An Open Letter from Generation X.... (my rant)

[DavidAllred]

An Open Letter from Generation X

I like to go to the movies and I particularly like getting their early so I can watch the trailers. I will never forget 2008, the year I saw two trailers that would later become Academy Award nominees. Both trailers were historical films set in the tumultuous era of the Baby Boomers and their crusade against that wicked generation of my grandparents. The films were Frost/Nixon and Milk. When the trailers flashed across the screen, the audience in my theater moaned—and it had absolutely nothing to do with the homosexuality in Milk.

A friend beside me leaned over and whispered, “Man, those guys still haven’t gotten over it, have they?” He’s right. They haven’t “gotten over it.” Now of course that’s not quite fair to the many Boomers in our country who never got shackled by the mess. This letter isn’t for them; it’s for the Boomer mouth pieces that have guided the last 30 years. It’s true, that group never got over it. Furthermore, they think the rest of us don’t “get it” and they are under some universal motivation to "help."

Far too narcissistic and self-absorbed to put their crusades aside, this is the generation that will forever be remembered as being too selfish to stay married, too drugged to be productive, and too religious to be just. This will be the generation that we remember as being so focused on their parent’s shortcomings that they never got around to looking at their own.

I’d like to thank the Academy for continuing to bloat their egos. Sure, these are important movies about important times in our history, we get it. We got it last time they brought it up. Like a bad dinner date, life with the aging Boomer population is all about having the same conversations over and over. We know about your generation of world-changers. We also know that most of you upped and joined the system when your marriages got stale, when free love got old, and when raising kids started cutting into your down time. We get it, and the statistics don’t lie.

Refusing to believe their revolution is over, this generation looks back to a time when they were making a difference… a time before Enron and Wall Street scandals, before Monica Lewinski, before State-sanctioned torture in Guantanamo Bay. And as if to keep Father Time from pointing out their era is finished, the Boomers invented the likes of Botox and new procedures of pulling skin away from their aging faces. Plastic surgery is the ultimate manifestation of a plastic war, where a generation of Americans clawed each other on the nightly news with polarized ideologies, leaving my generation maimed and bankrupt.

I’m not just writing this letter to the far out Boomer Left in this country... the truth is the Boomer Right did no better for us as a nation. By forming a group of Religious Fundamentalists to combat the Boomer Socialists, we watched an entire generation devour itself. The Right built shiny new churches, multi-million dollar ministries, “Christian” television networks, and then proceeded to invite the likes of Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Baker to run a good show for us, with a few hookers dancing behind the curtain. No, Boomers on the Right. You didn’t do the nation any favors by getting drawn into the culture war. You gave the devil his due.

While the schizophrenic Boomer generation fought each other, government and greedy executives robbed us all blind. Now with empty pockets, this generation has dared to get angry again. Good for them. Only it is 20 years too late, my world-changing friends. We’ve had four terms, that’s 16 years of Boomer leadership in the White House. The Boomers made good on their word—they really did change the world. They wrapped their chubby religious hands and marijuana-blackened fingers around the throat of my generation.

Don’t worry; we’ll scrub the place down. We’ll mop it up for you. It won’t be easy, but we’ll do it. We’re going to take your Frost/Nixon and your Milk because we do value their significance. We’re going to thank you for paving the way for us to question our government. We’ll take your Jesus out from under your religion, and we’ll take your Gospel out from under the stage lights. None of your lessons will be lost on us.

And for the record, we’re not mad at you… at least not in the same way you’re still mad at Grandpa McCarthy.

But we are going to tear up the credit cards. We’re going to save money and pay off our debts. We’re going to stay focused on our families, with or without Dobson ranting in the background. We’re going to build better churches, better banks, and better corporations. We don’t feel the need to check our morals at the door anymore, because in spite of her flaws, Grandma had a few things right about both God and government. We see that pretty clearly now. God isn’t a four-letter word and when we’re done, homo won’t be either. What we’re bringing to the table is a morality that isn’t at war with itself and an America that’s more likely to pick up a Walt Whitman book than a Bill Ayers leaflet or a leftover Ted Haggard pamphlet.

When we’re finished there won’t be a child in America born without adequate health insurance or an elderly veteran freezing to death in his own home because his power got shut off. We won’t be taxing the wealthy and pretending we can free lunch our way to social justice or prosperity. We won’t see our nation’s rich as the enemy, nor will we immortalize the poor with empty rhetoric and cry baby sensationalism. We won’t shackle our own grandkids with our greed or turn our backs on our neighbor anymore.

We’re going to dig you out of this and if you can wait long enough, there might something left for you to retire on, but we’re not making any promises. That’s because Boomer bankruptcy runs so much deeper than AIG or Citigroup. It’s a poison running through the sewer of our souls.

Even so, I think we can find a generation of Americans willing to put the hemlock merchants out of business. And if we can’t, we’ll at least be able to point to you and know what not to do. Maybe that’s the real legacy of the Boomer generation—a solid, but painful, lesson on how not to live and lead.

[4PointOh]

Praise be!

[kevin boyd]

You said it better than I could have...Some of my favorite parts:

"God isn’t a four-letter word and when we’re done, homo won’t be either."

"We won’t see our nation’s rich as the enemy, nor will we immortalize the poor with empty rhetoric and cry baby sensationalism. We won’t shackle our own grandkids with our greed or turn our backs on our neighbor anymore."

"We’re going to dig you out of this and if you can wait long enough, there might something left for you to retire on, but we’re not making any promises. That’s because Boomer bankruptcy runs so much deeper than AIG or Citigroup. It’s a poison running through the sewer of our souls."

THANK YOU and WELL PUT!

[Charles RB]

This letter isn’t for them; it’s for the Boomer mouth pieces that have guided the last 30 years. It’s true, that group never got over it.

