I know a huge thing that you see online is talks about different generations, and it almost seems as if to me that for some folks, “generational conflict” has replaced class conflict. Furthermore, I worry that the American dream was supposed to die so everyday baby boomers could buy houses and see their property values go up hundredfold and invite otherwise working class folk into an “honorary bourgeoisie” system. But ultimately this is still a class struggle rather than a generation struggle. Like I’m gen Z and I do not see baby boomers as my oppressor, there’s plenty of millennial landlords ready to rip me off because LinkedIn told him to liquidate his assets’ or whatever idk I don’t speak Porkuguese.
I’m no exception, I’ve made my guesses on why any given generation is the way it is, but I can’t help but wonder when did this focus on generation over class all start? Did baby boomers grow up identifying as baby boomers, and when they were in their 20s-40s was there this idea that millennials were going to be their designated bagholders? If so, did baby boomers always have a consistent culture and identity?
Sorry if this is a dumb question, it’s just that the generational struggle seems really flimsy upon further scrutiny.
There are documents whining about the impropriety of the youth going back thousands of years. So it's been a concern forever.
I think the current iteration started with Gen X. There was always a certain amount of resentment from the Boomers. As a cohort they really are unique in history which has made it easy to single them out and assign blame to them for, basically everything. Xer pop culture emphasized the idea of being stifled and rendered superfluous by an oppressive Boomer culture. This wasn't really a thing in Xer praxis, but their pop culture emphasized the idea of being disconnected from a Boomer dominated system and emphasized responses like slacking and being indifferent or apathetic.
Socrates told Plato the younger generation was doomed because they relied on the new fangled technology of writing to rember stuff instead of just learning oral tradition so literally forever.
Although smaller scale the greatest generation originally reffered to boomers ad "the me generation" because they were so selfish until boomers outnumbered them and colloquially changed it to baby boomers.
So short answer: forever
Long answer: forever but baby boomers are uniquely spoiled and entitled because they've fought with every generation before and since
I know people say generational conflict is reactionary bitten I see 100 polls in a row where 90% of boomers say they support setting younger generations on fire for warmth instead of paying $20 for a communal heat source that would work perfectly.
There's deffinitly way more solidarity between millenials and gen x against boomers and millenails have mostly managed to avoid the same pitfalls of talking too much shit about gen alpha.
know people say generational conflict is reactionary bitten I see 100 polls in a row where 90% of boomers say they support setting younger generations on fire for warmth instead of paying $20 for a communal heat source that would work perfectly.
Reagan won the youth vote. People like to point to the counter culture but they were a small and despised minority. Also most based boomers were early boomers, late boomers, ie: most of the boomers still around today, had the silver spoon of the 80s economy shoved up their ass.
Generational politics is mostly bunk EXCEPT for Boomers, they do actually consistently suck enough that hating on them is totally justified.
Reagan won the youth vote.
Yea, as soon as boomers were all old enough to vote Reagan won 49 states.
Then as soon as boomers got a little older the youth vote went back to not being for the worst president in the last two generations.
The generational infighting is mostly bullshit literally except boomers, they really are just that shitty.
As an older millennial I sure as shit don't understand gen alpha but I don't dislike them. I find some of their antics to be cringe and dumb but I was cringe and dumb at that age. I'm sure the majority will grow up and be fine.
The modern concept of generations and labeling them is bullshit because its all taken from marketing. They're only profiling a specific cohort of these "generations" - the ones with disposable income to buy the products of their clients. So when things are written about them its generally about relatively wealthy people from similarly wealthy families.
Like I’m gen Z and I do not see baby boomers as my oppressor,
That's because unlike people my age who had to misfortune of being raised by boomers, you didn't have them as parents. Even though i know generations are bullshit, it feels good to hate on them after what many of us unfortunately experienced. Plus the current concept of "boomer" is more about a state of mind - a type of reactionary attitude that isn't exclusive to when someone was born, but does tend to be associated with them. So while "generational struggle" is bullshit, in my view, the boomers don't need anyone to defend them. No one needs to speak up and say "not all boomers" anymore than anyone shouod be saying "not all men" or "not all white people."
All of that being said, there are some material reasons for the differences. Its not inherent to "boomers" because of when they were born obviously, but because of the relative prosperity they lived in and ease many of them had accumulating wealth. Because of those conditions they tend to refuse to accept the present reality. They think their lives were "normal", when in fact they lived through a massive anamoly. They won the being born lottery. They got to live their whole lives fucking around, and will never have to find out (with the exception of their children rightly not speaking to them).
In short, its important to recognize that it's not generation but class, and the modetn coception of generations is bullshit anyway. But, there does tend to be a major divide for material, but not "generational," reasons
Strauss and Howe are the two guys that really supercharged it with their book The Fourth Turning. The (edit: Bill) Clinton campaign actually attributes some of their success to looking at generational cohorts through that lens, which also gave it a lot more purchasing power in culture in general.
