Gen X, remember them ?
Unless you're an Xer yourself, probably not, but I suspect we will be grateful for the skill set they provide in the near future
First, some context before we dive deeper in Generation X.
We all felt to some extent around us in recent years that a crisis the level most of us never experienced in our lifetime is unfolding in front of us. From the financial breakdown of 2008 to the recent covid pandemic and lockdowns, every year seems to bring a new wave of economic, political or social turmoil. From the Gilets Jaune riots in France, Brexit, the Trump moment in the US, the widening city-rural gap in elections, to the current war in Ukraine, the worldwide supply chain disruptions, rising inflation, and the continuing rise of China challenging US hegemony.
On a more individual and even philosophical level, a deep search for meaning is on the rise. The old value system has been completely shred to pieces in recent decades and the building blocks of our extended western culture have been chipped at to the point where most of us are losing some solid footing. Most institutions have suffered: our immediate and extended families, civil society and community organisation participation, the press in general and even the state. The value structure understood and accepted 25 years ago seems to be completely inverted.
No need to detail further as everyone can think of multiple specific examples as you are reading this.
In short, the “playing board” has been flipped as if we were ready to start another game altogether. Like if we were in a mood to remake the rules of the game entirely. Everything is on the table and we are living through an accelerated mode of social change.
To use a season analogy, since the 2020’s came around, we seem to be going through a rough winter, with blizzards hitting us every which way, long cold spells leaving us numb and apathetic to the surrounding societal mood we are in.
While it is true institutions have lost their credibility, politics have fragmented and families have let go of some rituals, we have been here before, therefore there is optimism for the decades ahead.
Since the turn of the century, journalists, social critics, various academics and casual observers alike have churned innumerable articles on the Millennial generation (birth years 1982-2004). Even before they accomplished anything significant for society, many were tempted to raise them as the next “great” generation, much like the G.I. generation that came out victorious of WWII. Trying to dissect every characteristic and personality trait of this cohort has become a fashionable endeavor. Not to mention the constant reminders of how their skills navigating through the digital future ahead, while surely a factor, will become the most important asset to get the rest of society to the promise land.
On the other hand, the Boomer generation (birth years 1943-1960) monopolized the political landscape for decades, and are still largely present and continuing to set the tone for most policies, albeit recently adapted to their aging years as we have seen through the covid crisis. After numerous failures to implement their idealistic vision for society, which in the long run only encouraged the erosion of our social fabric and institutions, Boomers, sensing the years to come as their last dance, want to accelerate the establishment of the utopia (or so it seems).
The irony here, to paraphrase Neil Howe, is that this generation spend their formative years not having confidence in anyone over 30. And now, they want to tell everyone under 30 how they should behave, think and pursue their dreams. But I digress.
While these insights have some merit, especially when it comes to the qualities Millennials espouse as a group and the numerous commitments to social causes they engage in (social justice, environment, to name a few), it could unfortunately lead to non desirable outcomes for all of us if this socially motivated generation engage head first in the wrong playbook, especially with the unfolding of the current crisis.
And this is exactly where our interest into the (almost) forgotten generation - Gen X (birth years 1961-1981) - comes into play.
Regular readers of this newsletter already know that my view of history is from the cyclical school of thought. A framework, I recognize, far from being the dominant one among modern historians - who analyze the evolution of civilisations essentially through a linear prism for which historical events are to be interpreted only through the evolution of variables such as economic development, revenue disparities, technological shifts, racial and gender relations, demographics, immigration, political turmoil, military power, and the like.
The basic premise for a linear interpretation of history, and also one of its main weakness, rests upon the belief that adults in the prime of their life (i.e. the time in which individuals and leaders will impact the course of history the most) will mostly react the same way regardless of the era studied or the predominant values that permeated through society during their childhood. When analyzing history events with this linear analysis grid, we tend to dismiss generation personalities, archetypes and their outlook on life.
It is rather surprising considering that in popular culture, most people have pre-conceived ideas and impressions about Boomers, Millennials or the Silent generation to name a couple. While sometimes caricatural, there is definitely some truth behind these generational personalities.