Far too narcissistic and self-absorbed to put their crusades aside

You're being inspired to write this in response to... trailers for films about a journalist interviewing one of the worst Presidents of the 20th Century and a noted gay rights activist from a time when they didn't have much rights?

Shit, yeah, equal rights and politics, totally narcissistic.

While the schizophrenic Boomer generation fought each other, government and greedy executives robbed us all blind.

People having a culture war and governments/corporate interests being bastards are as unique to the Baby Boomer's generation as an extremely un-unique thing. They were doing it in our grandparent's generation and before. It's happening with your generation. It's happening with mine.

The very fact you're posting a rant about how this generation has ruined things for Your Generation but Your Generation is going to magically fix things is proof of that - you are carrying on the culture war here.

But we are going to tear up the credit cards. We’re going to save money and pay off our debts.

When has Generation X or Y shown any sign of this? Because I haven't seen that. I have seen people in those generations getting into the financial shit. That makes even less sense than saying "that generation took drugs!", as if the following generations didn't (not to mention beer and ciggies).

[Corrina]

I'm Gen X but it seems to me that Baby Boomer accomplishments include:

1. Getting rid of the military draft.
2. Breakthroughs in personal civil rights, including especially for African Americans and women. Title IX in particular. Are you aware than I was the right age, I was not allowed to play Little League, frex?
3. Sexual liberation. Which has it's downside, true.

Those are pretty big accomplishments. The group also has some serious failures, of course. In general, I would say that they did more good than harm but that's a judgment call.

Plus, there's some serious overgeneralization going on in your post. :)

Or maybe I just find it hard to rouse anger over what the generation before me did or did not do.

[Gilda Dent]

What exactly is Gen X, other than a vaguely familiar sounding comic?

[Jae Namkyoung]

Don't ask me I was born in 1988 and I'm pretty sure I'm called an Echo Boomber child of a Baby Boomer... and those born from Gen X are called Gen Y... I dunno some marketer made it up, I think Gen X born 60ish to 70ish I think? However, I do like this letter. ^_^

[Sally Sensational]

Generation X is the generation born starting in 1969.and ending in 1980. It's also known as the "baby bust" generation.

In short, if you're between 30 and 40 right now, it's us.

[Gilda Dent]

Generation X is the generation born starting in 1969.and ending in 1980. It's also known as the "baby bust" generation.

In short, if you're between 30 and 40 right now, it's us.

Cool. I wonder when my powers will kick in.

[MacQuarrie]

Refusing to believe their revolution is over, this generation looks back to a time when they were making a difference… a time before Enron and Wall Street scandals, before Monica Lewinski, before State-sanctioned torture in Guantanamo Bay.
Irony alert!

The Boomers perpetrated Enron. Ivan Boesky was a Boomer. The Wall Street mess is this generation's. The generals running Gitmo are Boomers. Monica Lewinsky was blowing a Boomer.

Hypocrisy, thy name is Baby Boomer.

My take on these filthy worthless swine, from way back in 2002:

http://www.monkeyspit.net/rantman/boomers.php

[shrike]

It was too long to read, I'm sorry.

[MacQuarrie]

It's nothing new, really. The Boomers were pretty much as hedonistic and self-indulgent as teh generation that came of age in the '20s and partied their way to the Crash of '29. Their children and/or younger siblings stepped up and became "The Greatest Generation" who fought WWII. Then they raised the Boomers.

[joe27]

Remember those horrible Generation X movies from the early 90's? Shit like Reality Bites and Threesome? I'm glad the bottom fell out of that particular niche of insufferable films.

[Nick Soapdish]

"Every generation blames the one before."

Just like every generation looks at the next and thinks that the world's going to hell. Personally, I think that things are improving with every generation. Sure, it's generally two steps forward, one back and three to the side. But improvement, however gradual, is still improvement.

And I haven't seen either of the movies, but I think that both sound interesting and I plan to see them.


When has Generation X or Y shown any sign of this? Because I haven't seen that. I have seen people in those generations getting into the financial shit. That makes even less sense than saying "that generation took drugs!", as if the following generations didn't (not to mention beer and ciggies).

But we will.

In just a little bit. For now, I think that we have the worst debt ratio of any generation.

[JamesRitcheyIII]

Generation X is the generation born starting in 1969.and ending in 1980. It's also known as the "baby bust" generation.

In short, if you're between 30 and 40 right now, it's us.

Maybe he made a mistake retroactively--by bringing the term into popular culture regarding people born in the '60's--but The guy who wrote the book (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Coupland) says differently. In 1991, when he wrote the novel, he was convinced people born between 1958 and 1972 were Gen X, and called the generation afterward 'Jetsetters'--because of the habits of his younger brother and his friends. He also 9invented the term 'McJob', to describe our generation's work habits--overeducated and underemployed. There was a band called Generation X, all consisting of people older than me. We're also described a second 'lost' generation, and 'The Blank Generation'--and didn't describe just anyone born after the Boomers, but an 'in between' group. I was a PUNK when I was 17, not a hippie.

I'm not a baby boomer, by any definition to express that, besides some invented demographic well after the fact--that keeps mysteriously moving years, depending who brings it up.

I was 6 during the Summer of Love, and 7 during the My Lai Massacre. I was 8 when Nixon took office, 13 when he left, 14 when Vietnam ended.

I don't feel connected to anyone in the Boomer generation--maybe a couple of uncles--didn't March in protests or to War, my parents were too young to be Beat Generation, 4 years too old to be technically Boomers.

My generation had Granada, and a right-wing, crazy former actor (who I voted against) threatening to blow up the world.

That was it.

Neither do I feel any animosity against them, and respect many accomplishments that left us with the breathing room to be able to bitch about racism or war.

In a related matter, this theme of this thread is ageist bullshit, worthy of a White Supremacist, but with 'old, smug bastards', instead of 'dirty, stupid black people'.

