Gen X: Sherpas of the American Economy?

http://jasonseiden.com/gen-x-sherpas-of-the-american-economy/ ^ | September 18, 2008 | Jason Seidon

[equaviator]

I recently read a manuscript about Gen X in the workplace, and as I did so, I was struck by how much of a transitional generation we are. Perhaps because of all the flux that has occurred (and continues to occur) in our time, we have always struggled to have a positive identity; so many of the experiences we share are negatives. In no particular order:

-3 Mile Island -AIDS -Tylenol scare -Drinking age went up from 18 to 21 -Existential self-awareness of grunge -Emo bands before them -Cobain’s suicide -Bush’s famous broken promise, “No new taxes” -Clinton’s impeachment

Even positives are often construed as negatives: -The Berlin Wall fell; communism failed -The Gulf War: military victory, social and geopolitical mess -Wall Street (“Greed is good…” Don’t expect loyalty!) -Political Correct movement… which stamped out discrimination on its face, and also gutted fearless, honest dialog -Dot com boom… and bust

And what’s the hallmark of our generation? Arguably, it’s our snarky, ironic, self-awareness-laden sense of humor. From the Church Lady to Colbert, with guest appearances by Garafalo and Spade, our humor has a dark overtone.

What does it mean? I dunno, maybe nothing. But as I was reading through the manuscript and cataloging for myself all the things that define us, I struggled… I interpreted the negative definitions to mean that we are not defined… we are so used to be neither this nor that, it only seemed fitting to then ascribe that same “neither” quality to our trends… hence language framed in the negative. Indeed, most of the major trends I could think of had us either a little ahead of the curve or a little behind it… very few had us right in the middle. I thought that the absence of a defining characteristic was maybe in our genes (remember “slacker?”), sort of like a collective egolessness.

Then I thought about Sherpas.

Like Gen X, Sherpas have long been part of incredible journeys, but they’ve always been just a step to the side, never in the limelight and never really part of the action. Defining the Sherpa who carried Sir Edmund Hillary’s pack for him up Mt. Everest would have taken the spotlight off Sir HIllary… and that might have ruined the the romance and majesty of the trek. Focus too heavily on Tonto, and the mystique of the “Lone” Ranger falls apart. I felt like maybe society on the whole needs us to be undefined. We’re the ones laying the ladders over the crevasses, scoping the paths, installing the ropes… taking over for the Boomers who were happy to establish base camp and prepping the pass for the Yers who we already know want to hit the peak.

But unlike the work of the mountaineering, Nepalese Sherpa, the infrastructure we are laying is far more subtle. And disruptive:

-Technology: We put together Web 1.0. Most of us who were in it knew full well we were pushing these technologies beyond their capacities, that the collapse was only a matter of time, but we also knew that we needed to lay the infrastructure hard and fast in order to force corporate America (the driving force of change in our society) to take notice. -Management: We have been flattening organizations for over a decade. Along with the Dot Com Boom came another important trend: flatter organizations. That era ushered in the idea of the meritocracy like none other: don’t like your job? Leave for a better one across the street. You’re the best programmer in the city? You could command salary and perks commensurate with your capabilities despite not being a management muckety-muck. -Values: We have been putting a torch to wanton commercialism since day one (though this trend seems to be becoming undone). One morning when my dad and I had breakfast in 1997, he was stunned to see me in a swag t-shirt and ripped jeans. “You should dress like the CEO,” he said. “I do,” I replied. Nice suits? Brand names? Not necessary. We had our fill when Guess and Girbaud had us wearing acid wash jeans and ballon-y cotton pants. We learned early that being a slave to fashion could make you look dumb, and we haven’t forgotten the lesson.

The analogy is not perfect, but the idea seems to fit. And as we enter roles of real responsibility, it’ll now be our job to shepherd society through radical change in the economy overall, from a capitalism as we used to know it to something more fluid, global, and (de)centralized. Something that, like us, has yet to be defined, that retains elements of what preceded it and includes elements of a future that is still taking shape.

