July 30, 2010
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Generation Gap
I'm in a class right now about generational differences. We watched a video about 1968 a couple nights ago and it was somewhat comforting. 1968 was a terrible year for the United States. Assassinations, riots, a divided nation, an unpopular and costly war, and the threat of Communism still very real. In comparison, things aren't that bad right now. Race is still a big issue but we don't have riots and blazes. We haven't had a President, a major civil rights figure, or a senator assassinated. Our current wars have been costly in dollars but we're not seeing thousands of corpses returning to our shores each month. We're not seeing a bunch of dirty hippies picking fights with cops, bombing government buildings, or just generally engaging in dirty hippiness.
I hate hippies.
We still have a nation divided along party lines. This isn't surprising seeing as the same jerkoffs who were causing trouble in '68 are now our teachers, judges, and politicians. They will continue to hate "The Man" despite now being The Man and those who think The Man is preferable to drug addled, std infested, unwashed Commis will continue to despise their attempts to destroy America. The Baby Boomers divided us and it's unlikely we'll unite again without a major war - and guess which side wins when that happens?
Conservatives.
It's cyclical. Major wars tend to create a generation of people who hate war - and it's almost never the generation that had to fight it. The generation that fights the war sees it as horrible but necessary and hopes and prays that its children will never have to experience what they did. Their children debate the morality of war from the safety of a world their parents fought to create.
You can probably guess how I feel about Baby Boomers who were hippies and never grew up.
According to the book I'm currently reading, I'm a Millenial. If you were born after 1982 you get to join me in that category. Anyone who calls us "Generation Me" is getting kicked in the pants. A lot of historians consider the Baby Boomers to be the most spoiled, self-centered generation yet somehow Generation X and the Millenials get pegged as the self-centered, shallow generations.
We learned from the best.
My parents are both Boomers but they act more like Veterans (the Greatest Generation). I'm not sure how well I sync up with any generation but as I just barely missed being part of X (and in some calculations I still belong to X) I'm probably a bit of X and a bit of Millenial. I think I was 10 when the internet went public (1994?) and now there are kids who are 10 who have never experienced a world without it. Although what really shocks me is a world that has never experience the original Nintendo or Atari.
8-bit for life, yo.
Comments (11)
Yeah, can't say I'm a fan of the Baby Boomers either... The ones that act like spoiled hippies, that is.
I hope you're right about it just being a cyclical thing. It just seems to me that it's more dangerous, with nuclear weapons in the hands of psychos and communists in the govt.
I'm in a class about Intercultural Communications right now. Pretty interesting and I like the teacher. He's Lebanese, still has a heavy accent. Lived in Saudi Arabia for 6 years, has his doctorate, and a good sense of humor. He also tells interesting stories. Told us that he was in Kuwait when Iraq invaded. He said that the soldiers were looting and they left all of the towers and took all of the computer monitors. They thought they were tvs.
At a couple library conferences I've been to I sat in on sessions about the differences in generations and about millenials. Even though we are Millenials there's still another shift, like Generation Y2k and then the Millenials. Meh not like we won't be classified and reclassified, really dislike being told what I am and am not.
@dropsofjupiterihh - lol, tech FAIL.
@RavenStarwind - you're right - the newer the generation the more likely it is to be reclassified. X probably has some redefining left in it but the Baby Boomers and Veterans are probably pretty solid. I'm nothing like the typical X'er but GenX just sounds awesome. I blame the X-Men.
@JJ_Ames -
Hehe yeah. I was reading something today that said 1982-1995 is Generation Y (Y2k)[Cause we always ask y, but Z is 1991 though the 2000s (millenials).
Speaking of the x-men if anna lives long enough her kids are gonna be like the x-men...only dragons...it still makes me giggle.
..................i typed this huge comment and then accidentally clicked something on my favorites bar before submitting.
i'll chat with you about this later then. i am SO done for the night now.
poo.
@eowynnabeeowyn - fail. Kind of like me lying down for a nap and waking up ten hours later. That's not a nap; that's a coma!
@RavenStarwind - Ames will probably breed children who explode and live to explode again. I usually consider my peer group to be '79-'89 simply because the '80's rock and I can't get past the idea that anyone born 1990 and on is still a kid...rather than 20 and down...argleflarg. Kids I used to babysit are married!
@JJ_Ames -
I agree with '79-'89 the 80s really did rock. Plus I refuse to be in the same generation as my brother.
So crazy.
@RavenStarwind - my sister was born in '86 so she's one of us, lol. btw, I've also heard us called "Generation Nintendo" - I approve!
@JJ_Ames -
Generation Nintendo we shall be then!