Last week I came across an article on binge watching, the compulsive watching of TV series. Among other things it was about a guy who watched TV at a higher speed so he could watch more things. His unquenchable desire to passively observe came before even the intrinsic value of entertainment. “In my day,” I thought, My God, I really thought so, they would have thought he was crazy.
As a 46-year-old member of Generation It was the opposite: it was chic to boast of not owning a TV at all. Well. It was the beginning of a long reflection on the values received from my generation. And, far from being a "Boomer", also because technically I am not, I have reviewed the aspects that in my opinion should be preserved, or recovered, to save the future.
Generation X around the world, open your ears
Generation X grew up in a world that was changing culturally, socially, technologically and economically.
We've been taught that all things corporate are evil, old school is always better than the latest and greatest, authenticity is king, conformity is death and there's nothing worse than being a scab, of sellouts or posers.
No one would ever call themselves an “influencer” in the 80s and 90s: in those years, nothing was more embarrassing than trying to get people to look at you at all costs.
Sure, we had some poison on us. Deep in the heart of almost every member of Generation X is a profound feeling of nihilism. We didn't really trust the companies that kept our parents warm (for a little while longer), and we were right: they would have gutted their pensions in the following years. Our grandparents told us that anything corporate was predatory.
We had a little less faith in family values because we were the first generation to grow up in kindergarten. We didn't even care much about politics. In the 90s, Generation X's aversion to politics was historic everywhere, and with the collapse of the opposing blocs the confusion became even greater.
Of course these are all commonplaces about Generation X, but studies show that this generation really has some hallmarks.
How Generation X is made
According to a paper on generational differences, the core values of Generation X are “skepticism”, “fun” and “informality”. They are described as “self-sufficient,” “independent,” “unimpressed by authority,” and motivated by “freedom.”
In the young Generation
Since the 90s, when Generation
The answer to all these problems?
Simple: admit that Generation X was right at a certain point, and that if we followed their example we could reverse these terrible trends. OK, it may not solve all our problems, but the way things are going now definitely isn't working. Also, weren't the 90s great? The decade leading up to 2000 (with September 11th and the beginning of the “endless war”) was frivolous, disinterested, perhaps a little soft, holistic, but certainly of a pacifist and ecologist nature. We were coming of age and would bring a more agnostic and anti-imperialist world. Someone prevented us from taking the scepter, and perpetuated the values of the previous generation, with all its muscular burden of war and infinite growth, with all the disasters that came with it.
It's also the fault of the Xers, Certain. Many of us have lost our way, forgetting our contempt for authority and skepticism towards institutions. This is a call for us to remember what we once stood for and to fight back by doing what we do best: staying above the fray.
Generation X, it's time to tie your boots (Camperos of course) and show the new generations how powerful contempt can be.
Here are the top four Gen X values that we should embrace again to save the world.
Purchase of vintage items
After the “paninara” orgy of the 80s, nothing was less fashionable in the early 90s than wearing branded clothes. Remember “No Logo” by Naomi Klein? Here you are. If you really had style, you bought used clothes and remixed them into something “yours”. If you liked hip-hop, you took advantage of the deals and luxuriated in some super durable Carhartt stuff (complete with stickers). The mood of the time was totally anti-fashion. These days, we live in a world where instant fashion is killing the environment. By embracing the values of Generation
Skepticism about media and technology
In the early 2000s, people fell in love with smartphone and social media technology so quickly that no one stopped to think about the potential consequences. We now have a world in which children are depressed, the culture has been devastated and no one really talks to each other anymore: physically, in public they stare at a display. “Virtually”, we spend our time fighting each other over any opinion.
I can totally understand why later generations fell for it, but the truth is that Generation X was also asleep at the wheel and crashed. The generation that has embraced the idea that TV rots the brain needs to remind everyone that social media can die, and maybe he's just dying. He needs to remind everyone to go out and play in the sun or read a book. And to remind others, he has to stop first.
A bit of snobbery
Good taste mattered. In the 2000s, millennials decided that people have the right to like whatever they like, and that it's worse to judge someone's personal taste than to have bad taste. It is not a sign of freedom. Only the hymn to the shortcut, a path with little effort that stops at the door: I don't study, I don't inform myself, I don't cultivate anything. I like this? So good.
Members of Generation X based their entire personalities on taste: they demanded integrity from artists and were rewarded by living in an age of superior movies and music. Today there simply isn't any new music anymore, and we're stuck in a world dominated by comic book movies, because no one has bothered and condemned the people who appreciate the “less effort” culture and who only stuffs it with such things to make a profit.
Political apathy
The political division of the last 30 years (remember: since the fall of the Berlin Wall) has calcified and become sterile, as more and more people base their personal identities on politics. This has created a culture in which the dialogue between "progressives" and "conservatives" has become sterile: on the one hand, there is a continuous opposition that prevents exchange. On the other hand, at high levels the policies applied end up dangerously similar, whoever goes into government.
This climate has attracted increasingly incompetent and degraded figures of politicians, and has effectively stopped any sense of progress. Do we want to talk about the 90s? Di Mani Pulite, to stay in Italy? Today the new generations are almost throwing that historical moment in the garbage, coming to "regret" the politicians and the 'vintage' corruption of the '80s.
Of course, compared to current molluscs, those others look like giants. But the truth is that in the 90s Generation X had received a 'revelation', and had enshrined political apathy as a way of life. Since then, except for periodic infatuations, we Xers generally show less social trust or trust in government, we have a weaker loyalty to the concept of 'homeland' or to a political party.
If everyone got this feeling back, we could probably focus again on problem solving and constructive discussions, and maybe not get fooled around so many.
Generation X, stand up and walk
My generation is now in its 40s and 50s, and alongside the pride of the inevitable phrase "in my time" it must do self-criticism. It is fair to say that we have gone from being outsiders to the system to being part of it. Today we participate fully in the creation of technological and political machines that are generating the kind of conformism against which we once lashed.
Now that Generation X is at the age where it can rule the world for a few decades, it's time to recommit to the core values that make us who we are. And there's good news: if we put in the effort, it won't be difficult to go back to being the pain in the ass that we are, because we have been naturally educated to ironically love the past.
And this is what can save the future.
