The Forgotten Generation

I thought it was just me. In the April 2006 issue of Details, Jeff Gordinier has an article on how Generation X - my generation - seems to have been forgotten by mainstream society. Not only have baby boomers garnered renewed interest for redefining late middle age on their terms, Gordinier writes, but the "millenial" genration - Americans born after 1980 - are taking up space with their own cultural icons - Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and the like. Generation X - those born before 1965 and 1979 - has been overlooked, Gordinier concludes.

Heck, I could have told you that long ago. We Xers never got much of a chance to shine, namely because baby boomers have refused to leave the stage and the millenials have crowded us out. This was bound to happen, as boomers make a lot of money and give much of it to their bratty millenial kids to spend, which makes both demographic groups far more attractive to marketers. But there are other problems. Gordinier quite smartly notes that Xers had long valued quality and substance, and it's pretty hard to sell anything to people who hold such virtues in high regard. We didn't produce much, but what we did produce - Nirvana's Nevermind, Sofia Coppola's movie Lost In Translation (one of Gordinier's examples) was worth the effort. The lack of numerous cultural signposts, however, meant we'd leave less of an imprint. Baby boomers were the generation that made rock and roll a major cultural touchstone, thanks to an embarrassment of riches - the sixties and seventies simply had an overwhelming roster of creative talent in popular music. We Xers spent the eighties with artificially created pop idols shoved down our throats, then when we offered up our own rock and roll - grunge - the number of worthy artistes it spawned was so small that losing our generational voice, Kurt Cobain, left us with very little to show for it.

We never did stand a chance, really. Our plans to change America were thwarted after America changed first - namely, due to the early-nineties recession that left us running back home to live with Mom and Dad with our tails between our legs - and we had to make do in a "postindustrial economy," meaning we ended up in jobs with no room for advancement and utterly detached from society. Gordinier notes that our youth has been bookended by two recessions associated with presidents named Bush, allowing us to be so bewildered and demoralized that the boomers and their progeny elbowed us out and shoved us aside with ease. We never had the opportunity to make much of a mark on the world or define the era we've lived in. Take Generation X elders. As I've noted, I'm an X elder, but I don't feel I've been imbued by any kind of wisdom or authority. Also, as I may have noted before, many of the most prominent elders of my generation - Jesse Jackson, Jr., Brooke Shields, Charlie Sheen (all born in 1965, like me) - got where they are because of their parents.

Speaking of which, consider our parents for a moment. Most of us Xers have parents born between 1929 and 1945 - the "Silent Generation," the "Depression babies," the Americans too young to fight Hitler and too old to attend Woodstock. This generation produced some notable actors, musicians, and writers, but it never produced a U.S. president. Even worse, it produced Michael Dukakis. This generation - the generation that served in the Korean War, embraced rock and roll before anyone else, joined the Freedom Riders, cast their first votes for Kennedy, joined the Peace Corps - gave so much and got so little. I look at my own parents, both born in 1939, with a sense of sadness, and not just because they were brought up Catholic under the reign of Pope Pius XII. I look at my parents and their peers with the knowledge that they were largely marginalized and overshadowed by their louder and more colorful but less worthy boomer counterparts. I don't pity them. Don't you pity them, either, fellow Xers.

Because when you look at the Depression babies, you're looking at yourselves.