Prometheus Speaks: YOU are Generation X! (originally published 09/17/93)

What's that, you say? You have no idea what I'm talking about, right? Actually, I'm sure you've heard of our little subject in one place or another; Generation X is not the only description of our syndrome. Others have called the disease "13th Gen", representing the fact that our generation is the thirteenth one to live in America. Or perhaps you've simply heard the phrase, "Your generation will be the first to be less well-off than the previous one." I think that fact is fairly well demonstrated - just ask any WPI graduate who's working at L***ing Edge who's still waiting for a real job to match their educational background.

The "traditional" definition of a member of Generation X is firstly, the age group - ages 14 to 26 or so, for the broadest range. Other symptoms include chronic laziness, an unnatural interest in things electronic or computer-oriented, lower-than-average self-esteem, gobs of attitude, self-destructive impulses, anti-authoritarianism; the list goes on and on. In fact, the Cyberpunk genre is probably a good example of the kind of thing I'm talking about. I wouldn't be so bold as to say that the two trends are exactly alike, but I think that there is a definite influence of one upon the other.

At any rate, Cyberpunk is only one facet of this complex situation. There are other clear warning signs: the dropping of SAT averages, increased suicide rates and drug abuse, rises in reconstructive surgery, and so forth. Look at the newest trends in music - Nine Inch Nails and Nirvana aren't exactly like Elvis and the Beatles. And yet, hasn't the same thing been said of every previous generation? Doesn't everyone from the former generation always say that "you kids: have no respect / don't know the value of / don't know what it was like in my day / all of the above"? Well, apparently, the thing that makes us distinct is our economic / political situation.

It's not possible for us, as a whole, to do as well as previous generations - economically, at any rate. It would seem that the previous generations, and for the most part, the Baby Boomers (the largest age group in the country) already _have_ it all. And then there's always that mention somewhere about how our generation is going to have to "clean things up", whether it's environmentally or monetarily or whatever. In the political realm, we are technically a minority - our age group is one of, if not the, smallest compared to the over 60's and the Baby Boomers (there's that dirty word again). We really have little or no impact on things political.

So is all this really happening? Are we really the butt end of an era gone by? Do we have any kind of a future? Personally, I think this whole labeling business is a crock of you-know-what. The Boomers have always had this wierd habit of naming things, as if doing so gave them some kind of power over them. So far, they've dubbed themselves Boomers, Hippies, Yippies, and Yuppies - and now they're starting to enter their mid-life crisis stage. Calling us "Generation X" is just their way of categorizing something they're afraid of. After all, TV has always been the focal point of their lives, and the stuff that's on there reflects the kinds of things they think. They love the tabloid stuff on those "inside edition" type shows, Oprah and Geraldo make them shiver, sitcoms let them laugh at someone else's expense. Even so, their political power cannot be denied. They are in charge right now, and may be so for at least another twenty to thirty years.

However, we do have several advantages over our competitors in the race for resources. The most functional weapon we have right now is youth - unfortunately the opposition has the power and the experience. Our most powerful resource is of course, the computer. In a few more years, it's quite conceivable that a new elite will be on the rise; the information saturated leftovers of the dawn of the computer age... us. I can pretty much guarantee that just about everyone in Generation X who's reading this article has had some kind of exposure to the computer age - even if it was just an Atari or Nintendo. The tendency for people to resist change will be their biggest drawback; older Americans who utterly refuse to have anything to do with computers will fall behind those who've already had a lifetime of experience, growing up with the Intellivision like we have. We know how to program VCRs... that is our hidden strength. Instead of merely watching the TV screen, we have the power to change it.

If it sounds at all like I'm exaggerating the conflict between the age groups... well, frankly, I'm not. Whether we like it or not, things are going to keep moving faster and faster towards some technological vanishing point that's not as far away as it seems. There will be problems adjusting to it as a society, especially since the core of the new technology opens up possibilities for new kinds of subversion, and power that's really been undreamed of. As Orwell put it - "If you can control history, you can control the present; if you control the present, you can control the future." George knew the implications of information control - imagine what it would be like if you were never able to see a TV or read a newspaper; that's what it will be like for those who will not follow our generation into the new era. We really can't afford the kind of political claptrap that the previous generations cling to - instead of simply giving our problems names, we're going to have to do something about them.

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