Gen X assumes state power

Detroit News ^ | 1-26-03 | Mark Hornbeck

[jude24]

Well that makes two of us. The X'ers I met never got a job until they got out of college, their parents paid for everything. They came home during semester breaks and sat on the couch and played video after they dragged themselves out of bed at noon. Early evening they'd jump in their car, that their parents bought for them and didn't come home till early morning so they could repeat the cycle.

I'm Generation Y (born in 1982).

Quite frankly, you've got a skewed view.

I've worked my butt off every summer. Volunteered in community service since middle school. Study my butt off in chemistry in college.

Yes, my parents have been good to me. They have paid for my college education, and helped with my car and insurance. And I'm grateful. But I am not spoiled. I worked 60 hrs a week that summer, and still couldnt come up with enough to buy a reliable used car. With their help, I was able to get a 1989 Honda Civic.

To be honest, my generation is fed up with the crap we've been fed. They've been sold a bill of goods. The liberal crap we've been force-fed by your generation has galled us. Your generation saddled us with 3 trillion in debt, a welfare state and a social-security pyramid scheme thats about to go bankrupt. And you have the gall to complain about my generation? I don't care what you did in WWII. Greatest generation my foot.

[GrandMoM]

Being Christian does no require me to act nice to annoying people.

....you forgot the t in not!!!!!!!!!...Bingo

[rwfromkansas]

I guess I am Gen Y, being born in 1983.

[rwfromkansas]

That was a typo, unlike your rather glaring errors which go beyond just a missing letter...:)

[rwfromkansas]

But anyway, I don't have time to spar with you anymore. Good night, despite the fact that you have this hatred for young people that is rather disconcerting (crank out the dictionary if you need to).

[jude24]

Good tagline

[jayef]

Again, logical fallacy. So to you the Army represents a reasonable cross section of Gen X? Where are you located? Do you think that there might be some regional differences between the people you run across and the population as whole? For every GenXer you know that has the qualities you mention, I can show you one that doesn't exhibit any of that.

I think you're right in saying that we have not faced the challenges that "the Greatest Generation" did. Does that mean that we could not be mobilized? I think you would be surprised. Sure, we haven't had to sacrifice and we haven't faced the same challenges, but I have no doubt that we soon will and that we will conquer them just as our grandparents did.

[Dan from Michigan]

I happen to know Joe. He did have a real job. He's a realtor(sp).

[wku man]

"So to you the Army represents a reasonable cross section of Gen X?"

Not just to me...it does, period. The soldiers I served with came from backgrounds as varied as Mexican nationals trying to earn their citizenship to rich kids out looking for adventure, and everything in between. I served with guys from practically state in the union, to include Alaska, as well as Guam, Samoa (sp?), the Virgin Islands, etc. I served with Boomers and Xers alike.

"Where are you located?"

That's easy enough to find out...look at my profile.

"Do you think that there might be some regional differences between the people you run across and the population as whole?"

Yes, there are still some regional differences remaining, but the mass media have eliminated most of them (read: MTV). Students at Western Kentucky University, my alma mater, drive around blasting the latest gangster rap and wearing the same stupid looking "clothes" that kids do in LA or NY. MacLaren's (sp?) Global Village has come true. As my profile indicates, I've lived/worked/been stationed all across this nation, and have visited almost every state, except for Alaska and a couple in New England. Xers are the same nationwide, only their accents are different.

"For every GenXer you know that has the qualities you mention, I can show you one that doesn't exhibit any of that."

Maybe so, but as steadfast as you are in your beliefs about our generation, I am in mine, because they've been formed by real life experiences. Again, I'm not basing my argument on the guys I grew up with or those who live on my block. It's not just the Army, either. I worked as a dining room supervisor while getting through college, and later as a radio station news director, and the Xers I had working for me in both cases were more concerned with where the party was after they got off, what the slut said on Springer that day, or who was nailing who at the frat house. Only once did I have an Xer veteran working for me, but I lost him...he was so disgusted with the civilian world, he re-upped in the Army.

"Does that mean that we could not be mobilized?"

Maybe so, but it's too late for mobilization. Our problems are here for us to face now, and we're not ready. Heck, wasn't 9-11 enough of a call to mobilize? Did we? No! To many of us, 9-11 is just another chapter in the history books. The Baby Boom is ready to hand us the reins of government, so they can go sit on the beach and drink margaritas. But we have no idea what to do with control of the country, because we've been too busy trying to keep ourselves entertained. We have no idea what to do, so we'll fall back on what we've seen those before us do, thus the cycle of failure will continue, and get worse.

