2. EDITORSAstoria Jellett and Shelby Chikazawa!
layout by
Astoria Jellett
doodles by
cover illustrations by
Kat Weiss
Estefy de Armero
WEB DESIGNERCassie Stepanek
with special thanks to
Caresse Haaser
3. CONTENTS
THE MANIFESTO.......................................4
NOT-BUYING-IT GENERATION...........6
CARESSE HAASER
WHY WE SUCK.........................................10
LAFONDA CHANG
FIRST WAVE FOMO.................................13
JONATHAN BUCKLEY
FRESH PRESIDENT OF AMERICA......16
LIAM FITZPATRICK
THE COMMITTED 40%..........................19
ASTORIA JELLETT
GOLD STAR SYNDROME.......................22
SHELBY CHIKAZAWA!
CONVERSATION......................................24
CASSIE STEPANEK
SHELBY CHIKAZAWA!
ASTORIA JELLETT
4. MANI We have been called the Millennials, Generation
Y, Generation Why Bother, the Recession Genera-
tion, the Melancholy Generation, and more. We’re the
most ethnically diverse age group. We’ve experienced
a slew of man-made and natural disasters, everything
from Columbine, 9/11 and the space shuttle tragedies
to Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami that rocked Japan
and the earthquake that shook Haiti. Between Iraq and
Afghanistan, we’ve spent half our lives in a time of war
and have been raised in fear of terrorism. We’ve elected
the first African-American president and seen politics
more polarized than ever before thanks to a 24/7 news
cycle. Technology, the internet, and social media have
completely transformed the way we live, work, and
interact with the world. The Great Recession has hit
us harder than any other generation, when we’re just
starting our careers. We’re reportedly the most liberal
generation, more accepting of minorities, gender equal-
ity, and homosexuality. We’re less religious, more “spir-
itual.” We’re more expressive, more educated, and more
optimistic than ever. We are the Millennials.
4
5. FESTO SAMT SENIT is a zine by and about the Millenni-
al generation. We seek to explore the whats, whos, whys,
and hows of people our age. By exploring our generation,
we hope to discover what the future holds. What will the
world look like when we’re through?
We derived the name SAMT SENIT from the word
zenith, taken from the Arabic expression “samt ar-ra’s,”
which means “direction of the head” or “path above the
head.” Over years of translation, it was reduced to “samt”
(“direction”) and miswritten as “senit.” SAMT SENIT is
the combination of correct and incorrect direction, an apt
description for any generation in its youth.
SAMT also emphasizes substance over style. In an
increasingly superficial culture, too many people are more
concerned with looking cool rather than actually being
cool. We strive to create reader-worthy content that pro-
vokes thought and animated discussion. We don’t want to
regurgitate and we don’t want to bore you. We want to in-
spire you. And please - we want to know what you think.
5
6. words & image by
CARESSE
HAASER
THE NOT-BUYING-IT
GENERATION
FACT: Each successive
generation of young persons
in the United States is (experts
agree) about five times shittier
than the previous generation.
Some studies peg the discrep-
ancy at closer to ten – but five
to one, at minimum, is the ratio
by which young persons of our
current time suck worse than
their predecessors. In related
facts (anecdotes slutting around
as facts in these liberated mod-
ern times), the best music ever
is that which was produced
during the years of one’s own
high school/college enrollment.
And the worst music is whatever
those lazy pot-smoking base-
ment-dwellers are listening to
right now.
How to proceed with
such inerrant, sociological
truths when one is a “youth”
themselves? As a 22-year-old,
I can tell you with my eyes…
Did you see the irises roll to the
back, from the left to the right,
and then forward again? Did
you note the crinkling of the
eyebrows – one, perhaps, raised
with practiced effortlessness,
slightly higher than the other?
That fits right in with Todd G.
And Victoria Buchholz’s sche-
ma of the average American
Millennial, according to their
March 2012 article entitled,
“The Go-Nowhere Generation.”
They may say an eye-roll is the
laziest of gestures. I say it’s just
efficient. And no one appreci-
ates a pointed, quick, clear, and
efficient message more than my
generation.
