A New Brand of Democrat That Could Mean Trouble for Hillary...

[Waiting For Everyman]

45. Best-written political article in a while.

I agree with the event-driven definition of generations. I only have one tiny quibble (and I'll digress off-topic a bit here). I think there was one "homogeneous generation" as far as common initial imprinting from the overall society is concerned -- the "core" boomers. We were the first media-driven generation, and it was a very narrow and universal media (within the US at least) in those early years. Anywhere in the country, we all knew the weekly tv lineup of only three networks by heart, and music was the "Top 40", and we read the same magazines, cartoon strips, and NYT Bestseller List. Movies to go and see didn't vary much. At least some awareness of major sports was pretty standard. And most important of all, public education was pretty consistent. Add to that, being impacted by the same major events. Ten years later and there were many more choices in media of all sorts, which broke up the common experience feature quite a bit.

Even though we all changed afterwards, the 1945-55 boomers had an unusually common experience starting out. Not in every detail of course, I don't mean that, but as to those things that exert a mass influence. To this day, if an American is my age, I pretty much know where they're coming from as far as that early common background is concerned.