For example, you know how Hollyweird keeps churning out re-makes of old movies, turning comic books into movies, turning old TV shows into movies? You know how bands these days are making tribute album after tribute album, covering other people's songs, etc? You know how the major car manufacturers are "going retro", and churning out horrid "updates" of older cars (PT Cruiser, Plymouth Prowler, VW Beetle), and how some cars just plain look stupid (Pontiac Aztek, Ford Focus, Chevy Avalanche)? It's all because Generation X has absolutely no creativity whatsoever, and when it does get a flash of "brilliance", it turns out awful. Rather than putting in the effort and energy to come up with new ideas, ones that work, it's so much easier to re-hash that which already has been done, only it's never quite as good as the original, is it? So when we get around to re-hashing the failed policies of the New Dealers and the Baby Boomers, we're headed for disaster.

Sorry to go on so long, but we Xers have to wake up...pronto! We can't go on deluding ourselves that the rest of our lives will be the cakewalk that the first 25-30-35 or so years have been. While we're trying desperately to hold on to our childhood by watching Brady Bunch re-runs and cruising e-Bay for an original GI Joe with Kung-Fu grip, our jobs are being handed to foreigners by the thousands, illegal scumbag aliens and terrorists by the thousands are pouring into our country across our wide open borders, the Constitution is being flushed down the toilet (thanks to the Patriot Act, CFR, and other criminal government actions too numerous to mention), and we're about to fight a war that could easily engulf the entire Middle East, or even the entire world. Muslim sleeper cells are here in the states, ready to attack on order. Social Security goes bankrupt in 2030, ironically, the year I and all other first-year Xers (1965) turn 65! Do you really think we're ready to handle these problems? I don't, but it's our turn, so we have no choice. God help us.

"Again, logical fallacy."

I really do hope you're right, but I don't think so. Sorry to rail for so long. Be good.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[Dan from Michigan]

Forgot to mention that he's a farmer as well, and also worked in Lansing for 4 years. Joe's one of the hardest working people I know. In the primary election(the actual race since the district is about 61% GOP), he knocked on 15,000 doors to win. He won the primary against some strong opponents, and the only "establishment" help he really received was from the Farm lobbies and from the Handy(Fowlerville) township supervisor.

He won by outworking everybody. In that district(mix of rural and exurbia - extreme edge of Detroit and Flint suburbs) which is one of the most conservative in the country, let alone the state, it was not easy to convince the voters that a 22 year old was the right man for the job, and he did it, mostly thanks to an unbelievable turnout from his home base. They love him and his family in Fowlerville. I take my hat off to him.

He'll do a good job, and I bet you'll be hearing about him in a few years.

[Ajnin]

Let me clarify that I was doing a little trash talk for the sake of inter-generational rivalry. I by no means blame the entire previous generation for the immigration mess we have now.

[realpatriot71]

Your generation saddled us with 3 trillion in debt, a welfare state and a social-security pyramid scheme thats about to go bankrupt.

As well as an unconstitutional war on drugs (someone had to say it)

;-)

[Victoria_R]

Rep. Chris Ward, the newly elected 28-year-old Republican from Brighton, says he models his politics after the nation's oldest president.

"People tend to reflect the leadership they're familiar with, and who was president during my formative years? Ronald Reagan," Ward says. "I believe like he did that government cannot be the solution to all the problems out there."

Careful, dude, the older Gen-Xers' formative years featured Watergate. So there are lots of people who think the government is a bunch of crooks.

[jayef]

Great post. I can't dispute all of your claims. Suffice it to say that I think the same observations you made were made of just about every generations before us. It really galls me when a bunch of self indulgent hippies looks at us with scorn. What a bunch of self absorbed horsepucky. We are the product of thier divorces. We are the product of thier abortions (not literally, of course). We are the product of their shrink-wrapped, processed, non-dairy petroleum cheese by-product, celbrity obsessed, go-go, self indulgent lifestyle. Bill Clinton is their exemplar. And we have a problem? I think we'll do just fine.

[kansan]

I hope you get what you need out of the system. A lifetime of "savings" should have allowed for folks to live an adequate lifestyle in retirement. But, I don't think the system expected that retirement would last for twenty to twenty five years, as it would be if someone retired at 65 and lived to 90. That's more than half of the average American's working life. My WWII veteran grandparents are experiencing this crunch right now. After having a heart attack in 1973, my grandfather never dreamed that he would see 2003. His savings reflect that. It doesn't seem right that he should have to lose his house and go broke before receiving some help. I think it only gets worse for each subsequent generation.

[wku man]

You'll get no argument from me about what we've been saddled with by the generations that preceeded us. We're the ones who are going to have to pay the piper, now that the bills have come due for all their War on Poverty, Great Society, New Deal utopian programs. I just love thinking about how Social Security is scheduled to go bankrupt the same year I turn 65, and therefore the government will have taken 15% of every dollar I've earned over my entire life and I'll see not a dime in return. But I refuse to play the blame game, because at this point it's counter-productive. I guess I'm a pessimist of the Claire Wolfe variety, in that "it's too late to work within the system, but too soon to start shooting the bastards". Limbo, I guess. Be good and stay optimistic.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!