But while I am on the
toping of becoming passively
irritated by another “Get off my
lawn!” trend article, I can at
least rebut a few of the Buch-
holz’s points with the smug, “O
RLY?” skills honed through for-
mative years of internet perusal,
quirky television comedies, and
rapid-dialogue Coen brothers
films. Here goes.
Buchholz & Buchholz: “But
sometime in the last 30 years…
Americans – particularly young
Americans – have become risk-
averse and sedentary.”
I take risks. That pile
6
7. of student loans hanging over
my head? Kind of risky. And
for a Bachelors in Arts, too. As
for being sedentary, if you had
HD televisions growing up that
looked more real than reali-
ty, and if in real reality people
were saying things like 9/11
was an inside job, that Presi-
dent Obama is ushering in a
UN takeover of America, that
women who use birth control
are ipso facto sluts, that one’s
student loan rates might double
in the next few years… perhaps
then you’d want to stay put on
the couch in front of the HDTV
all day too.
B&B: “The likelihood of
20-somethings moving to
another state has dropped
well over 40 percent since the
1980s… the proportion of
young adults living at home
nearly doubled between 1980
and 2009… Even bicycle sales
are lower now than they were in
2000. Today’s generation is
literally going no-
where.”
First
of all, do not
even go there
with the
young
people and
the bicycles.
Maybe bicycle sales are down
because our nation’s youth are
already so saturated with bi-
cycles that we can buy them
off-the-record on Craigslist for
$50 and fix them up ourselves,
rather than spend ten times that
much on a new one. Though I
cannot speak for all Millenni-
als, personally I could not wait
to get the fuck out of my home
state, and I did – twice. (Pro tip:
There is an exciting migration
opportunity currently being
offered by the United States
Government to a little out-of-
state place called Afghanistan!
Act now!)
B&B: “For about $200, young
Nevadans who face a statewide
13 percent jobless rate can hop
a Greyhound bus to North
Dakota, where they’ll find a
welcome sign and a 3.3 percent
rate. Why are young people not
crossing the borders?”
Hmm, let me informally
poll my peers as to why we
are all
not
7
8. rushing en masse to North
Dakota, and get back to you on
that. In the meantime, let us also
ponder other places accepting
migrants (places that do not
have a population density of
less than 10 humans per square
mile; places that also have uni-
versal health care and free or af-
fordable higher education), such
as the Netherlands with a jobless
rate of 5.3%, Germany at 5.5%,
or Norway at 3.1%. Fargo or
Amsterdam? Another daunting
choice faced by the rare ambi-
tious youths of my generation.
B&B: “In the most startling be-
havioral change among young
people since James Dean and
Marlon Brando started mum-
bling…”
Who? What?
“… an increasing number of
teenagers are not even both-
ering to get their driver’s li-
censes… in the early 1980s, 80
percent of 18-year-olds [ob-
tained licenses]… by 2008…
that number had dropped to
65 percent. Though it’s easy
to blame the high cost of cars
or gasoline, Comerica Bank’s
Automobile Affordability Index
shows that it takes fewer weeks
of work to buy a car today than
in the early 1980s.”
What’s this? A bank told
you that a large purchase – one
that will decrease exponentially
in value the moment you drive
it off the lot – is actually quite
affordable? Aren’t cars supposed
to be one of the worst invest-
ments a person can make? But
hey, it’s the quick and the risky,
right? (Extra points for having a
turbocharger).
B&B: “We are a nation of mov-
ers and shakers. Pilgrims leapt
onto leaky boats to get there.
The Lost Generation chased
Hemingway and Gertrude Stein
to Paris. The Greatest Gener-
ation signed up to ship out to
fight Nazis in Germany or the
Japanese imperial forces in the
Pacific. The ‘60s kids joined the
Peace Corps.”
This is ironic, because
the idealism those draft-dodg-
ing ‘60s hippies who joined the
Peace Corps was as derided by
their elders as the idealism of
our generation’s Occupy move-
ment was last year. Maybe if
Millennials all join the Peace
Corps, we’ll be laudable 40-50
years from now. (Not to detract
from the actual goodness of the
Peace Corps.)
