I watched
the new movie Skyfall last night and posted my “C- rating” on FB. I’ve been astounded by how many young and
middle-age adults feel it was the greatest 007 movie ever.
The
Huffington Post (HP) just published an article today that may explain my view
point and those posting the opposite view about the new James Bond movie. Previous 007 Bond movies were amazing with
new gadgets, amazing cars, wild women and unbelievable plots with incredible antics
like taking over all the gold in Fort Knox, turning all the satellites into
weapons of mass destruction and riding a nuclear bomb out of a B-52. Lately, they have lost their edge. Skyfall blows up a building and tells us “with
the push of a button on a keyboard” they could do all kinds of nasty stuff… but
then does nothing. I found it boring.
According to the HP this
explains it, “If you're type A, you may have a hard time with this life
transition.” I have higher expectations
because I’ve lived and seen exceptionalism, like a new frontier space program
in less than ten years. Men walking on
the moon and miles of freeways built in a year, not decades. Microwave ovens, computers, zip-lock bags and
even disposal dippers. When I was in
college the first time I used a slide-rule, now we just push buttons on a calculator
and few understand how these equations get solved.
Maybe I was, as the HP described
it, “So you’re a Type A personality: hard-charging, status-driven and
impatient. How do you think that’ll work out for you in retirement?” It’s not working out well. HP, “In retirement nobody knows you were a
chief executive or a heart surgeon. Out of uniform, a Type A retiree looks just
like all the other retirees and is typically viewed no differently by the
people he or she encounters.” It’s not
that we want special recognition, but we can offer another viewpoint that is
being wasted and ignored.
I’m in college full time and
have found this enlightening. Nobody has
much interest in your past successes or how you did it. They just want to learn how to push the
button. Go back just one or two generations and the youth would be clamoring
for more knowledge on how to get further ahead in life. I find today’s students really don’t care;
they just want to get through class as fast as possible. It’s not about learning, it’s about
graduating and the instructors are the same way. Let’s just process these kids through the
system.
Where is the new crop of Type A people, those with high
expectations and deep passion? We seem to
becoming a nation of passive, accepting, system and regulation loving individuals. Are they the students we see sitting quietly
in class from Pakistan, China, Asia and even Mexico? Are they here because they have passion, dreams
and high expectations of a new future?
Is this
what Military people feel when they come home from war? Is this all just post traumatic stress of a
senior citizen… or is there a core change facing America. Have we lost our expectations and passions
and settling for the status quo? If that’s
so, the HP is right. I am going to have
a tough time watching this transition of America. Come-on Young Americans, get
some passion we’re better than this.
Today is Veterans Day, they fought and died so life could be safe,
easier and give you greater opportunities.
Not so you can “just show up”, sit around and push buttons and have low expectations
for tomorrow. Make their sacrifice worth
it, get some passion. Watch Skyfall, the
new James Bond 007 movie with a critical eye, it was, at best, a “C- movie.” Go do something amazing.
Excerpts from the
Huffington Post of 11-11-12, “When Type A Personalities Retire: It Isn't Pretty”
