Millennials Will Probably End Up Ruling America, not Gen Z, and Why That’s a Bad Thing for Equality
Spoiler: It’s not because they’re better equipped; it’s because they are going to inherit it from their parents.
In the late 1980s, Baby Boomers (born 1946–1964) absolutely controlled the economy, but their grasp on American culture was slipping to Generation X, and wouldn’t see a revitalization until Bill Gates and Steve Jobs would center the American Culture on a mysticism around Big Tech in the late 1990s. Generation X didn’t care about making big social change; they lived under the heavy boot of the Baby Boomers, who would not permit them to be revolutionaries. Since they could not change the system, many burned out; those who remained spiritually intact became astute social commentators. Matt Groening, arguably one of the most culturally influential Generation Xers, created the Simpsons as a post-modern rebuttal to the idealized Shining City on a Hill professed by the Boomers and the Silent Generation, only to have it later coopted by the Boomers into the very thing it criticized (ahem, Disney). At the time of the Simpsons’ release, the realistic portrayal of the average American family was disparaged by famous Baby Boomers as “a celebration of mediocrity.” But, nonetheless, it became popular, if not because of its wit, then because the majority of America, Boomers and Gen X alike, recognized themselves in the mediocre heroes. The fallacy of the American Dream and American Exceptionalism is that, by definition, most people are mediocre.
Today, the two most celebrated rebirths of the Simpsons are the T.V. shows Rick and Morty and Bob’s Burgers. Bob’s Burgers celebrates the shenanigans of a poor but lovable family who own a burger restaurant, and the other celebrates a divine, godlike genius who is smarter and better than everybody else, who despises society, lives outside of it, and hates participation trophies. One is created by a Gen Xer, and the other by two Millennials. Can you guess which is which?
To understand the mindsets of the mainstream generational divide in America and therefore to predict its future course, it’s important to put the differing generational outlooks of exceptionalism and laissez-faire into context:
The Greatest Generation (born 1900–1925) weathered the great Depression to fight in World War II, parented the Baby-Boomers, created the Great Society, then tried to pass on their values and exceptionalism to their children.
White, middle-class, teenage Boomers, having listened to the stories of their parents and being raised in the glass-bubble suburbs of the Greatest Generation’s Great Society, itched for the strife their parents had endured and the adventure they had experienced. They promptly threw the sterile society full of College Jackets, Hard Work, and the American Dream in the trash and went to Woodstock, determined to remake the American way of life into a fairer, better place, without the racism, sexism, capitalism, and any other ism that their parents had brought with them when they created The Great Society. When they were young, they were great makers of speeches and carriers of posters. They were great ostracizers of people who did not fit into their vision of a perfect world. Their war was the Vietnam War, which, although it differed little from the Korean war, was immortalized in hundreds of films. Their medium of communication was the Television broadcast and the wholesome family sitcom. They were superstars, following in their parents footsteps without ever wanting to admit it to themselves. They replaced “The Great Escape” with “The Deer Hunter” to expose their own tormented struggle for individuality, to reform the Great Society into a Greater Society in their own image. Unfortunately, today, the Baby Boomers are the most racist, capitalistic, sexist, economically unfair cohort in America. They were the Wolves of Wall Street in the 80s, epitomizing everything they hated in their youth.
While the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers get a lot of historical attention, the Silent Generation (born 1925–1945) was seemingly lost in the history books between these two giant social revolutionaries. Their lives were a footnote referenced by an asterisk in the American Dream. Their war was the historically unimpressive Korean War. Their battle at home was to fit in and earn their keep, without complaining too much:
The most startling fact about the younger generation is its silence. With some rare exceptions, youth is nowhere near the rostrum. By comparison with the Flaming Youth of their fathers & mothers, today’s younger generation is a still, small flame. It does not issue manifestoes, make speeches or carry posters. It has been called the 'Silent Generation.'
- Time Magazine, Nov 1951 - The Younger Generation
These Little People could not possibly create a revolution in the shadow of The Greatest Generation, who fought a more consequential war and made more consequential contributions to society. So, instead, they begot Generation X and taught them to hold on tight to the great things that were built for you by our older brothers and sisters, or else you might slip through the cracks.