I can’t pretend to care
about this New York Times arti-
8
9. cle for much longer. My clini-
cally-diagnosed ADD attention
span eludes me. I can’t figure
out if Buchholz and Buchholz
are attempting to conflate all
our statistical shortcomings
with personal failure of if they
are trying, however feebly, to
excuse us by way of the current
recession – asserting that “chil-
dren raised during recessions
ultimately take fewer risks with
their investments and their jobs”
and “kids who grow up during
tough economic times also
tend to believe that luck plays
a bigger role in their success,
which breeds complacency.”
Maybe they’re right on the
complacency, but a reliance on
luck has nothing to do with it.
It’s as if the older generations are
expecting us (at 20-something
years of age) to still believe in
Santa Claus, and are flabber-
gasted and disappointed at our
failure to muster up squeals of
excitement and delight come
Christmas Eve. “Look!” our par-
ents and grandparents say, “The
American Dream is real! It came
last night when you turned 18 –
now go and open it!”
FACT: No matter how
hard I work, no matter how
much I achieve academically
or how many miles I put on
my crumbly (but American,
by God) Pontiac, no matter
what kind of job I secure upon
graduating, all of it can be taken
away, squashed momentarily by
the next big economic collapse
resulting from the negligence
of a government that doesn’t
represent my generation’s best
interests: a government run
by politicians that I have little
to no influence in choosing
or electing into office. This is
what I have learned from this
Great Recession, from watching
peers graduate ahead of me and
struggle to find jobs, or bounce
from one job to another, one
couch to another. The last and
common resort is coming home
to live with Mom and Dad, who
might have some nest egg left
over from the days when going
to college actually did yield a
ticket to a future and a career.
Unfortunately, the Buchholzes
find this pragmatic approach
to avoiding student loan bank-
ruptcy uninspiring. As to our
collective failure as Millennials
and particularly our risk-taking
aversion, I posit this: some pre-
vious generation already took
all the risks, and there’s not a lot
left for the rest of us.
9
10. WHY WE
Generation Y has been
given a lot of different titles,
one of which is “Generation
Why Bother.” That name’s nasty
connotation was the spark
that bore SAMT SENIT. Even
I was a little angry, although I
almost whole-heartedly agree
with such an accusation. Gen
Y likes to play the blame game,
never accepting responsibility
for our own faults; we are
overrun with media saturation,
from the internet to reality
TV, both of which are full of
bad role models and time
wasting, soul sucking
capabilities; we have a
sense of entitlement that
overshadows our lackluster
work ethic; and half of us
can’t take a word of criticism
without becoming depressed,
estranged, stressed, anxious,
and finally, medicated. Most
of us are sitting in our parents’
basements with our thumbs up
our asses thinking this assisted
living will last forever.
With all these
disapproving words flying
around Generation Y’s cloud
nine we must start asking
ourselves, “who’s fault is it?” I
think we’d collectively agree that
it isn’t ours. “We were raised
this way, it’s our parents’ and
our teachers’ faults. Maybe we
wouldn’t be like this if everyone
else had done a better job. They
just don’t get us!” We simply
cannot take responsibility for
our own blunders.
Of course, we’re
incapable of self-analyzing
because our faces are always
glued to some screen or other.
We’re too busy watching Kim
Kardashian or some other
fame whore’s life play out to
give a spare thought to where
our own lives are headed. And
with the amazing graphics in
video games, the high definition
screens that are better than
real life, and the perpetual
connectivity of the internet,
why wouldn’t we stayed glued to
our seats? I’d rather shoot aliens
with futuristic weaponry as a
space marine than, say, write
an article, but what defines a
person is the self discipline that
makes them sit down and do
their shit. There are distractions,
yes, but it is our responsibility
10
11. SUCK
to focus ourselves. We’re all
so ready to give fault to these
influences, saying they are
destroying our generation, but
Generation X had the same
problem. MTV first aired in
August of 1981 and captivated
teens and young adults of
Generation X, yet they were
still able to get off the couch, get
out of their parents’ house, and
get real jobs. So why can’t we?
Are these beautiful, fast-paced
images really too good to turn
away from? Or is it possible
that we’re too stoned to even
consider the concept of “will
power?”
Generation Y has also been
dubbed the laziest generation.
