Influences

Will future students fascinated by contemporary literature clutch copies of Infinite Jest and quote excerpts from David Foster Wallace’s work like Chairman Mao’s legion of devoted students, who clutched their own copies of The Little Red Book with such brutal admiration as they shunned themselves from anything and everything foreign or too idealistic?

Will philosophy majors convene in their tightly packed circles, scratching at unkempt neck-beards and sipping overpriced lattes while discussing the ethics of rampant consumerism echoed by the likes of Chomsky?

Will budding young journalists pop peyote in the spirit of Gonzo, desperately seeking to distance themselves from a medium they consider to be a bought priesthood controlled by corporations and lobbyists, while trying in vain to catch their big break from someone willing enough to pay for their humble efforts?

Will the aspiring business grad try to emulate Zuckerberg, by way of stepping on the hands of his hapless friends as they all strive to climb the rickety rungs of the company latter?  Or worse yet, will he shirk on his civic duties like Eduardo Saverin and make a break for some tax haven in Singapore while the rest of us are left to contend with mounting debt?

I just pray that we all haven’t given up on our own character quite just yet.

Ryan Fallon is a staff writer for Rutgers-Camden's Gleaner.  He has also written as a columnist for The Inner Condition, a blog that features prose and poetry.  Ryan Fallon is also a chain-smoking, cynical, lapsed Catholic c@#t of a novelist who resides in Camden, New Jersey.  Follow more of his shallow cultural ramblings at genericginger.tumblr.com.

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