RESTLESS GENERATION 01: An Introduction through Science-Fiction

I‘m currently sitting in an airport lounge, surrounded by passengers all waiting to go somewhere. The seats are all full, people are sitting on the floors, small kids are screaming and everyone looks slightly stressed, as they listen for the announcement that will tell them their plane is finally ready for boarding and they can get going. This seems a good moment to review the science-fiction film Passengers, and through the film, to address a growing realisation about how people seem to live more and more today, in what I call the Restless Generation.

First the film. On one hand, the film is a beautifully visualised science-fiction film about Man colonising space through a corporate, capitalist framework. However, for me, very simply this is a film about loneliness, solitude and the search for meaning in your life. The main character, Jim Preston, is a mechanical engineer who feels that he has no more use on Earth, where everything is replaced rather than fixed. He therefore books passage on a colony spaceship to a newly terraformed planet 120 years’ travel from Earth.  During the voyage his stasis pod is deactivated and he wakes up 90 years too soon, to a ship completely devoid of other human company. This is where the conundrums begin; since Jim can’t put himself back to sleep how will he choose to spend the remainder of his life on a spaceship, travelling to a destination he will never reach? And how can he justify waking up another passenger to provide companionship - but thereby also depriving them of the life they have signed up for? Enter another passenger, Aurora Lane, a writer who is constantly searching for the new and, feeling that she has exhausted all the adventures on Earth, sees the colonisation of a new planet and space travel simply as the next adventure to write about. 

These two utterly opposing reasons for being on the ship are the reason that the film is so engaging. Ultimately, their environment is one of luxury and recreation, where for most of the film there is nothing that either passenger needs to do in order to survive and no-one relying on them for anything. In this environment, where Maslov’s Hierarchy of Needs have been entirely bypassed, it’s about choosing how you accept the inevitable and whether you are able to find peace in having your choices removed from you.  And watching two entirely opposed viewpoints tackle the same fundamental questions makes for fascinating watching.

This leads me to the Restless Generation, those in our society who are searching for purpose when their fundamental needs have been met and they are self-sufficient with no dependants. This concept is one which has crept into social consciousness slowly, over a period of time, and one which is, I think, relevant to an ever-expanding percentage of the adult population living in sophisticated and civilised societies. After all, when Radio 4 dedicates an entire programme to how a society is moving away from consumer spending (status cars, designer clothing, the right furnishings, the perfect dinner service etc.) to spend their time and money on experiences they can share with their family, friends and their wider on-line world, when Artificial Intelligences are creating their own forms of communication with each other quite outside the control of their human makers, and when models of Virtual Realities are becoming more and more sophisticated (be it organised religions or Twitter, computer gaming or chat rooms) you have an inkling that the uncertainty about our purpose that seems prevalent in our society is now being recognised and addressed on a conscious level.

So who is the Restless Generation? And why is their dilemma such a pertinent one? Firstly, a misnomer; Generation does not refer to an age group per se, or any particular religious, social, sexual or gender demographic. Instead the common denominators are ones of personality and achievement. I classify members of the Restless Generation as generally curious; they are well-educated, whether through traditional education or by educating themselves; they are at least reasonably successful in their chosen profession, and have often been there a number of years; they are frequently well-travelled and enjoy exploring new cultures; they enjoy new experiences, often involving learning new skills; they have no children or close dependants for whom they are still the primary carer (though they may have a partner or partners, or children who they are no longer responsible for);  they are financially comfortable enough to be able to afford a certain level of consumer goods (property, vehicles, material goods for the home, travel etc).

From this list of definitions it would seem that the Restless Generation is one to be envious of. The list of criteria is, after all, pretty much that which is held up at school as an example of a successful life.  Enough money to afford what you want? Check. A successful career where you are recognised? Yup. Travel and exploring outside your immediate environment, as well as learning new skills? Absolutely. So what’s the problem?

The problem is one of lacking purpose. Like the passengers in the film we have broadly taken care of our material needs and as a result have little instinct to drive us to achieve the necessities of survival. However, unlike those lonely space-travelling passengers, we still have all the opportunities afforded by living within a sophisticated society. We are like Aurora Lane, constantly searching for new or more extreme experiences in order to alleviate a sense of ennui. And we are also like Jim Preston, feeling a sense of despondency which has come from creating machines, systems and social structures that, while they have made us the dominant species on the planet, are also effectively making us redundant in our own lives.