The Endgame
An encore presentation - The naming of generations
(Note: I’m on the road, and so this fortnight’s offering is an encore presentation of Newsletter #66 which appeared first on May 19, 2024. There will be a new Newsletter on March 22.)
Toronto, May 19, 2024
The naming of generations
Okay, boomer!
What does this mean? What does it imply when directed at a martini-swilling almost-octogenarian by a young guy wearing a baseball cap backwards?
A 2019 New York Times article said widespread use of “okay, boomer” marks the end of friendly generational relations. Francine Prose wrote in The Guardian that the phrase reflects general cultural acceptance of discrimination against older generations. Wikipedia says “okay, boomer” is used “to dismiss or mock attitudes typically associated with... people born in the two decades following World War II.”
Wait a minute. Born following World War II? I’m in the clear! I was born in 1944. Hitler was still alive. I’m not a boomer. So don’t dismiss or mock myattitudes.
Every generation has been given a label. Boomers, Generation X, Millenials, Generation Z, Generation Alpha. Why is this labelling thought to be a good idea? I complained about it at a recent lunch with my children and grandchildren. Maybe I came across as a bit cranky. My daughter Gabrielle rolled her eyes and said—guess what—“okay, boomer.” “I’m not a boomer,” I said. “When I was born, World War II was still on. German V-1 flying bombs were dropping on London. One day my pregnant mother, your grandmother, out shopping for baby clothes for me, had to shelter in a ditch on her way home.”
Gabrielle did a bit of quick Googling on her smart phone between sips of Pinot Grigio. “You’re right,” she said. “You’re not a boomer. You’re a member of the Silent Generation. You’re a Silent. It says here, ‘This cohort grew up during a period of war and economic depression, so their personality could be seen as being silenced or muted by these events.’” Personality silenced or muted? I know people who wouldn’t agree with that.
Gabrielle is Gen X (those born between 1965 and 1980). Gen X is described by Perplexity, still my favourite chatbot, as having lived “through rapid social, economic, and technological changes, making them highly adaptable and comfortable with change.” Her son and daughter, my grandkids, are Gen Z (1997-2012). Perplexity says of Gen Z, “They have grown up amid diverse family structures and are comfortable with differences in race, sexual orientation, and religion.”
This kind of sociological typecasting strikes me as sloppy, indeed, ludicrous. It tries to define what is beyond definition. It draws lines that don’t exist. False thinking this way provokes harmful disdain based on age and presumed attitude. Guess what, some members of the Silent Generation are completely comfortable with differences in race, sexual orientation, and religion; some members of Gen X have trouble with change; etcetera, etcetera.
Generational labels are just another expression of destructive identity politics. I’ve written elsewhere (in my 2023 book on antisemitism) that identity politics “rejects universalism in favour of particularism, liberalism in favour of tribalism. It emphasizes individual cultural issues and ignores the complex nature of major problems, such as climate change, which cut across particular identities. It turns its back upon traditional ideals that transcend group divides... It repudiates universalist philosophical movements, including the concept of universal human rights.” This applies in spades to the naming of generations.
Let’s talk instead about common interests and ambitions and problems, the things holding us all together. Although, admittedly, as Cixin Lu, a boomer born in 1963, writes in the postscript to his astonishing science-fiction novel The Three-Body Problem, “Every era puts invisible shackles on those who have lived through it, and I can only dance in my chains...”
Okay, boomer!
Right on, Phil!! ....from a baby boomer podcaster!!
I'm a trailing-edge boomer born in 1959. According to Google and Wikipedia this trail-edge cohort has its own name - "Generation Jones."
"Jonathan Pontell coined the term "Generation Jones" to describe the cohort born between 1954 and 1965, representing the late-wave Baby Boomers who came of age during the 1970s and early 80s. While not primarily known for a single, widely published book, Pontell is a cultural commentator who defines this group by their formative experience of shifting from 1960s optimism to 1970s cynicism."
"Unlike older, more optimistic Boomers, this group experienced the 1970s economic stagflation, creating a need for resilience and a "keep up with the Joneses" mentality, often shifting toward more conservative or independent, rather than liberal, political views."
I find labels, such as this, useful to help explain my own lifetime of malaise and lack of real achievement. Of course, many other factors play into this as well.