In Defense Of My Generation

Every generation, as young adults, must validate their existence and their approach to the hostile generations before. My generation is no different. I am a late cohort member of Generation X. I was born at the dividing line between two generations--one of them cynical and questioning (and intensely creative), and the other hardworking and productive (but rather boring), and somehow I ended up a little of each. But the younger generation of the two needs little defense from me. It is already a much appreciated generation by elders--it's a bit too technological, that's for sure, but its hardworking nature and group-friendly mentality are much appreciated.

It is Generation X I must defend, however. Despite the fact that I am one of the youngest of Generation X (ages 24-46), the gifts of Generation X are consistently marginalized and neglected in society. Baby Boomers hold onto their positions of authority longer than they should because my generation is mistrusted. It is said that our numbers are too few to fill the gaps left behind by self-righteous boomer types, while it is conveniently forgotten that those same Boomer types that fret over our small numbers aborted many millions of my compatriots both before and after Roe vs. Wade. Even before we were born my generation had war declared on us.

When the earliest members of my generation graduated from school, avoiding the protesting that our foolish Boomer elders engaged in, we were called cynical and it was complained that we lacked sufficient civic spirit. Such protests as we have made were taken as signs of immaturity, rather than as what they were, righteous indignation against a corrupt system set in place by those who came before us. When the earlier members of my generation went into business, and succeeded, it was complained that we were corrupt and shady, too materialistic, even if it slightly older baby boomers, for example, who earned the biggest bucks and were bailed out after the S & L scandal while their younger coworkers took the fall.

When my cohort graduated from high school, the only place that wanted us was engineering and technology, and so my generation flocked to study computers and engineering. Then, right after I graduated from high school, the tech bust occurred and the only industry that ever cared a whit for my people suffered huge losses. Burdened by college debts (another area in which Baby Boomers declared war on my generation, by saddling us with tens of thousands of dollars of debt in order to gain the education that was becoming necessary to work), it was wondered why we were so nomadic, so intent on finding those few opportunities where we are respected and valued. Again, there was concern that we were not willing to pay our dues, and it was again forgotten that no generation has ever been expected to pay as many as we have, with as little future reward.

Meanwhile, while barriers to entry into economic productivity were placed against my compatriots and myself, those corrupt Baby Boomers in power have sought at every end to profit from government and industry while simultaneously denying those benefits to those of us that come right after them. While churches seek to give generous pension benefits to aging Baby Boomer ministers, they are expecting a lot of unpaid and unrecognized labor from Generation X members. While the Baby Boomer steelworkers are profiting from generous pension benefits in the auto industry, Generation Xer steelworkers are now being told that their skills are no longer required and that they will have to fend for themselves without the generous pensions received by their recent elders. While Baby Boomers start to collect Medicare and Social Security benefits paid for my myself and other Generation Xers, all we are promised is insolvency when it is time to collect on our contributions to society. Society has laid nothing up for our old age, even as it squeezes us for every penny it can get from our labor.

Meanwhile, while war has been declared on us from before birth to after retirement, and where society is hostile to us at every turn, threatening our well-being, marginalizing us and attacking us in every area of our existence, we must suffer from the worst timing of any generational type around. The near future does not look friendly to people of my generation. Typically, it is during the peak earning times of generations of my type when major depressions occur (as was commented in my previous post). Ironically enough, HWA was a member of my generational type the last time around, a similarly reviled and marginalized generation called the "Lost Generation."

It should be commented on that my generation has some major gifts that do not seem to be recognized by our nearsighted elders. For one, our generation is very grimly realistic. There is no utopian expectations, unlike the Baby Boomers or the younglings growing up today who expect to live in a world that is just. No, our generation has seen enough of the world to know that justice in this life is a pipe dream, especially given the corruption of those in power in it. No, our generation is grimly realistic, seeing the world as it really is (a grossly underestimated skill), and determined to survive nonetheless the hostility the world shows to us. By existing and surviving at all we serve to taunt our foes, and that is enough. We also have the great gift of salvaging what is useful in the otherwise useless chaos that Baby Boomers torment us with. They, through their own selfish ambitions tear up organizations and the social fabric while we are young, and so we have to deal with divorces and heresies, all while being blamed for that which is the fault of our elders. We must salvage what is useful (that would be truth) while junking what is hopelessly corrupt and beyond repair (this would be the hierarchy and the systems of institutional control present all around us). Furthermore, we have the gift of questioning--that gift which keeps leaders in their place and keeps them from uselessly sacrificing their followers for their own selfish aims. These gifts, though, are not particularly appreciated.

I fully realize that the words I say in defense of my generation may appear to others (particularly Baby Boomers) to be rather hostile. In response, I give them an open invitation to see how life is like, our past, our present, and our prospects for the future, for members of my generation. I am sure others appreciate it when people walk in your shoes. I ask that you older people who so slight and neglect my generation give us the same respect in return. Try walking in our shoes, and see how it is for one's entire existence to demonstrate at every opportunity what appears to be a conspiriscy against our well-being, even as we are blamed for reacting to what was not our fault in creating. While the younger generation is shielded to some extent from the full-brunt of unpleasant reality, we were forced to look at it while small children, unable to realize the scarring that would result from our experiences because we were too small to defend ourselves from the corruption and selfishness of the generation above us. Furthermore, when we have pointed out the unpleasant nature of reality to those above us, we have been consistently reviled and attacked as negative. As if we could be otherwise. If you wish us to be less negative, try being a little less hostile towards us.

History has a dark destiny for those of us born in my generational type. We suffer through depressions, have a Darwinian existence where only the strong survive, die off in droves from Wars (Civil War, WWII) and disease (the influenza pandemic of 1918, AIDS), and when we are old we do not benefit from social services for from the generosity of family, as who wishes to be generous to those who are crabby, regardless of the good reason they have for being so. While being consistently screwed by the world around them from the fetus to the grave, though, our generation leaves behind the most valued blessings any society can look for--churches, literature (my generational type creates the only American literature studied by others), and the commitment to freedom and the worth of life. We should at least be appreciated for these things, if only in retrospect. Do not repeat the mistakes of the past, oh members of more favored generations, for it will be to your ruin. For no one but my generation stands up for the outcasts, for the unwanted, and for the unappreciated. One has to know one's kind, after all.