Generation Gap: Can You Solve Problems?

I was talking to my friend, Ben last night, we’ve been friends for close to 30 years.  He has worked with middle school age children for more than 25 years and we were talking about the generation gap.

We met waiting tables.  I told him about all justification of poor service and the spitting in food that has been discussed here recently, here and here, just to verify my opinions and impressions. He validated me and agreed that had someone done something like that or even suggested it, they’d have been kicked off the job, probably instantly. I mean in the middle of lunch rush, we’d have collectively kicked them off the job if not out the back the door. We’d have not wanted to be around someone like that, nor to work with them, and have them run off our customers. One way or the other, they’d have been off the job within hours and this is a fact.

He said he was very aware of a generation gap and his observation is that no one seems to be able to solve a problem anymore.  I agree with him and have written a lot about being ineffectual. It’s like a disease to me. A widespread disease.

Effectiveness is associated with Mars and Mars by it’s nature is coarse and offensive. There is an old adage, you can’t make an omelette unless you break some eggs. You can see how the whole the PC movement thwarts effectiveness as no one wants to risk offending anyone. The irony here is if you do offend someone, the response is violent!

This proves you will never rid the world of Mars energy. It’s going to pop up, regardless but I would sure like to see people and society in general become more effective at solving problems.

To offer a simple example, let’s say your business is not profitable.  If you do not make cuts (Mars), you will go out of business. If you make the cuts, people will be offended. You have to be willing to make the cuts in order to survive and I just don’t see any anything noble about inaction in this circumstance.

If you have a problem, you have to actually do something to solve it. You must act or I guarantee you, you’ll wish you would have right about the time it’s too late.

Do you struggle to solve the problems in your life? Where is your Mars?

19 thoughts on “Generation Gap: Can You Solve Problems?”

  1. I’ve been coming across this myself and pondering about it lately. When even groups within the feminist movement goes the PC way and it becomes difficult to talk about anything because everyone is super fussy about the labels and it’s so important to keep everyone non-offended concerning the topics, it’s just so very anti what it’s all about. It’s like when people aren’t called “cleaners” anymore, because it has been such a devalued low class job, so they’re “hygenic technicians” or something of the sort. It doesn’t actually change that people still think it’s a crap job. It’s just cover-up.

    I have Mars in Sagittarius in the 1st house, I say let’s deal with things directly and honestly. (My generation: I’m 30.) And it’s not like I advocate being insensitive, I’m a Libra with a Pisces moon, major empathy to be found here.

  2. My Mars is at 18 degrees Pisces.
    I will give something a big push, to get it out there, or happening or whatever, but if that initial shove dosn’t prove fruitful, I’m prone to giving up.
    I do not want the thing as much, in proportion to, whatever the effort I have to put in to get it takes.
    It’s simply not worth the effort to sustain it all. I give up. I also resent the effort & any of the restrictions it puts upon me.
    My only Hope is Cap Asc discipline. I pretty much have to threaten myself in order to stick at some things… & even then?
    “If I do not do this thing, will it kill me dead?”
    No.
    So, I don’t do it. Simple as that & a total mess.

  3. Thank you reminding me of one good reason to eat at home.

    I do, but when I was younger, I was pretty good at coming up with ideas and other solutions. Sometimes I still am, but rarely – I’ve felt stuck, tried going with the flow, tried fighting against it. The irony is that as much as fear was the cause of my lack of progress when I was younger, it became the motivator over the past three years, until I became very depressed, and have been having to fight the “why bother?”(s).

    Mars in Pisces, square Moon/Venus/Nodes, trine Uranus/asc. I was all about kindness *and* effectiveness (if I could get with the program). Mars in the 4th square those nodes: my family have been a huge support, and I feel that I’ve let them down, because I’ve had opportunities that I failed to grab onto. I’m ashamed to have let myself down, too, even if I did learn other things in the process. A stifled Mars is just… not very nice.

