To the Millenials from a Gen Xer [View all]

[DonCoquixote]

The following was inspired by this article:
http://rall.com/2013/06/04/syndicated-column-the-new-generation-gap-gen-x-vs-gen-y

Dear Millennial:
The article I quoted is from Ted Rall, a self appointed voice of Gen X. He is an asshole at times, but at other times one of the stronger voices against the right, thus worth reading. However, despite the part where he begins remembering how we got smeared, he seems to go right on smearing you. Generations often wind up repeating the mistakes of their elders, and I write this to try and undo that.

He proceeds to make fun of your culture, digging in on things like steampunk. It's funny coming from someone that is a champion of punk rock. Punk was hated, misunderstood,considered low class, but yet, he worships it, and proceeds to make fun of you because you change and rediscover things like, oh, playing more than three chords or a different way of growing a beard or wearing an older cut of dress. He uses the word "boring" and even says he feels his generation is younger than yours.

Of course, he forgets that you were the first generation to grow up when the American dream had finally come down. We Gen Xers saw the initial fall, and it was bad, especially when many Boomers were calling us slackers. However, you knew the dream was dead, you did not do the equivalent of our Kurt Cobain, and shoot himself because the sex drugs rock and roll dream the baby boomers started turned out to be hollow. You found different dreams,different methods than the ones that failed, and moved on.

That is why YOU are the ones that made OWS, why you had solidarity with the Arab Spring. Of course, because you did not fulfill Rall's dreams, he mocks you. He wanted OWS to turn violent, for you to be the meat fodder for his dreams, never even asking what yours were. Then again, not only does he realize that violence ruins revolutions, but that the forces of evil were a lot better organized and funded than the same bastards the Boomers and Xers fought. The old gray men have learned their lessons, changed tactics, and frankly, bribed the MSM, which means they can get away with a lot more than Joe McCarthy ever could. Even on DU, you had people throw mud on OWS and you, which made the old gray men laugh.

Yes, you depend a lot on the internet, on the twitter and facebook, and yes, you will be the ones that need to rein those forces in before the NSA and Wallstreet ruin whatever potential they have. You supported Obama over Hillary (something many Boomers will never forgive you for, and will try to punish you for in 2016 when they try to plant Hillary on the throne.)

In short, no you are not boring, you are interesting, and the older people who slam you for living with your parents should compare not just how expensive college was for them, or what wages where for them, but acknowledge the fact that there is simply not much opportunity period. You have been given the short straw, yet you have done a lot with it, which means that you will be the ones tough and resourceful enough to make it in a future that your elders have squandered. Yes, you do act a bit older, and are quieter, which Rall hates, but maybe he can see that, unlike my Gen X, which kept whining about how those Boomers ruined everything, you are more about actions than emotions.