VileOrb, I know exactly what you’re talking about. I was also born in 1966, and I will never consider myself a Boomer, and feel like my rightful title, Generation X or Lost Generation has been usurped by people born from 1975 to 1990, who should rightfully be called Slackers. Our generation are not Slackers; we were raised with an unrealistic, old-fashioned work ethic; and we are also not the self-indulgent, pampered Boomers. We came out of high school into an economic wasteland, and have been fighting to get anywhere since then. We have never had the cushy jobs/economy that the Boomers assumed they would always have, but we were raised by Boomers that led us to believe that we would be looked after by an employer. And it is only going to get worse for us, as our small, insignificant generation supports the top-heavy Boomers into their graves. Look what you’ve done - you’ve got me all worked up now.
I was born at the end of the 60s, and I’ve always considered myself a GenX’er, Buster, whatever. Generation X is the group sandwiched between the Boomers and the children of the Boomers. Comparatively small in numbers, and therefore ignored by demographers, we came out of high school to confront a culture of greed, an economy rapidly going down the tubes, and the realization that we had little or no chance to do ever better than our parents. (And the stark realization that Social Security wasn’t gonna exist for us.) The Boomers had a golden era of economic prosperity. What did we get? Gas lines and “trickle down economics”.
I agree with VileOrb. We are the generation stuck in the corridor, because the Boomers wouldn’t make room until it was time for their kids to come through.
The “X” in Generation X implies to me:
a) An unknown quality. They didn’t know what to name us.
b) A cipher. There are too few of us to ever make an impact.
I was born in 1976. I don’t consider myself really part of Gen X, though I can empathise with a lot of it. I think that you really needed to be in the 15 - 25 age bracket in the 1980s, meaning the ideal X’er was born in 1965, though I’d include… ooh… about 1961 to 1972 in there too. OTOH I got the feeling that the “millenium kids” were born late 1970s/early 1980s and that doesn’t really fit me either.
Not sure it matters really. Labelling people never really gets you anywhere anyway.
pan
FYI, I always thought we were “the blank generation” as labeled by seminal punk rocker Richard Hell.
I read a long article about this subject once. The article talked about “cohorts” which just means the people born in the same year as you were. And I was born at the nadir of the “baby bust” in 1958. There were fewer people born in and around 1958 than any year in postwar history. The article quoted people saying “all my adult life, I’ve never met one single person my age.” I had a forehead-slapping moment, that’s exactly how I feel. My cohort is the smallest one alive. There IS nobody my age.
Anyway, the story gets even worse. We Blank Generation-ers (see why that label never stuck?) get totally screwed on taxes. We will pay more in lifetime taxes than either the generation born immediately ahead of us, or behind us. The hippie generation will retire, stop paying taxes and start drawing SS, while the GenXers are still too young in their career to pay hefty tax bills. So that leaves the blank generation, in the prime of our lives, paying everyone else’s bills.
Yeah, but what ya gonna do? 
What are you gonna do? Bitch and moan on a message board, because that seems to be the only place that this generation has any voice. VeraGemini, you hit the nail on the head. Jim and I were discussing this last night, and that’s exactly what we were saying. Our generation (born 1960-1975) will pay for all the Boomers’ excesses, but we will not have the advantages of the Boomer kids. It’s like our generation was born to be the serving people of the Boomers, scrabbling for crumbs off their once over-laden table after they’ve had their feast of natural resources, economic plenty, cheap houses, high wages, low inflation, and job security.
The funny thing about this is that I never even realized what my generation was all about until about 2 years ago. I lived my life identifying with no particular group, and feeling vaguely like I had no voice or representation, and not really understanding why. Then the show “Friends” came on TV, and for all its faults, I think this is the first show that was aimed at my age group, and I had a ton of “Yeah, that’s EXACTLY what it’s like for people my age” moments.
I certainly cannot join in as a member of the generation that is being discussed, but I can identify, since I am of a generation that nobody cares about. I was born in 1938, which means that I am a “depression baby”, but no one ever named our generation. Depression baby says exactly what it means, there weren’t many babies because we were an expense. My wife is a “depression/war baby”.
We came before the “boomers” and although I’ll admit that in the end your generation will probably suffer more from the “boomers”, we have gotten the short end from them too.
Let’s hope that when history looks back they will recognize the “boomers” for quantity and our generations for quality.
The phrase “the lost generation” does not refer to the genX-ers that you mentioned. The phrase came from a quote made by Gertrude Stein and applied first to the American expatriates who lived in Europe between the two world wars. Hemingway’s novel “The Sun Also Rises” describes these people.
see
What does The Lost Generation mean?
Much has been made of the “Lost Generation” phrase that appears at the front of Hemingway’s 1926 novel, The Sun Also Rises. Hemingway attributed the phrase to Gertrude Stein who supposedly heard her French garage owner speak of his young auto mechanics, and their poor repair skills, as “une generation perdue.” Stein would expand the remark to describe all the disillusioned young men who had survived World War I and who seemed to end up in France with no real purpose, but because of its relatively low cost of living.
For the most part the “Lost Generation” defines a sense of moral loss or aimlessness. The World War seemed to destroy for many the idea that if you acted properly, good things would happen. But so many good young men went to war and died, or returned damaged, both physically and mentally, that their faith in the moral guideposts that had given them hope before, were no longer valid…they were “Lost.”
Some other novels of the post war period echoed this sentiment, including Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise which showed the same young generation masking their general depression behind the forced exuberance of the Jazz Age. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby does the same, to a degree, where the illusion of happiness hides a sad loneliness.