[MacQuarrie]

If you don't remember the assassination of John F. Kennedy, you aren't a Boomer.

If you watched TV in color when you were under 10, you're not a Boomer.

If you weren't old enough to at least consider trying to go to Woodstock, ditto.

If you were past sixth grade when the Batman TV show hit the air, not a Boomer.

If you were under 20 and had a copy of that famous "red bathing suit" Farrah Fawcett Poster, see above.

[Charles RB]

Or maybe I just find it hard to rouse anger over what the generation before me did or did not do.

Though I find it amusing that the open letter is having a go at the generation above X, while one of its points against the Baby Boom generation is their having a go at their parent's generation.

Generation X is the generation born starting in 1969.and ending in 1980. It's also known as the "baby bust" generation.

In short, if you're between 30 and 40 right now, it's us.

Is it?! Hell, I thought it was younger than that.

That makes me even more annoyed - we can see 30-thru-40-somethings and they're getting divorces, taking drugs, are involved in economic dodginess, have dodgy politicians, and show they're quite capable of being a bunch of screaming arseholes.

Hell, do we honestly believe no one in the financial markets or involved in torture was from "Gen X"? Because I certainly don't.

"Every generation blames the one before."

Just like every generation looks at the next and thinks that the world's going to hell.

Pretty much, yep.


In a related matter, this theme of this thread is ageist bullshit

And, from where I'm sitting, it's being said by other old people, which makes it really bemusing.

[veracity]

Boomer I'm not, unless a Time Lord moved 1981, but I find this post fairly funny. Mostly because we bitch and complain about what the last generation did, while the current one is just fucking up in different ways. We're human. Nothing will ever be perfect with so many individuals out there trying to "fix the mistakes." What you do is say, "Well, at least they advanced this far which gives me these freedoms" and hope you'll help the next generation somehow.

I've had this discussion pretty often in my classes, especially the online ones. My dad and mom are Boomers, mom barely, and I grew up around people born in the Great Depression or before (think the year Titantic sunk). I don't look at them and say, "Man, y'all really fucked up to helll and back." I can't. Because on their mistakes came their successes. You can't have one or the other society doesn't work that. Just like without the Great Depression, we wouldn't have Social Security and it'd be another mouth to feed on a barely stretched paycheck since our parents would have to live with us. We'd have no choice. It maybe extremely flawed, but it's better than nothing.

I have no idea which generation I am, not just in timeline, but in actual fitting in. Probably somewhere earlier. Progress isn't without cost. and the Boomers foul ups are ours, too. It's not like it was Boomers that only ones who prompted the problem with the housing market and economic downturn. There were a ton of 22-26 year olds buying into the deal of the century mentality. We all want something better, it's the promoted but often hard to follow American dream. As a woman, I'm glad to be born now instead of the Victorian or Roaring 20s Age. Why? Because as things have progressed, I've had more opportunities. I can't say "Well, look at everything they messed up" when thanks to the generations before me's hard work, I have what I have. Good and bad.

We must talk and discuss the future generations in order to learn from them. Now, if we learn the lesson properly is another matter entirely. But things like Frost/Nixon and Milk keep the awareness in our minds. Would you say the same about Schlinder's List? It talked about something that happened nearly 50 years before it was made. But it brought the happenings during WWII and what people went through to generations that only heard about it. And it horrified a lot of us. I can remember watching the movie, even though it wasn't made for kids, and deciding I don't want to see that kind stuff in my generation. The Academy doesn't need to valid any of the pictures. What it does it sometimes is bring awareness to the fact we fuck up, and in my generation especially can learn what not to do, by bringing some forgotten or glossed over facts to examination. Even if it's not entirely accurate, there's a jump off point for researching. Kinda like Wiki in a visual medium.

[DavidAllred]

Hey it's an open letter and I'm enjoying the responses, even if people don't agree. I've been most impressed with some conversations I've had with Gen Y after showing it to them. They don't think enough of us made it out from under our parents alive, and many of us never made it out from under our parents at all (i.e. still living at home, jobless and playing X-Box all day).

I think the statistics are pretty telling really. Divorce, crime, drug use, latch-key kids, scandals, greed, corruption.... pick your chart and take a look at it. I'm still waiting for the first Gen-X version of Bernnie Madoff. I'm sure we've had our share of puppets, but it seems like the strings lead straight up the Gen-chain.

Our generation has been defined as the one that would rather volunteer than vote, prefers individual risk in business over corporate venture, and we're the most likely generation to be politically and religiously unaffilated. Contrast that to the Boomer generation who led a "scorched earth" culture war of their own making and has been aptly described as the most selfish generation of Americans to have ever lived (a label they were busy projecting onto their children in the 80's). I was raised believing I was the "me" generation, but who was actually out buying all the Member's Only jackets for my peers to wear? Moms and pops.

Obama I hope is just the cusp of what my generation is going to do in office. He doesn't talk like a Boomer and so far he's not polarized anyone who wasn't already polarized before he got elected.

Boomers did some great things, but they threw out the proverbial baby with the bathwater.

[Corrina]

Generation X is the generation born starting in 1969.and ending in 1980. It's also known as the "baby bust" generation.

In short, if you're between 30 and 40 right now, it's us.

I thought Boomers ended in in 19764?

P.S. The divorce rate went up because people who got married just because they had sex with their spouse before marriage looked around and said "um, no."

[shrike]

I thought Boomers ended in in 19764?



Hmm... I somehow just knew you were from the future.

[Grazzt]

2. Breakthroughs in personal civil rights, including especially for African Americans and women. Title IX in particular. Are you aware than I was the right age, I was not allowed to play Little League, frex?

Nitpick: Title IX was pushed through by Patsy Mink, who was born in 1927. Creditting that to the boomers seems a bit wrong to me.

