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Is Generation X America’s Last Hope?
I’m a proud member of Generation X, the oft-forgotten demographic between the utopian Baby Boomers and the self-adoring Millennials. Granted, not all the members of any generation fit their stereotype, but the culture spawned by these groups defines them in aggregate.
After the Greatest Generation survived the Great Depression and returned from a bloody world war, they sought a quiet sanctuary in suburbia, sparing their kids such pain. The Boomers decided that life was boring and inauthentic, and tried to replace it with a Summer of Love that would usher in the Age of Aquarius. That experiment didn’t go too well.
Gen X was sold the Boomers’ utopian dream throughout our youth, but never quite bought it. The culture of our childhood was infused with the wreckage wrought by hippies and yippies. Vietnam protests and the loss of that war. Drug addicts and dead rock stars. Kiddie shows that toggled between LSD trips to eco-apocalypse. We watched the failure of the War on Poverty, Nixon, Ford, and Carter. (Not to mention the hideous fashions.)
Today, my fellow X-ers look at Millennials with confusion, much like the Boomers looked at us. Eyes on the black mirror of their iPhones, they’re focused on their reflection as the center of their intersectional utopia.
Gen X’s unique outlook has led Rich Cohen to see them as America’s “last, best hope“:
Though much derided, members of my generation turn out to be something like Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca—we’ve seen everything and grown tired of history and all the fighting and so have opened our own little joint at the edge of the desert, the last outpost in a world gone mad, the last light in the last saloon on the darkest night of the year. It’s not those who stormed the beaches and won the war, nor the hula-hooped millions who followed, nor what we have coming out of the colleges now—it’s Generation X that will be called the greatest…
We are a revolt against the boomers, a revolt against the revolt, a market correction, a restoration not of a power elite but of a philosophy. I always believed we had more in common with the poets haunting the taverns on 52nd Street at the end of the 30s than with the hippies at Woodstock. Cynical, wised up, sane. We’d seen what became of the big projects of the boomers as that earlier generation had seen what became of all the big social projects. As a result we could not stand to hear the Utopian talk of the boomers as we cannot stand to hear the Utopian talk of the millennials. We know that most people are rotten to the core, but some are good, and proceed accordingly.
Perhaps without knowing it, Cohen is outlining what Thomas Sowell called “a conflict of visions,” one that is constrained and one that isn’t:
Sowell argues that the unconstrained vision relies heavily on the belief that human nature is essentially good. Those with an unconstrained vision distrust decentralized processes and are impatient with large institutions and systemic processes that constrain human action. They believe there is an ideal solution to every problem, and that compromise is never acceptable. Collateral damage is merely the price of moving forward on the road to perfection. Sowell often refers to them as “the self anointed.” Ultimately they believe that man is morally perfectible. Because of this, they believe that there exist some people who are further along the path of moral development, have overcome self-interest and are immune to the influence of power and therefore can act as surrogate decision-makers for the rest of society.
Sowell argues that the constrained vision relies heavily on belief that human nature is essentially unchanging and that man is naturally inherently self-interested, regardless of the best intentions. Those with a constrained vision prefer the systematic processes of the rule of law and experience of tradition. Compromise is essential because there are no ideal solutions, only trade-offs. Those with a constrained vision favor solid empirical evidence and time-tested structures and processes over intervention and personal experience. Ultimately, the constrained vision demands checks and balances and refuses to accept that all people could put aside their innate self-interest.
Boomers and Millennials, writ large, subscribe to the unconstrained vision; Gen X to the constrained, or tragic, vision. Perhaps we should start calling my generation the Sowell generation.
Cohen adds:
Irony and a keen sense of dread are what make Generation X the last great hope, with its belief that, even if you could tell other people what to say and what not to say, even if you could tell them how to live, even if you could enforce those rules through social pressure and public shaming, why would you want to? I mean, it’s just so uncool…
I’m careful not to always say what I know—that the long arc of history does not in fact bend toward justice.
I couldn’t agree more.
