What If Everyone Born from 1967 to 1991 is Generation X?

[Eric the Green]

(01-09-2022, 12:50 PM)Victorian Jim Dandy Wrote: And then everyone born from 1992 to 2016 is a Zoomer, making this a Second Civil War Saeculum with no civic heroes? The cutoff for Generation X should be whether or not you have strong memories of the 90's, 9/11, the 2008 recession and the War on Terror.  If you don't have memories of these, you're a later generation. Also,  there should be no nostalgia for Reagan.  Voting in the eighties and having nostalgia for Reagan should put you in the Boomer category. Generation X should also be defined by more than just "Listened to Grunge." Does the fact that someone born in the 80's doesn't remember He-Man really make that much of a difference? I'm starting to think Millennials don't exist. We're certainly not what they write of us.  The idea that we're an "entitled" generation is pretty laughable at this point. Most of us are just as disaffected as Generation X.

It is better to go by the generational dates specified by Strauss and Howe, with maybe an adjustment of a year or so in some cases, or acknowledgement that people on the cusp are combos and that people in different regions may be faster or slower to adopt generational trends. But the S&H dates hold up pretty well, even if the Pew Research dates for Gen Z have been adopted in the media.

This is a second Civil War saeculum, but the first one really did have heroes, even if not called such by S&H, and a longer 4T than they said. I think the civil war anomaly is the one thing S&H did not get quite right; it was less of an anomaly than they said. We are still in the 1850s.

As David said, Generation X is the most compatible with Reagan because of their libertarian and survivalist leanings, which makes neoliberal Reaganomics and its self-reliance memes more compatible with them. The most typical millennial civics are Bernie Sanders fans. The Gen Z Zoomers really begin in about 2003 or 2004. The cut off for Millennials and start of Gen Z is memories of the 4T we are still in, and that means the 2008 recession which started our 4T.

Millennials have shown themselves to be quite typical civics in many respects. Being disaffected they may be, but in different ways than Gen X. These 13ers as S&H called them were cynical because they were neglected in childhood and were disillusioned with the previous Awakening. They felt opportunities were less, but being a smaller generation, many opportunities were still open to them. Millennials also feel the same limited opportunities, or even more. But they tend to understand that the Reaganomics which Gen X favored well beyond the 1980s are the problem, not the solution (turning Reagan's slogan on its head). Not being so neglected in childhood during an Awakening as Xers were, Millennials don't so easily assume that one can make it economically through self-reliance and survival skills. Millennials have greater understanding of the social and institutional problems that are the real cause of their lack of economic mobility, and they also are well aware of concerns like climate change that threaten their future. Millennials are more willing to direct their disaffection toward the politics and institutions that caused it, rather then to blame those who aren't self-reliant or are too spoiled like the Boomers were.

Millennials have been slow to embrace their civic virtue by not voting in midterm elections. But thanks partly to exortations by Obama and the Parkland kids, they did much better in 2018. They will need to keep the habit. But millennials are good civics otherwise. They are especially noted for their ability to network on social media, and to be collegial with each other and to organize. They tend to favor science and technology as civics tend to do, more than the "inner-directed" Xers and Boomers who functioned more on ideas and self-direction. 

Millennials may not feel so "entitled," as they are said to be, but I'm not sure that's a civic trait. Civic heroes are confident and smug in their views, and tend to conform to the trends of their peers. Millennials are certainly those things. Whether they are sanguine about their economic situation or not, they tend to be optimistic anyway and are outer-directed and confident in their opinions and ideas. So they are not cynics like their Xer older siblings or parents. Just like the GI "Greatest Generation" who came of age in the poverty of the Great Depression, they are cheerful and optimistic like JFK was, and love to sing confident, superficial and cheery songs like the "Get Happy" and "Accentuate the Positive" songs that the GIs sang, and who so easily got "In the Mood." The Millennials had their own bouncy "Happy" song to sing and they loved their "millennial whoops". The Gen X fare was much more brash, dark, and about "I want to get away!" and sung with a desperate-sounding and decadent or screeching growl.