I've been thinking about generations lately.
There's public and private reasons for this pondering.
The public reason is that it's an election time, and I'm feeling all tingly (to use a hot buzzword).
There's a lot of discussion about generations in this election - which candidate is in what generation, what that means, etc.
It's interesting to me that McCain is from "the Silent Generation." Time Magazine coined the phrase in 1951, and called them a generation that is "grave and fatalistic, conventional, possessing confused morals, expecting disappointment but desiring faith." William Manchester, my all-time favorite narrative historian, called in his obituary by the New York Times a "biographer who used his novelist's eye to fashion meticulously researched portraits of power," commented that the members of this generation were "withdrawn, cautious, unimaginative, indifferent, unadventurous and silent."
They are also called the "Seeker" Generation. I wonder, what exactly were they seeking?
Now we skip a few generations...
the Baby Boomers: the generation being called the most self-absorbed and acerbic in American history, but hey, cred for the whole Civil Rights thing;
The Jones Generation: coined the term "i'm jonesin'", these are the children, technically a part of the Baby Boomers, but who missed the social revolution and jumped straight into that 70s groove.
The Disco Gen: Also technically Baby Boomers, but sadly, the children of platform shoes and highwaisted jeans. Those poor poor children.
Until we come to Generation X.... also called the Lost Generation...
There's 30-some million of them. I want to say I'm not part of it because, hey, who is not embarassed by grunge? But the truth is I'm a little bit of X, and a little bit of Y. More on that later.
Xers are the first generation that probably won't do as well as their parent's financially, and are way more likely to need (and receive) help from their parents or grandparents, a big, big descent from the American dream...
While their parents practiced free love, they've inherited AIDS; Their parents led the Civil Rights movement while they watched the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
They're fiercely independent, people say, because they had to be. They are the first latchkey kids, and the first products of broken marriages.
They're considered cyncical and lazy... but they're a generation that had to put up with the rapid de-industrialization of America, the out-sourcing of previously safe jobs, and also were the creators of the tech industry.
They're a group kind of hard to define, but Meridith Bagby (all around interesting person) says this about their (her) politics: "We are after what produces the greatest good for the most people, not doctrne, rhetoric, dogma... we seek the avenue that produces the greatest results...we want a government that W-O-R-K-S--that... protects the environment, fosters business, secures our future by deficit control, makes our streets safe, and stays out of our way as much as possible while doing it."
"Our political-speak is about action, restructuring, saving money. It is not about ideology. It is about practicality."
She calls her generation "the Rising Generation," and says that self-reliance is second nature to them.
Based upon my experience working with many in this Rising Generation, they're also destructive. They hate "the system" and are distrustful of it, are disdainful of labels and corporatism, and think that government has allied itself with those interests.
I've been thinking about this because I was recently reminded that the people I surround myself with aren't necessarily run-of-the mill politicos. And I'm not talking about Moldovans. Or Peace Corps members, necessarily... who seem so far to be pretty on top of it. Because of my friends and the places that I've worked I am steeped in politics (politics in Chicago is not a spectator sport, after all) and I sometimes forget that old stereotypes are still the most prevelant....
That many people still think that republicans are the spend less, fiscally thrifty, anti-big government party. That democrats are all tax!tax!tax! and support the welfare queen! and would swell the deficit to 10 trillion if given the opportunity.
These are things that I heard so often when I was a kid I kind of believed it. Republican? party for economic conservatives. Democrat? party for bleeding heart liberals.
But the Wheel of Time turns, and just as both parties have had to reinvent themselves dozens of times before, so too has this happened now.
The democrats, crushed during most of the Clinton and Bush years, made almost irrelevant on the national stage, have reinvented themselves. Granted, this was out of necessity, but nevertheless, the change is there.
And the change was driven by Xers. The credit must be given.
David Callahan, creator of the think tank Demos, thinks that members of Gen X are likely to hold different opinions on specific political issues, but what binds them together is a political orientation that is distinct from boomer politics.
"My generation has more of an interest in rethinking ideas - figuring out whether the big liberal ideas of the twentieth century are in fact appropriate for the 21st."
Because more than likely they're not. Fiscal responsiblity? Necessary. Free trade? Necessary. These are ideas that old school democrats didn't find ... necessary.
The X-er economic philosophy was described by Ted Halstead in The Atlantic Monthly as "balanced-budget populism," combining "fiscal responsibility with a concern for income inequality."
"With this pragmatic approach comes a certain impatience with the "romanticism" of boomer lefties. X-er progressives are far less inspired by the idea of "saving the world" than fixing the local school system or creating a green transit alternative that can be replicated across communities, as long as it's a specific problem with a concrete solution.... We're not trying to change things. We're trying to fix things," Anne McCord proudly told Time in 1990. "We are the generation that is going to renovate America. We are going to be its carpenters and janitors."
"It's a roll-up-your-sleeves, nuts-and-bolts politics, built on collaboration" says Batista Schlesinger. "Before I had a political ideology, I had a process." These process-oriented values are reflected in adjectives -- collaborative, open, transparent, bottom-up, fair -- rather than big vision statements or policy slogans like Limited Government or Global Peace. The netroots' "user-generated politics" is a natural extension of these values. "What they stand for is different from traditional liberalism. And the influx of the Millenials, who are now aligning themselves with Democratic politicians and policies, is a direct result of that shift," says Armstrong.
Me? I just want the education system fixed. And a viable train system. And better jobs. And I really don't care who comes up with the solutions.
And oh, am I ever so disdainful of the romanticism and idealism of the liberal boomers.
