I love this! I was in college when the Boomers started labeling us "Gen X". We hated it at first because they said that we were the generation that "stood for nothing". They claimed that we had no passion, values, or desire to fight for a cause and so they labeled us "X" as in nothing. How wrong they were.
The Baby Boom Generation did more to screw up this country than at least the three generations that came before them. Generation X is so far from perfect it's scary, but we realize that our parents generation was one of the most selfish, destructive, and politically naive generation in recent memory and we're trying not to make the same mistakes. Of course, when you're raised by such a dysfunctional bunch you're liable to have some issues yourself, but I'm confident that we'll do our best to overcome some of their attempted conditioning. And most of us put our kids first, not our jobs or our selves.
I know I sound like I must hate my parents. I don't! I'm not a fan of the Boomers, but I love my folks and many of the people of the Boomer Generation who fought against the most destructive elements of their time. They're great people who sacrificially did their best to teach my sister and I in a culture that wasn't always friendly. And more than anything else, they stayed together and gave my sister and I a good example of what a marriage should look like. Actually they weren't even technically Boomers since they were born just as WWII was ending, but they probably would lump themselves in with that generation more than the one before it.
But basically, I'm just thrilled that Generation X is doing such an awesome job of proving it's early critics wrong.
"They claimed that we had no passion, values, or desire to fight for a cause and so they labeled us "X" as in nothing. How wrong they were."
Generation X is the next "Greatest Generation".
A LONG time ago I read a review of a book titled something like the Fourth Wave. About how there are 4 styles of generations and they just keep going in cycles. The greatest generation of WWII fame was very much like generation X. Very absorbed in themselves and their work until something great happened (Pearl Harbor) which turned their strong drives to a greater good.
The book was written before 9/11, and said the same of the Generation X'rs - very self centered and strong drive. But, if something big happened to unite them they would become the next "Greatest Generation".
Every time I hear a story of our brave young troops I think this theory is a good one!
(Not a generation X'r myself - just proud of them!)