Look, let me start out by acknowledging a few problems with what is to follow:
1)I have done little to no research for this piece. So, what follows should be taken with a grain of salt and with the understanding that this is currently mostly an opinion piece
2)There is disagreement on the very definition of Gen X. Specifically, what years constitute Gen X, Baby Boomers and Millenials. Therefore, it is difficult to definitively assign data to one generation or another. There is overlap.
3)Generations do not have a spokesperson, in other words, there are no statements that one could point to and say this is what this generation has agreed on.
4)The 3 generations in question have influenced and continue to influence events as they happen.
5)I am of Gen X, I am biased.
So, given those caveats, here are my basic premises:
1)The current state of technological advance, specifically computers and the Internet, exists solely because of Gen X and these technological advances wield exceptional influence.
2)Racism, sexism, sexual orientation discrimination still very much exist, but Gen X is responsible for at least starting the endgame of making these criteria of evaluation irrelevant.
3)For better and worse, Gen X is responsible for the current state of entertainment (music, books, movies). Entertainment is more than entertainment, it is both a window onto how we view the world and a driver of how we react to the world.
4)Despite the media and despite corporate mouthpiece dissension, climate change is known to be a problem and despite their obstruction, it will be fixed.
5)Depending on which dates you use (see #2 in the problems section) America has just elected the first Gen X president. I believe Obama is a good representation of us. The Baby Boomers are not going to fade quietly but he embodies the direction we will go from this point onward.
I plan to address each of these in more detail and will probably come up with more topics along the way but I want to lay the foundation of the discussion with these observations. Gen X begins any conversation with a chip on each shoulder, on the left shoulder is the Baby Boomers and on the right is The Millenials. With, say, 75 million in each, individually they dwarf the roughly 45 million Gen Xers. Yet, Gen X exerts disproportion influence on the other generations. Gen X is the pastrami in the sandwich, the other two are just bread. Thick, flavorfully influential pieces of bread, no doubt, but Gen X makes the sandwich. In the next installment I'll try to begin to prove these claims.
1 comment:
Interesting article, but as you noted, you haven't done any research yet, so it needs to be read in that light.
One of the things you'll find when you start doing the research is that there is another generation which has emerged in the center of your pastrami sandwich, and this generation includes Obama, his wife Michelle, and approximately half of his main appointees.
As many nationally influential voices have repeatedly noted, Obama is part of Generation Jones, born 1954-1965, between the Boomers and Generation X. Google Generation Jones, and you'll see it’s gotten a ton of media attention, and many top commentators from many top publications and networks (Washington Post, Time magazine, NBC, Newsweek, ABC, etc.) specifically use this term to describe Obama.
Great op-ed on Obama as the first Generation Jones President in USA TODAY a couple of weeks ago:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20090127/column27_st.art.htm
I realize that many GenXers are rightfully proud of their generation, and want rock star Obama to be a part of it. It reminds me of how many Boomers liked to think of John F Kennedy as a part of their generation 45 years ago, even though he was born in 1917 (as opposed to the 1940s and 1950s when Boomers were actually born).
But the reality is that Obama isn't an Xer, which is why virtually no experts anywhere have suggested Obama is an Xer, while a long list of experts have said he is part of GenJones. It is also why a nationwide poll of people born the same year as Obama showed overwhelming identification by these now 47/48 year olds with GenJones, not GenX.
GenX will have its turn at the Presidency. But for now, it's GenJones.
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