The Lost Generation

I have always thought of myself as a member of Generation X. According to the Wiki

Generation X is a term for a cohort of people born following the peak of the post-World War II baby boom, especially in Canada and the United States. While all sources agree the group includes at least some people born in the 1960s, the exact demographic boundaries vary depending on whether each source means people born just before the end of the boom, or just after, or just whoever happens to be twentysomething at the time.[1] The term is used in demography, the social sciences, and marketing, though it is most often used in popular culture. The generation's influence over pop culture began in the 1980s and may have peaked in the 1990s. Emphasis mine.

The part about the exact boundaries for the beginning of this generation is interesting - if you follow sociologists, not many agree on the beginning years, although most seem to adhere to the same ending year.

As one who is in the eyes of several sociologists considered on the "cusp" between the Baby Boomers and Generation X, it is to the latter that I've always felt allegiance.

I have absolutely nothing in common with Baby Boomers. I have never shared their optimism, naivete, nor their overweening sense of entitlement. They weren't born with the threat of nuclear annihilation hanging over their heads - we inherited their flimsy Duck and Cover grade school exercises knowing even as children the utter futility of the act.

Trust me - all the Generation X'ers out there possess a cold calm streak of nihilism - an extreme form of skepticism - based on the perceived reality of our childhood world. That worldview shaped the adults we are now, of that I am sure.

The future was difficult to believe in, as at the time there were not that many assurances that it would exist. And to make it to the ripe old ages that we now inhabit comes as a wee surprise to many, I'm sure.

It certainly does to me. To find myself possibly growing old arrives like a slap in the face - I didn't see that coming! So in a way our uber-preparedness as children and teens for the rigors of "The Day After" served us not well at all. C'est la vie.

Of course, my poll is of necessity small and should be subject to scrutiny for accuracy. But I believe we were all the Material Girl at heart, regardless of gender, one and the same.

So I salute our cynicism, the last pure expression of it.

Long may it wave.