Generation This

Almost every word in this article about Generation X is true:

Headline:

In the war between millennials and baby boomers we have forgotten about the work-hard, play-hard Generation X

Generation X has the benefit of possessing the best characteristics of both – with none of the downsides

And then:

The boomers don’t like the millennials because they think the younger generation are feckless, whiny snowflakes who are scared of hard graft and obsessed by status, more interested in posting a selfie to social media than doing anything useful.

The millennials, on the other hand, see the boomers as a rapacious generation that’s pretty much ruined everything for them.

This is so true:

Generation X was breast-fed punk and invented indie, and grunge, and techno, and any bloody musical genre of worth that you care to name. We transformed the Eighties and we owned the Nineties. We had alcopops and ecstasy and we were fearless and stupid and happy, but we still got up for work on Monday morning, no matter how bad we felt.

This is even so truer:

Boomers live in the past and have ransomed the future. Millennials fear the future and are ignorant of the past.

This is the truest thing of all:

Boomers were old by the time they were 40; millennials have yet to hit that milestone. Generation X is pushing back the envelope of old age, through attitude and health, like never before.

God were Boomers ever old and hopelessly out of touch.

By the mid-80's the Balding Boomers were a bunch of burnt-out, middle-aged complainers who were coming to the realization that they'd just wasted the last 15 years. Their teen and college years were peace and love, but their twenties and early thirties were polyester and disco and those were the last important cultural things the Boomers did. Starsky and Hutch, there's a legacy for you.

The Boomers were already bald, with bags under their eyes and pot bellies billowing over their belts. They were actually aging worse than their parents who never obsessed about staying young or growing old. I guess after seeing your buddies' face turned into mush by a Jap MG, losing one's hair doesn't seem like such a big deal. When your greatest event is Woodstock, well you can never leave, can you? As the waistline expanded and the hair came out the Balding Boomers started living in the past, as the article's author says, and couldn't shut the hell up about it. For all the talk of youth and the age of Aquarius, they could never break out of it. I mean, these people looked at MTV and just didn't get it.

Now in its 40s and pushing 50, Generation X has managed to maintain some youthful exuberance without looking like idiots trying to stay cool and relevant to the kids, man. I myself usually walk around in a T-shirt and jeans, but when teaching it was usually jacket and tie I adorned. As far as their music goes, its for them, not me. Your typical Generation Xer will take out the 80's a have a look but doesn't feel compelled to live there. Be sixteen or even 21 again? No thank you.

You can almost hear the Balding Boomers, can't you? 'But...but...the war, man....Kennedy, man. You weren't there, man.'

Generation Xers faced the same things Balding Boomers faced.

Lets see...

President Shot...                          ✓                

Threat of nuclear annihilation... ✓
Social discord...                          ✓
The man vs your music...           ✓
Sexual revolution...                    ✓
War...                                          ✓

You get the idea. The difference is we moved on, Balding Boomer. Metal was awesome and I still like an AC/DC concert now and again. Grunge was cool. Some like the Nu Metal, and others techno. But I gotta tell you, there's a big project due at the end of the week and I don't have time for this.

As far as the kids today, I'm not interested in taking swings at the Millennials. As noted before I think most criticisms apply only to the elites. Besides, they're still coming on, and taking a swing feels like punching down. And if they are ignorant of the past, it isn't really their fault, is it? After all, the Balding Boomers always told us how awful we were.

We know better.