So back to Gen Xers for a moment…
Gen X persona
Between the moralizing culture warriors, the self-absorbed dreamers exemplified by their elder Boomers and the team playing persona of younger Millenials, Gen Xers have mostly stayed on the sidelines of political and social battles for most of their lives. By nature and nurture, Xers have focused on trying to stabilize their individual positions in an otherwise shaky environment since entering adulthood back in the 1980’s characterized notably by persistent recessions, high interest rates, higher crime rates, fewer professional opportunities, among other things. They have always valued self-sufficiency, creativity and result-oriented achievements; all things almost impossible to achieve in a normal political setting.
How could they have developed otherwise ?
Remember, these were the kids raised from divorced families, a new and growing social phenomenon in the early 1970’s of mothers working and coming back late in the afternoon (if not at night) before the advent of extensive and affordable day care. Thus, Xers learned really young how to be independent, autonomous and develop all sorts of survival skills; both in the social and the physical world.
This generation was encouraged to solve difficult social confrontation by themselves, in the streets, at school playgrounds and in organized sports, with limited intervention from grown-ups. This played an important part in forging their character in the long run. Who do you think coined the phrase “snowflakes” to describe younger cohorts easily shaken and emotionally affected by the mundane difficulties of our contemporary daily lives ? It was Xers.
Don’t be shocked. They don’t lack empathy. That is just the way they lived their childhood and it is through this prism they experience life today.
Perceived as a group of slackers in their teens, older generations had a negative impression of Gen Xers even before they got pinned with that name. The gradual disintegration of institutions around them, crime, fewer opportunities, etc, is exactly what made them weary of politics in general.
Not surprisingly, for the true size of its demographic in the general population, this generation is mostly overlooked for the impact it can bring to society and vastly still under represented in most important public offices.
Even though Gen Xers are in their 40’s and 50’s today, what we could consider the prime of their lives, they still represent only 20% of the US senate and 33% of the US house of representatives, when they should be having a significantly higher impact in the political sphere.
Thus, for most of its lifespan until now (and compared to other cohorts), this generation has mostly been disengaged from politics and public engagement. Below, Sara Robinson hints at a possible explanation for this outcome for Xers:
“ Nomads (reference to the Gen X archetype) are the children of the Awakening — a time of huge social ferment and laissez-faire parenting. Since they (more than any other generation) pretty much raise themselves, they learn early to question big utopian visions and distrust authority (both parents and government).
They entered adulthood during the Unraveling, when society’s institutions are being actively torn apart by the two generations ahead of them. Immensely practical and deeply skeptical of institutions of any kind — because they came of age never seeing any of them function properly — Nomad generations prefer real results to high-flown theory, and tend to rely most heavily on themselves and a few close friends.”
Sara Robinson, futurist and veteran blogger on culture, politics, and religion
For more: https://scholarsandrogues.com/2014/04/10/how-generation-x-will-save-the-world/
Keeping in mind everything covered so far, this is where the persona of generations come into play to alter the course of history itself. People in their 50’s back in 1980 are not the same as people in their 50’s in 2020. They do not have the same lived experienced, the same childhood. Their place in history was completely different. They came of age in a different society that produced in them divergent instincts and reactions to societal challenges.
Therefore, a similar random historical event will trigger a different response depending on the generational makeup of society and in which age bracket each generation sits.
So this is where we stand today in 2022. Gen Xers, like I mention earlier, are in the prime of their lives today. They accepted the individualistic winner take all attitudes of society back in the 1990’s but are beginning to push back as things are going too far for them.
Again, remember that Xers are not idealistic by nature. Discussions and talks about social reengineering, environmental utopias, more governmental interventions and the like sounds foreign to Xers.
So are they about to leave the sidelines ?
Generational constellation
At the turn of the century, our societal paradigm and value structure was completely different. The generational makeup of the political class was also quite different than today and you still had many leaders and surrounding advisers from the Silent generation (the cohort that came before the Boomers). This generation still had recollection of the last World War, the Korean war and the Vietnam debacle. They still kept together most of the civic and political institutions on which we all leaned on even while being challenged.