Published in General
Keep it up because you will be helping shape my kids’ generation. So far, the older ones of that gen are looking pretty solid (raised by older x’ers). Current high schoolers are not the same as those in college currently and in their 20s.
I’m the forgotten Y Gen. We got lumped into Millenials, which is interesting… Millenials are characterized as never having grown up without internet. I definitely recall a day and age without a computer.
Psssh
You Xers are less forgotten than those of us who are I guess called transitionals now. Those of us too young to be a True X-er, and too old to be a to truely be a millennial.
I fit into this one myself.
Of late I’ve been asking myself where Gen-X fits. In a recent Commentary podcast, the discussion was all about how the Boomers were aging-out and Millennials were the rising dominant demographic. “Huh,” I thought, “What about Gen-X?”
I was born in 1963, and my earliest memories are of 1967. Yet in worldview and philosophy I fall into the the group described by Sowell as “constrained vision.” The sibling nearest to me in age was born in 1962. She is an unabashed Boomer of the “unconstrained vision” philosophy. She and I are both on the seam between the two generations, and demonstrate aspects of both.
The more I think about it, the more I think I am best described as an early Gen-X, rather than a late Boomer. Cohen says it best when he writes, “I’m careful not to always say what I know—that the long arc of history does not in fact bend toward justice.”
Hey now!
Now, here I was thinking that “Gen Y” was the same as “millennial”, and that those of us born too late to be Gen X, but too early to be in the thick of the millennial crowd were simply trying to worm our way out of being millennials!
Eh, these labels always chunk up a gradual process. Personally, in situations where a ridiculous amount of blame and scorn is heaped on millennials, it becomes easier to identify as millennial. Conservatives and their contrarian streaks…
No generation ever gets to name itself, it seems. We’ve been called “gen X” for 25+ years now by the boomers, as if, having birthed us, they still have no idea who we are or what we are doing. We could just as easily be called the squished generation, stuck between the Boomers and what was being called Gen Y.
And I rather dislike the notion that we’re “America’s Last Hope” somehow – where is that call coming from? Why?
Are we called this because our taxes are funding our parents’ retirement and paying for their medical care?
Are we called this because we’ve maintained solid chips on our shoulders and sardonic glints in our eyes and are expected to contain the narcissism of the Millennials?
Most of us have just wanted to go on living our lives, being drawn neither to the earnest passions of the Millennials nor the perpetual youth-seeking of the Boomers. We’ve got families to raise now, and kids in college, or kids just now starting in the work force, and we’d rather get on with it. In the immortal words of Billy Joel’s Boomer anthem, we didn’t start the fire. And it wasn’t us who infused the Millennials with their self-esteem claptrap, that was inflicted by our elders.
That they do. They’re an easy and inaccurate shorthand way of bundling groups of people because once you label something, you are then free to define it any way you wish.
Gen X? We didn’t call ourselves that, others did and still do.
Billy Joel’s daughter used to beg, embarrassed, “Daddy, please stop singing!” Kids. They are there to humble us.
I think its speaks more to the kind of profound cultural change, and that there is the little place in the middle that doesn’t fit in either box.
I used to tell my wife that I ended up with both generations angst, then it became cool. I think I am going to have to get a new haircut and hipster my way out of this as its becoming too mainstream.
Sometimes, I agree. Really funny sidebar, I have a very difficult time with continuous math… I have to count on my fingers. Academically, I know continuous and Discrete math yield the same results, but conceptually, I struggle with it. Generations are discrete applied over a continuum, so yields some strange results.
I like most of what the author has to say, but I think that it is a mistake to lump all boomers in the same bunch.
Those of us who were born in the second half of the boomer generation did not experience the same things… I was 9 when my older brother went to Woodstock and 12 when the Vietnam era draft ended. Many of us share the GenX distaste for the hippie utopia and the social destruction it caused.
All I’m saying is don’t assume that all boomers are alike… many of us were fans of Thomas Sowell long before you’d ever heard of him.
