MOST FEARFUL GENERATION TODAY: INTERVIEW

And it’s not the big ones

The beauty of writing a blog is the feedback from unexpected sources.

Most of the reading audience for BoomerPdx is afflicted by the internet ghosts of privacy protection, bashfulness, or worst of all, they’ve forgotten how to work a keyboard, so the feedback I hear is in person, which I call an interview.

As an interested party, I ask questions for further opinions. Sometimes the results are shocking.

“Who is the most fearful generation?” I asked an educated elderly gentleman whose opinion I valued.

I expected him to say his own generation, which was after Korea and before Vietnam if you tell time by war.

By his account his generation will be fine. He didn’t say they’d all be dead, but I picked up his mortality vibe.

He didn’t say Baby Boomer Generation, or Millennial Generation like I expected since he didn’t claim the ‘Most Fearful Generation’ title for his own cohort.

Gen X is the most fearful generation

And here’s why:

My subject said he didn’t have kids so he wasn’t worried for his own lineage moving forward in a hostile world.

It’s not Boomers, he decided, because we’re old enough to have seen how the world works and doesn’t work and how little we can effect change. We’ve seen cruel randomness strike down our best and brightest. He wasn’t calling us losers, but sort of.

He called Vietnam an open wound for an entire generation, a lesson unlearned.

Are millennials most fearful? Not according to my guy because they’ve still got helicopter parents buzzing them and that’s enough.

No, he called GenX most fearful. They are in full transition from youthful idealism to dull minded boomer; from young and in love, to what’s her name and what’s his name; from hobby drinking craft IPA to lining up Hard A because liquor is quicker and time is running out.

Fearful Generation Time Out

‘GenX is feeling the trap,’ I thought as my wise sage considered his answer.

What trap? I lived in NYC a lifetime ago and planned on staying there forever. I didn’t even go to the Statue of Liberty because only tourist do that and I was no tourist in town.

Then I snapped out of it and ran for it. Rolled for it is a better description since I left on a Greyhound bus.

I felt my time of being excited about living in the Big Apple was about up, and if I didn’t leave while the feeling frightened me out of my wits, I’d be trapped there the rest of my life.

Which was the original plan

Imagine being a GenX’er escaping their version of urban hell with a wife or husband, and kid. You check the map, the trends, what’s happening and where.

Then you see Portland, a destination so special that new Portlands pop up across the country. The Portland of the South, the Portland of the Midwest.

As a high demand techie couple, you and the spouse plot the Portland move, pinpoint the right side of the river, the right street, the right block, and there it is, THE RIGHT HOUSE in SE Portland.

You love the schools, the bike culture, the public transportation, the bridges, and most of all you love the backyard where you plant the most locally sourced organic vegetables you’ve ever experienced.

Then the bad news: you moved into an urban cancer cluster.

Add current deregulations of polluting industries and unscientific public policies and the fears multiply.

GenX has kids in school, big mid-career jobs, and an itch to keep it simple, stupid. They love their KISS.

But it’s never simple enough and they feel stupid for not figuring it our sooner than later.

Theirs is a smart generation, smart enough to know they’re being hosed, and practical enough to know there’s little they can do.

In other words, welcome to the party mofos, and let that fear run wild. Look for something to believe in, some vessel to hold your trust, some elected official to sing your song.

GenX Sings

These are people who grew up on grunge, out of tune guitars, and their own Jimi who decided twenty seven was old enough.

From tatted up music fans to dutiful parents, GenX toes the line and tests the same waters older generations swam in at the same age.

They will learn the same strokes as the rest of us, all the while blaming boomers for peeing in the water while they see worse on the way.

My old friend had a handle on fear and the most fearful generation, but I think he missed an important point.

None of this continues without adjustments, and that means paying attention to more than today, tomorrow, next week, month, year.

My pal can see more behind him than he can in front, but it’s all right there. I didn’t ask him to share his advice, but this is what I took away:

The adjustments to make will come from young people and women, a segment of the nation with empathy and hope for the future they imagine for themselves.

Over here we like to call those days ‘Our shared future.’

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.