We sit around all day and can’t
even get our hands out of a
chip bag long enough to jerk
off. Unfortunately, we are the
ones who will be overflowing
the working world soon. By
2025 we will make up about 75
percent of the workplace. This
is a scary thought for all the
Baby Boomers and Generation
X employees who’ve worked
tireless hours for that raise
they’ve been wanting while
Generation Y finds that salary
too small for their innate
brilliance. We want the work
environment to change for us
and accept us for all our flaws,
quirks, and imperfections. Is
it so hard to shave a beard or
take out a piercing for a good
job? Is it too much to ask to
reconsider that tattoo since it
may affect your future ability to
work? Apparently so, since our
“individualism” and need for
“self expression” trumps logical
reasoning.
And we won’t change
for anyone. Stuck in our ways
(since we’re always right), we
indignantly strut through life
brushing off the ideas that we
aren’t as good as we KNOW we
are. Our fragile egos can’t bear
a breeze, much less a blow. We
can’t take criticism and and
when it’s given we’re crushed.
Suddenly we’re overcome with
feelings of worthlessness and
depression because no one’s
ever told us we aren’t the picture
perfect Barbies we see ourselves
as. It’s okay though: since
by LaFonda Chang
11
12. shrinks are pushing pills on the
populous, there is a quick and
easy cure for these emotions. We
can mask them and we’ll never
feel as inadequate as we actually
are. Thank god we can zombify
ourselves, boost the economy,
and become completely devoid
self reliance all at once. That’s
the efficiency of the future; that’s
Gen Y.
Generation Y, the teacup
generation, the Peter Pan
generation, or whatever the fuck
we’re called - it doesn’t matter.
These are all harsh names, and
they are totally appropriate. But
perhaps we can take our tail out
from between our legs and ween
ourselves off our medication.
Perhaps we can peel our eyes
from our screens. Perhaps we
can be self sufficient.
But why bother with
that?
12
13. FIRST
WAVE
fomo
wordsbyJONATHANBUCKLEY
imagebyEMILYQUINTERO
Somewhere in lower Manhattan, I began to sense that
something wasn’t right. It was a Friday night in early July and I was
walking with a few friends through Chelsea going to the rooftop
bar at the Dream Hotel. (A friend’s brother was a promoter and had
table service.)
After passing the first bouncer, getting an invisible stamp on
the wrist, passing another bouncer and taking a short elevator ride,
we arrived at the bar, got drinks and headed outside. The outdoor
terrace was the kind of place to smoke next to women who looked
like Ralph Lauren models and men who looked like Iranian busi-
nessmen. I was with one of the former, and she was wearing silk
shorts cut like men’s briefs and she sipped vodka on the rocks while
around her everyone danced, flirted and texted. Suddenly, I looked
around and everyone was on his or her smart phone—including
everyone I was with. I went to grab my phone, but it was dead. I
felt alone looking out at the Hudson River while everyone else had
someone, somewhere, they were planning to see, sometime.
I was suffering from FOMO, the fear of missing out. Not di-
rectly, but second hand. Is there something better, somewhere else?
With the world in our pockets no one seems to be satisfied with
13
14. what is tangible. Even when out and about or home in bed may-
be there is a text, or a missed call—or maybe, worst of all, you are
missing out on everything. Everyone you know is probably having
the greatest night, with the greatest people and you are probably
bored, in bed, alone, wondering why no one invited you. But what
about when in the company of others - is the constant pursuit of
being in the know enabling us to miss out on being in the moment?
While FOMO, although riding the wave of YOLO (You
Only Live Once), may be a new term, I don’t think it’s a new feeling.
Now, with smart phones, the ability to see what is happening on
any given night is easier and news of other happenings is instant.
Jenna Wortham’s article about FOMO in the New York Times asked
the question “‘When would you be more upset?... After missing
your flight by two minutes or two hours?”’
In two hours’ time, the process of getting over a missed
flight would have taken place, but in two minutes you would still be
watching the gate close and the plane begin rolling off into a flight
and a world of opportunities you’ll never have. And isn’t that how it
is with social media?
I logged
onto Facebook
to see the life I
could have been
living instead of
writing this article.
Among the muck,
there it was—my
three friends
downtown, drinks
in hand and smiles filtered through what appeared to be the toaster
filter on Instagram. When was it posted? About an hour ago. I’ve
been there with them in that same photograph before. I knew the
song that was playing, the type of people who were sitting in the
back room, and most of all I knew the bar sucked, but I still felt that
simply being with them, there, at that time would have changed
something. Even if all that it would change was how I felt the next
Is the constant pursuit
of being in the know enabling
us to miss out on being in the
moment?