A younger relative (definitely in the millennial demographic age-wise) grew up idolizing Gen-X-ers, and so for a very long time identified as Gen X. The more he got interested, though, in being perceived as a valuable employee and team player, rather than a cynic out to stick it to “the man”, the more millenial-identifying he became.
I was getting ready to post the same thing. I was born in ’61, None of the seminal Boomer characteristics are right.
The reason I took a premature interest in combinatorics is because I cannot count otherwise. My problem isn’t discrete-vs-continuous, but computation-vs-everything-else. I mostly sucked at math till discrete math and calculus. People who ask me to factor their phone numbers or add up the bill and calculate the tip when I’m treating myself to a night out with friends really do not understand me – what, don’t they see me as a person, not a stereotype? Microaggression! ;-P
My dad was ’59 and my mom ’63 – my dad, there’s a little bit of it. My mom, most assuredly not. My mom was also the youngest of 5 girls, so I’m pretty certain that whatever characteristics Boomers have, her boomer sisters burned it out of her. Nothing at all special about being the 5th daughter!
My parents were born in ’46 and ’50, and they detested the hippies immensely. My father, though called up for the draft at least 3 times, always had medical, and later work deferments (Bell Labs work on communications systems) but joined the Ohio National Guard anyway, and thus was called up on duty several times to deal with OSU campus and state penitentiary riots.
What he remembers of that time was that by and large the OSU students were rarely the ones leading the riots (some were always involved of course, but the leaders were always outsiders), and in fact many of those students would come out afterwards to help clean up, or would otherwise assist in keeping the peace.
I knew one of the Guard sergeants who was on duty at Kent State too on the day of the shooting – he said much the same thing.
My parents came later to detest the angst and continuous quest for lost youth of their compatriots in the 80s too. They too just wanted to get on with their lives and not get involved in the constant swirl of upsetting things.
Wow. So many quotable lines.
Several re-reads in order.
There are adolescents in every generation, and likewise there are adults (grown-ups) in every generation. By this I mean those who submit to the baseness of human nature (vice), and those who, while imperfect, seek to live lives of worth and virtue.
Constrained and unconstrained vision are not markers of particular generations – that’s far too broad a brush. But within each generation, there are those in which “hope” could theoretically be placed.
It’s just that too many of those have been brow-beaten into silence or seclusion from this mad, mad, mad world.
Let’s try to take a step back from crapping all over millennials. I don’t know whether Gen X is just irritated they’re getting older, or opinions of my generation are being made solely glancing at Buzzfeed, but I think the stereotype is wrong in a lot of ways.
For one, I’ve seen a huge amount of my peers seek out new opportunities. I feel that my generation is one of natural entrepreneurs, constantly developing new technology and ways to improve the world around them. Though the millennials this website hates are the ones that supposedly hate capitalism; my generation has used the free market to create and innovate in ways no other generation has been able to. That’s a wonderful thing, to be raised with the perspective that anything is possible with the right idea. You may see entitlement, but I see a greater audacity to take risks. So what if my generation’s first goal isn’t to land the most stable job possible at GM or IBM; they’re more willing to put themselves out into the market than their parents. God bless them.
Secondly, we want things done quickly, and we expect results quickly. I was born in ’88, and the bulk of my life has been informed from fast paced, instantaneous communication. The benefit of having been raised this way is that it’s allowed me to know how to find the most beneficial information quickly, and disseminating and organizing that information for the benefit of myself and others. A research project at work given to me and my millennial coworkers takes about 24 hours. The same research project given to an older generation not that long ago would take much longer. You may call this expectation of quick results impatience; so be it. But it’s this expectation that has brought about important changes and created grassroots movements and motivated people like Charlie Kirk, America’s Future Foundation, and others.