Gen X, who came of age in the 80’s-90’s, were still really comfortable away from governmental participation, accepted the fact that there were winners and losers in society and were only in the process of making a name for themselves.
Come the Millennials in adulthood in the 00’s and 10’s, who’s outlook is strikingly different as they see not enough governmental outreach and are striving for some. Growing inequalities demand authoritarian type leadership to surpass this issue according to an increasing number of Millennials. A political philosophy that does not sit well with Xers as we have addressed already.
This thirst for social justice, held by young Millennials and promoted by activist Boomers (probably eaten by some culpability after decades of a highly spirited life) will encourage, I argue, Gen Xers to participate more in public life to restore a more realistic view of political affairs.
In addition, Gen Xers are the only generation currently alive that are still totally in the active population in these early 2020’s and they’ve experienced the world before this last phase.
After navigating under the radar most of their lives, they will most likely resurface to bridge the gap between:
the analog and digital era
the highly individualistic era they knew in their teens to the collective political missions of the day
the crumbling institutions they participated in destroying to the renaissance of newly effective structures that can tackle the challenges to come.
In the quote below, the authors of the Fourth Turning provide a clear reminder of the role Xers will need to play in the coming decade.
“ The Fourth Turning (crisis era) will find other generations with lives either mostly in the past or mostly in the future, but it will catch 13ers (Gen X) in “prime time”, right at the midpoint of their adult years. They must step forward as the saeculum’s (history cycle) repair generation, the one stuck with fixing the messes and cleaning up the debris left by others. Every tool 13ers acquired during a hardened childhood and individualist youth will be put to maximum test.
If 13ers apply these tools for community purpose, they will become antidotes to pathologies remembered from their own Awakening-era (spiritual upheaval) childhood - from divorce and latchkeys to public debt and cultural decay.
The 13ers’ gravest Fourth Turning duty will be their society’s most important preseason task: to ensure that there can be a new High, a new golden age of hope and prosperity. For the crisis to end well, 13ers must keep Boomers from wreaking needless destruction and Millenials from marching too mindlessly under their elders’ banner.
They will not find it easy to restrain an older generation that will consider itself far wiser than they, and a younger one that will consider itself more deserving. For this, 13ers will require a keen eye, a deft touch, and a rejection of the wild risk taking associated with their youth.”
William Strauss and Neil Howe, The Fourth Turning, 1997
For a short description and more on the cycles of history explained by Strauss and Howe, see my November 2021 essay:
Since I was a young man, trying to make sense of this world, I was always reminded by my mother (as I still am today on some occasions) that life is a wheel that turns. An ancient wisdom probably transmitted by previous generations, though not fully understood by any of them, still resounds today as a reminder that history rhymes.
The living generations are not more virtuous or morally superior than our ancestors, they are just playing out their playbook but with a different backdrop, new technologies, added confort. In the end though, human nature remains fairly similar.
Our absence of knowledge will be made at our own peril if we don’t take a serious look at the generational archetypes as a driving historical force. So it just might be the case that the political, social and cultural arena is ripe for Gen X to finally take the reins and brings some much needed sanity to the table. Just like the Lost generation, born at the end of the 19th century, did during the last crisis that culminated in the 1940’s.
Hope this makes you think differently about generations and their impact on the course of history.
Your thoughts ?
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Even as humanity is at one of its most prosperous phases thus far, we are still riddled with anxiety, fear and uncertainty. I find it hard to dismiss the role that technology plays in all of this, even as it has brought us innumerous benefits, it also opened Pandora's box to having access to all sorts of information, opinions, conflicts and perspectives, some of which we could do without. While being aware of different perspectives is positive, we probably would benefit from building and prioritizing more in-person friendships and relations and limiting our time spent online arguing or engaging with strangers.
X’er here and I totally relate to all the generational hallmarks you’ve identified. Creative, wary of authority, hardened childhood, etc. Apparently, we’re needed to step in and actually do something! as Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead and, ironically, the Silent Gen, once said: “somebody has to do something and it’s just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us.”