From the way Barack Obama speaks, it's like he's quoting from the Gen X playbook... "I'm a Democrat. I'm considered a progressive Democrat. But if a Republican or a conservative or a libertarian or a free-marketer has a better idea, I am happy to steal ideas from anybody, and in that sense I'm agnostic".
Oh but wait. Obama has denounced the Baby Boomers, and aligned himself with the Millenials. And some people are calling him the first Millenial President(ial Candidate), despite the fact that he can't be a Millenial, and he's probably technically not even an Xer... more likely he's a Joneser. Tee hee.
Which brings us nicely to: Generation Y
According to some, the kids in this group (some 70 million of them!!) have a rendezvous with destiny, and they might even be "the Next Great Generation."
One in three is not Caucasian. One in four live(d) in a single-parent household. Three in four have working mothers. While boomers were still mastering Microsoft Windows 98, their kids were instant messaging on their cell phones. They have a (apparently sometimes overdeveloped) sense of self-worth, and they get upset if they're not allowed to wear their flip-flops to work.
Boy do I sympathize with that one.
They were raised by parents who loved them, coddled them, and told them they could do anything. And apparently the kids believed.
Instead of rebelling against labels like the Gen Xers did, Millenials revel in things like MacBooks, Mudd Jeans, and the new Ipod. And Iphone. Le Sigh.
"Unlike the young baby boomers, millennials want to strengthen the political system, not tear it down." A 2006 survey by Frank N. Magid Associates indicated that millennials are more likely than older generations to believe that politicians care what people think and are more concerned with the good of the country than of their political party.
"Millennials' political style is also similar to the GI generation's. They aren't confrontational or combative, the way boomers (whose generational mantra was "Don't trust anyone over 30") have been. Nor does the millennials' rhetoric reflect the cynicism and alienation of Generation X, whose philosophy is, "Life sucks, and then you die." Instead, their political style reflects their generation's constant interaction with hundreds, if not thousands, of "friends" on MySpace or Facebook, about any and all subjects, increasingly including politics. The millennials have learned to be concerned for the welfare of everyone in the group and to try to find consensus, "win-win" solutions to any problem. The result is a collegial approach that attracts millennials to candidates who seek to unify the country and heal the nation's divisions."
Or something like that. They do like brands, and they do genuinely believe that things can change for the better. And they have yet to be disappointed. Which is probably why the Obama campaign has bypassed the Gen Xers, and gone straight for the Gen Y's, now sometimes known in some circles as Generation Obama.
The Newsweek Article by Andrew Romano (or blog report) that talks about Barack being a millenial talks about how Millenials, like no other generation before, have been shaped to be goal-oriented, self-improving resume builders. He quotes David Brooks essay "The Organization Kid," saying that the Millenials, counter to the Gen Xers, are not "trying to buck the system, they're trying to climb it, and they are streamlined for ascent."
They are the kids who were ran around from piano lesson to soccor to violin to play practice, who had every minute of every afternoon planned out, and who were taught how to work the system to their benefit.
As many bloggers have lamented, and Ryan Lizza pointed out in the New Yorker (but most people missed in the Hubbub over the cover, "perhaps the greatest misconception about Barack Obama is that he is some sort of anti-establishment revolutionary. Rather, every stage of his political career has been marked by an eagerness to accommodate himself to existing institutions rather than tear them down or replace them."
Snap.
As a side note though, I always wondered why people were surprised when he compromised. Not that I wasn't upset at some of his compromises, but please... he never made any secret of his republican poker playing ways. That was part of his charm.
So who am I? Born in 1980, half of the studies say I'm an Xer, half that I'm a Millenial. I'm a cusper. Wikipedia calls me the MTV Generation, neither here nor there. Not that I ever really watched MTV. And I definitely have a longer attention span than 6 seconds.
According to a completely tech-biased survey, I am soooo a Millenial. I've always been a computer geek. And, I sure do love my Macbook. And my ipod. I think I would die without internet and I wore flipflops to my college graduation. I have been on friendster, myspace and facebook, but have recently repudiated all but facebook. Oh, and also, I started saving for retirement at the age of 24 because I refuse to have financial problems if I can in any way avoid it, and want to find anyway possible to shorten my workday because seriously? I work incredibly fast, and it's not fair to keep me at the office just to keep me there. Apparently, these are all signals of a Millenial. And I don't believe that all companies are evil. See google, mission statement. Just, you know, most companies. But not the workers. It's complicated.
And I don't have any problem working for "the man." See Rian: Americorps, Peace Corps, future hopeful government employee.
Notice the word hope.
But, I'm a pragmatist. I worked within the Chicago political sphere, so come on, I recognize that sometimes things work in a nice and democratic way, but mostly they don't. I just want things to start working, and half the time you gotta put a lot of pressure to make that happen. I know that the solutions proposed in the past by both parties are non-starters, and that 9/10ths of the time problems can only be fixed by people themselves.
So I don't know. I went into this thinking I was obviously a Gen Y, but now I'm not entirely sure. Obviously I have aspects of both. I do see seeds of the conflicts I've had with co-workers within these generational differences though, me leaning towards Yness, them being more X-ey, which is interesting.
I'm not sure if anyone else can understand my reasonings for writing this... but politics and history have movements and players and when I get a thought in my head and it becomes a thing, my need to research and read about it endlessly is pretty profound. I enjoy the fact that I play a part, however ultra-minutely, in history, and I kind of get off on the fact that the generation I seem to be most aligned with is being touted as the next Greatest Generation.
Even if what that actually means is a generation who has to deal with hardship, responsibility and sacrifice.
Not to reference a wildly cheesy pop-culture movie from the Millenial Generation or anything, but I say Bring It On.
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