The current state of Gen X (part one)

(Publishers note: As opposed to previous statements, I sadly will not be able to post the top 20 Simpsons episodes of all time tonight. This is in part due to yesterday’s events pushing my writing schedule back a day. Mainly it is due to the fact that there are an effing lot of Simpsons episodes and to do this write is going to take some effort. It’s kind of like when I dressed my dog up like Boba Fett for the science fiction convention, it always takes a lot longer than you’d think.

What? Doesn’t everybody do that? What else would I dress him as? C-3PO? A freaking hobbit?

Anyway, on Sunday you will get the top 20 episodes with quick summaries and great lines and all of that fun stuff. Now, here is yesterday’s post today.)

“The shows were broader, the buildings were higher, the morals were looser, and the liquor was cheaper; but all these did not really minister to much delight. Young people wore out early – they were hard and languid at twenty-one…the city was bloated, glutted, stupid with cakes and circuses, and a new expression “Oh yeah?” summed up all the enthusiasm evoked by the announcement of a new skyscraper.” F. Scott Fitzgerald

There are a lot of reasons as to why I admire F. Scott Fitzgerald. Partly it’s because he lived a life that I would be proud to lead. Midwestern boy goes out to the east coast, makes it big, writes the greatest novel ever written by an American, marries a beauty queen who ends up being quite insane, and ends up drinking himself to an early grave while writing bad movie scripts in Hollywood. That is called having a full, if rather short, life. But mainly I’m drawn to him because we are both of the same period. The Lost Generation and Generation X mirror each other in American history.

I first started studying the idea of the importance of generations in college when I came across a book called “13th Gen” by Neil Howe and Bill Strauss. It was the first true sociological view of Generation X (or what they dubbed 13th Gen as it is a) the 13th generation since the constitution was signed and b) an unlucky generation) and looking back at the book today I am amazed at how accurate it is. It’s worth digging through a library to find a copy. It was written in 1993 at the height of grunge so some references may not be wholly relevant but as I’ll show there is one section that stayed with me forever.

I’ll just write about two parts tonight and maybe will touch on some others next week. The first is the interesting question of what makes up this generation. They define it as anyone born between 1961 and 1981, which puts my birthday in 1973 right in the heart of the group. That is why I unabashedly identify myself as a member of Generation X, Nirvana released Nevermind right when I turned 18. Kurt Cobain killed himself a few months before I turned 21. Those two events are the major happenings of my generation.

That’s why I have some issues with those dates. Basically I think they could be shortened on both ends. If you were born in 1961 you were 18 in 1979 and could theoretically go to a disco while disco was still vaguely cool. When Wall Street came out in 1987 you’d be 26 and could be one of those bankers and I don’t think you could connect slackers with greed is good. On the other side, a kid born in 1981 entered college in the heat of the dot com boom and exited into the war on terror and that is just a whole different world from me. I’d be happier with a 1964 to 1978 time frame.

The other part that amazes me from this book are the predictions of what my generation will encounter. Here they are

1) Over the next 15 years, the festering quarrel between 13ers and Boomers will grow into America’s next great generation gap.
2) Thirteeners will never outgrow their bad image
3) The 13th will become one of the most important immigrant generations in American history
4) Early in life, the most successful 13ers will be risk takers who exploit opportunities overlooked by established businesses
5) Reaching midlife, the 13ers economic fears will be confirmed: They will become the only generation born this century (the first since the Gilded) to suffer a one generation backstep in living standards
6) Thirteeners will restrengthen the American family
7) Reaching their fifties in a mood of collective exhaustion, 13ers will settle into the midlife role of national anchor; calming the social mood and slowing the pace of social change.
8) Throughout their lives, 13ers will be America’s most politically conservative generation since the Lost.
9) As they reach their turn for national leadership, 13ers will produce non-nonsense winners who will exceed at cunning, flexibility and deft timing.
10) Before 2030, events will call on pockmarked 13ers to make aging Boomers get real and perhaps, to stop some righteous old Aquarian from doing something truly catastrophic
11) Throughout their lives, 13ers will neither ask nor receive much assistance from their government
12) As mature leaders and voters, 13ers will favor investment over consumption, endowments over entitlements, the needs of the very young over the needs of the very old.
13) Thirteeners will make caustic, independent yet self-effacing elders.

Think about how much of this has already become true. We’re still the slacker generation. We’ve been immediately bypassed by the marketplace of both commerce and public opinion in favor of the cuter millenials (no surprise as those are the Boomers favorite children.) We’re the ones who built the internet from message boards to Amazon and eBay and Google. And you know, for years I’ve always remembered prediction # 10 and more and more I feel that that is going to be the case. Heck, we may have missed our shot.

I’ll go into this in more detail next week but I want to get people thinking about this. If you want to understand American culture and the American marketplace you have to understand the power of generations. It really is the driver behind everything.

Have a great weekend everyone.