Generation X (born 1965–1980) found themselves with Boomer bosses. Bosses who, because of their egos warring with their inner parents for individualism and self-reliance, used and abused Generation X, just as the Greatest Generation used and abused the Gen Xers’ Silent Generation parents in the creation of The Great Society’s post-WWII industries. Baby Boomers were the predators of Generation X, sexually, racially, and financially. As a result, Gen X had its attention wholly and unwaveringly fixed on the Baby Boomer as the source of its joys and suffering. Gen X was, through no fault of its own, obsessed with Baby Boomer, which had control over its entire life. The Boomer allowed no space for anything else.
The only way that Gen X could win was to steal and mooch. Homer Simpson was the hero of Generation X — mooching off the system and having a great time doing it. Mooching was all that was left; in the 80s and 90s, there was no room for revolution in the Boomers’ America. The incredible thing about Gen X, however, is how they have aged into the type of people that the Baby Boomers always professed to want to be — they are more accepting, less racist with more multiracial families, less sexist, less domineering, and less power-hungry than their older siblings. Even though the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, is a Gen Xer, he wields his incredible power ironically and flippantly, as though it doesn’t mean anything. The subversive Gen-Xer idea that power and money don’t really mean anything was a powerful mental defense that they had to build against the Boomers, in order to protect what little sense of self and agency they had been allowed.
The children of the Baby Boomers are the Millennials (born 1981–1996). They are instilled with the same righteous, society-transforming outlook that their parents had, for the same reasons their parents had it. They are constantly measuring themselves against each other, and constantly measuring themselves against their parents (the way that Morty compares himself to Rick in the hit Millennial show Rick and Morty). When they were growing up, their parents had an obsession with “participation trophies,” not because they believed that everybody should have one, but because they truly believed (in Willy Loman-like fashion) that their children were superior to other Boomers’ children. They wanted to take away the other Boomers’ childrens’ accolades at every chance possible. Millennials are the new superstars, following in their parents footsteps without ever wanting to admit it to themselves. They are great ostracizers of people who do not fit into their vision of a perfect world, like their parents and grandparents were, although the definition of that fit has changed considerably.
Then there are the Gen Zers (born 1997–2015), aptly relegated to a letter (Z) instead of a meaningful denomination. Although Gen Z has the Parkland survivors who are fighting for basic safety rights, they do not have impossible construction in their minds of the “Shining City on a Hill” like the Millennials have, like the Boomers had, like the Greatest Generation had. Curiously, just like Gen X had a fixed (and forced) fascination with the Boomers, their children, Gen Z has a fixed (and forced) fascination with the Millennials. That is because the Millennials are the predators of and providers for Gen Z. So, Gen Z is obsessed with them; they can’t stop talking about them critically, but want to be liked by them enough to mooch from them. That’s all they can do; as the second wave of the Tech generation, they have little room for their own identities and very little way to measure up to those who came before them. Their Gen X parents are advising them to do the same thing that the Silent Gen advised: hold on tight to the great things that were built for you by your older brothers and sisters, or else you might slip through the cracks.
If history repeats itself, which it almost surely will, the Millennials will tear themselves apart out of intolerance as they try to build their impossible “Shining City on a Hill”. They will become staunch capitalists and Republicans as they grow older, and be very distrustful of each other, following in their parents’ footsteps. They will teach their children that they are better than all other Millennials’ children. Driven by their impossible-to-satisfy egos, they will become the most sexist, racist, economically unfair generation that the country has ever seen, just like their parents, and their grandparents. Importantly, they will be very unhappy. Gen Z, with its laissez-faire outlook inherited from Gen X and the Silent Generation, has no chance to run the show, but they do have a chance at sanity.
Now, I prefer the worlds of Bob’s Burgers or The Simpsons(Gen X) to that of Rick and Morty (Millennial). One is inherently constructive, and the other is inherently destructive. Slowly building and maintaining a house is not nearly as exciting as burning it to the ground to start fresh, but somebody has to do it, and not be a crazy egomaniac in the process.
Written by a Millennial
