haha pretty close to my own situation, although I work "sometimes" as
a technician.You can bet your life that I understand deeply what these youths are
doing with their lives. They are trying to catch up with themselves.
The pressure around my generation is far greater than it ever was for
you.Life was simpler, cheaper, had more opportunities and less choices.
Today a young man is faced with hundreds of choices, temptations and
ways to conduct his life and at the same time he has to keep up with
demands from the old system sustained by old folk still clinging to
their dying way of life.So young people are basically opting out of this mess just so they can
regain their breath and figure out what the fuck they want for their
lives, and actually do something of value that is not rushed and
careless just because their parents did.I look at your generation, and see strong family values and a
desperate need to submit to something or someone. It's almost like you
guys have never heard of dignity, autonomy and honor. You all display
a submissive / passive mentality of an apathetic slave who does no
question WHY things are the way they are. You cannot fathom the idea
of taking control over your life and living ONE day after the other.
Life nowadays is INDEED about the NOW! moment and not long term plans
that basically take a big chunk of your soul over a long period of
servitude, which in turn takes a big chunk of your health. To make
matters worse, just when you think that your dreams have come "true",
you are too tired and frail to enjoy any of it. My dear friend, there
is no "success" in this life, only tradeoffs (sacrifices). But then
again, there are shitty (ego-driven) sacrifices and smart (loving)
sacrifices.The sense of altruism from the old generation is mostly ego-driven
because it's actually provides the FOOD for your cheap emotional needs
to be accepted by your community and society. That is exactly how
superficial and empty the fruit of your life's work really is, and
still you are always bragging about it.Most long term plans are bullshit anyway. You cannot see beyond them.
You are trapped in the past, waiting to die, but not until you have
given a few more drops of blood to feed a dying system. And why?
Because you love conformism better than authenticity and creativity.
You love security better than freedom.
From here, the definition Succeed in reaching a person who is ahead of one seems most plausible to apply in this context. But what does it mean to catch yourself ahead?Is it a sort of figurative use of the phrase, meaning the youths are just trying to make a living?
Best Answer
It is indeed a rhetorical use of 'catch up with': a deliberately uncommon use, which attracts readers' attention so they will read the explanation.
The author contrasts the attitude he attributes to older people—that they are slaves to “long term plans that basically take a big chunk of your soul over a long period of servitude”—with the attitude of his own generation—“Life nowadays is INDEED about the NOW!“
His “catch up” figure thus represents the long-term plans of his elders as an unceasing effort to get ‘in front of’ who they are, while people of his own generation abandon that pursuit and turn back (so ‘back is the new front’) in order to ‘catch up with’ who they are.