Every generation needs a new story, a new narrative, a new sense of history. That's what gives the new guys the confidence to go out into the world and challenge the old bulls. I've witnessed several new stories in my lifetime and all of them are nothing less than fascinating. I thought it might be fun to tell some of them here. I'll start with the story my Dad's generation, i.e. the 40s - 50s generation, made for themselves.
My Dad's generation developed the story that my Granddad's generation were nice people but they were also stupid and uneducated farmers who were intellectually unfit for the modern world. If you saw the movie "The Caine Mutiny" you got a taste of that. 50s man believed he was suave and sophisticated and adaptable in a way that no previous generation was.
My generation was replaced by the Punks who thought that we hippies lacked manliness and were pampered and worthless. Their story cast them as refreshingly authentic and righteously angry that they were stuck in lower class Hell. A typical Punk dinner might be hot dogs with a side order of Cheese Puffs washed down with diet soda or bourbon.
Coinciding with the punks were the Yuppies who re-invented the mainstream. They had disdain for the excesses of the Hippies and Punks though they secretly envied their purity. Yuppies had a story that cast them as futuristic warriors like Luke Skywalker. They would end poverty and bring about universal peace by being Fabian Socialists working within the system and yes, making a buck or two.
The Punks and Yuppies were replaced with a grunge movement that tried to unite the two warring camps but failed. They morphed into the Emos and Hipsters, which is sort of what's around now, but is slowly winding down. Emos combine Anime, Punk, and gay culture influences. Their story is that they're the most aesthetic generation ever, and the most imaginative. I doubt that, but who am I to question?
Geeks believe that Gen X'ers never understood the mystery, the power, the cult of the computer. The Geeks story is that they are first true human beings. They are the old- world destroying infant that appears at the end of the movie, "2001." They're mad because the rest of us are still are still drawing breath. They believe that new computer programs should be as hard to use as possible because that will cull out the inferiors from the true humans.
Fascinating, huh?
11 comments:
Very astute observations. My father would have loved todays technology and would see it as a fulfillment of his generations science fiction dreams. He was geek before there was geek.
He told me he had seen history from the horse drawn wagon, to the locomotive, and even men walking on the moon. I feel like that too having had traces of the Victorian era through my grandparents and I witnessed the birth pains of the civil rights movement and all that you have touched on.
There are incredible things to come, and I would like to see them.
My generation sucks in comparison. I even call it "The Lamest Generation" because you sure don't have war heroes being glorified anymore or people who have actually done anything important in their lives that will live on 60-70 years from now. What the hell does my generation get instead: skyrocketing college tuition as a result of government subsidized student loans and too much demand for college, America's morality and pride destroyed by 9/11 and the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, one of the worst financial crises since the 1930s, The Kardashians, weak men, sissy Taylor Swift garbage, recycled comedy films, Angry Birds, a ton of badly drawn cartoons, and a lot of other crap I don't even want to mention here. I am actually ashamed to be honest even though not everything that The Lamest Generation has given us has been utter garbage, like the kinds of technology being made now that's making it far easier than ever before to share ideas, which is innovated upon the previous ideas that The Yuppies and Gen'Xers came up with.
I am probably a lot like you, but I emphasize the anti-socialist, anti-communist side of me the most while avoiding standard labels like conservative, libertarian and all that nonsense. I don't like using the word "capitalism," but prefer the term pro market instead. I am also against cronyism, corporatism and crony capitalism, so if you want to believe that I am partially influenced by hippies, go ahead.
Wow Roberto, everything you’ve said is true but because you see it I am hopeful others of your generation do too. I’m not endorsing a violent revolution but we are more in control of our lives than we think if we stop enabling the false worldview taught by politicians and social engineers. Most of the enduring things that have improved our lives came from people who refused to play the corporate games and live the conformist life of the government pawn. We need to take back our government and make them see they work for us, not the other way around.
Thanks for your eloquent and well thought out comments!
Joel
In addition to improved technology and more efficient ways of getting ideas out there, there has also been a healthy embrace of "The New Normal" as people have been calling it lately where they have taken action and started to post their own content and business ideas on the Internet. They have gone against the bad economy, government influenced corporatism and Wall Street, so in that sense, I try to stay optimistic that there might be a cultural change somehow, but I am of the belief that The Western World is in decline and that radical feminism, political correctness, and other movements that impede freedom and creativity have contributed to this greatly and I make a clear distinction between radical feminism and feminism that is actually legitimate and helps women and doesn't ruin animation or any of that for the rest of us. America will make it out of their problems all right, but I highly doubt it will be the same country again.
Thank God for the Manosphere and the handful of bloggers and YouTubers have been getting their thoughts out there, which I am probably happy to declare myself as being part of now. Thank you for the compliment, Joel.
It's easy to harp on this generation or that, or complain about the decline of western civilization. Boy do I hear a lot of my cohorts whinging about how American culture has gone steadily down the tubes this last century or so.