14
15. day. When I would be tired and have less money.
Another time I found FOMO where I least expected. It
came in the shape of a very attractive, witty and captivating twen-
ty-something girl who
was interning in Man-
hattan for the sum-
mer. All the while, her
boyfriend was taking
classes and working
back on the opposite
end of the east coast. At
first, chatting happened
at a lax pace. But as time
went, texting on the
girl’s end increased and
a worry set in. Not in
fear of infidelity, but of
the unknown. How late
is he staying out, where
is he going and worst of
all, is he having more
fun than I am?
This is the root of FOMO. When all is said and done no one
likes making the wrong choice, but is there a wrong choice? There
are a million decisions a person has made, even in their early twen-
ties, that if reversed would make everything different. But in the
words of moms and therapists internationally, coulda, would shoul-
da. Instead of looking around and quickly seeing all the options
disappearing in every direction, put away the phone and look ahead
at the life you’re in—in that moment. Because… well… at the end
of the day…
15
17. Over the past century, media saturation has increased
exponentially among the populace. An example: picture the
Old West, or outer space, or ancient Rome. Odds are that
every image you came up with was influenced in some way by
an image you’ve seen in a movie or on television. Reflect for a
moment on what that means: our thinking is entirely defined
by the media we consume. Is it any surprise, then, that we are
a generation obsessed with tolerance and change?
In the 1950s there were two sitcoms staring Afri-
can-Americans in primary roles, Amos ‘n’ Andy and Beulah.
In the 1960s there was one, Julia. By the 1970s there were 15,
and that number increased to 19 in the 1980s. Between 1990
and 2000 there were 57 sitcoms dealing primarily with Afri-
can-American life and culture. For those of you who are bad
at math, that’s almost three times as many sitcoms in just 10
years.
People ages 18-29 voted for Barack Obama in landslide
numbers, 66 percent to John McCain’s 32 percent. That means
that everyone born between 1971 and 1990 (i.e. the viewing
audience of Sister, Sister, Kenan & Kel, Family Matters, et al)
overwhelmingly voted for Barack Obama. Not only are we
a) the generation most completely influenced by the media,
but also b) the generation most exposed to positive Afri-
can-American role models, particularly those in leadership
roles.
In France electing an Armenian Prime Minister would
be patently ridiculous, and no one in Romania would serious-
ly consider a Romani for high public office. Yet America, a
country established through ruthless racism and xenophobia,
elected a mixed-race candidate president.
Could it be, perhaps, that the influx of African-Amer-
ican culture in mainstream media (television, art, music, etc.)
also reflects the state of the US? The United States Census Bu-
17
18. reau predicts that non-Hispanic white people will be a minori-
ty by 2055. That may seem far off, but most of us will totally
still be alive. How can we not embrace ethnic diversity, then,
especially in leadership roles? If we were only to elect WASPs
for the next two hundred years, we’d wind up with an inbred
ruling class not seen since the days of the pharaohs.
Paradoxically, change is our world’s most stalwart
constant (given that I imagine the future will have no need
for death and taxes). We are a fundamentally different society
than we were 50 years ago, and we must assume that 50 years
from now we will be exponentially more progressive and di-
verse. Television serves as the main form of media that most
people experience, and it has strongly encouraged the per-
ception of African-Americans as positive role models in our
society. That’s why our generation was able to judge Barack
Obama not on the color of his skin, but on the integrity of his
character, and why future generations will do the same.
18
19. THE COMMITTED 40%
My mother always threatened me with disownment if I
should so much as associate with anyone who had a tattoo. There-
fore, I only date boys with tattoos.
My family was shocked, however, when I got my own piece.
They said it wasn’t like me and claimed the evil influences of art
school. Despite my mother’s association between tattoos and the
lower classes, I had grown up admiring body art for what it is: art.
words by Astoria Jellett
image by Karen Briceno
19
20. It wasn’t until halfway through college that I felt the impetus to
get my own. Maybe being in an environment that surrounded me
with inked peers did have an influence, but I don’t think so. I didn’t
get it to set myself apart or to fit in; I didn’t get it for anyone but
myself. My little sister was the only accepting family member, who
quipped, “Well at least she’s not pregnant!”
