I appreciate the re-post of this article. I missed it last year. It's true - all of it! I would like to offer a strategic wrinkle. Rather than fall on the grenade for the sake of what the Millennials will inherit, I suggest a collective pact with Gen Z...that X'ers just end-around the Millenials and lock arms with Gen Z (also a massive sized generation) and guide them out of their coddled existence. While it's anecdotal, I've found that Z tends to receive instruction and are willing to be led and grow/change, while the mass majority of Millenials seem to know everything already. While I know and respect a solid block of Millenials, nearly 80% of them are insufferable. Also...I keep wondering...what will it take to get boomers to move aside? They're unhelpful at the point. I genuinely believe many of them COULD be helpful if they would age gracefully and enter the "sage" stage of life.
Ironically, the list of attributes that have supposedly shaped Gen X for the better (grew up before the internet, for example) almost entirely applies to the Baby Boomer generation.
It is good to know that no one younger than the Baby Boomers are driving attacks on free speech, etc. Pardon the sarcasm, but the scapegoat thinking is quite tiresome and childish.
"This mentality today manifests itself in independent thought and an unwillingness to go along to get along - or feel inferior about doing so - just because major institutions and Boomer leaders say or do something."
This certainly describes me -- I had thought it was just my personality, but perhaps I have been more shaped by my generational environment than I was aware.
I think the early internet was beneficial until we got to the smartphone era where young people no longer wanted to learn facts or soft skills like reading a map, because they could look up whatever they wanted. The ability to communicate and learn outside of approved media was critical to breaking the information control practiced by the establishment. Gen X was critical in breaking through on this and not following the Boomers in their respect for TV news especially, which was so naive it was almost pathetic. You can still find Boomers who think Walter Cronkite gave them the whole story in an unbiased way. You can still see this in social media, although the younger generations are Boomer like in how easily they are manipulated, not because they are more trusting, but because they don't really know that much.
Mar 3, 2022·edited Mar 3, 2022Liked by Aaron M. Renn
These are good observations. I'm an early Xer myself. One of the most distinct differences I've always noticed between Boomers -- especially first-wave, 1946-55 Boomers -- and me is view of institutional power and authority. Those early Boomers are still committed to 'name-brand' institutions in a way I've never been. Perhaps this is a result of many Xers' first political memories being planted in the early to mid-70s; for example, my first awareness of anything political is Nixon's resignation.
Deference to authority is an especially difficult problem in the context of the institutional church. As a conservative/traditionalist, I don't want my church to be a free-for-all 'democracy'; that's neither Biblical nor sustainable. But I can't count the number of times when, as a long-standing lay leader in my church, I've chafed at our (previous) Boomer pastors signing on to institutional mandates and guidance that made no sense in the context of our own particular congregation.
I also agree that Millenials have meekly accepted institutional control of their social media selves in a way I find both depressing and yet inevitable. The megasites just make it so easy, and giving it all away seems so painless and even pleasant . . . .
I appreciate the re-post of this article. I missed it last year. It's true - all of it! I would like to offer a strategic wrinkle. Rather than fall on the grenade for the sake of what the Millennials will inherit, I suggest a collective pact with Gen Z...that X'ers just end-around the Millenials and lock arms with Gen Z (also a massive sized generation) and guide them out of their coddled existence. While it's anecdotal, I've found that Z tends to receive instruction and are willing to be led and grow/change, while the mass majority of Millenials seem to know everything already. While I know and respect a solid block of Millenials, nearly 80% of them are insufferable. Also...I keep wondering...what will it take to get boomers to move aside? They're unhelpful at the point. I genuinely believe many of them COULD be helpful if they would age gracefully and enter the "sage" stage of life.
Ironically, the list of attributes that have supposedly shaped Gen X for the better (grew up before the internet, for example) almost entirely applies to the Baby Boomer generation.
It is good to know that no one younger than the Baby Boomers are driving attacks on free speech, etc. Pardon the sarcasm, but the scapegoat thinking is quite tiresome and childish.
"This mentality today manifests itself in independent thought and an unwillingness to go along to get along - or feel inferior about doing so - just because major institutions and Boomer leaders say or do something."
This certainly describes me -- I had thought it was just my personality, but perhaps I have been more shaped by my generational environment than I was aware.
I think the early internet was beneficial until we got to the smartphone era where young people no longer wanted to learn facts or soft skills like reading a map, because they could look up whatever they wanted. The ability to communicate and learn outside of approved media was critical to breaking the information control practiced by the establishment. Gen X was critical in breaking through on this and not following the Boomers in their respect for TV news especially, which was so naive it was almost pathetic. You can still find Boomers who think Walter Cronkite gave them the whole story in an unbiased way. You can still see this in social media, although the younger generations are Boomer like in how easily they are manipulated, not because they are more trusting, but because they don't really know that much.
These are good observations. I'm an early Xer myself. One of the most distinct differences I've always noticed between Boomers -- especially first-wave, 1946-55 Boomers -- and me is view of institutional power and authority. Those early Boomers are still committed to 'name-brand' institutions in a way I've never been. Perhaps this is a result of many Xers' first political memories being planted in the early to mid-70s; for example, my first awareness of anything political is Nixon's resignation.
Deference to authority is an especially difficult problem in the context of the institutional church. As a conservative/traditionalist, I don't want my church to be a free-for-all 'democracy'; that's neither Biblical nor sustainable. But I can't count the number of times when, as a long-standing lay leader in my church, I've chafed at our (previous) Boomer pastors signing on to institutional mandates and guidance that made no sense in the context of our own particular congregation.
I also agree that Millenials have meekly accepted institutional control of their social media selves in a way I find both depressing and yet inevitable. The megasites just make it so easy, and giving it all away seems so painless and even pleasant . . . .