Passage 2

Anyone with a passion for banging labels on people or things should have little difficulty in recognizing that an appropriate tag for our time is the Unkempt Generation. I am not referring solely to college kids. The sloppiness (邋遢) virus has spread to all sectors of society. People go to all sorts of trouble and expense to look uncombed, unshaved, unpressed.

The symbol of the times is blue jeans-not just blue jeans in good condition but jeans that are torn, discolored or with holes. They don’t get that way naturally. No one wants blue jeans that look brand new. Manufacturers recognize a big market when they see it, and they compete with one another to offer jeans that are made to look as though they’ve just been discarded by careless house painters after ten years of wear. The more faded and seemingly ancient the garment, the higher the cost. The disheveled is in fashion; neatness is out of date.

Nothing is wrong with comfortable clothing. It’s just that the current fashion reflects an eagerness to follow the trend rather than a desire for ease. No generation has strained harder than ours to affect a casual, relaxed, cool look; none has succeeded more spectacularly in looking as though it had been stamped out by cookie cutters (饼干模具). We desperately keep ourselves from being conventional, but we put on a uniform to do it. An appearance of radical difference is the goal, to be pursued in oversize sweaters and muddy sports shoes.

Careless speech stems from the same root. Vocabulary, like blue jeans, is being drained of color and distinction. A complete sentence in everyday speech is becoming increasingly rare. People communicate in chopped-up phrases, relying on something like “you know” or “I mean” to cover up annoyingly unclear expressions. Neatness should be no less important in language than it is in dress. The English language is one of the greatest sources of wealth in the world. In the midst of accessible riches, we are still sadly poor in language.

What is the feature of “The Unkempt Generation”?