fatigue.

via feministing comes this piece at Tapped - an article by Courtney Martin taking on Thomas Friedman's labeling of us "twentysomethings" as Generation Q, for Quiet.

i was having coffee with a friend after work today, and i mentioned the article - which argues, i think rather convincingly, that we aren't so much underengaged as totally overwhelmed - and how i felt it really nailed the context of my own life. i told her i felt too tired. i'm 27 years old, i shouldn't be this tired - i shouldn't be living every day getting hit by these waves of powerlessness every time i open up cnn.com. but with the depth and breadth of information to which we have constant access - and the ensuing understanding of the scope of the problems and their staggering interconnectedness - its difficult for it not to result in a sense that whatever we do (and are doing, for sure - i get up and go to work every day to make women's lives better) is, in the broader sense, woefully insufficient.

so yeah, i'm tired. and i'm sick of boomers like friedman implying that because we're not doing it like they did, we're not doing it right. because we're doing what we can - we just have the dubious benefit of realizing how little of a difference it makes.