09-27-2021, 05:15 AM
(09-27-2021, 12:08 AM)galaxy Wrote:(09-25-2021, 01:20 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: (the Millennial Generation is clearly Civic by now)
I'm glad someone else has noticed this. The Millennial Generation has transitioned during the last few years, and is much more obviously Civic now than it was previously. Of course it always was, but in 2014 one had to look much more closely and carefully to see it. Now it's impossible to ignore. I think the peak Civicness is probably those born between 1988 and 1996 or so. Perhaps the seemingly "stepwise" transition into this turning has stratified the generation a bit. Those born before 1988 are noticeably less collectivist and conformist, while those born 1996 and later are activists, with a general "darker" mood (that is, more cynical and less optimistic, but still just as collective), which might be partly responsible for the fact that wider society still perceives the Millennial generation as ending around 1997 or so (with the incorrect designation of memory and understanding of 9/11 as a generational fault line, rather than what it is, an intragenerational* divide).
It's clear that the 1988-1996 group are the ones "enforcing the rules of the new order." Or, at least, they're by far the most enthusiastic about it.
Except for those born to wealth and privilege, childhood is not easy for Civic children. The important difference between the Reactive youth and the Civic youth is that the Civic youth get more direction and don't see their parents involved in ecstatic religion. The economic and political world that a Civic generation knows in childhood is a mess until it breaks. Maybe I have some explanation of the Gilded Generation that (at least in the North) knew a hardscrabble pattern of childhood but then found that the "adventure" of war became pure carnage that only the conformists could survive. The Gilded took on Civic traits in adulthood, which is awkward. I was born early enough to get to know plenty of GI adults, and few of them suggested that their early years were joyous. They improved themselves and most of the men of the latter part of the generation got the 'soldier' stage right.
I see much the same division between the early, middle, and late waves of the GI and Millennial generations as you do. The older wave sees the worst, and gets the lesson later -- but it gets the lesson, nonetheless. "Every man for himself" means that most of the world is wrecked. People go collectivist when they see rugged individualism leading only to hardship and failure because practically everyone is broke. They came to trust school and science more than religion. Religion was fine if it imparted some morals, but the Holy Roller stuff was for fools.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.