Silent Generation

[Truth Warrior]

Silent Generation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Generation

1925 - 1945, has NEVER produced a POTUS.

Curious?

[Truth Warrior]

Silent replies bump.

[acptulsa]

Thoughts? My uncle. He was actually born in '28, but even so...

They grew up in the shadow of the Greatest Generation. Their older siblings helped fight The Big One, and everyone agreed that they had saved freedom and liberty for us. What did they have to give their lives such meaning? Korea?

We don't seem to draw many of them. Many of them are sympathetic, but they have much invested in the status quo. After all, even if they aren't of "America's Finest Families", the system (mostly) worked for them all these years.

If we can reassure them (despite the noise made by the MSM, on which they are very dependent) that we are angling for a return to what made the world of their youth better in ways than today, we can get them in the end I think.

[Truth Warrior]

Both Ron and John are "Silents". ;) Stay tuned. :)

[Truth Warrior]

Monday, December 04, 2006

The Silent Generation, R.I.P.

For weeks the Baker-Hamilton Commission has performed an essential function--taking up acres of column-inches in the nation's newspapers. Its recommendations, to judge from reports, have been watered down to the point where the Bush Administration can at least pretend to be taking them seriously, and it hasn't been able to come up with a recipe for success, but it has diverted attention from the rapidly descending spiral in Iraq. (If for instance any mainstream outlet has reported the substantial increase in US casualties during the last quarter of this year, as I did a couple of weeks ago, I haven't seen it.) The Commission will have virtually no impact, but it is a kind of monument to the generation to which every one of its members now belong, the Silent Generation, born between 1925 and 1942.

According to the generational scheme worked out by my friends William Strauss and Neil Howe, the Silent generation is the only American generation never to have produced a president. This is only half true; while technically from the GI generation, Jimmy Carter (b. 1924) was still at the Naval Academy when the Second World War came to an end, and therefore missed the defining experience of his elders, combat, and his approach to governing was more characteristic of the younger generation. John McCain, moreover, has every intention of correcting that omission in 2008. But in 1993, after rejecting Silents Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis, we jumped directly from GI George Bush to Boomer Bill Clinton. A year later Boomers became the most numerous generation in Congress, and Washington hasn't been the same since.

The defining moment for Silents was their childhood, lived out in the shadow of the Second World War. Because they had to look after their worried parents, they became empathizers, mediators, and conciliators. Because they did not get the opportunity to help solve a worldwide conflict through force of arms, they preferred more intellectual approaches to problems, and tried to avoid nasty confrontations. They were young adults during the 1950s, and although many of them (especially women) abandoned the social mores of that era in the late 1960s and 1970s--their divorce rates were the highest of any generation, and they had by far the most divorces with children still in the house--they retain a commitment to the political consensus of that era. Confronted with a problem like the Vietnam War, they generally began not by questioning its moral rectitude, but by pointing out that it was not working and trying to fix it. They could not, however, get their GI elders to listen to them.

The bipartisan Presidential commission is a quintessentially Silent institution, devoted to the idea that calm. unideological study will eventually yield the right solution to a problem. Silents are good at crossing party lines, and two of them, Phil Gramm and Warren Rudman, actually made a big dent in the federal deficit in the late 1980s. Silents (or *Silents like Jimmy Carter) are also excellent diplomats, and James Baker, who settled the civil war in El Salvador, successfully promoted the reunification of Germany, and put together the coalition against Iraq, was a s good as any. They also have a sense of how fragile success can be, and Baker, Colin Powell, and Dick Cheney (in an earlier incarnation) wisely decided not to go to Baghdad in 1991. Baker and company find themselves in the ironic position of trying to end a war that they never would have begun in the first place.