Looking around my classroom, I count six of the fourteen
students (including myself) who have at least one visible tattoo.
Granted, it is art school, but the number is consistent with the na-
tional average: 40% of Generation Y is inked. Of that 40%, half have
more than one piece. And from what I’ve learned talking to my
peers who have tattoos, most of them mean something.
Caresse Haaser, a fellow student, said, “I got my first tattoo
in January 2009, shortly after my 19th birthday. I’d wanted a tattoo
for a while, but I didn’t just want some ‘stamp’ design from a book
and I couldn’t think of anything meaningful.” Her first tattoo was
“Stubborn Rebel,” the name of the F-86 fighter jet her grandfather
flew in the Korean War. “My mom was kind of upset at first,” Ca-
resse said, “but she was also torn between being touched that it was
about my grandfather (her father).”
Christopher St. Clair is a character modeler and recent
graduate from the Savannah College of Art and Design. He has
three tattoos, but he said, “My most important and cherished tattoo
is the one on the top of my left foot. It’s the paw print of my service
dog, Red. Without him I would not have been able to have the life
that I do now. He walked for me when I could not do it myself,
and to him I am forever grateful. His memory will live on with me
even once he’s passed away.” Sometimes a tattoo that seems totally
arbitrary and indicates only a love for dogs can have a much deeper
meaning - but if you just saw Chris on the street, you would never
know.
If it’s not a tattoo with some sentimental value, it’s at least a
very nice piece of artwork. True, there are some bad ones out there.
A friend of mine let one of his brother’s buddies stick and poke a
horrible rendition of music notes in flames. People constantly ask
him why the guitar has legs. But Caresse has a piece after a James
20
21. Jean painting, and one of my roommates has an elegant elephant on
her leg. I’ve seen plenty of beautiful tattoos after artists like Audrey
Kawasaki and Camille Rose Garcia.
So why are tattoos so unpopular with our parents?
Caresse said, “I know that my mother, at least, always asso-
ciated tattoos with convicts, lower class people and anyone else on
the fringes of mainstream society. The archetype of a heavily-tat-
tooed person was someone with a ton of piercings and morbid
motifs of skulls and other death-related imagery. Or ‘tramp stamps,’
tribals, and things like that.” I think of my own mother’s prejudices
and can’t help but agree. Caresse continued, “I’ll admit that even I
was a little intimidated the first time I walked into a tattoo shop and
was greeted by a giant dude with tons of piercings and ink. Both of
the guys who did my tattoos, though, turned out to be total sweet-
hearts and awesome people. So you really shouldn’t judge anyone
before you get to know them.”
It’s a classic lesson. Don’t judge a book by its cover; don’t
judge a person by their skin.
With the Millennial generation entering the workforce, will
their tattoos affect their ability to get a job? Probably, since they’ll
be working mainly for older professionals who are less likely to
accept body art. There’s even a Facebook page titled “Tattoo ac-
ceptance in the workplace.” Their “about” page reads, “Our goal
is to take away the stigma attached to people who have tattoos in
the workplace. Tattoos are art. Some of us have chosen to express
ourselves not with vibrant shoes, or a colorful tie, but with body art.
What is the difference?”
The difference is permanence. At the end of the day, you can
remove your suit, but the tattoo underneath will still be there. How
many times have I heard “If you get a tattoo, it’ll be there forever!”
- as if forever is anything to be afraid of? Ultimately, what a tattoo
indicates more than any grandfather or service dog is commitment.
And what’s wrong with that?
21
22. GOLD STAR SYNDROME
words & image by Shelby Chikazawa!
Our generation needs to toughen up. Our skin is too thin,
our egos too fluffed, and god forbid we’re ever criticized. I, too,
can sense this and experience it on a daily basis. Although aware
of these criticisms, our biggest critics, Generation X, may be the
ones to blame. The constant cooing of sweet mothers telling their
children, “It’s okay, that’s okay sweetie. We all make mistakes. I
think you’re perfect. You’re so special,” and other feel-good phrases
may be our downfall.
