The upcoming 2008 election could not arrive at a more opportune time. Americans hunger for a leader capable of creating and implementing innovative solutions to 21st century problems. Issues the country once seemed immune to, such as the nation’s safety, the economy’s health, and the availability of natural resources, resonate along the campaign trail. And the time that always seemed so distant has arrived.
How did America find itself in such a predicament within our lifetimes? Jeff Gordinier’s newly published book, “X Saves the World: How Generation X Got the Shaft but Can Still Keep Everything from Sucking,” allows its readers to step back and take a look at American culture over the past couple of decades. This fresh perspective offers answers to how America arrived at her current state. Gordinier, also editor at large of “Details Magazine,” convincingly believes that Generation X will rescue the damsel in distress.
The manifesto may naturally offend the majority of America, which happens to be made up of the Baby Boomer and Y Generations. But most of America may also want to take notes from the slacker generation, or Generation X, especially if they have any interest in future generations. It may seem ridiculous that Gordinier believes X, the tiny demographic sandwiched between the Boomer and Y Generations, can and will be America’s superhero. But don’t worry, Generation X never liked competition and certainly never enjoyed taking any credit. In fact, Generation X runs from the spotlight.
Gordinier does not blame America’s problems on one generation. Instead, he identifies the villain as America’s movement towards a corporate monoculture.
The corporate takeover of our towns happened during broad daylight. Optimistic Americans welcomed big corporations into their towns, believing the growth would generate opportunity. Despite the delusion, nobody realized these corporations’ enormous power to breed. Over the past few decades, corporations colonized and cloned themselves repetitively, leaving almost no region untouched. And now, most towns, once characterized by their differences, look like the same town, owned by the same corporations.
This corporate monoculture kidnapped almost every aspect of American lives, including the media, leaving the average citizen alienated, numb. The corporate take-over eerily resembles a modern-day form of slavery, with a few kinks (like homesickness) worked out. Historically, slave owner culture often replaced the slaves’ native culture. America is no exception: Corporate culture is replacing American culture.
Because of their general distaste for corporate culture, X, the only generation to escape the enemy, may have what it takes to rescue America. Gordinier displays this fact through each generation’s taste in music.
Before X’s hey-day, 1991-1999, there was Queenryche, Color Me Bad, and New Kids on the Block. And then Nirvana arrived on the scene. The band appealed to Generation X, who couldn’t move from underneath the Baby Boomers’ super sized shadow. Gordinier describes Nirvana’s elusive message as “a sarcastic reaction to a revolution.” And in 1991, Xers were tired of hearing Baby Boomer’s toss around hollow words such as revolution and movement.
The Boomers’ size and affluence, alone, exhort enormous influence over every aspect of American life. They influence not only trends but also beliefs. And in the 60s, they believed they were saving the world. But X perceives the Boomers as a gluttonous generation who choked and compromised their values. The evasive Generation X, who worked hard not to “sell out,” as their parents did, successfully puzzled marketers as well as other generations who never managed to fully stereotype the generation’s sensibilities.
Marketers stopped loving X around the summer of 91, when Perry Ferrell’s Lollapalooza Festival lured marketers to coin the generation’s music as “alternative.” Gordinier compares this move to the sterile insect technique, or gathering a swarm of male flies and blasting them with chemical radiation. The infertile flies are then released to mate with female flies, who would lay infertile eggs. By 93, bands like Stone Temple Pilots, Seven Mary Three, Candlebox, and Bush flooded the airwaves, mated with their listeners, who quickly decided that alternative music sucked.
1999 marked the end of X’s heyday. This same year, MTV also stopped loving X and started loving Britney’s millennial generation, a much larger target market. Gordinier calls this shift: monoculture’s revenge.
Everything that Generation X stands for: music, art, design, freedom (culture), everything that ran counter to a monoculture started disappearing. Gordinier compares Millenial music to Wal-Mart, “cheap, clean, massive and censored.” Generation X musicians, who committed suicide or were killed in drive-bys, were considered bad investments. Besides, their music contained the presence of human qualities that inspired listeners to pay attention, wake up, question authority and to fight for integrity.
How did defiant X let their art disappear from mainstream radio? You guessed it: Money and Greed. In X’s heyday, it was cool to not care about money, but The dot-com boom appealed to X sensibilities: away with dress-codes, dull offices, and many other old workplace rules. Xers started thinking about the possibilities of early retirement and wealth. The stockmarket crash of 2000 killed the boom, and Xers became members of the most enduring and influential movement of the past 50 years: the yuppie phenomenon. Suddenly X, morphed into a complacent workforce. The generation either became familiar with corporate jargon or risked being categorized as freak slackers. Gordinier writes that while the yuppies were busy colonizing his favorite neighborhood, they were apparently doing the same thing to his brain.
Now, America is staring down Huge economic, safety, environmental, cultural, and spiritual problems, problems threatening to bury everything we love about this country. And X, wary enough to see through delusional movements, yet old enough to feel a connection to the past, won’t go away without a fight.
Because the Baby Boomer Hippy Generation stigmatized the whole practice of standing up to the man through “peaceful protests,” Generation X has crafted and mastered a whole new form of protest, which also happens to be entertaining. Brooks Brothers Satirists, such as the Yes men and Billionaires for Bush take on some of the most ludicrous positions to prove a point: America is silently and without question accepting some of the most insane decision making going on in America right now.
Generation X not only rules comedy and satire, they are also saving the world in a quiet, modest, and local way. Take Cameron Sinclair, who started “Architecture for Humanity.” His international organization provides up-rooted people with housing, and we’re not talking FEMA trailers. Sinclair believes that people will take care of their homes and communities if they have pride in them.
Sinclair likes to use the word “Urban Acupuncture,” to describe the ripple effect of piercing a place with one small, dramatic pinpoint improvement. Sinclair uses this metaphor for the whole Gen X approach to problem solving: Fix things in the microcosm and let it radiate outwards. He describes the “Urban Acupuncture” as a “You Tube Mentality,” start small, aim high.
Gordinier writes that Sinclair Xishly hasn’t displayed any signs of “Hands Across America Megalomania.” Contrarily, he refuses to see himself as the top dog in a hierarchy. In fact, Sinclair wants to give credit away by open sourcing “Architecture for Humanity.” Anyone can start a chapter by downloading the mission statements and blueprints. No permission necessary. .
Gordinier also mentions Sustainable South Bronx’s “Green the Ghetto,” who lobbies aggressively for parks, greenways, and blooming floral roofs.
When you go to the polls, think about the “slacker generation’s” contributions they achieved without “selling out.” Think about the inventiveness of the generation who got the shaft, the generation who created Google, YouTube, Amazon, Netflix, and Wikipedia, among just a few of its accomplishments.
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