We’re not in the old world, and we’re not yet in the new. We are very much in between, and it’s up to Gen X to lay the foundation that gets us from the former to the latter.

[perez24]

I’m a year younger...I’ll stick with Gen X.

But it does get really confusing.

[ansel12]

The Boomers didn’t really start coming in to play until the eighties, from the beginning they slowed down the worst of the leftist excesses of their parents.

The real political hell period that destroyed America and it’s institutional strength, happened from about the mid 1930s to the mid 1970s, since then the damage has slowed and occasionally been reversed as in the second amendment.

[Polybius]

so many of the experiences we share are negatives. In no particular order: -3 Mile Island -AIDS -Tylenol scare -

Geez .... Talk about Drama Queens.

Let's get a little historical perspective here.

More people died in Ted Kennedy's car than at 3 Mile Island. The vast majority of the U.S. population was nowhere near Three Mile Island. On the other hand, once upon a time on 1 July 1916, the British suffered 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 dead, on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

AIDS has been around during these times, but it could have potentially affected anybody in any generation. All that was needed to prevent it, once the blood donation procedures were tightened up, was to avoid risky conduct. On the other hand, once upon a time, every summer during the first half of the 20th Century, children faced the possible tragedy of polio no matter what they did.

If Tylenol was potentially poisoned, you went to your medicine cabinet, flushed the Tylenol pills down the toilet and then went out and bought a bottle of generic acetaminophen.

If anything, the list of complaints about being traumatized by the Evening News shows that Generation X has grown up with too little adversity.

[Publius804]

Culturally the left wing of the generation ran higher education and cultural institutions. The have moved the country left socially, while conservative boomers sat by helpless.

[LRoggy]

I think a lot of people missed his message. I am a late stage Boomer and I am very impressed with the productivity of Gen X’ers in the workplace. They are die hard capitalists but they want to be in smaller enterprises where merit does not take a backset to seniority.

I remember about 10 years ago reading that 20% of Gen X’ers had started their own business WHILE IN COLLEGE. They know they are going to be stuck with the entitlements bill from their parents and they bought in to the Reagan vision of growing their way out of the economic mess, and decided to put their heads down and work hard.

This is the message that comes through, that they want to be business owners and leaders, not the group that is left holding the bag when the Boomer mess hits the fan.

[ansel12]

Can’t deny that but at least conservatives exist now, and have since the seventies.

During the 50s and 60s there seemed to be almost no opposition to the most radical left.

Walter Cronkite, the creation of PBS, the 1965 immigration act etc. would now run into competent and powerful resistance.

[Knitebane]

This is the message that comes through, that they want to be business owners and leaders, not the group that is left holding the bag when the Boomer mess hits the fan.

I'd generally agree with that..with a slight tweak.

We want to be the business creators. We want to make things and build things and sell things. The ownership and management stuff we'll do, but that's not the job. That's the stuff we put up with so we can get the job done.

Damn few of us want to be a manager in the traditional sense.

[weegee]

Hey now, the hipsters of the baby boom invented rock and roll, and sex, and drugs. Well of course they would have had to be 3 years old in 1948 to invent rock and roll, and sexual liberation had been pushed for decades (check 1920s Germany), and even LSD went back to 1938 and Ectasy back to the 1910s. Cocaine and pot before that. But they can’t dream and boast, can’t they?

[Publius804]

They didn’t invent it, but they sure helped make it mainstream in the US. :-)

[Polybius]

I’ve always heard that the “Baby Boom” generation were the ones born between 1946 and 1964 .....

I've never understood the reasoning behind that.

"I need some lovin' tonight, Gladys. I've just returned from the WAR!"

"Look Abner, that line worked for the first three years but it's been 18 years since the war ended. I have a headache, I have hot flashes and, no, you are not getting any lovin' tonight or maybe even for the next 6 months."

