evident to me that some individuals cannot grasp the simple concept that homosexuality is in fact NOT a mental disease, disorder, or illness.

First, allow me to start off with some basic definitions:
Disease: A disorder of structure or function in a human that produces specific signs or symptoms or that affects a specific location and is not simply a direct result of physical injury.

Disorder: a disruption of normal physical or mental functions.

Illness: a disease, or period of sickness affecting the body.

Now all you have do is apply the word mental (meaning "in the mind/brain") to any of these definitions, and there you have the definition of a mental disease, disorder, or illness.  In the psychology world, these words are used interchangeably, so for the rest of this article I will just use "mental disorder".

It is common knowledge that mental disorders are classified as ones that cause distress and/or harm for the person with the sickness, and potential distress and harm for others around them.  That being said, I will ask my imaginary friend, here:  Do you really think that there is any harm in being a homosexual?  Does being homosexual cause them harm?  Is it causing harm to others around them?

"Yes it causes harm.  Why do you think so many homosexual men and women end up depressed?"
Sure, many homosexual individuals go through life being mental unstable and depressed.  Many unfortunately end their own lives, but back up for a second.  Is it because they are gay, or is it because they are being bullied?  If you said something along the lines of "their gay-ness is detrimental to their own health", then you should go smack your head against a textbook.  Imagine that you go through your whole life with everyone around you telling you that you are worthless, you are weird, and you are going to Hell.  Imagine you were bullied every single day because of what you like.  Heck, I would be depressed, too.  Bulling is the problem, not the circumstance of being gay.  It is a correlation, not a cause-effect situation.

"Okay, but homosexuality is harmful to others around it.  It makes parents upset, and it's just not normal.  Isn't a deviation from normal things considered a disorder."
True, the definition of a disorder is "a disruption of normal" functions.  However, what is normal?  I don't mean to sound like a "hippy", but I'm being serious.  There is a grey area in the "normal" functions of society.  Think about this for a minute:  A long time ago, it was not considered "normal" for women to pursue higher education.  It was not "normal" for people of different races to fall in love.  It was normal for girls to marry and start families before they reached the age of 17.  NOW, we have television shows exploiting the deviation and horror of teen pregnancy.  Case in point; what is considered "normal" today could be changed tomorrow.
Concerning the statement that homosexuality is harmful to others; no.  It's just not.  Really.  No...  Your gay son and his boyfriend are not going to make you die.  So relax.  Sure, it causes distress in some households because people tend to care a lot (and way too much) about what everyone else will think, but none of that should matter.  Remember when little Suzy came home that one time with a tattoo on her arm, dyed her hair pink, and started dating a guy named Flea who owned a motorcycle?  Yeah.  I bet that was a little distressing, too.  How dare she deviate from "the normal"?!  But I also bet you got over it.

"Alright, but I know this guy who went through Reparative Therapy, and now he's not gay anymore.  So he must have gotten his problems fixed."
Okay ma'am or sir...  First of all, my spell checker says that "reparative" isn't even a word...  Second of all, I call bullshit on this kind of "therapy" and so does every other real professional out there in the field.  This is NOT an empirically supported form of therapy, thus there is no way of telling that it truly works.  Homosexuality is not something you can "fix" because it's not broken.  That's like saying I should go to a therapist to get rid of my attraction to White men.  It's absurd!  Just the thought of this so-called "reparative therapy" makes me sick to my stomach.  I'm sure I will be writing more articles concerning it's questionable procedures.
Also, if your "former" gay friend says that the shrink got rid of his gay-ness, there are only two explanations:
One-he is lying to you, and is still very much attracted to the same-sex, but is ashamed of himself because the world around him tells him that he should be.
Two-he never really was gay in the first place.  He probably had one tiny gay thought or experimented in his youth, and now irrationally fears eternal damnation.


Well, I hoped I cleared that up just a bit for those who do not seem to grasp this fact.  Homosexuality is fine.  Homosexuals are fine.  Leave them alone.  They are not sick, and they definitely don't need your help getting on the "right path".  Trying to change them is the equivalent of trying to get me to stop being an awkward person. It's just not going to happen.  Homosexuality is NOT a disease because it does no harm to anyone.  If anything, people who are homophobic should be considered the ones with the sickness.  The deep hatred for homosexuals is more detrimental than homosexuality itself.  Not only are homophobic people chronic bullies, but their fear (phobia = fear) is highly irrational.

If you still aren't convinced that homosexuality is not a disorder, go take a look in the American Psychological Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.  You wont find homosexuality anywhere in it.  Smart people wrote this manual, and I trust smart people.

Who are the crazy one's now?