[Publib] Politics and Generation Q

[Backwage at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/21/2007 11:53:03 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
jgehner at hhptf.org writes:

We are a  generation in waiting. Waiting to be treated as more than just
a focus  group, waiting to be treated to more than just a Facebook ad,
waiting for a  government and a country that is willing to speak *with* us
rather than  *to* us.  And when that time comes, when we are asked to and
can speak  with a national voice, well, then, "Generation Q" won't be so
quiet after  all.


Every generation considers itself to have discovered all the essential  
truths of the universe, which were always either hidden away, stolen or  indecently 
modified by the folks who came before.  If you wish to see a  fraud in 
action, merely look for the term aside the word 'generation' in the  description of 
any group--the 'Lost Generation' of World War I were that on  the basis of 
their having experienced the absolutely unprecedented  horrors of war and the 
disillusionment of the subsequent peace, wherein they  found release in the sort 
of excess which every other group of young  people seek when they discover 
that the world hasn't been made to please  their tastes or aspirations--assuming 
they have any rising about the level  of appetites.  Neither Hemingway nor 
Fitzgerald had memory enough  to think of the veterans of the Civil War, many 
then living, who apparently  didn't have an era named after them, despite their 
having done a few small  things, some of which might be grounds for 
disillusionment.  
 
You will also notice that these named generations seem largely to be  
clubhouses for white folks, who of course are important enough to get media  
attention of this sort--nobody called Reconstruction Blacks anything but  
sharecroppers, or perhaps lynching victims.  For that matter, the northern  migration of 
Blacks from the south didn't get a generation name, except the  traditional one 
that begins with the letter 'N.'  Sullen white kids  get people to listen to 
them bleat about not being heard--while they are  being heard. 
 
The "--" Generation fixation comes out of literature by way of  boredom.  As 
to the previous named generations, "Lost," "Greatest," "Baby  Boomer" and 
those pegged to the alphabet, they have passed or will  pass away, more alike than 
any of their members might  suspect.  It is to establish an identity without 
any particular effort or  achievement other than the passage of time and such 
vagaries as fate drops  randomly upon the calendar.
 
As to generation anything:  Keep waiting.  Eventually you will  look in the 
mirror one morning and see that you're shaving your father's face  and 
whistling in his range--perhaps a different tune, but close enough.   Adulthood begins 
when you don't think of older folks in terms of  reparations.
 
M. McGrorty
 
 



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