Every generation
Blames the one before
And all of their frustrations
Come beating on your door.
The other day I was having breakfast with some of my unemployed (AKA retired) friends. Usually, the conversational narrative centers around all of our various ailments and maladies (a topic that once prompted my oldest grandson to say, “Gee, Grampa, it must suck to get old.”) Well, he’ll have his day.
But I digress. At this particular breakfast we got into a lengthy discussion about the inherent shortcomings of the generations behind us – the “kids” so lovingly referred to as Gen-X, Millennials and Gen-Z by sociologists. We, of course, belong to the greatest of all generations – the ubiquitous Baby Boomers.
The consensus was that Gen X-ers were lazy and arrogant; Millennials were self-absorbed; and Gen Z-ers had few redeeming qualities whatsoever. They were systemically incapable of spelling correctly or writing coherent sentences because parts of their brains had been vaporized by constant texting, social media and video gaming.
All this got me thinking about that song by Mike & the Mechanics reflected in the lyrics above. I have to admit that we Boomers didn’t think too kindly about the world we had inherited from our predecessors either. I know that attending college in the ‘60s and ‘70s we were convinced we were going to save the world from the misdeeds of our parents. Sadly, I fear we have failed miserably.
Instead of being reformers, we have collectively failed to address the most existential crises of our times — from climate change and cross-cultural intolerance to the erosion of basic civility in our social and political discourse. To paraphrase Mark Twain, these issues are like the weather. Everyone talks about them but no one really does anything about them.
It’s kind of a depressing thought. Why can’t we get along? With each other or with those of other generations?
However…just a couple of days ago, I volunteered to be a guest lecturer for three marketing classes in the Notre Dame Mendoza School of Business. My task was to talk about B2B (business to business) marketing, and I started by going through the history of marketing and advertising. As I was reviewing advertising from the Mad Men era through to contemporary times, it struck me that generations really aren’t all that different. We are all driven by the same fundamental wants and needs. Life. Liberty. And the pursuit of happiness – in whatever form that may take. External expressions and methodologies may vary from generation to generation, but the core aspirations are essentially the same.
It’s not my intent to be preachy or too pollyanna-ish in this commentary, but I do think we need to remind ourselves of our common humanity once in a while.
Then we can go back and start complaining about what’s wrong with kids today.