My generation is screaming for authenticity.

So far the conversations at work have expressed contempt for:
1. people who like bands just because they're popular
2. people who have personalized license plates
3. people who wear thrift store clothing to look cool
4. people who wear name-brand clothing to look cool
5. people who voted for Bush (I am the lone Republican, but I don't usually make that known).
6. people who (fill in the blank)

Basically anyone who doesn't behave or think exactly like them, and people that do behave and think exactly like them for the wrong reason (to look cool).

And yet beneath all this, there is a desperate plea for standards that transcend their own opinions. They want a higher moral standard; they want some justification for condemning those people that they don't like. But they have only standards they've created for themselves--vague assertions that you should do things because you want to and not because you're supposed to.

Oh to be authentic and truth-filled enough to overcome their barriers.