Third, we think differently than you and that’s a good thing. To the annoyance of many on this website, I think diversity is a wonderful thing. Thankfully, my generation happens to the most diverse generation in U.S. history. From race to religion, gender and sexuality, my generation has been fostered to expect diversity. And yes, there are millennial conservatives and libertarians among our ranks. Plenty, in fact. And believe me when I tell you that we hate being written off as lazy, entitled, self absorbed snowflake losers. Us millennials can vote, too. Keep up that tired “back in my day…” dialogue and we’ll continue to happily move on without you. I love Reagan, Buckley, Edmund Burke, and my forefathers of the political philosophy I’ve grown to identify with, but staring at their pictures on the wall with tears in your eyes thinking “If only…” will not move this country in the right direction. Millennials are always looking ahead. And that’s a good thing. Embrace it.
It goes without saying that future generations don’t respect past generations…
When I was pregnant with my first baby, close to when I was due (huge round belly!), groups of women would congregate around me and tell all their gorey birth stories. I complained to my mom – what are they trying to do? SCARE me? Sometimes, the stories also felt self-glorifying – like look what I went through! You will not have nearly as a hard a time as me.
My mother pointed out it is a shared experience that all mothers have that unites us in some way. Sharing their stories is their way of sharing in my own story.
So it would be the same with past generations that share “back in my day” stories. You think you are the first? Nope. I heard it, my parents heard it, undoubtedly my grandparents heard it. You hearing it is just a byproduct of living with an older generation. We all share in this experience of life, so those with more experience shouldn’t be shut out simply because they have a different viewpoint or start off with tired clichés.
Now… back in my day… (says the 33 year old)
Solid, card-carrying Gen X’er here. I like a LOT of this, and I’ve thought a great deal about Sowell’s conflicting visions. At one time, as a Christian of the Reformed persuasion, I completely identified with the constrained vision. I’m Orthodox now, so “totally depraved” simply isn’t the way I think about man anymore. :) So there’s one way in which the definition of the visions has become muddled for me.
But I’m going to push back on one more part of the definition: Compromise as an integral part of the constrained vision? Uh, no. Not seeing it, peeps. Now, I’m not saying that Team Constrained doesn’t have good reason to refuse to compromise–indeed, the good reasons are often too many to enumerate. But I would argue that an absolute *refusal* to compromise now marks BOTH visions.
After all, when the person who disagrees with you is not just wrong but EVIL….
Yeah, that arc? No justice in sight. God help us. (Or maybe I just watched Heathers too many times.)
Indeed. I’ve often wondered where is late 70s early 80s kids fit in.
I’ll happily embrace you! (You’re my sons’ age, which helps).
The interesting thing is that we are talking about a very small population. The Baby Bust went from ~1965 until the Boomers really started to have kids. Yet a huge fraction of noteworthy productive people have fallen into that demographic. What would Ricochet be without those born in say 1965-68 such as @docjay, @bossmongo and @claire (my best guess being ’66, ’67, and ’68)? Would it be hurt as much buy the loss of people from any other 4-year period that did not include anonymous‘s birth year?
Nowhere well, we are starting our own generation:
Yeah, with my first I got self-glorification from old-hand mothers mostly going the other way: “I handled pregnancy better than you did so you should stop being an ungrateful wimp about creating new life!”
Part of what drives the medicalization of everything, I think, is that hard-nosed conservative types often express doubt that you could be having a legitimately hard time with something unless you can name a very specific cause justifying the hard time you’re having. Well, now I have a name for it, but it took a year after my kid was born to get that name. The name tells nothing like the whole story, but at least it semi-appeases hard-nosed conservative skeptics.
The ethos “people having hard times usually do it to themselves” puts the burden of proof on you to prove that no, you haven’t done it all to yourself . It’s an ethos that works much better prospectively (as a threat to keep people on the straight and narrow) than it does retrospectively (when the damage has already been done).
Reminds me of the discussion of the “lost generation” of the early 1900s, or those born during the depression and up through WWII – too young to serve in WWII, maybe served in Korea. Very many of those, being slightly older and ahead of the Boomers, went on to great notoriety and often were the celebs and musicians the boomers admired.
Neither group really fit into those around them.
I preferred your first draft about microbrewed generations.