Progress by the Generations

The Boomer generation initiate the process of change by being inspired by ideologies and principles that challenge the institutions of their fathers and grandfathers. Typically, the institutions they challenge are built upon compromises that promote injustices. The Boomers voice their ideologies and principles against these injustices and institutions. The result is reported in the media as rallies and protests.

The GenXers that follow are raised up in a society that is based on the ideologies and principles of the Boomers. The GenXers find that these ideologies and principles are too impractical and too theoretical and if carried out result in failure. GenXers who survive their upbringing have a "never-say-die" constitution, the nature of "the cockroach." These "Cockroaches" typically are instrumental in tearing down the institutions that the Boomers oppose.

The following generation, GenY, are led ideologically by the principles of the Boomers. They are practically guided by the "never-say-die" nature of the cockroach generation, the GenXers. GenY are "do-ers," self-motivated and aggressive to build new institutions.

The generation that follows GenY, GenZ, will idolize the accomplishments of GenY and will further build and establish the institutions of the generation before them.

The Cockroach Generation

GenX is the cockroach of all the generations since WWII.

Everyone endlessly praises the GIs who are now all dead.

No one realizes that the generation that followed them is called the Silents. This generation experienced Elvis Presley in the 50’s and focked to see him in Las Vegas in the 70’s. They also ran Washington D.C. all through the 70’s and 80’s. A simple definition of them: “inefficient bureaucratic red tape”.

The GIs gave birth to the Boomers. The Boomers still think of themselves as “the Generation” (I'll talk more about this generation in later blogs).

Finally Silents and Boomers produced us, GenX.

I was born very early on in the GenX phenomenon (born ’64). I grew up on Maxwell Smart, The Brady Bunch, and Gilligan’s Island. I saw “Saturday Night Fever” in the theater, bought the soundtrack, and watched Saturday Night Live religiously on every week. I was there at the beginning of cable TV: HBO and MTV. I knew Nixon, Ford, and Carter were a joke. Reagan and Oliver North seemed as real as personalities as George of the Jungle and his elephant.

What best describes the GenX experience is absurdity. No child was ever meant to live and survive in a society as the 60’s, the 70’s, and the 80’s. For all of us who have survived, I am claiming the cockroach as our mascot. GenX is the cockroach generation.

Here is something on cockroaches I found on Wikipedia:

The cockroach is also one of the hardiest insects on the planet, capable of living for a month without food and remaining alive headless for up to a week. It can also hold its breath for 45 minutes and has the ability to slow down its heart rate.

It is popularly suggested that cockroaches will "inherit the earth" after humanity destroys itself in a nuclear war. Cockroaches do indeed have a much higher radiation resistance than vertebrates, with the lethal dose perhaps 6 to 15 times that for humans. However, they are not exceptionally radiation-resistant compared to other insects, such as the fruit fly ^[1].

Long live the cockroach! Long live GenX!

You know what's the difference . . . ?

While I was in college, a buddy of mine made an observation. He said, “You know what’s the difference between the hippies and us? The hippies took drugs thinking they were reaching a higher level of consciousness. We know better and just do drugs to party!”

What the Hell . . . ?

Before I continue with my story, I just wanted to give an experience of another GenX:

In a forum I found, there’s a a thread called, “59-64 cohorts How Baby Boomer are you?” This is what one guy said:

When I read the description in Generations of how GenX was blamed for everything from plunging test scores to violent crime, a sense of rage welled up inside me. I wanted to shout out, "What the Hell do you expect of us? We didn't ask to be raised this way!!" It was quite a visceral experience.

That's when I knew I was an Xer, 110%.

Epiphany #2

epiph·a·ny from Webster.com

a (1) : a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something (2) : an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event) usually simple and striking (3) : an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure b : a revealing scene or moment

So following my epiphany I needed to tell someone about my discovery. I tried to talk to my coworker, who I felt pretty close to. I immediately discovered he did not understand nor would ever understand what I saw. Within two or three sentences I gave up trying.

Epiphany number two: my coworker was a Boomer.

Shazaam! I’m GenX!

I didn’t even know that there was such a thing as GenX for most of my life. Then in the early 90’s GenX was all over the media. I thought GenX referred to the kids in high school. But then in 1996 I read (being already 30 years old),

“As it is most commonly understood today, Generation X refers to what can be called a ‘lost’ segment of America’s youth too young to remember the assassination of President Kennedy and too old to have missed the end of disco. Having watched our immediate elders transform from hippies to Yuppies to New Agers to landowners, we get the feeling we are living in the wake of the postwar baby boom and bearing the economic and cultural burden of a society run on financial credit and social debit. Following the massive ‘boomer’ population, a huge lump in the snake’s digestive tract called American history, we, the self-named baby ‘busters’ have learned to call this intestinal vacuum home.

We did not ask to be encumbered with this legacy, but we have chosen to make the best of it. …”

I said, “That’s me!” It was in a book called The GenX Reader by Douglas Rushkoff. I think I only read that one page and maybe a couple more. I didn’t have to read any more. It was an epiphany, “Shazaam! I’m GenX!”

Let's Start the Show

Sick and tired of hearing others bad-mouth GenX? Or are you like me who now take sick joy in hearing others bad-mouth our generation?

It took the last ten years of my life to even discover that I was GenX. In the last year I’ve been on a journey that now makes me damn proud to be GenX.

I've been trying to find a good GenX blog - by GenX, about GenX, for GenX. I haven't found one yet. Let me know if you have.

This blog is meant for me to tell my stories and the stories of others. I’m going to keep telling stories until I make everyone who stumbles on this blog a believer in GenX. If there was ever a generation to be proud of being a part of, it's GenX!