[DeathXIII]

But we are going to tear up the credit cards. We’re going to save money and pay off our debts. We’re going to stay focused on our families, with or without Dobson ranting in the background. We’re going to build better churches, better banks, and better corporations. We don’t feel the need to check our morals at the door anymore, because in spite of her flaws, Grandma had a few things right about both God and government. We see that pretty clearly now. God isn’t a four-letter word and when we’re done, homo won’t be either. What we’re bringing to the table is a morality that isn’t at war with itself and an America that’s more likely to pick up a Walt Whitman book than a Bill Ayers leaflet or a leftover Ted Haggard pamphlet.


This is the first time I've heard Generation X described as paragons of morality, hard work, family values, patriotism, and religious duty.



Obama I hope is just the cusp of what my generation is going to do in office.

I thought Generation X were people who were in their 20s in the 90s.

Obama was born in 1961.

[Jae Namkyoung]

*blink*

Dear Gen X,

From whatever generation I am, please don't leave anything for us to have to fix up.

Signed, the children born from 1980 - 1991, thank you.

[Solaris]

Stamen, you had some good lines in there... but most of it came off as "someone ranting about something they're doing themselves"---in other words, one of your biggest complaints was Boomers blaming everything on the generation before them and having idealism about how they were gonna change the world... and in the same letter you express the exact same thing for your generation: "The Boomers fucked it up, and We're gonna not just do better, but Fix Everything."

It's hard not to get caught up in blaming the previous generation for ills that particularly affect YOU. For example, I've blamed a lot of the problems that still affect women today on my parents' generation, because frankly, women *didn't* have rights, they *were* raised to be dependent, needy, fearful, and to think of themselves as weaker/less capable than men. That's a generalization---but when the number of people who *do* feel an effect becomes a large majority, generalizations do apply within limits. But in the case I mention, it's truer to say that women suffered under this for millenia---but what brought it sharply into focus was what happened with WWII and the 50's, with women first being brought into the workplace and showing they were fully capable, and then being brainwashed that their place was in the home being the lesser partner to "Father" when the men came home and wanted their jobs back. THAT was when the "perfect nuclear family" ideal was born, and progress for women was set back another generation.

Getting back to the main topic, EVERY generation has flaws, just as they all have accomplishments. It's wise to look at the whole picture... and it's also wise not to let their flaws (which hurt YOU) blind you to your own generations' ability to err---because you WILL.

Honestly, while there are truths in what you've said, you've inflated them into a blind condemnation for the Boomers, and a blind idealism for your own age group. In other words, it's like someone who catalogs every single mistake their parents made in raising them, stores up great resentment and anger over these things, ignores any good that was done, and then proceeds to proclaim "Not only will I NEVER do these things with MY kid---I will ALSO be the PERFECT parent!"

Yet thirty years down the road, that person finds that

a. they DID repeat some of their parents' mistakes
b. while there were mistakes they didn't repeat, they also managed to find NEW ones
c. no matter what their goals and ideals going in were, THEIR kids are going to see the faults and flaws THEY suffered under, etc. etc...
d. and finally, with age and experience and more Life under their belt, this parent finally starts to see the WHOLE picture of what THEIR parents did and didn't do, and quits blaming them for the world.

And another thing: EVERY generation is narcissistic. If you're any example, so is yours. It goes with knowing that your own generation is coming into power, that you're finally getting a strong enough grip on the reins to enact the changes you've wanted to see for a long long time.

If you want to break this pattern, stop doing it yourself. Stop wasting so much time, energy, and attention on "blame blame blame," and instead put a little into acknowledgment of the priors failures AND successes... and put the rest into learning, in the here and now, how to make things better, both when it's hard and when it's easy. I say "both" because some people quit when things are hard, and some quit when things are easy because they think it's either not needed any more, *because* it's so easy or because they only see the "fixed" things and not what's left, or because they think something's "fixed" when actually it's only "partially fixed but still requiring effort and maintenance. (I give you Civil Rights as an example: partly fixed, but still not finished---yet many people think it's a done deal, and actually get irritated at those still working on it.)

I agree with others who've said that we, as humans on this planet, tend to improve things gradually. We may well make enormous strides in one area... only to suffer a big failure in another. (Here's one example: the Boomers time brought us great strides forward in Racial Rights---yet, in general, they are fighting on the opposite side of the fence in the Gay Legal Rights issue.) Our world is definitely a better place for enacting Racial Legal Rights, but we aren't done.

We're never done. And in the grand scheme of things, if we continue growing, continue finding and taking on issues where we, as humans, have failed in the past and changing these things for the better, we're winning the ballgame.

[Corrina]

Nitpick: Title IX was pushed through by Patsy Mink, who was born in 1927. Creditting that to the boomers seems a bit wrong to me.

What, you won't nitpick my typos? I should be Typo Lass lately except I don't know a thing about computers, I'm not Jewish, and I should hate to confuse people. :)

I think we can credit Baby Boomers with implementing Title IX, though Pasty Mink was the driving force. Bille Jean King's women in sports foundation has done a lot of great work, for instance.

[Grazzt]

Billie Jean King's women in sports foundation has done a lot of great work, for instance.

Billie Jean King: born 1943. Also not a boomer. :tongue:

[jerrymcl89]

I don't necessarily consider the Baby Boomers any better or worse than any other generation, except for the fact that their sheer numbers meant that the rest of the country was forced to care about whatever they cared about. Which gets tedious to those of us like myself (born 1967) who've had to listen to it our whole lives. But the original rant is more or less projecting the same "my generation will be better" attitude that the boomers long had.

[JamesRitcheyIII]

And, from where I'm sitting, it's being said by other old people, which makes it really bemusing.

Mac is right.

Old Man Ritchey shakes his fist at you! Get out of my fucking yard, or I'll stomp you to death with my Doc Martens!

