Pity Generation X- A Little.

Warning: Heretical opinion follows.

For those of you who are not familiar with generational theory, I recommend Strauss and Howe's "Fourth Turning":

http://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Turning-William-Strauss/dp/0767900464

That theory states that there are four generational periods that shape economic and social attitudes on a *general* level. They are, in order, the High, the Awakening, The Unraveling, and The Crisis. We are now in the fourth turning, the crisis. For example, persons born and brought up during a high experience prosperity and stability (usually) as norms during childhood. The leading edge of a generation makes the "first impression" that shapes it's image forevermore when it comes of age (thier teens and early twenties). The most notorious example in this current cycle is the group that was born just as WW 2 ended, and came of age in the mid-1960's: The infamous Baby Boomers.

Remember that these are generalizations for generations, and individuals vary all over the scale. Persons born near the beginnings or endings of generations are hybrids called "cuspers", with traits of both generations. The boundary points are the source of much contention. I was born quite late in the Boom gen, and a frequent reaction of X'rs and Millenials who I meet, when told my age, is this:"You're a Baby Boomer?!? You're too *nice* to be a Baby Boomer!"

Each generation preceding or following another normally (and pretty accurately) calls out the failings of the subject generation.

It is exactly like an alcoholic family.

The The Lost Generation, the last analog for Generation X from the last cycle, was well known and excoriated for it's failings by the Missionary Generation that preceded it (the "Boomers" of that cycle), and by the following generation, The GI"s (Millenials/Generation "Y"). The Lost, with acid wit, returned fire. Or maybe *they* started it when they started dissing the Missionaries for the idealism/hypocrisy that marked their gen. In turn, The Lost were steamrollered out of the (all too brief) limelight by the Greatest Gen, who got all the credit, and took all the rewards.

Remember the word "cycle"?

Gen X was born into a time of social upheaval, but not material destruction on the scale of a crisis. What happens is that they got shorted by Boomers plucking the plum jobs, getting all the attention, and being forced into paying higher costs for housing, tuition, and social disorders. This has left them abused children with little empathy. Everything's Darwinian. Do not explain your woes to an X'r; they will say, with a schadenfruede smirk: "Your point?"

This makes them easy to love. :)

When a recessive/"Nomad" generation reaches midlife, for them there is a brief calm, then a horrible realization. Having had to pick their way through the blasted cultural heath left behind by the failed Idealist generation, and developing into The Greatest Smart Asses On The Planet, they have to focus on the outer world instead of themselves.

In short, they've turned forty, and are forced to grow up, and give a shit about others. They will soon replace the Idealists, and they, the Nomads, have no ideals.

Oops. Guess what happens when sociopaths discover the words "social contract" apply to *them*.

There is a brief moment of shock, in the darkened silence.

Then the nuclear detonations of the crisis, and realization the generation behind them will reap the rewards for their thankless job of providing the pragmatism to survive the crisis illuminate the X'r Sunrise.

The last Nomad Sunrise (read: super-clusterfuck-crisis) was The Great Depression, and WW 2. Nomads, and especially Nomad cuspers, had to provide the pragmatic leadership so that the entire society could survive. Ike is the defining example, along with other notables.

X will have to restrain and moderate the excesses of the Boomers, and the Millenials. Just as the Lost had to do with the Missionaries and GI's.

Almost a Darwinian selection for a generational role, is it not? :)

Any bets that they will be yelling "get off my damn lawn, you damn kids!" when they reach elderhood?