Hemingway was a little distressed that so much emphasis was placed on the phrase, and that he became the leader of the whole “Lost Generation” concept, when he really didn’t agree with the idea at all. In letters to his editor, Max Perkins, he tried to clarify the theme of his novel. The point of the book for him was “that the earth abideth forever,” hence his use of the verse from Ecclesiastes from which the book’s title originates. He felt “there was no such thing as a lost generation” and that Gertrude Stein’s comment was a piece of “splendid bombast.” The vast majority of readers however, didn’t see it that way, or couldn’t see it that way.
Yup, another of the ‘invisible’ ones here. I, contrary to the OP and most posters here, somewhat enjoy the anonymity.
It’s to be expected, wouldn’t you say?
Take a serious look at the 60’s, not just the hyper-ventilating nostalgia so many engage in. The 60’s was a tough time for our country. The college age youth essentially declared war on the establishment(remember when that was a bad word?)and declared anyone over 30 the enemy. The callwords “don’t trust anyone over 30” ring a bell? This wasn’t hyperbole. This wasn’t rhetoric. This was serious stuff. Everything the so-called 'Greatest Generation" had fought and died for was deemed worthless. Values had no meaning, morals didn’t exist, laws were a way of “keeping the man down”. It was time for follow Dr. Timothy Leary and “tune in, turn off, and drop out”. (I think I have that phrase right) The Vietnam War became a focal point for Everything Wrong with The World[sup]TM[/sup], college campuses had sit-ins, riots(remember Kent State), Hanoi Jane, etc., etc. It was an extreme period. In every way. What could follow but a sense of the pendulum swinging back toward the middle? That’s the 70’s. The in-between group, the ones left to pick up the pieces after the party breaks up and everyone else runs out of steam. Throw in the crisis in the Middle East, fuel rationing, economic difficulties, the aftermath of a Presidential scandal bringing him down, and peace was more desirable than war. Of any kind.
So. Here we are. The responsible ones. The generation that picked up the pieces, waited for the the echoing numbness to go away, and got back to work.
I’d call us the Responsible Generation. Take a look at the 60’s, their offspring the 80’s and the contrast is clear.
Great post NaSultainne
It made me realize that our generations have even more in common. My gereration was the one just turning 30 when the flower children were rebelling. It is also my generation that are mostly your generations parents. Remember there weren’t many of us and therefore there weren’t as many of you.
Here is something to think about. It was the “Greatest Generation” that fathered the “baby boomers”. It is a pattern that eventually will fade, but we are still greatly influenced by it.
Then that would make you my little brother Stephen. Here’s some free advice from your big brother Mike.
Stop being such a pain in the ass, or I’ll tell Mom.
Thanks for the thought, kniz. You’re right - my dad was born in 1922, grew up during the Great Depression, was indeed in WWII(his ship left Pearl Harbor hours before the attack), and my generation perhaps more clearly recognizes the contribution his/your generation made to the continued survival of this country. Not a minor thing in any way, not to be dismissed as callously as the ‘with it’ generation attempted. I’d like to see a thread started about the true impact of the 60’s on our society today. Could be interesting.
I was born in 63, and I remember all that stuff that
from the “are you an X-er set of questions”
And just for the record, I finally was abel to get a real career going, buy a house, 2 cars, 1 kid, and a dog,
yup the american dream is ALL MINE - To bad I had to move
to Brazil to realize it.
-Stanx!
Janx
See this thread in GQ:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?postid=1786892#post1786892
OK, I guess I’m technichly a Boomer. I was born in 1960, to a twenty-nine year old mother and a fourty-seven year old father (second marriage). Dad missed the War, bad knee, but he drove truck for an armourment manufacturer. My uncles were in it, though.
I was too young for rock and roll and too old for punk. What did I get? Disco! Even at the time I knew it sucked! So how did I react? Well, since my own stuff was horrid, I just went back and took over my Mom’s records. I love Swing, and Big Band. One of our local radio stations used to play old radio shows every night and I got hooked on old movies. I’ll read any book written pre-'50. I’ll get a little newer and listen to Rock and Roll, kinda hafta since that’s what mr. zoogirl’s band plays, but I mostly cut off about '65.
I’m too young to be this old! Hey! that’s my new sig!
Yep, there it is!
You bought a kid?? :eek:
I once heard a radio show with someone wanting to refer to this middle period as ‘tweeners’ (a silly name, but identifying the way some people felt). Too young to be marketed to as Boomers, too old to be marketed to as Gen Xers – and yes, this guy seemed to want to be marketed to.
He held up as example Bryan Adams, whose song, “Summer of '75” had to have its title changed to “Summer of '69” to make it sell better to Baby Boomers. Now people insult Adams for faking his life story. There should better things to insult him for than that.
Not one to make too much of the whole generation thing (does that identify my social group?), but I just saw this : http://www.generationjones.com
Why do people feel the insane urge to classify themselves by age group? I can understand classification based on interests or personality types, but feeling a kinship with people who happen to be within twenty years of your age? Incomprehensible.
But maybe I should explain myself: I’ve never seen myself as being part of any generation, because I’ve never been able to communicate with my ‘peers’. I’ve always been too intelligent and too cultured to hold much communication with most people, especially those as old as I am. How much can you care about the latest pop-culture BS if you’re reading Plato and thinking about the definition of intelligence itself? I’ve never been in a group of people that I could really connect with, no matter what their age. Couple that with the fact that the pop culture of my ‘peers’ has never appealed to me (well, most of it hasn’t) and I guess I’m a ‘Lost Generation’ of one.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of Dopers feel the same way.