Our friend Ricardo Garcia has just penned an article simply titled the Jaded New Yorker which got me thinking after I read it (and you should read it immediately too) am I the jaded New Yorker that he refers to? Then again what’s so bad about being a jaded individual? Or does that infer someone who is overtly cryptic and critical and has had their heart broken a few too many times or simply experienced enough nonsense that they learn to look at the downside before they look at the upside first? Then again on a personal note I have never been a fan of looking at the world as a glass half empty but a glass half full, but then again I suspect that’s the optimist in me who has decided despite the challenges of living amongst as Mr Garcia hysterically refers to people who are always trying to get something from you, either love, work, connections, publicity or just information on where the right party is tonight, that one ought to take people at face value until new clues arise.
Offers Mr Garcia ruefully:
I think the Jaded New Yorker was born out of some distortion of Social Capitalism. I’m speaking of basic at-a-glance or in your face capitalism. The word Bling Bling comes to mind. The Jaded New Yorker is intelligent enough to recognize people who “show” or “flash” because they have been on both sides of the lie, the cheat and the bs. They see the downside before the upside and are critical of everyone they meet and that means…YOU.
He might be right. It might come down to the social divide, or simply the desire to advance ones cause in a society that vocally preaches morality and ethics but who in its private affairs often fails at those things that it purports to champion. One can only be weary, or foolish or just simply naive, or completely jaded as most New Yorkers who have come to see it all slowly find themselves becoming.
Offers Mr Garcia:
Can we really blame them for what they have become? Being robbed of their innocence having relocated perhaps from some small village in Montana or Eastern Europe (ok maybe not so innocent there but still). Having gone through the concrete jungle maze and realizing that they just left one level of a maze for a much higher level, still the lab rat. I see them sometimes on the brink or being born. The birth of the Jaded New Yorker comes from some sort of desperation or anger, then the switch occurs. The transform from one day to the next as they just say “fuck it”. They lose their sense dignity, sincerity and honor (sometimes lose their minds).
Yes they lose their minds even their dignity and adopt security measures, toys, attitudes and mental check points to keep them in balance but then again the daily grind of living and understanding and being can only be understood by those who live it and how one lives can only ever be a personal affair that one is obliged over time to reckon with.
So what do you think are you a jaded New Yorker and if so why and is that a necessarily bad thing or maybe is it just the sign of the times? Go here and find out for yourself.
above image found here
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