22
23. This gold star system
has trained us to believe that
for every correct behavior
there is a tangible, visible
reward. I once babysat for
a woman whose daughter
attended a local Montessori
pre-k where the gold star
system was used. She refused
to do anything I asked without
the prospect of a gold star to
adorn the already-full chart
she had clumsily hung upon
the kitchen wall. What of the
times when there is no material
reward? What will the gold star
child do when her feelings of
unabashed deservedness fog
her moral vision? In a letter
to a friend Thomas Jefferson
wrote, “Self-love is no part of
morality. Indeed it is exactly
its counterpart. It is the sole
antagonist of virtue leading us
constantly by our propensities to
self-gratification in violation of
our moral duties to others.” It’s
clear Jefferson would not agree
with the “culture of narcissism”
created by Gen X.
With everyone telling
us we’re so special I feel our
generation has been ingrained
with the idea that people are
obligated to us. Instead of
working for something, more
and more Millennials have the
idea that we already earned
it, just by showing up and
breathing. Something, someday,
will effortlessly fall into our laps
- something just as perfect as we
are.
Now, there isn’t
anything wrong with a little
encouragement, but if a child
grows up thinking they’re so
special and flawless, we’ll have
nothing but infallible teenagers
and lost twenty-somethings.
And where will that lead us?
Because our generation
has been so pampered, I’ve
come to notice the number of
Millennials who can’t seem
to deal with the stresses of
everyday life. We all need
therapy or medication or
something to help us get
through our stressful American
lives full of reality TV and Taco
Bell trips. Suddenly everyone
has anxiety problems or
depression or attention deficit
disorder. If doctors keep passing
out pills like candy we won’t be
eliminating problems, but rather
creating people who can’t get
through the day alone.
At the rate we’re going,
we will crash and burn. We’re
already the first generation not
expected to live longer than
the previous one. Can we turn
ourselves around or is it too
late? Maybe we should buckle
down, suck it up, and find out.
23
24. CONVER
Astoria Jellett and Shelby
Chikazawa are writing students
and editors of SAMT SENIT. Cassie
Stepanek is SAMT’s web creator
studying industrial design. To put it
in WWII terms: Astoria is England,
Shelby is Germany, and Cassie is Russia.
Shelby: Well basically what happened was Astoria was outside
of Arnold [Hall], and we had met in our 3D Design class, and I
walked up and she was like, “Hey I’m all pissed off!” And I was like,
“About what?” And she was like, [Shelby imitates Astoria’s tone of
outrage, which is not at all what Astoria sounds like.] “The New
York Times said that we’re not Generation Y, but rather Generation
Why Bother, and I’m not okay with that accusations like that!” and
I was like, “okay,” and we high fived and it all happened, it all hap-
pened just like that.
Astoria: Not exactly. [laughs]
Cassie: Well I was off in Texas losing two grand and [laughs] my
car got totaled and I hated my life. [laughs]
A: Meanwhile, in Texas…
C: The actual failure of our generation.
[laughs]
A: Yeah so it started because I was pissed off. Wow, anger is pretty
useful.
S: Told you. “Look at me, I’m Astoria, I’m just bee-boppin’ around
my days with this blissful cloud around me.”
[laughs]
S: Well, Astoria and I have really opposing… um, ideas constantly.
C: I feel like I oppose both of you also.
S: Yeah.
A: We all disagree with each other.
S: Exactly. We have opposing ideas and Astoria’s really optimistic
and I’m really cynical and…
C: I’m usually cynical.
S: Yeah.
C: But in a different way.
24
25. SATION
A: But the thing is, it’s the whole
conversation thing. When you have
a group of people who all agree
on the same thing, no progress
happens, nothing good happens,
it’s stagnant. But when you have people who all disagree with one
another, they’re challenging each other’s ideas constantly, and that’s,
you know, that’s exactly what makes democracy work. And it may
be slow, and yes we run SAMT in a very democratic way and it
takes us ten months to fucking get going, but that’s also what makes
us work. You know?
S: Right. Because if we all did things your way, oh my god, we’d
have terrible typefaces and layout, we’d have some work that maybe
not everyone likes…
C: Weird inverted photos…
A: Okay, that was a technical failure.
S: We’d have speech bubbles in the table of contents…
[laughs]
S: Everything would be so happy.
A: BUT it’s because of me that the layout happened, so HA!
C: True.
