Saturday, November 19, 2011
Radicalizing Gen X
I've been writing for some time about the work of Ravi Batra (The New Golden Age: The Coming Revolution against Political Corruption and Economic Chaos) and Strauss & Howe (The Fourth Turning). Strauss and Howe's work, especially, is based on generational change. Lynn Parramore, a gifted writer who blogs at New Deal 2.0 provides her take about Gen X from her own experience and how Occupy radicalized her.
Many members of the Silent Generation and Baby Boomers can relate to this process through experience, since they were on the ground during the anti-war movement and experienced it first hand at the barricades. But no generation since has had to go through this searing experience. All that has changed now, and it portends to change the world. That's why I think this is a big deal, which will affect all of us socially, politically and economically over the years to come.
Read the whole post at AlterNet
Back to the Future? Generation X and Occupy Wall Street
by Lynn Parramore
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8 comments:
Tom, we are going to be affected regardless if there are protests.
Laura, the protests are going to affect the protestors. As I said to the local Occupy folks. I went through this process in the Sixties and Seventies. It shaped by life and times. What you have inherited from the countercultural revolution you take for granted, now knowing anything else. For us, it was world-changing. Now is your time to change the world and that will only happen through changing yourselves. The process shapes the result. Trust the process.
When I say that a generation is being radicalized, it implies it will profoundly affect the thinking and behavior that generation for the rest of their lives and shape what choices they make as generation socially, politically, and economically.
I am a strong believer in generational analysis wrt trends. It is impossible to understand major trends — social, political and economic — without understanding the major forces shaping generational thinking and behavior.
I first notice this when I was very young. I was born at the tail end of the Great Depression and before the US entered WWII. Growing up I noticed how the Great Depression totally influenced my parents generation, which was quite puzzling to me since I had not had that experience.
Since then, I have understood the power and reach of generational experience. This is one of the key shapers of the Zeitgeist.
Change myself? I adapt to the world I live in, as most people do. I play the roles I am expected to play, socially, politically and economically.
The power structure of society has changed little since the agricultural revolution. It is characterized by an elite who wield power over the majority. Our personal experiences and participation in protests have not altered that reality.
If people want reform, large enough protests can achieve it. If that makes people feel they've changed the world, or themselves, then so be it. I don't share that outlook.
Laura, I grew up in the Forties and Fifties. I cannot imagine a more boring environment. I had planned to emigrate when I finished school, even through I had lived in some of the most interesting places in the US. Still boooooring. The cultural lid was clamped on.
Then, the Sixties broke and life suddenly became interesting. The countercultural revolution changed everything, in fact, so much so that we forgot about the revolution and it got co-opted. So here we are now, ready for another iteration.
You make it sound like a lifestyle!
I grew up in rural Quebec during the seventies and eighties. By then the 'Quiet Revolution' was well underway. The QR was a political movement born of class warfare. The provincial economy was controlled by the English speaking minority. Its politics were dominated by the Union Nationale led by Maurice Duplessis. The Duplessis era was marked by two struggles, an economic one pitting francophone workers against their English employers, and a social one involving urban and rural Quebec.
When Duplessis died, the political movement became nationalist. Some activists may have been inspired by the civil rights movement in the US. Those in the FLQ were inspired by what happened in Cuba and Algeria, and acted accordingly.
It was the more peaceable elements of nationalism that won the struggle and captured political power. Social democratic reforms were introduced that transformed Quebec. What remained unchanged was the power structure - the English elite was replaced by a Francophone one, a mere changing of the guard. Plus ca change, plus ca reste pareille.
Nationalist posturing continues today, except that social democracy has been replaced with austerity.
This is part of my experience. I may be part of GenX, but I grew up in a different culture. I have lived in rural areas for most of my life.
Rural folk adapt to change. Revolutions, real or imagined, are not part of our lifestyle. This may be the gulf that separates us, rather than a generational one.
I don't know anyone who was so afflicted by boredom that they were excited by civil disobedience. Of course there have been revolutions in the past, with their own slogans, and ideals. Maybe the participants were excited too. Or maybe they were desperate. Marx examined past revolutions and explained what might have led to their failure. We have learned nothing since then.
If it wasn't your intention to advocate civil disobedience as a lifestyle, I apologize. I hope I have misinterpreted your message.
The countercultural revolution was a lifestyle revolution that accompanied the anti-war movement. It took the lid off not by civil disobedience in the activist sense, but rather through "sex, drugs, and a rock and roll." There was no stopping that.
They called us "hippies," we called ourselves "freaks." Our goal was to freak out the elders. Nothing that most people take for granted today as part of the culture was visible outside of a few "bohemian" or underground refuges. Now it is not only in the suburbs but the rural areas as well.
Actually, the change was speeded up greatly since it was commercialized rather quickly. The pristine nature of the countercultural movement was over by Woodstock (1969), when it had already begun to mainstream and was becoming trendy.
What we call "freedom"?
Not all the hippies sold out. Some moved to New Brunswick to homestead. I believe Meat Cove, NS is another example.
The key to doing as you please today is gainful employment. That didn't seem to be a problem back in the 60s and 70s. When you were done goofing around, a job would be waiting.
Discrimination continues. Being a white male still helps. The draft is gone, so no worries if you're not in the army. Most of us are still able to make ends meet.
I'm getting the impression you're getting the chance to relive your youth!
Laura, I've really been wondering what has taken young people so long to say enough of this BS.
What there are now realizing is that there is not only an advantage to be gained by saying enough. But it is also a way to bring people together to create the kind of community people that generation want to live in.
It's not just a protest. It's a party.
Am I nostalgic. Yep. It was really a fantastic time, inspire of all the adversity involved, too, and we did have the sense of having changed the world.
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