I've heard Obama called the first post-Boomer President on network news--by Boomers, Ergo; we are not claimed by them, either. He and I were born the same year. I had to sneak in to see the Pistols at the Great Southeast Music Hall--because I was too young. Perhaps we could retroactively amend the epoch to simply be called 'The Blank Generation', so your Emo Generation can feel cool by claiming our ultra-cool name. Least we can do, having totally invented your culture.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm late for a secret meeting with the President, Douglas Coupland, Grant Morrison, Thom Yorke from Radiohead, and David Duchovny on how to further make your life miserable. :D

[suedenim]

I find the Strauss and Howe definitions (and analysis) the best for this sort of thing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Strauss

One of the interesting things about their theory is that it identifies patterns to this - that "all this has happened before, all this will happen again," so to speak. Those of us in Gen X share a lot in common with "The Lost Generation", and the rising Gen Y (aka, sometimes, the "Millennials") share much with "The Greatest Generation" (and are, probably, the ones who will wind up saving us all or at least trying....)

Sure, you can quibble, but I think generalization is a useful tool, and exceptions don't make that untrue. Personally, I'd be happy to make a bargain with the Boomers, that they get to keep all their stuff, and their "to hell with succeeding generations" principles, just so long as they stop the incessant mass-media preening about how much more wonderful they were than anyone else in human history....

[suedenim]

I've heard Obama called the first post-Boomer President on network news--by Boomers, Ergo; we are not claimed by them, either. He and I were born the same year.

Technically, Obama (born 1961) would among the earliest potential Gen Xers, but culturally (his academic background, the Hyde Park, IL residency, etc.), I think he's totally Boomer.

[Corrina]

Eh, every generation tends to focus on its own story.

Instead of worrying about how the earlier generation is showcasing theirs, worry about showcasing what you want to say about yours.

[DavidAllred]

just so long as they stop the incessant mass-media preening about how much more wonderful they were than anyone else in human history....

I kind of tire of that myself.

[JamesRitcheyIII]

Technically, Obama (born 1961) would among the earliest potential Gen Xers, but culturally (his academic background, the Hyde Park, IL residency, etc.), I think he's totally Boomer.


I know Gen Ys that are ethically Boomers. I don't believe it to be a sliding scale like that, though. Neither do I understand why someone raised in Kansas would be defined by where he lived the last few years. If Douglas Coupland, the guy who brought 'McJob' and the term Generation X into popular culture says I'm Gen X, then I'm Gen X. We were making fun of Boomers in the 'eighties--we called the more right-wing of them Yuppies, the left wing, Hippies! If Boomer is a state of mind, then my punk rock generation don't have it!

That's it! You don't get to inherit the cool designation! The council has decided--from now on, you shall be called...Generation EMO!!! :D

[sk716]

In fairness, Generation X really isn't all that great.

We are known for slacking off and always selecting the path of least resistance. Granted, we are considerably more open minded than our parents, but we've been too apathetic to actually do anything about the ills of the world, we just accept them and carry on. Gen Y is actually more responsible for the election of Obama than Gen X.

And I really don't expect us to change. There will always be exceptions to any rule, but overall, we're just lost. We were raised to believe we could do anything we wanted, be anything we wanted, and to always question authority. After all, most of our parents were hippies.

So we came of age and had absolutely no clue what we wanted to do so huge swaths of us headed off to college because that was what was expected of us. Gen X was the first generation that was expected to go off to college it wasn't a possible option, it was what you were supposed to do. Most of Gen X that did go off to college were the first in their families to do so. And still, as a general rule, Gen X had no clue what to do with themselves. Changing majors regularly, trying everything to see what fits and before long you have a generation of college drop outs and people with English and Liberal Arts degrees who still haven't got the faintest clue what to do with themselves. So where does that lead? Virtually useless degrees and a total lack of ambition, McJobs.

So we went out and got jobs. Then we got married, next logical step, right? And brought children into the world and started buying houses. The whole housing boom was in response to us doing what we thought we were supposed to do. And of course we have to keep up appearances so we bought houses we really couldn't afford with our McJobs. So really, the housing bust was our fault, too. The Boomers enabled us, because the Boomers have always enabled us. But really, this whole mess is our damn fault.

The money ran out and now we're really fucked because we've spent the last 30 years coasting and haven't the fainest clue how to manage ourselves. Companies grew fat on our material desires (Starting with our parents buying us whatever toys and clothes we wanted when we were kids and our obsession with Branding.) and then started to crash when we freaked out about the money running out and stopped spending altogether. So there go our McJobs.

Between our sense of entitlement and our absolute lack of ambition, no I don't see Gen X as the saviors. I'm just hoping Gen Y has the good sense to recognize our errors and do better than we have, just as soon as they put down their iPods and notice that something isn't quite right.

[suedenim]

Again, analysis on the generational level is by definition going to do a lot of generalization. It'd be crazy to say otherwise, when you're talking on the level of entire populations. There were 76 million babies born in the U.S. between 1946 and 1962. Despite what you'd think talking to some of them, they didn't all attend Woodstock.

[DavidAllred]

I think the reason Gen X'ers seem more like slackers is because we've been habitually sidelined as benchwarmers. I know in my hometown, there's hardly a Gen X representative anywhere in politics. I was the only Gen X representative on our local Health Council board, and I know the United Way board only recently elected a couple. Our Rotary Club holds the majority of the social capital in our city, and there's not a Gen X representative to be found.

I don't know though, there is a good chance that when our number is called we'll look at all the in-fighting and hate mongering that our predecessors both created and endured, then turn around and say to the world, "No thanks."

In that sense, we may be the lost generation and Gen Y might be the ones to take a few swings at our problems. I'm more than ok with the Gen below me having a crack at things.

[Nick Soapdish]

I think the reason Gen X'ers seem more like slackers is because we've been habitually sidelined as benchwarmers. I know in my hometown, there's hardly a Gen X representative anywhere in politics. I was the only Gen X representative on our local Health Council board, and I know the United Way board only recently elected a couple. Our Rotary Club holds the majority of the social capital in our city, and there's not a Gen X representative to be found.

