My friend Bob Carlton posted this excerpt from David Scharfenberg’s op-ed in the Globe, “So maybe the slackers had it right after all”…
…[We] understood, before most, that something had shifted – that we were moving to an economy of telecommuters and independent contractors and less-than-loyal employers.
And while the best minds on Wall Street cooked up the real estate mess that destroyed a global economy, we were sensible enough to steer clear of that overpriced condo and move into a dingy, three-bedroom rental with a few of our meathead friends.
You see, while Alan Greenspan and Countrywide Financial were creating a capitalism of disastrous excess, we were busy working on a more workable model. Not without its indulgences, of course. The exuberance of the dot-com bubble was undoubtedly irrational. But we did pretty well, this little slice of Generation X.
We brought you the Internet, worked on green technology, and filled the ranks of Teach for America. We crossed the color line, ate local produce, and bought secondhand clothing. We lived in smaller spaces, drove smaller cars, and took the subway to work.
It all seemed like a quaint liberal fantasy at the time. And on some level it was. But now, with a creaking economy and an overheated planet, it reads more like a survival manual: a guide to multicultural living in an increasingly diverse society, an incubator for the technology that might save the American auto industry, an antidote to our awful adventures in sprawl.
Of course, we could abandon this life as we get older, I suppose. We could grow impatient with our little apartments and cramped hatchbacks. We could set our sights on the kind of suburban existence we’ve forsaken. But I’d like to think we’re smarter than that.
We created something worthwhile – a sustainable neighborhood, a tech future, a life we can manage. And we won’t let it go too easily.
At least I hope not. As the nation rebuilds a crumbling capitalism, it could use a little perspective, a little wisdom. Bet you didn’t think you’d get it from us.
I wonder what religious historians might say about my generation of spiritual quirks. While Gen-X & Yers have been described as postmoderns, sometimes “relativists,” “comfortable with ambiguity and contradiction,” and even non-conformists, I often see just as much polarization, infighting, and conformity to greed in these generations as in our predecessors.
We are still in a world of transition, to be sure. But old habits die hard, especially those ingrained in our genetic memory. Nevertheless, we hope to help create a better world…and maybe even a more Christ-like spirituality. It may look like a mess, but I think it can be a beautiful thing…although beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Anyway, I have hope.
Older generations are skeptical of us. Hell, we are skeptical of oursleves. So don’t count on us! …But don’t count us out either.
