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# Generation X/Talk

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As an early Generation Xer (1966), I feel fortunate to not be a boomer every day of my life.

I feel fortunate to not be generationally responsible for:

- (most importantly) doing everyting legally possible to keep people from being responsible for themselves and protecting people from doing stupid things
- conspicuous consumption of material goods
- political correctness
- self help books (boomer women's best friend)
- my child the emperor (babies in 1980-1984) that has to have the best of everything including appling for pre-school the day the baby is born
- women that require having multiple children, a thrilling and fufilling career without sacrificing any part of full motherhood (two conflicting and unrealistic ideals)
- reliving the 1960s and how great they were
- being cursed with classic rock for all eternity (face it, the 1960s music was great but is lame after 1000 listens - yes, Mick Jagger, I got satisfaction and don't want to hear any Rolling Kidney Stones anymore
- eventual collapse of Social Security

I feel fortunate to know:

- hearty skepticism of utopians and idealists
- direct knowledge from depression era kids (1930 & 1932) as parents
- frugality from my parents
- respect for sacrifices made in WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam as well as the Revolutionary and Civil wars.
- respect for doing the right thing even if you could get away with antisocial behavior (stealing, cheating, etc.)
- resentment of the willingness many people have to be labeled as victims and of those that label people as victims
- respect and responsibility that I will be judged on my accomplishments and abilities and not on an inclusion in a demographic group
- well founded skepticism of the legal/social/ethical mire of granting special rights to people based on their demograpics
- respect for personal freedom
- overall knowledge that enlarging the government is not a solution to all problems and that limited government is best

As a boomer ('53), I feel fortunate to have raised my college-aged kids to conform to neither boomer nor Gen-X ideals - respecting the values of those who came before them, conscious of the ideals which mobilized a generation before their time, educated yet unpretentious, not needing material things to be happy, loving even those who hate them, appreciating classical, blues, jazz, be-bop, hip-hop, classical rock, country, and all the rest, sure enough of themselves and eager enough to contribute to society that they have no time to find fault with or poke fun at traditions and values whose time has passed, but whose lessons live on. AyeSpy

"My child the emperor" - didn't Steinbeck call this a disease and name it paedosis??

Also an early GenXer? ('69), but raised by a Dad and Grandparents who still remembered the Depression and WW2 and taught me values gleaned from those occurrences. My GenX? friends call me a BoomXer?. Why are stuck on these labels? --Invictus

(moved from the non-talk page): Some have also suggested, though with questionable basis, that the Generation Xers are more like the World War II generation that preceeded the baby boomers. The WWII generation was one of confidence in the value of tradition and strongly-held cultural mores, which seldom questioned whether their society was on the right path. The formula rebellion of stereotypical Gen-Xers is anathema to such thinking.

I'm 1966 myself. It's interesting to note that while the original meaning of "Generation X" had to do with being a "slacker" or something like that, later research showed that Generation X was a highly motivated and entrpreneurial generation. I remember reading Coupland's initial descriptions and the subsequent media love affair with the term and being puzzled because it seemed so remote from my life or the lives of my friends.

I personally think that there is a good reason to doubt the validity of assuming a consistency among people born in a particular time period, except perhaps with regard to some fairly superficial pop culture stuff. I had a Six Million Dollar man action figure. So what? :-) --Jimbo Wales

It is said that Generation X follows the Baby Boomer generation, however I think that there must have been an intervening generation, too early to be GenX?, but too late to be Baby Boomers. The "lost tribe of the seventies?" I wouldn't know how to characterize them. They'd have experienced Disco, ABBA, the 8-track tape, Watergate, and the Energy Crisis.

Here is how I come to this conclusion. A generation of time is a 30 year period, however when speaking of a generation as a collection of people, I think we refer to a people born in a 15 year window. For example, GenX?'ers are born in, roughly, the 1967-1982 time frame, and GenY? in 1983-1998 period. The Baby Boom would have been in 1937-1952, and this mystery generation in 1953-1966.

What do you think? Is this mystery generation just Baby Boomers in disguise? Or were they proto-GenX?'ers? Or do they deserve a generation name of their own? Is 15 years between definable generations right, or is it better to stick to 30 year intervals? -- BryceHarrington

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