[stainlessbanner]

Nailed it Polybius. Besides, the Sherpa anology is overdone anyway...it’s in books, documentaries, and sermons across America.

[Rameumptom]

>>>>I was struck by how much of a transitional generation we are.....And what’s the hallmark of our generation?

Abortion.

The biggest story of Gen X is one they won't write about. But is the most important and fundamental point. Widespread abortion practiced on a whole generation.

Gen X was the first to "benefit" from Roe vs. Wade. The first generation to have 1 out of 4 murdered. Collectively that has a huge impact on a systemic/sociological scale. IMO it has a personal impact on the psyche of the generation. The baby boomers murdered their offsrping.

It's one reason the baby boomers still dominante political discourse today. They culled the herd. The book "Freakonomics" discusses some of the economic/criminology ramifications of the widescale abortion. (but sidesteps the spiritual/moral/social political issues)

From this end it looks like the political mess we are in is directly related to the "sins of the hippie mothers and fathers". Its all connected, mass ilegal immigration to do the jobs our aborted babies can't do. Colleges full of aging hippies who relive their heyday brainwashing and trying to hit on young coeds with little resistance from the culled herd. National Socialist control of every aspect of our lives. etc.

[NaughtiusMaximus]

Generation X’ers! It gets late early out here! Provide, provide!

[jpl]

Abortion, and I would also add to the legacy the mainstreaming of drug addiction and the idea of drugs as the solution to all of life's problems.

I'm a Gen Xer, and I really wish I could watch television for ten minutes without seeing a commericial of some aging Boomer flacking an erection pill.

[happygrl]

You have hit on the most destructive element of the legacy of the Boomers, toxicity on the same level as the Leftism, and probably its offspring, as I believe that the drug epidemic was in part a tactic of the KGB.

Nothing in my lifetime has been as destructive as drugs.

I know of a number of families where the Boomers and their offspring (because of Boomers' drug use) have a lower standard of living than their parents of the Greatest Generation.

I thought that No Country for Old Men was absolutely on the mark, as to the effects of drug use on this country.

Those old law enforcement characters of the GG were baffled at the viciousness and destruction that the drug epidemic engendered, and the high-stakes crime that it precipitated.

You cannot know how much this country has changed because of drug use if you were younger than the Boomers.

We left a mess.

[doorgunner69]

so many of the experiences we share are negatives

That would explain the unending, tedious, dreary grunge music they spawned........

[mysterio]

Generation X...the first truly overrated generation since WWII?

Yes, it's sure going to be difficult for us to live up to the example set by the boomers. I suppose this is kind of our 1970s now. We should all screw everything that moves and do lots of drugs, or we'll never produce awesome baby boomer leaders like Bill Clinton.

Most of us are too busy working for less than our parents made so that we can prop up the crashing social security system that the boomers here say they hate but will sign up for at the earliest opportunity.

Yep, me and my overrated generation.

[weegee]

And America has become a much worse place for it.

Has it made sex or music better in the modern era?

How about drinking and smoking? Both are undergoing neo-prohibitionist movements.

[Nowhere Man]

The year 1969 and how you remember it says a lot about what generation you are part of. If you think the most awesome thing to happen in 1969 was Woodstock, then you are an older Baby Boomer. If you think the most awesome thing to happen in 1969 was the Moon landing, then you are a younger Baby Boomer or an older Generation X person or part of this "Generation Jones." If the greatest thing you remember about 1969 was the tricycle your parents gave you for your birthday, then you are Generation X.

Well, I remember both the Moon Landing and the tricycle but the former trumps the latter so I'm a "Joneser." I think 20 years is too wide for a generation, I mean if someone was born in 1961 (or 1966 even) will have little in common with growing up experiences with one born in 1981. I think some other "Generation Jones" marks would be the memories of 8-Tracks and TV's with channel knobs.

[Publius804]

Our civilization is slowly withering on the vine.

I know there is plenty of blame to go around, but the WWII generation & the boomers got the ball rolling much quicker with their all consuming post-war materialism.