We hear incessantly about how members of today’s screwed generation face the prospect of less prosperous lives than those lived by their parents. But the maiden generation to stare down that gloomy prognosis was Generation X, the tiny slice of America born between about 1965 and 1980. (Ryan was born in 1970.) We were the first generation to be told we would never get Social Security or Medicare even though we would be forced to pay into these programs.
Generation X is apparently looking at Ryan as a sign of hope for the entire generation.
I'm uninterested in that argument right now.
No, what angers me is the defining of Generation X as starting in 1965.
I am not a Baby Boomer and you can't put me there. Oh, not all those born in that era are Boomers as our popular culture defines it. My brothers and sister are not the self-indulgent, counter culture-celebrating freaks who think "give peace a chance" is a profound piece of foreign policy advice. But they aren't part of our culture's celebration of the Baby Boomer generation. The people who define the popular view of the Boomers whose lifespan sometimes appears to be one long temper tantrum have no appeal to me.
I am not a Boomer. And I will not let Boomers draft me into their generation.
Listen up. Douglas Coupland, the man who freaking defined Generation X, called the starting point as those born after 1960:
I just want to show society what people born after 1960 think about things... We're sick of stupid labels, we're sick of being marginalized in lousy jobs, and we're tired of hearing about ourselves from others[.]
I am in Generation X. I've had all the angst you'd expect, baby.
As an aside, in that study they at least properly start Gen X in 1961. So take that.
If I'm to be labeled, don't try to give me the wrong one.