I don't know though, there is a good chance that when our number is called we'll look at all the in-fighting and hate mongering that our predecessors both created and endured, then turn around and say to the world, "No thanks."

In that sense, we may be the lost generation and Gen Y might be the ones to take a few swings at our problems. I'm more than ok with the Gen below me having a crack at things.

Is that the cause or the effect though? I've seen very few even try to make the effort.

[Jae Namkyoung]

I still have a question, for me and Vera. What are we exactly? I always thought the children of the Baby Boomers were called Echo Boomers (I heard this on ABC somewhere, 20/20?). The kids of the Generation X were called Generation Y, is this true? Not true?

[veracity]

I still have a question, for me and Vera. What are we exactly? I always thought the children of the Baby Boomers were called Echo Boomers (I heard this on ABC somewhere, 20/20?). The kids of the Generation X were called Generation Y, is this true? Not true?

I've alway wondered what generation I'm in. It seems like there's a sliding scale of years, though. I'm not particularly worried, but curious. I think you're Y or maybe it's Millennial. Whichever. Since you're a little younger than my former BFF. I'm very confused for those us in the 81. I've heard X and Y both. Personally, I think we're just the SOL Year.

[JamesRitcheyIII]

Mine was the second generation born into a world where nuclear annihilation was eminent. There was no facade of how 'duck and cover'-ing under our desks was going to save our lives--I think we did that twice when I was in kindergarten, then they revealed it to the public that if you didn't survive the initial blast, you'd be among the fortunate. I used to have a recurring dream where I was floating in the Atlantic in a big tire inner tube, looking at the coast of Miami light up like Hiroshima.

If we were slackers, fine--most of us spent our teens and twenties in the 'eighties--completely convinced Reagan was gonna kill us all--then woke up in post-cold war America, after some dedicated avoidance of responsibility or accomplishment, to discover we no longer had an excuse.

[Nick Soapdish]

I still have a question, for me and Vera. What are we exactly? I always thought the children of the Baby Boomers were called Echo Boomers (I heard this on ABC somewhere, 20/20?). The kids of the Generation X were called Generation Y, is this true? Not true?

I think there are a lot of different names and definitions for the generations. Some have them more split up than others. After all, is somebody born in 1969 (supposedly a Boomer) going to have more in common with someone born in 1945 (also a boomer) or 1972?

I think that I've heard 1945-1960* as the Baby Boomers and 1961-1975* as the Shadow Generation.

*The dates aren't even approximate. They're probably just flat out wrong. The order may be, too.

[Stressfactor]

"Echo Boomers" are essentially the same thing as "Generation X". "Generation Y" is, technically, not a REAL "generation" in the meaning of the term since Gen X-ers are generally between 30 and 40 today and "Gen Y-ers" or "Millenials" are generally considered in their late teens to mid 20's. The thing about Gen X-ers is that we tended to marry later and have children later so MOST Gen X kids are actually not OLD enough to be Gen Y kids yet.

The Gen Y kids are kind of a half-generation -- they are a mixture of the children born of the oldest Gen -X-ers and the youngest of the Baby Boomers. It actually has more to to with the SOCIAL and CULTURAL atmosphere Gen Y-ers have been brought up in rather than the parents who brought them up.

For the record, while I'm of the "Gen X Generation" I was one of those few kids who WERE born to a 'forgotten half-generation'. Most people focus on the people who went to war in WW II and then the "baby boom" born after those people returned. HOWEVER, there was an entire group of people who were CHILDREN durin WW II and did not have children of their own until just before the Baby Boomers started spawning.

This Half-Generation was too young for WW II, were the right age for the Korean War but may or may not have fought since there was no draft for Korea and it was termed a "Police Action" and not a war at the time and then were too old for the draft in the Vietnam War.

This is similar to what we're talking about with "Gen Y".

THIS is my mother and father -- they were of THAT generation and, because they didn't have me until they were late in life (40's) it put me into the "Gen-X" generation.

[suedenim]

IMO, Strauss and Howe have the best definitions and analysis of this stuff. I highly recommend their book "Generations."

Their basic breakdown is here:
http://www.lifecourse.com/mi/insight/timelines/generations.html

It admittedly can sound a bit woo-woo, but there's some serious history and analysis behind it all.

Somewhere (in one of their books, I guess, because I don't see it on their website) they break the generations down into other significant subset "waves" that can provide meaningful distinctions. The 13th Generation, for example, has the "Atari Wave" (which I, born 1969, fit into) and the "Nintendo Wave."

My own personal pet-theory breakpoint between those waves is whether the cheapo UHF station you watched as a kid showed whatever cheap reruns of TV circa 1955-1975 could be had, or whether they showed new programming of the "toy commercial" model (e.g., Transformers, He-Man, etc.)

My pet theory is that "Atari-Wave" kids who watched too much TV actually absorbed a significant amount of cultural and historical knowledge by osmosis from the crap-TV of the past....

[veracity]

"Echo Boomers" are essentially the same thing as "Generation X". "Generation Y" is, technically, not a REAL "generation" in the meaning of the term since Gen X-ers are generally between 30 and 40 today and "Gen Y-ers" or "Millenials" are generally considered in their late teens to mid 20's. The thing about Gen X-ers is that we tended to marry later and have children later so MOST Gen X kids are actually not OLD enough to be Gen Y kids yet.

The Gen Y kids are kind of a half-generation -- they are a mixture of the children born of the oldest Gen -X-ers and the youngest of the Baby Boomers. It actually has more to to with the SOCIAL and CULTURAL atmosphere Gen Y-ers have been brought up in rather than the parents who brought them up.

Does that mean I don't exist with the bisexual girl gamer English majors? Damn, that corner's getting awfully full.

