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Dividing the country behind the war. Some posts ago I noted the bitter partisan mood reflected in the hate-filled rants that characterize posts on popular discussion forums. Well, that spirit has percolated all the way up to the nation's top leadership. In a recent speech, White House adviser Karl Rove played the partisan game to the hilt, basically accusing all liberals of being soft on terror since 9/11. It's surely just a political ploy, since Rove's job is to get out the vote, but it shows how the ultimate source of this meanness is that ornery Boomer generation. Posted by Steve at 11:31 AM
Gender role flip at CNN.com. Gen-X males remake fatherhood - this is the generation that grew up abandoned by their fathers; and Millennial females prove they are heroes on the battlefield. More dads want to be Mr. Mom Tennessee woman awarded Silver Star Posted by Steve at 1:27 PM
The 9/11 generation. We may not know yet whether the September 11th terrorist attacks were a catalyst of a new social mood for the nation as a whole, but it does seem from news reporting that they had such an effect on the young generation. This year's graduating classes were freshmen in 2001, so they have earned the moniker "class of 9/11," and a number of recent stories tell about them: Millenial Generation Comes of Age Post-9/11 Class of 9/11 Looks Ahead Sept. 11 Shaped World for the Class of 2005 9/11 Grads Choose Public Service Posted by Steve at 9:16 PM
Raging 2000s redux. After the election I wrote my Raging 2000s commentary, where I compared this decade to the 1920s, in an effort to peg it as a Third Turning decade. Well, it was a poor choice for a comparison; better to line the 2000s up with the 1990s – the decade that just passed – and see what the differences are. Then you are in much better shape to decide whether a turning point was crossed. So I made a table, and gave it its own page: The Roaring '90s vs. the Raging 2000s Looking at it, I see mostly linear trends. Much of the legislation the Republican-controlled Congress is passing is building on foundations established in the Clinton era, which was as much a conservative and business-friendly era as this one is, only with budget surpluses. The biggest shifts occurred in the tenor of election politics as the culture wars have heated up and charged voters, and in the new military doctrine of committing ground troops in the war on terror. Posted by Steve at 11:00 PM
How to alienate a generation. Dominated by the GOP, this Congress keeps pushing legislation that fits a conservative, business-friendly ideology. The latest bill, known as the Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005, prohibits state and local governments from offering telecom services. Basically, your town can't wi-fi up, since then no business can offer that service competitively. What this comes down to is a decision in our society on whether we're going to have a public or private wi-fi network infrastructure. With wireless, even a small tax base can sustain the publicly supported network, so it's pure ideology at this point to insist on keeping it in the private sector. After all, we don't worry about the lost business opportunities from having public roadways maintained by municipal authorities using taxpayer money. But what's really interesting from a generations and turnings perspective is if this bill will have the effect of alienating a generation that might stand to benefit the most from affordable, widely available wireless networks. I mean the Millennials, who already have been turned off to the record companies by their efforts to stop music downloading and sharing. They don't want to pay $20 for a CD with 10 songs, and probably don't want to pay $50 per month for Internet access, either. Wake up, corporate fat cats! Posted by Steve at 1:10 PM
Now that's a protectionist attitude! Yet another after-effect of the 9-11 terrorist attacks is this lovely piece of legislation, HR 1986, authorizing the presence of military troops on the border:
Wait, wasn't there some rule about not using the military for domestic law enforcement, because of the threat of tyranny. Oh, right, that was before the grave threat posed by Al-Qaeda, which lurks behind every cactus in the Southwestern desert, in case you didn't realize it. Have an Orwellian day! Posted by Steve at 7:01 PM
The Boomers are insane when it comes to protecting Millennials act. From Representative F. James Sensenbrenner (R - WI) comes HR 1528, a draconian new anti-drug law sending us a little further down the pike towards a police state. If this passes, we will all be required by law to turn over anyone we know to the police who so much as talks about involvement in drug activity with anyone under 21. And then assist them in subsequent efforts to investigate and apprehend the malefactors. Or receive a minimum two-year sentence.
Next up: if anyone you know thinks about harming a kid, you must immediately dial 9-1-1 on your cell phone or face a mandatory minimum 5-year prison sentence. Posted by Steve at 10:35 AM
The New York Times on social class in the United States. In the recent social era, the Unraveling which began with "Morning in America" in 1984, we've experienced exhilarating change, cultural chaos, rampant individualism, and unbridled creativity. We've also become segregated into social classes, because of inequalites of wealth and opportunity, which is the subject of an excellent ongoing series by the New York Times. Exactly how to define social class is a challenge - the old markers no longer apply - but they handle it well, and the series is definitely worth checking out. Posted by Steve at 9:04 PM |
| Lost | 106+ |
| G.I. | 82-106 |
| Silent | 64-82 |
| Boomer | 46-64 |
| Gen-X | 25-46 |
| Millennial | ?-25 |
| Homeland | ? |
| High | 1946-1964 |
| Awakening | 1964-1984 |
| Unraveling | 1984-? |
| Crisis | ?- |
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Strauss & Howe Generations Sites
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The Fourth Turning Discussion Boards
Generations at jamesgoulding.com Generations on Wikipedia Model for the Saeculum The TimePage LifeCourse Associates |
Blogroll
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Aging Hipsters
Generational Dynamics Generations in Conversation Generation Next TimeLog Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow Ypulse |
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Where noted, background information on generations theory is copyright 1996 Broadway Books. All other content on this web site is copyright 2002-2007 Generation Watch and Steve Barrera. All rights reserved. |