    Jupiter square Saturn and opposed Pluto, can be either inspiring and action-oriented, depending on the day or the situation. Sun in Aries, in the 6th likes knowing that family and pets are taken care of, but wants to do more. Wants everyone to be able to do more. I look at my chart, and can now see my strengths, weaknesses, and how I could have used them together, but am having trouble motivating myself *now*.

    “If you have a problem, you have to actually do something to solve it. You must act or I guarantee you, you’ll wish you would have right about the time it’s too late.”

    I’m already there, even if it isn’t entirely too late – some of it is just gone for me now.

  4. Mckenna, me too. I’ve reached a “WTF?” point, where I’m trying and keep getting stuck – or I’m just not seeing what I should be seeing.

  5. I’ve been a food server since 1977 and have never seen or heard of anyone “messing” with a customers food. A person who would do something so disgusting as to spit in someones food is not someone I’d want to work with either.

    Dealing with assholes is just part of the job. Most people are nice enough and most of my co-workers are much younger and very professional.

  6. I can’t help but to solve problems. I have Mars in Sag in the 3rd opposed Venus in Gem in the 9th and other mental markers. My brain is hyperactive and I often wish I could park it in a jar so I could take a break.

    If I sit there long enough, it will come to me, never fails.

    That said, not everybody wants you to solve their problems for them. So I try to keep my mouth shut unless asked. 🙂

    I’m Gen X fwiw. *shrug*

  7. I just want to sort of defend my generation on this. Yeah, I guess people my age are considered shiftless or irresponsible but you have to understand that people aged 22-32, and even more so younger kids, you know, we have a whole lot of “problems” that didn’t exist back in the day and as a general rule the amount of powerlessness and helplessness is unprecedented. Maybe it’s all PC bullshit but let’s figure the first thing you learn in elementary school is that you have ADHD. Well what do they do they put you on pills because you’re different and no adult can understand or deal with you so they medicate you. Then you start getting bullied for being fat or slow or too black or just breathing the wrong air. After that you think in highschool I can find some relief, find a clique, find my place, but then it turns out funding has been cut so the art classes or gym classes that provided a relief are now gone. Your parents are divorced so there is no stability at home either. Then you go to college where you major in something you love (because that’s what they always tell you) but is not practical. You graduate with tens of thousands of dollars in debt that you cannot ever fathom paying off. You get a job as an educated waitress but the customers are horrible and the boss is even worse. What else is left but passive aggressive delusion? Not that spitting in people’s food is ever justified or acceptable but it just seems to me that “kids these days” have unprecedented problems to solve and things like the Internet never help. As a generation, I think a lot of people my age feel VASTLY out of control so we take what we can get. The futility is palpable.

    In other words, no I cannot solve problems. I prefer to run and hide. Mars in Sadge..

  8. Yes, I can. I am 34, Pluto in Libra generation, I have been working since I was 10, I am in debt and on my own and you know–it’s a life. I’ll take it! Yeah I’ll graduate with debt, but I knew what I was signing up for. I signed on the dotted line, no one else. I could be upset my parents don’t give me money but WHY would I do that????

    I don’t like how my parents solve problems. LOL!

    Mars in Aries/4th square Capricorn Moon/1st, trine Saturn/8th. I’ll solve my own problems, thanks. Even if it means (like it has meant) working to find a therapist. I’m working ~that~ relationship like there’s no tomorrow.

    I am surrounded by people who feel very much like taking life by the balls, too.

  9. I have a tonne of fire in my chart. I’m action driven, for sure. I don’t know how to sit and wallow for years on end. Yes I have been stuck like anyone else, in certain situations. But even then I was doing things like: reading books, learning about other people’s lives, traveling, trying to gain perspective. Chart ruler Jupiter. I’m going to expand, problems be damned.

  10. I was trying not to wallow, and I have read a lot. Still trying to find a therapist, but have been proactive in other ways. I’m not wallowing right now – just easily frustrated.

  11. Oh Sal, I’m not referring to your post at all. I’m just a Marsy kind of gal…and Saggie ASC hates feeling stuck anywhere with a red hot passion.

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