But that mentality is a trap of the mind. Seventy years ago everybody was smoking cigs wherever you went, women and blacks had to deal with a lot more day-to-day bullshit than today. Look at the strides we've made in music that features the instrument called electric guitar, rock and roll is so damn good and it only gets better if you know where to look.
Today's great writers might not be as widely read, but that doesn't take away their words (if you have to ask who I'm talking about, well then you don't deserve to argue with me on the state of American culture on the internet).
Are reality television shows really that much dumber than Laurel and Hardy? I have a soft spot for Pawn Stars and Mob Wives and I aint ashamed of it!
I'm proud to be a member of a generation whose coming of age was attended by the rise and proliferation of shared virtual worlds wrapped in tiny home appliances like computers, phones and tablets.
Incessant pessimism and complaining won't get me down, no way!
I'm living in a new wild west with the easiest access in history to the treasures of the generations before me and I like it!
Jeff, I think Pat Buchanan summarized it much better than I could here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GG1rFA_QEk
"But that mentality is a trap of the mind. Seventy years ago everybody was smoking cigs wherever you went, women and blacks had to deal with a lot more day-to-day bullshit than today. Look at the strides we've made in music that features the instrument called electric guitar, rock and roll is so damn good and it only gets better if you know where to look."
I was never advocating a return to Jim Crow laws or any of the stuff women had to face then and you straw manned what I was trying to say. Actually, I am for gay rights and all of that stuff. I was talking about feminism in the way that almost anything that is considered funny in animation is now considered racist, sexist, or whatever term you want to use, though shows like Futurama, The Simpsons, Family Guy and others have changed that at least in the types of audiences they are targeting. Most of my post was written in the perspective of entertainment and amateurism, not civil liberties or anything like that, which have been infringed upon with the Patriot Act, its extensions, and NDAA.
There is still good music being made, but hardly any of it gets into the mainstream now. I even liked Frank Ocean's album that he released last year. It really stood out among everything else was being released and I have a guilty pleasure for hip hop depending on what time period it was from or who the artist was, but that's another story.
These strains of human personalities have always been around. It is interesting that certain generations seem to embody one distinct type. Which one gets assigned to a generation? I think it comes down to what personalities are thought to be needed for survival and progress.
If it's cold outside you put on a coat. If your straight-laced dad and his gray flannel suit and crew cut seems jaded, burnt-out, and generally miserable at his work you reject careerism, grow your hair long, and stop wearing shirts. It's an on going process. The future is going to be really interesting because the Internet has made images and sounds from the past so accessible. Culture and identity is becoming more of a personal choice rather than something you're swept up in by your generation.
I dunno, I don't think it's fair to judge my generation solely on computers, because these days EVERYONE uses computers, of all ages. It's harder to spot the computer geeks when everyone's got a computer in their pocket. Why not call us the "Tolerant Generation?" Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that there has never been a generation in history as accepting of anyone's gender, race, or sexual orientation. There are still bigots, but overall things are getting better. Hollywood may still favor whites in lead roles, but more and more it looks old-fashioned for doing so. Even the Republican party is ready to accept latinos into its folds (for fear of being destroyed by demographics).
Or what about the "Debt Generation?" The fact that we'll be making less money than our parents, and start our careers tens of thousands of dollars in the hole? That we're expected to work for free for the first couple years after college? The fact that budgets have been slashed and WILL be slashed more and that we can't expect to rely on entitlements? That there's an entire generation of retiring old farts who've just had their pensions cut, and SOMEONE has to pay to take care of them?
My generation can't afford to play cowboy, or weave flowers in our hair, or save the world, or any of those things. We have too much work ahead of us.
Jeff: Fascinating!
Joel: Haw! You and a few other believers in a positive future should try cryonic suspension if you can afford it when the time comes. It probably won't work, but...what if it does? You'd get to see the future, to read the next chapter of the Book of Life!
Adam, Severin: Interesting!
Jeff: there's a lot in what you say, but the inadequate copyright protection in our time and internet piracy might slow down the innovation that would have occurred in the next generation.
This site benefits a lot from the use of free images from the past, but how many people would bother creating new images of quality if they couldn't make a living at it?
Roberto: Man, you've learned a lot since you first started commenting here!
Oof, sorry if my response from yesterday came off as combative, I was in a foul mood and venting all over the place. I can't tell you how many times as a kid I was sat down in a gymnasium while someone at a podium accused my generation of being lazy, pampered, and unequipped to change the world. Hearing comparisons drawn between what my generation is doing now as compared to those in the past digs up bad memories. A lot is expected of us! Yet at the same time it's hard not to feel unwanted, with unemployment so high and the concept of "unpaid internships" running rampant. When my parents were my age, they were already expecting their second kid. I'm still looking forward to someday having health insurance.
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