Do whole generations really exist as coherent cohorts? Why in the modern USA are kids crammed together with the same age group?
Is it all a bunch of bullshit squeezed into a too tidy tinder box? Are such labels helpful for mental gymnastics or merely exercises in laziness?
Some generational labels floating around in the Zeitgeist: Lost Generation (came of age during World War I), World War II Generation, Depression or "Silent" Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation Jones (born 1954-1965: too young to have been drafted into the U.S.-Vietnam War), Generation X "Baby Busters," Generation Y "Echo Boomers" (Millennials), and Z (digitalnauts).
Generation Jones is a concept that challenges the cruder Baby Boom/Generation X dichotomy. Works for me -- Baby Boomers were melded to the U.S.-Vietnam War, Civil Rights upheaval/backlash and all that jazz. Joneses bore witness to a lot of that in youth, but did not have to go Over There. Something is happening, and you do sort of know what it is, don't you Mr. and Ms. Jones?
Regardless of the Generation Jones concept, there's also the "cusp" and "tweener" loophole and overlap for people born near the edges of so-called generational shifts. 1960-1965 is an example.
Contrasted to the limitations in the current American school system, reality is more complex: people learn at different rates, experience different things, perceive reality differently, etcetera, depending on an endless number of variables including geographical and socio-economic ones. Don't fence me in. And let's not forget the Beat Generation, which brings up literary, arts and music labels -- including record labels! It never ends . . .
Today's Rune: Joy.
6 comments:
Born in '54 the draft ended the year before I became eligible but I enlisted anyway. At the time it was the fasted way out of here in '72. I was in boot camp when Nixon mined Hai Phong harbor. O the roar and cheer of the sailors. Dumb asses. mines at sea should have made them fear not cheer.
I never heard of Generation Jones, which is apparently my generation, Born in 1958. I typically think the generation labels are only vaguely useful
Erik, I abhor labels of any kind and prefer to just try to play nice. I got ID carded and checked for an AARP card on the same day. WTF???
The whole generation thing has always confused me. I was born in 1985...I have no clue what Generation I am. I was always under the assumption it was Generation X?
Hey, thanks all for the comments. . . and agreed all down the line.
AD, this may "make" you an Echo Boomer/Generation Y, supposedly GenX ends ca. 1981 with Reagan's first year.
So Jodi...do you have an AARP card?
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