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<\/a>You see, each generation thinks they’re going to fundamentally change things. Here we come folks.\u00a0 We’re different.\u00a0 We’re in charge.\u00a0 And we’re going to change EVERYTHING.<\/p>\nEvery generation says so.\u00a0 I think they’ve got to.\u00a0 Otherwise, why get out of bed?\u00a0 We went through the existential era.\u00a0 That wasn’t fun.\u00a0 It gave us books titled “Nausea”.<\/p>\n
So let’s take stock of the GCT track record.\u00a0 Going in reverse order.<\/p>\n
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- In the 1990s Clinton promised us a “Third Way.”\u00a0 A lot of it worked — we actually at one time had a budget surplus — but now we’re at record deficits.<\/li>\n
- In the 1980s Reagan offered us “Morning in America”.\u00a0 We grew, rebuilt our military, the wall came down and now Russia is back with a vengence.<\/li>\n
- In the 1960s and 1970s it was the “peace generation” whose protests actually stopped a war (no mean feat at the time) and today we’ve got not one (1) but two (2) wars — in Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/li>\n
- Or how about going way back to the 1930s and the temperance movement.\u00a0 Back then we actually made heroes (Elliot Ness) out of people who destroyed beer.\u00a0 Today alcohol consumption is at an all time high.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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<\/a>I don’t say all this to get anyone depressed.\u00a0 And despite the above I actually buy into the “change” mantra of Barack and Joe.\u00a0 But the history of failed predictions and failed promises should give one pause when picking up books like Jeff Gordinier’s “X Saves the World<\/a><\/strong>” or Zogby’s “The Way We’ll Be<\/a><\/strong>.”<\/p>\nGodinier’s title is audacious enough.\u00a0 Xers will save the world?\u00a0 Really?\u00a0 But the subtitle gently modifies what “saving” means\u00a0 — “How Generation X Got the Shaft but Can Still Keep Everything from Sucking.”\u00a0 The hero of this play is, of course, our Xer candidate Barak Obama.\u00a0 In an interview with John Avalon of NewGeography<\/a><\/strong>, Gordinier comments:<\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/p>\n“Obama’s talk about going beyond the old politics of ‘red’ and ‘blue’, liberal and conservative, and building a third way does resonate. Gen Xers tend to be pretty post-ideological, there is less allegiance to any one party or any one way of thinking. \u2026 Our political pragmatism comes as a result of growing up in the shadow of the Boomers’ idealism and seeing it fail miserably.”<\/em><\/p>\n
I guess as a boomer I should take offense.\u00a0 No, I should be depressed.\u00a0 Our X’er children view our idealism as a failure.\u00a0 That’s ok.\u00a0 I can live with that.<\/p>\n
But “keeping the world from sucking” is neither an effective rallying cry nor is it as realistic or pragmatic as Gordinier thinks.\u00a0 The world will always suck — at least for someone somewhere.\u00a0 And for every significant achievement in societal development (women’s rights, race relations) we know that it wasn’t one (1) generation that made a difference — it was multiple generations all coalescing around one idea.<\/p>\n
Then there’s Zogby’s book with an equally audacious title, “The Way We’ll Be.”<\/p>\n
Really?\u00a0 Are you talking about me?\u00a0 Do I know you?<\/p>\n
I like Zogby’s stuff because he reaches.\u00a0 And there is no shortage of entertainment in his unique (and sometimes even insightful) look at attitudes and behaviors.\u00a0 A recent favorite<\/a><\/strong>:\u00a0 an analysis of the 2004 voting prerference based on folks shopped.<\/p>\n