S: True, which is why we need each other.
A: Awwwe, we need each other!
S: Sentiment… ew.
[laughs]
A: No, but the thing is I feel like we started out defending our gen-
eration and it’s gotten to where… I don’t want to say we’re critical of
it but we’re trying to be more objective.
S: Yeah, objective and less biased. Cause if it’s just a magazine hyp-
ing up the Y Generation, then… why bother?
C: Yeah, yeah.
A: Yeah, ‘cause I don’t want it to be a big ego trip and I feel like that
may be how it’s coming off.
C: Well that’s one of the main reasons why I joined, ‘cause I was
here at Foxy that one day while I was visiting Savannah and you
were telling me about it and I started coming to more meetings and
25
26. you were telling me how we’re being very -
A: Balance.
C: Yeah, we’re being very balanced and we have articles that tell us
why we suck and we have articles that say why we don’t suck, and
I was like, “Well okay, somebody’s finally doing that.” Because I’m
tired of hearing and reading such one sided news and I wanna hear
both sides and form my own opinions, and that’s why I wanted to
join.
A: And that’s like the conversation aspect of it, is in each issue we
want to have one pro and one con argument, one for one against
argument.
S: Give people the facts and then they can come to their own deci-
sion.
A: Yeah, show people both sides or maybe three sides or four sides
or five sides and it’s that conversation and that growth, that just lis-
tening to each other that gives people a better understanding of one
issue. That’s something I learned from my political science textbook
actually, ‘cause that’s how that was set up and I found that to be the
most effective way to understand an issue.
C: Yeah. I came to the same position in a different way, ‘cause my
biggest inspiration for anything I wanna do in the future is Hans
Ulrich Obrist the curator, and he just comes out with books and
books and he just never sleeps and has conversations with people
and records them and you’re like, “I’m gonna read these conver-
sations with all these high society artists or curators or whatever.”
And you get to know somebody better and you get to have an opin-
ion of them better and you get to understand the facts at the same
time. Instead of just looking at a non-objective piece of art, which
is great, you have that for a reason, but nobody pushes conversation
as an art piece and I think it should be pushed more.
[The conversation continued for a good hour, covering mainly the
internet, social media, our parents’ criticisms of our generation,
and how we wish our teachers had failed us more.]
C: I can hear my dad talking in my head if he was reading this tran-
scribed conversation and he would be like, “Okay, that’s great ya’ll
are having a conversation, these are interesting thoughts you are
26
27. saying, but you are not coming to any conclusions about anything.”
And we aren’t! I wish older generations and just people in general
would realize that those things come with conversation and conver-
sation and conversation and come with time and -
S: We may not have the answer but somebody else might.
C: Yeah, somebody could read this and think about it and they
could have the answer. But just because we’re not … I’m not playing
myself off to be this brilliant person who can solve all the problems
of the world and the internet and all that shit. I know we’re not
coming to any solutions right now, but I’m gonna leave this con-
versation, leave this table in a better mood tonight, happy that I put
some thoughts out there and that I had arguments and that I heard
things that I had never heard before, like what the fuuuuck, a little
outrage about some of them.
A: Here’s the thing: there is no fucking answer. There is no fucking
solution. Since when has there ever been a be-all end-all, these are
the rules, like - no, life isn’t like that, human beings aren’t like that,
we are constantly just contradicting ourselves, Apollo and Dionysus
will always be butting heads within ourselves because conflict is
innate in human beings and there is no - I mean yeah to an ex-
tent there’s a right and a wrong but there’s so much gray. There’s so
much gray. You don’t have to come to a conclusion.
S: I’ve learned a lot form this conversation.
C: Me too.
A: and that’s the beauty of conversation as education.
C: Aren’t your favorite classes the kind where you sit in a circle and
you start getting into it and you’re like, “That was great class!”
A: I’ve learned at least as much from my peers as I have from my
professors.
C: Oh, absolutely yeah.
S: Completely.
A: Especially talking to people from different backgrounds. That’s
why it’s great to have internet when you live in Alabama and go to
an all white school.
[laughs]
C: Yeah, I can agree with that one.
27
28. WANT TO SUBMIT YOUR WORK? email astoria@samtsenit.com
OR shelby@samtsenit.com
samtsenit.com
