Gen Z strikes again !!

You can’t really do anything to dodge it either. Doing nothing doesn’t work. Gen X caught flack for eroding the economy and morality and the “way of life” and everything else because Gen X was labeled the apathetic or lazy generation. A counter culture rooted less in changing the status quo and more in existing within it as a subculture. Compared to Millennials or Boomers Gen X was more the generation that wasn’t too interested in fighting for what they wanted so much as being left alone to do what they wanted. It was a different zeitgeist where cool was less in what you do than getting what you want without having to do much. We don’t hear much about Gen X in these culture fights despite Gen X creating numerous cultural controversies. In fact that’s usually where Gen X comes up at all- when discussing iconic or transformative pop culture.

For the most part Gen X either kept that zeitgeist and continued to fly under the radar, or they just sort of acclimated and blend in, often both with boomers and the Millennials- or sometimes are indistinguishable from one or the other. But I mean… it’s just how it works when people want to avoid blame, blame the ones before you or the ones after. Most of your teachers and such for Gen Z are millennials and gen x. Most of your decisions have been made by those groups- but they inherited the system boomers left and many had to navigate those systems when boomers and their ideas were dominant- so the most successful would tend to be most aligned to those ways of thinking. Same in the job market- the “primary demographic” steering markets and commerce and government has for some time been Millennials and Gen X. The state of the world when that shift started was what boomers handed over, but the time in between has been in the care of younger generations.

Of course boomers still are around and many positions of power are still held by them. But… everyone who feeds those systems while jockeying for wealth and social position and comfort is complicit in the damage they cause because it isn’t new news. Most Millennials were aware before graduating high school of the corruption and harm inherent to these systems and methods and ways of life. Most Millennials not living under a rock were aware before making adult decisions of the larger implications but were often and are often guilty of the same crimes they lambasted boomers for- a selfish and short sighted dash to take as much as they could from life regardless of the larger social consequences and predictable long term harms.