[Ben Morgan]

Supposedly I'm in generation Y, but the child of baby boomers

[Jae Namkyoung]

I guess I'm a millenial??? Okay I'm confused... I'm a straight gamer girl whose a Liberal Arts major... on that corners awfully empty... i'm in my early twenties... but what does this make vera? gen y? wait but gen y isnt old enough!? Corrina help!!!!

[veracity]

IMO, Strauss and Howe have the best definitions and analysis of this stuff. I highly recommend their book "Generations."

Their basic breakdown is here:
http://www.lifecourse.com/mi/insight/timelines/generations.html

It admittedly can sound a bit woo-woo, but there's some serious history and analysis behind it all.

Somewhere (in one of their books, I guess, because I don't see it on their website) they break the generations down into other significant subset "waves" that can provide meaningful distinctions. The 13th Generation, for example, has the "Atari Wave" (which I, born 1969, fit into) and the "Nintendo Wave."

My own personal pet-theory breakpoint between those waves is whether the cheapo UHF station you watched as a kid showed whatever cheap reruns of TV circa 1955-1975 could be had, or whether they showed new programming of the "toy commercial" model (e.g., Transformers, He-Man, etc.)

My pet theory is that "Atari-Wave" kids who watched too much TV actually absorbed a significant amount of cultural and historical knowledge by osmosis from the crap-TV of the past....

Reading that link I can say that the 13th matches pretty well with me, especially if you read the nomad link, too. The generation of latchkey kids that seemed to grow up pretty fast because the late Boomers were starting to hit midlife and the divorce rate rose.

[veracity]

I guess I'm a millenial??? Okay I'm confused... I'm a straight gamer girl whose a Liberal Arts major... on that corners awfully empty... i'm in my early twenties... but what does this make vera? gen y? wait but gen y isnt old enough!? Corrina help!!!!

Oh! No. Sorry, it's a meme on a comm I'm apart of. Sorry! Didn't mean to confuse you.

[Jae Namkyoung]

Hey thanks... this makes it better I am a milennial kid... wow... SAHWEEET! ^_^

[veracity]

Hey thanks... this makes it better I am a milennial kid... wow... SAHWEEET! ^_^

I thought you might, since you're...about 5 years younger than my former BFF and she was born in 83. Funny enough, my new BFF is barely a Millennial because she was born in Jan 82.

[Jae Namkyoung]

^_^ yeah my bff is barely that too, Jan 82. *hugs Vera*

[suedenim]

Supposedly I'm in generation Y, but the child of baby boomers

That's pretty common ("skipping" a generation between parents and their kids), actually, particularly for relatively late-in-life babies. I'm a Gen X child of Silents, though my two eldest siblings are late-end Boomers.

[Corrina]

I guess I'm a millenial??? Okay I'm confused... I'm a straight gamer girl whose a Liberal Arts major... on that corners awfully empty... i'm in my early twenties... but what does this make vera? gen y? wait but gen y isnt old enough!? Corrina help!!!!

You're asking me? I can't even type right in this thread. ;)

I liked the chart, though. Says I'm a Thirteenth or something.

But I'm right on the edge. Just like my astrological sign, which is either Libra or Virgo, depending on who you ask.

I declare the people here on this board the YABS generation!!

[Charles RB]

I thought Generation X were people who were in their 20s in the 90s.

Obama was born in 1961.

Yeah, he's not Gen X. He's in spitting distance of the Boomers.


Between our sense of entitlement and our absolute lack of ambition, no I don't see Gen X as the saviors. I'm just hoping Gen Y has the good sense to recognize our errors and do better than we have, just as soon as they put down their iPods and notice that something isn't quite right.

Speaking as a Gen Y-er, I wouldn't pin too many hopes on this.

I think the reason Gen X'ers seem more like slackers is because we've been habitually sidelined as benchwarmers. I know in my hometown, there's hardly a Gen X representative anywhere in politics. I was the only Gen X representative on our local Health Council board, and I know the United Way board only recently elected a couple. Our Rotary Club holds the majority of the social capital in our city, and there's not a Gen X representative to be found.

How does this disprove her assertion you're slackers? These are positions you get voted into and people can be voted out - Gen X-ers have votes and can run, keeping them locked out from everything to that extent would take far more effort than I think the Boomers could manage.

[Gilda Dent]

IMO, Strauss and Howe have the best definitions and analysis of this stuff. I highly recommend their book "Generations."

Their basic breakdown is here:
http://www.lifecourse.com/mi/insight/timelines/generations.html

It admittedly can sound a bit woo-woo, but there's some serious history and analysis behind it all.

I find it difficult to take seriously a classification system in which Martin Luther King Jr. is used as an example of an "Anglo-American".

I obviously don't fit anywhere there.

[sk716]

To clear up some of the confusion on what should be considered Generation X, let me weigh in a second.

I would say anyone born between 1965 and around 1980-81 falls into Generation X. Although as early as 1960 is still up for debate.

It is my belief that Generation X is pretty much a direct result of the movements against the Draft and the Vietnam War which kicked into high gear in the U.S in the mid-sixties. Free love, obscene amounts of pot, and here come the babies! Our oldest siblings came into the world in the mid to late sixties. Our youngest siblings roll around in the very early 80's. By the early 80's, the excesses of the 60's and 70's had settled down a bit and the Vietnam War Protests were a distant memory and we were watching Schoolhouse Rock and asking for Atari's for Christmas.

If you had an Atari or wanted an Atari, you probably belong to Generation X.

[Jae Namkyoung]

*blink* I'm still a milennial right? The chart helped me? Although I don't get the baby on board sign... What is all that about? Ive seen that after I was born...

[Infra-Man]

Aww man.... 1981? Looks like I'm a cusp, an X-Millennial.

