“Back in my day, everything was constantly on fire and it made us tough! Not like today’s softies, who have all the water they can drink. Also, the music was better.”

– someone’s grandpa, eventually

Between films like Office Space, The Truman Show, and The Matrix, it feels like the prevailing attitude of 90s American fiction was “Wow, every single one of my basic needs are currently being met and there are absolutely zero existential threats to my life right now. This sucks!”

Which part of me does understand – when almost all external threats are removed, or at least distant enough to be of lesser concern, the human mind tends to look inward and become preoccupied with self-fulfillment.

But another part of me just thinks, “Man, fuck those guys.”

– James