Snowflake generation

A man called us the Snowflake generation recently on the radio. I smiled a bit and wondered what he meant. Are we cold? Maybe he meant this generation is too white? Na, that’s not it. Then it hit me, we treat ourselves as individuals. It’s a good thing right to be an individual. A cold feeling fell over me as I realized the man was talking about pride more than individuality.

Each one of us is unique. I get that and for the most part we need individuality in society. We need painters, lawyers, and postmen. In years gone by we were known as people in a profession. Today it’s different, were now seen as African painters, gay lawyers, and transgender postmen. An adjective has been placed on who we are in the moment. I guess it’s nice to be more descriptive as we look in the mirror, but is it?

What happens when people become a total “Adjectified” individual? It seems we are the perfect generation to be studied and scrutinized like a lab test. The other day someone called transgender champion Bruce Jenner a science project gone wrong. I know this generation accepts all types of people and they should, yet something has gone wrong in the lab. We are gaining individual rights at an alarming pace. In Jurassic park the scientist Ian Malcolm made this statement about making dinosaurs “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should.” Did we just throw community out with the bath water? Should we all be individual snowflakes (Only) at all costs?

What does God have to say about individuals? Yes, God did say he knows each of us individually down to the number of hairs on our heads yet, God is community. They call him the Trinity (three persons in one). People struggle with that but simply it is a community of three. There is God the Father as the leader of the community plus Jesus and the Holy Spirit residing within. They are separate and distinct, but equal within. God created individuals in the same way to live inside a community.

Each of us snowflakes is distinct from the other. We do however live within a community. Although we have the right to individuality; do we have the right to infringe on the rights of others? We were a society that was founded on freedom; freedom to be and freedom to speak. We are free to work, live, and interact within the community. These days we’re a little confused because as individual snowflakes we want to be important. What we stand for needs to be heard. The problem is when other snowflakes disagree. We seem to be turning into an avalanche against one another. Our freedom to be  is gone.

The community is breaking down. We are becoming factions within the bigger picture. There is the African community, Asian gangs, and the pride community just to name a few. What happens when you don’t desire to be in one of those communities, or you’re not from their race? You become part of the rest of us just trying to live around these communities. We can’t be ourselves because that is intolerant, bigot, and phobic.

I know it’s weird but in the past individuals lived together in harmony. Today you are either in or out. You are phobic, racist, and several other terms. Each snowflake community now needs to be heard. They need laws to ensure they are heard. Their rights trump the community rights of those on the outside. The fight to be important is outweighing the real problems in this world.

I like Ian Malcolm’s character stating “Were so busy we forgot to ask the important questions.” I would champion individual rights but they should not exceed the community. That is democracy. We have the right to vote but we must live with the final tally. Win or lose we still go to work the next day. Recently some groups want to change the community to suit their agenda. Another important question might be “What will happen to the rest of us.”

Centuries ago the Romans had a policy to give freedom to every group they captured. They live within the Roman community but could call themselves individual snowflakes. It was all fine and dandy until the day came to fight for Rome. Nobody cared enough about Rome over their own individual communities. Rome fell apart because the overarching community failed to unite. A fractured Canada might look gay, African, Asian, white, and French. What it fails to look like these days is Canadian. What Roman road is our prideful snowflake state taking us down?

Faith comes alive