This article is a continuation of the previous ones: The inter-generational crisis and Post-modernism, a life without hypocrisy?

Art is a means of expressing the philosophy of the times. Thus, art always reflects the philosophy of a person, a society and an era. This can be seen in the verbal communication of certain songs, but also in painting, architecture, sculpture, stories, films, internet videos, mimes, street art and so on. This particularly struck me when I started listening to well-known French composers. At the top of the list, Bigflo and Oli’s various songs really caught my attention.

Le post-modernisme recherche la justice!

In one of their tracks, Bigflo et Oli want to bring out the cry of their generation:

« I wanted to talk about my town and this world that’s going to hell
Talk about the kid who falls asleep under the canal bridge
And these homemade bombs and the seconds on my watch ticking away
And these shadowy peoples who are gusted and fall
I wanted to talk about this typical girl, who pricks herself, who hopes to get out of her life so empty, so sad, so smooth
Breathe, forget the needle that slides so fast…
I wanted to talk about that pop star, that idol
Who at night in the bedroom falls asleep alone
All those kids who escape from a limp life
Searching for love on Google
I wanted to talk about this guy who’s lost his nerve
He’s gone crazy, you bet he has
But the only thing that’s keeping him from blowing it
Is that there’s already more bullets in the barrel ».

The first thing that strikes me in these lyrics is the desire to do justice and make the world a better place. On the whole, the younger generation is not at all an immoral generation; they have retained many of the values they were taught. I’d even go so far as to say that, in some respects, they’re trying to go further than the previous generation. Yet all these words are in the conditional tense. But why?

A distressing observation: Nobody listens to the words

After declaring all the hobbyhorses our society has, the composers follow up with a distressing observation:

« But what young people want when they go to concerts
Is to put their hands in the air and shout « yeah yeah yo ».
They want choruses to clear their heads
They want it to shoot up in the air, like pan pan pan…

My mates say, why don’t you do like the others: booze and weed?
Deep down, you know, it’s not your fault, it’s what they’re aiming for
You’d get the jackpot
*anyway… anyway
Nobody listens to the lyrics
Nobody listens to the lyrics! Nobody listens to the words!
Nobody listens to the words »

These moral concerns don’t seem so important to the people who come to the concerts. But why? If the younger generation cares so much about others, and has so many values, why do we end up with this refrain? The brothers from Toulouse don’t explain it, but it seems to me that we’re right in the middle of mainstream post-modernism¹. By emphasizing the totality of their desire for reform, post-modernists are confronted with the fact that, without God, they can’t impose anything on others. Without absolutes, we can’t ask others to bend to our personal values. Post-modern man therefore finds himself in a dilemma: either he imposes his personal will on others by force, or he does nothing, since his desire is personal, or he recognizes that there are moral absolutes (and therefore a God) which he will defend body and soul. In our society, the latter option is not recognized, which leads many young people to live in this dilemma: either do nothing, or impose by force and persuasion.

Yet the third option seems the most legitimate. It allows for a call to change that is not merely subjective. It’s our role as Christians to show the world this, by trying to seek out these moral absolutes and live them. May God help us to help all those people who find themselves in a Cornelian dilemma.

1. Here, I’m talking about majority post-modernism to avoid confusing it with people who completely deny the existence of good, evil and truth. Majoritarian post-modernism is much more balanced. ↩︎