perfidy

First, thanks to Mr. Bad Thoughts for continued readership and commentary. I would like to expand a debate he and I have engaged regarding American generations. I will post a recent comment here in full. 

From: I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts: 

"I would not challenge your delineation out of hand. However, I would point out that when conservatives use the term 'boomers' they are referring to a group of people who have certain experiences from the 60s that involves the questioning of 'traditional America.' Many of the people who are part of the 'boomers' you described are too young to have had meaningful experiences of the 60s; they were a more conservative (or at least much less liberal) generation. Gen Xers, on the other hand, seem to be better characterized by disillusionment with both 60s liberalism (which they largely got from their parents) and Reaganism (the quick wealth scheme having dried up by 1988.)" 

To respond to the second sentence, what conservatives do is their problem. On that score the conservatives to whom you refer are quite incorrect. I, however, made it abundantly clear that the Baby Boomer generation is split between what Nixon referred to as a "small vocal minority," a handful of people who were involved in counter-cultural activities, and the great majority of them who were not. What I refer to as counter-cultural activities is what you, I assume, refer to as "the questioning of 'traditional America'?" That is fine. 

In the above quoted comment, you seem to argue that the Baby Boomers who were not involved in counter-cultural activities were too young to do so? Then, everyone who was between the age of 16 and 26 between the years 1965 and 1972 were all involved in counter-cultural activity/the questioning of traditional America? I disagree very strongly. Many people, or Straights, if you will, were of contemporary age with counter-culturalists/questioners, or Freaks if you will. To explain further, plenty of 21 year old Freaks protesting the war in 1969 were spit on by an even greater number of 21 year old Straights. I will certainly concede that members of the Baby Boom generation who were pre-teens or early adolescents between 1965 and 1972 missed out, and I'm sure many of them adopted more conservative viewpoints than late-teen/early adult Freaks during the same years. But understand that most people in their late-teen/early adult years between 1965 and 1972 also adopted conservative viewpoints. The bottom line here, and listen carefully, is that a very, very small minority of Americans in their late-teen/early adult years between 1965 and 1972 were involved in counter-cultural activities. The majority of them, like most Americans, were in the middle of the road, or to the right of center. Even when American society polarized in 1968, very few young people were counter-culturalists. Most polarized in the opposite direction. 

Thus, I doubt that most Gen Xers received "60s liberalism" from their parents. First off, most people alive in the 1960s really weren't left of center and engaging in counter-culture; that was a small number of people. Second, it doesn't make sense chronologically for Baby Boomers to have all of their children in Generation X. I can't offer hard quantitative evidence in the form of census data, but I'm not convinced that the majority of Generation X members are the product of Baby Boomer parents. Some, certainly. But in my own case, I'm the product of two pre-boomers, and I was born toward the end of my Generation X 1960-1977 chronolongical definition. I was then raised by one of the aforementioned pre-boomers and a very, very early Boomer. A small sample, but nonetheless one example contrary to your argument that Generation X is, correct me if I'm wrong, overwhelmingly a product of Boomer parentage. Is that your assertion? 

Let's review. A typical white middle-class person born in the first third of the post-war Baby Boom, between 1946 and 1950/1, would be entering their socially acceptable child-bearing age between the years 1971 and 1976. That places their first round of children in Generation X, true. But their second round of children, roughly three years after the first, would fall between 1974 and 1979. Stay with me here. Thus, the second round of children for even the first third of typical white middle class early Boomers, should they fall in the years 1978 and 1979, enters the realm of Generation Y, or echo Boomers. The second third of the typical white middle class Baby Boomer, born between 1951 and 1955, enter their socially acceptable child-bearing age between the years 1976 and 1980. It is thus possible for the second third to have Generation X children in 1976 or 1977, but more likely to have them in 1978, 1979, and 1980, all within the Generation Y period. Their second round of children, if typical, falls squarely within Generation Y between 1979 and 1983. For the final third of the typical white middle class Baby Boomer, 1956 to 1959/60, the first round of children are likely born between 1981 and 1986, well into Generation Y territory, to say nothing of the second round. 

Of course, not every Baby Boomer is typical, white, or middle-class having children when it's socially acceptable and common. Biology often runs counter to those things, and there are always exceptions. But typically, most Baby Boomers, with the above chronological number crunching in mind, are having Generation Y offspring. 

Here endeth the lesson.