Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Talkin' 'bout My Generation

I wonder what it would be like to be from a generation that wanted to please its parents. I suppose that's the norm, but to a childless boomer everything mentally healthy young people do seems bloodless and shallow, on whatever side. It all seems to be a quest for parental approval, not for creativity or self-actualization.

This may have something to do with why waiting around for youth movements isn't going to amount to much. It's not all roses, but maybe we really are a special generation. Nobody will ever have parents as out of touch as ours were. We were on opposite sides of the Future Shock.

We really had no guidance. This led to many very bad things and many very good things.

Maybe the future is still up to us.

4 comments:

MT said...

"Maybe the future is still up to us."

Isn't this what the revolutionary youth always say when they grow up? You could be quoting Fidel Castro.

Michael Tobis said...

Or Thomas Jefferson?

What is your point?

My point is that necessity is the mother of invention, which may be why young boomers were so creative and so destructive.

Now the question is whether the operative part is "young" or "boomer", and whether the experiences can help us winnow the really bad ideas (before they become incredible embarrassments lurking in musty corners of used bookstores).

MT said...

What is your point?

That there could be as much and as worthy creation by young people today as in the past, but that you might not be able to see it, because that's just how culture evolves and how old folks perceive the young.

Michael Tobis said...

Ah. It's possible.

Maybe there is stuff happening on Facebook or Twitter that will change the world somehow. Or maybe not.

My point is that we boomers shouldn't be sitting around waiting for the kids to make changed, and hoping our 401Ks carry us through our dotage.