Talkin' 'bout My Generation

I saw a "news" report yesterday about the upcoming 40th anniversary of the "summer of love", in which Baby Boomers embraced sex, drugs, and rock and roll in San Francisco, California. My initial reactions where what you'd expect from me: "Who cares?" followed by "Since when is something that happened 40 years ago 'news'?"

Both of those lead up to the bigger concern here, which is why do Baby Boomers keep subjecting the rest of the United States to their thoughts, wants, etc.? TV shows (Happy Days, Thirtysomething, The Wonder Years, and so on) and commercials remind the rest of us how crucial they must be to our existence. Oliver Stone, the movie director/producer is so stuck in the past that every movie he makes is about the 1960's -- and the Baby Boomers can't resist watching. Now we get a reminder of something that happened 40 years ago (before many of us were born, thank you), as if it were a recent event. (Side note: President Kennedy was shot over 43 years ago, and people are still investigating his assassination.)

Let's examine that a little more closely. A lot of the late 60's involved college students, so lets assume one was 20 years old in 1967. That would mean the person is turning 60 right now. Aha! Now they can use this as a national "Gasp! I'm getting old!" movement, as if it hasn't happened to anyone before. I work with some Boomers, and they've been whining about aging and being in their mid-fifties for years (since they were in their early fifties). Don't you think it's awfully convenient timing that the Medicare overhaul happened just before they become eligible? Call me cynical, but I don't think it was to help out their parents, who have been using Medicare for years already.

Oh yeah, another whine that the Boomers have is that their parents (World War II veterans and spouses) are "The Greatest Generation". Where was this recognition before? Why didn't they appreciate their parents before they started dying? Because they were too into the sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Now they're facing their own mortality and want to make up for the years of self-absorption and recent guilt.

What about the rest of us, the "lost" generations? Everything is so focused on the Boomers (Vietnam era), their parents (Bobby Soxers/WWII era), and their grandparents (WWI era) that no one else seems to matter. My parents (and their parents) were "lost" in that time between war generations. (Random thought: why are the warring generations supposedly more important than those of us who have waged peace?)

I'm fairly certain that someone (most likely a Boomer) would counter my argument by reminding me that I am (by accident of birth) a member of Generation X. I've never liked being classified, least of all as an age group that was typified by Ethan Hawke and Winona Ryder movies. Please, world, don't assume that they speak for all of us! None of my friends fits in that mold. You may ask, "So why should you speak for Generation X?" The simple answer is, "I don't." The long answer is, "Neither should what Hollywood assumes is Generation X". Need I remind you that it was Hollywood, under control of the Boomers, who made these movies, and it was the Boomers themselves who dubbed us "X"?