The “stages of grief” are generally regarded in psychology as popular drivel. Grief doesn’t occur in stages as far as we can discern, and the popular emotions attributed to the “stages of grief” may or may not be felt as well as other emotions. It’s also worth noting that the emotions attributed to generations are wrong. Boomers are “anger?” Boomers were the hippie generation. They cemented cultural ideas like civil rights, peace, a desire for egalitarianism, de militarization and disarmament.
And gen X... bargaining? How? The hallmark of gen X has always been a disenfranchisement. A sort of apathetic rebellion. Gen X brought things like nihilism and a mainstream awareness of the ridiculousness of established institutions. Gen X was largely marked by a rejection of worth in the established systems and values and structures underpinning the world.
The “silent generation” comprised many of the early leaders of the civil rights movement. They were comprised of the beatniks, who led to hippies and passed on bohemian ideals. I don’t see how they would be in denial- this generation was born into poverty in America, and grew up and matured at a period of previously unseen economic and technological advancement.
I could see boomers being “denial.” They had the hippies but they also had many more “conservative” movements. They were the generation that saw the mythological status of WW2 powers toppled, in America they were the generation that got the best view of the truths and politics of the Korean War and who lived through the Vietnam war and saw America lose while also very publicly acting against our supposed values as “good guys” and “moral pillars.” They were the first generation to have the media and communications to really get to see unfiltered views of politics and global news and the wars we fought. This generation was split largely between those who saw the wrongs we did and the weaknesses we showed conflicted to what they were being told; and those who held belief in the establishment that if they said there was good reason there was. This was the generation that REALLY started America in questioning and challenging authority again.
Anger- anger is what I see in these younger generations today. Anger is the left, ready to explode over what they see as ignorance and injustice in the world. Anger is the right, ready to explode at what they see as the foolishness and oppression of individual abilities to live by your own terms they see. Anger is the extremists- who we have more of now that in any recent past. The extremists who rally with their guns to the capitals, who riot in the streets. The mass shooters and the domestic terrorists we see today like at no time in the past.
Is this generation angry? I don’t know that they are, anymore than anyone else. When you see Trump supporters and democrats clash, are they all boomers? Are they all gen X or Z? No. These are angry times. Divided times.
But in almost every generation you have you people who are somewhat disaffected. The beatniks, the hippies, the Gen X “slacker”, the millennial “burnout” and the gen Z tik tok dancer. That’s not the whole generation, it’s what they are marked by in popular perception. While a doomsday clock ticked away to actual nuclear apocalypse in the midst of a silent but ever present war, 80’s kids in gen X listened to their music and wore funny hairdos and fretted over going to the mall to strut around on the weekends. Adults would look at them, confused, and the gen x kids by and large- fed on this. They’d rattle off a dismissive saying or a quote or lyric they saw as profound. Maybe strike a pose or do one of a million other things that confused the hell out of...
... the adults. It’s all cyclical. This isn’t the first generation to do funny dances or pierce their noses or have unconventional fashion. This isn’t the first generation to live under an ever present feeling of doom, threat of global annihilation. These aren’t the first kids to feel ignored by their parents, to not fit in, to be besieged by new forms of mass media, to face new forms of subversive messages. They aren’t the first kids to see a illusions about the world and who to trust shattered. It’s happened before. We get up to let down the next kids the same as the ones before us had let us down. Now it’s on you. Learn from what’s happened before. It’s never to late to change, but the buck largely gets passed to you young people who will be building the world for the future now. Break the cycle and stop stop passing down disappointment.
It’s easier said than done. But so far we’ve just kept kicking the can down the road for the next generation to pick up. Millennials and gen Z are on track to do the same thing. Someday, if we last to that, some generation isn’t going to have that choice and they’ll have to make payment on all the overdue debts and legacies of wrong we’ve left them. If we believe the worst projections, it’ll be gen z or within 2 or so after them. But it could be quite longer. More time to pile up more debt, more load for the future to bear.
Real talk, as millennials we got to grow up thinking it would be easy peasy lemon squeezy, so when it turns out difficult difficult lemon difficult we're sad, taken aback, but we still have hope.
Gen Z is growing up in such turmoil, they have all these problems thrown at them, they are concerned about so much stuff and every thing they get to enjoy has big-ass downsides they can't even pretend to ignore. That's really stressful on kids/teens.
Gen Z is growing up in such turmoil, they have all these problems thrown at them, they are concerned about so much stuff and every thing they get to enjoy has big-ass downsides they can't even pretend to ignore. That's really stressful on kids/teens.