[MacQuarrie]

I find the Strauss and Howe definitions (and analysis) the best for this sort of thing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Strauss

I disagree. Each of the so-called generations they identify should actually be split in two. The people who were young adults during the Crash of '29 (born 1901-10) had a very different set of formative experiences than those who were children (born 1911-29); those of us born in the latter half of the Baby Boom are very different from those born in the first half.

Culturally, Obama is absolutely not a Boomer. He's one of us. Whatever we are.

[Charles RB]

I find it difficult to take seriously a classification system in which Martin Luther King Jr. is used as an example of an "Anglo-American".

Oh whoops.

[bfrank]

An Open Letter from Generation X

I like to go to the movies and I particularly like getting their early so I can watch the trailers. I will never forget 2008, the year I saw two trailers that would later become Academy Award nominees. Both trailers were historical films set in the tumultuous era of the Baby Boomers and their crusade against that wicked generation of my grandparents. The films were Frost/Nixon and Milk. When the trailers flashed across the screen, the audience in my theater moaned—and it had absolutely nothing to do with the homosexuality in Milk.

A friend beside me leaned over and whispered, “Man, those guys still haven’t gotten over it, have they?” He’s right. They haven’t “gotten over it.” Now of course that’s not quite fair to the many Boomers in our country who never got shackled by the mess. This letter isn’t for them; it’s for the Boomer mouth pieces that have guided the last 30 years. It’s true, that group never got over it. Furthermore, they think the rest of us don’t “get it” and they are under some universal motivation to "help."

Far too narcissistic and self-absorbed to put their crusades aside, this is the generation that will forever be remembered as being too selfish to stay married, too drugged to be productive, and too religious to be just. This will be the generation that we remember as being so focused on their parent’s shortcomings that they never got around to looking at their own.

I’d like to thank the Academy for continuing to bloat their egos. Sure, these are important movies about important times in our history, we get it. We got it last time they brought it up. Like a bad dinner date, life with the aging Boomer population is all about having the same conversations over and over. We know about your generation of world-changers. We also know that most of you upped and joined the system when your marriages got stale, when free love got old, and when raising kids started cutting into your down time. We get it, and the statistics don’t lie.

Refusing to believe their revolution is over, this generation looks back to a time when they were making a difference… a time before Enron and Wall Street scandals, before Monica Lewinski, before State-sanctioned torture in Guantanamo Bay. And as if to keep Father Time from pointing out their era is finished, the Boomers invented the likes of Botox and new procedures of pulling skin away from their aging faces. Plastic surgery is the ultimate manifestation of a plastic war, where a generation of Americans clawed each other on the nightly news with polarized ideologies, leaving my generation maimed and bankrupt.

I’m not just writing this letter to the far out Boomer Left in this country... the truth is the Boomer Right did no better for us as a nation. By forming a group of Religious Fundamentalists to combat the Boomer Socialists, we watched an entire generation devour itself. The Right built shiny new churches, multi-million dollar ministries, “Christian” television networks, and then proceeded to invite the likes of Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Baker to run a good show for us, with a few hookers dancing behind the curtain. No, Boomers on the Right. You didn’t do the nation any favors by getting drawn into the culture war. You gave the devil his due.

While the schizophrenic Boomer generation fought each other, government and greedy executives robbed us all blind. Now with empty pockets, this generation has dared to get angry again. Good for them. Only it is 20 years too late, my world-changing friends. We’ve had four terms, that’s 16 years of Boomer leadership in the White House. The Boomers made good on their word—they really did change the world. They wrapped their chubby religious hands and marijuana-blackened fingers around the throat of my generation.

Don’t worry; we’ll scrub the place down. We’ll mop it up for you. It won’t be easy, but we’ll do it. We’re going to take your Frost/Nixon and your Milk because we do value their significance. We’re going to thank you for paving the way for us to question our government. We’ll take your Jesus out from under your religion, and we’ll take your Gospel out from under the stage lights. None of your lessons will be lost on us.

And for the record, we’re not mad at you… at least not in the same way you’re still mad at Grandpa McCarthy.

But we are going to tear up the credit cards. We’re going to save money and pay off our debts. We’re going to stay focused on our families, with or without Dobson ranting in the background. We’re going to build better churches, better banks, and better corporations. We don’t feel the need to check our morals at the door anymore, because in spite of her flaws, Grandma had a few things right about both God and government. We see that pretty clearly now. God isn’t a four-letter word and when we’re done, homo won’t be either. What we’re bringing to the table is a morality that isn’t at war with itself and an America that’s more likely to pick up a Walt Whitman book than a Bill Ayers leaflet or a leftover Ted Haggard pamphlet.

When we’re finished there won’t be a child in America born without adequate health insurance or an elderly veteran freezing to death in his own home because his power got shut off. We won’t be taxing the wealthy and pretending we can free lunch our way to social justice or prosperity. We won’t see our nation’s rich as the enemy, nor will we immortalize the poor with empty rhetoric and cry baby sensationalism. We won’t shackle our own grandkids with our greed or turn our backs on our neighbor anymore.

We’re going to dig you out of this and if you can wait long enough, there might something left for you to retire on, but we’re not making any promises. That’s because Boomer bankruptcy runs so much deeper than AIG or Citigroup. It’s a poison running through the sewer of our souls.

Even so, I think we can find a generation of Americans willing to put the hemlock merchants out of business. And if we can’t, we’ll at least be able to point to you and know what not to do. Maybe that’s the real legacy of the Boomer generation—a solid, but painful, lesson on how not to live and lead.


Yawm at the first part, and lol at the second......

[suedenim]

I find it difficult to take seriously a classification system in which Martin Luther King Jr. is used as an example of an "Anglo-American".


That's not how they use the term, though:
http://www.lifecourse.com/mi/insight/timelines/turnings.html

Martin Luther King is not ethnically an "Anglo American," obviously, but he is unquestionably part of Anglo-American history and culture, to which Strauss and Howe's theory is applied, going back to 1435.