We're each of us shaped by the situation around us, thats for sure.
But I see generational differences not so much as a result of those forces than as a factor of whats inside us. Some of the most liberal people I've ever known were members of the "Greatest Generation" while me, a boomer, is just to the left of Ghengis Khan. Heck, the Greatest Generation gave us the welfare state. You simply cannot generalize.
I agree. I think the generalizations are silly. The whole Generation X thing was an artificial creation of a pop sociologist. But it seems to have an hypnotic effect on otherwise sound people. It's true there was a marginal element of young people around the sixties that were spoiled brats, but it was always a marginal element. There's some sorry kids in every generation, but it's that minority that gets the attention. I wonder if these people born after 1970 who are trashing the "Boomers" have watched the documentaries of the turbulent 60s and have concluded that the attention-grabbing marginal element was the norm. What's painful for people our age is that we had to grow up enduring and loathing the spoiled counter-culture element in our age and now, years later, younger people are accusing our generation of generally being that which disgusted us when we were growing up.
"Heck, the Greatest Generation gave us the welfare state. You simply cannot generalize."
Good point. The reds started all their nonsense long before the outbreak of wwii.... greatest gen indeed.
otoh, you can't really escape generalizations .... they tend to work, though the exceptions are real.