Boomers, Millennials, and those of us gen-between
I’m pulling this exchange with who_is_sylvia up out of the comment threads and to the top board, because I want to make sure it’s clear that I know my generation has its issues, too.
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>>I don’t think you’re opposed to any of my beliefs–in fact, we seem to have most of the same ones. But you certainly do expect a lot out of my generation.
Yes I do. And as a university professor, I feel personally implicated in helping make sure your gen accomplishes as much as it can. Your generation has a lot of strengths and particular kinds of savvy that it has not yet fully tapped.
>>Do we have to overthrow the government en masse, with no internal dissent within our ranks, before you’ll believe that we might care as much as the Vietnam generation cared?
Well, that would certainly convince me you care, but I don’t think I have the bar set quite that high. Here’s the bottom line. The Boomers cared passionately. Then, sadly, the 80s arrived and they started caring about other things. My generation, X, we were so damned cynical about even the slightest hope of collective change that there was never any risk of us marching about anything. We’re almost feral in our alienation, and this isn’t something I’m terribly happy about. Our legacy will be an inward-looking, mercenary one, I fear. So we all have our downsides.
So far, your generation hasn’t yet overcome a couple things. First, I’d say you’re more generally complacent that Boomers or Xers (not everybody, but on average), and second, you’re not inherently the kinds of aggressively critical thinkers that the two previous gens were (and don’t take my word on it – go real Howe and Strauss’ fantastic book on you guys, Millennials Rising). Offsetting this is the fact that you’re very good organizers and team players (that last one is my gen’s single greatest weakness, probably), so those of us who’d like to see more cage-rattling out of you are not unjustified in that hope.
>>Wasn’t the whole point of the first piece you posted yesterday that the students in the 1970s didn’t actually give as much of a damn as it looked like they did?
That was Ken Bielen’s post, not mine, and that’s maybe a way of reading it. However, it’s also important to note the reason those kids were so jacked to party. Nixon had resigned. They had won. Kent State had not been in vain.
On another thread I’ve been back and forth over the Boomers (lots of my Boomer friends get prickly when they perceive that I’m indicting them, too). In truth, we all have lots to offer, and we all fall far short of what we ought to accomplish. So if I critique group A, that should not be taken as a ringing endorsement of any other group, including the one that I happen to be in. I can probably tell you more about what’s wrong with us than I can any other group, in fact.
lullaby pit 
i disagree
Okay, i put the brunt of my rebuttal to this nostalgia here. This may be a little more convoluted as we cross the line between generations X and Y, but … keep in mind I have the utmost respect for you and Jim, seriously. Though, I should make it known that my dad was only blocks away from the Kent State shooting when it happened. His perspective is interesting, to say the least, but that’s another post.
For one, generation Y has no hope of overcoming The System. The System learned its mistakes with the Boomers. Today’s army would never be so foolish as to allow graphic depictions of war footage to air on the evening news, assuming anyone still watches that vaguely-topical version of Entertainment Tonight that passes for news these days. Hell, it has taken more than a year for the whole story to leak out about former football player Pat Tillman’s death in Iraq — and of course, the details no longer matter — he’s already been canonized in the Church of the Red, White, and Blue. Now, the armed forces release promotional videos and games as polished as Star Wars and Doom, respectively. Just yesterday, I popped into a couple of shops at a strip mall across the street from a high school. It should go without saying that there were prominent displays of “An Army of One” pamphlets in both shops. No fledgling citizen could hope to parse through so much bullshit.
As for generation Y being complacent, I’d say they’re just better entertained (and yes, I feel more than a little culpable here). Who has time for real accomplishment when it’s so much easier and almost as satisfying to have a level 40 tank with lots of coin in the bank?
Over the course of the last 30 years, The Man has been transformed into The Amorphous Phantom Menace. We’d love to shoot, but the enemy has diversified into such a faceless corporate machine that we’ve been reduced to timid citizens a la Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. We’re waiting for our Robert DeNiro to swoop in and rewire the pipes, but we’re becoming increasingly concerned that he’ll never come.
It’s slowly dawning on The People that there is no reward system in place beyond pure altruism that could possibly spawn such a DeNiro. Today, the best way to get a high-paying internet security job is to get busted for hacking a high-security site. Our justice system is almost identical (i had jury duty this week). A good prosecuting attorney might one day be the D.A. or even a judge or policitian. A good defender might not have a nervous tick or an eating disorder in ten years. There is no reward for standing your ground. Morality is an outdated concept. You’re either attacking or defending. Welcome to the new predation. Welcome to de-evolution.
— Miguel Duke
Just a quick note before I go back to studying for finals.
Miguel, aren’t you giving the reasons why your generation (I’m a GenXer), needs to quickly define itself and “mobilize” ?
Shouldn’t the dispondency of the government and “The Man” be the catalyst that ignites a groundswell for change?
It seems as thogh it should! I may be wrong, but…
This is what I see, anyway
Pat Tillman
Just a clarification on Pat Tillman’s death:
He was killed in Afghanistan, not Iraq.
Re: i disagree
By the way – WHY aren’t you a member of 5th Estate?