Boomers, on the other hand--at least those who have come to dominate the political arena--care about only two things: being on the right side, and preserving the myth of their own omniscience. Silent Paul O'Neill was driven out of the Bush Administration because he wanted actually to understand the nuts and bolts of economic problems instead of staying "relentlessly on message," as Boomer Karen Hughes told him to do Colin Powell, another Silent, was simply ignored by President Bush and his fellow Boomers. (No theory can explain all human behavior, and Donald Rumsfeld is hardly a typical Silent--he strikes me, like the young Clint Eastwood, as a would-be GI, determined to show he can out-John Wayne John Wayne, yet oddly Boomer-like in his inability to take responsibility for any mistakes.) I have said more than enough about my own generation's catastrophic impact to have to go into it any further today.

The first Silent Presidential candidate was Robert Kennedy, and it is not coincidental that, in early 1968, he tried to solve the Vietnam problem in the same way that Hamilton and Baker are trying to deal with Iraq. Essentially, RFK told LBJ that he would not run against him for President (which, as an Establishment figure, he had grave reservations about doing) if Johnson would appoint an independent commission and accept its recommendations about Vietnam. LBJ refused. Kennedy's campaign, interrupted by his assassination, was very Silent in nature. While he deplored the impact of the Vietnam War, he never promised to end it--indeed, during his campaign against Eugene McCarthy, who frankly favored a coalition government, he promised to "clean up" the Saigon government, a hardy perennial if ever there was one. He preached reconciliation and peace, coming across, as my son put it two weeks ago after seeing the film Bobby, like the "American Gandhi." (Incidentally, I enormously enjoyed the film as an excellent portrait of a particular moment in American history, and I am sorry it isn't doing better.)

The recommendations of the Baker-Hamilton commission, alas, are virtually certain to suffer the fate of the Crittenden compromise of 1860-1. John Crittenden belonged to the Compromiser generation. Born in 1787, just a few years after Daniel Webster and Henry Clay, he made a last-ditch effort to compromise the split between the North and South and prevent the Civil War during "the great secession winter," as Henry Adams called it, by enshrining the principles of the Missouri and California compromises in the Constitution. But younger men in both the North and South would have none of it. Baker and his cohort worked hard during the last thirty years or so to live with the Middle East as it was, and maintained an American foothold there despite rising fundamentalism and anti-Americanism. Bush and company have swept all that away. They have no interest in restoring it, and it is not clear if they could. There is no going back to the 1980s and 1990s. The future, for the time being, belongs to the Boomers, and since the Bush Administration's vision has failed, we must come up with something completely different.

http://historyunfolding.blogspot.com/2006/12/silent-generation-rip.html

< bump >

[Truth Warrior]

Still no Silent generation POTUS. I guess there won't be one. Interesting and curious.<IMHO> Hmmm?

[WRellim]

Still no Silent generation POTUS. I guess there won't be one. Interesting and curious.<IMHO> Hmmm?

Since the silent generation is heading "down under" in the next several years, I think it's a moot point.

To me the BIG question is whether ANYONE from GenX will be allowed to gain any prominence... or if we are forever destined to be F'd over by the Boomers... and then supplanted by the GenY (aka "Millenials") before we get the chance to do anything.

In which case we'll be stuck just like the Silent Generation was... as slaves to both our elder and younger brothers.
:mad:

[Truth Warrior]

Since the silent generation is heading "down under" in the next several years, I think it's a moot point.

To me the BIG question is whether ANYONE from GenX will be allowed to gain any prominence... or if we are forever destined to be F'd over by the Boomers... and then supplanted by the GenY (aka "Millenials") before we get the chance to do anything.

In which case we'll be stuck just like the Silent Generation was... as slaves to both our elder and younger brothers.
:mad:

Silents are the ONLY American generation in history that didn't.

As a front edge Boomer myself, I've been pretty disappointed and saddened by the performances of the first two Boomer POTUS. Yep, with ~80 million of them, Boomers will be around for LONG time. The youngest are now just 44. ;)

On average 12,000+ Boomers turn 50 EVERY DAY, And now, on average, 12,000+ Boomers also turn 60 EVERY DAY. These trends will be continuing for awhile.

Demographics is destiny. :)

[WRellim]

Silents are the ONLY American generation in history that didn't.

You mean SO FAR.

GenX will be likewise screwed.


As a front edge Boomer myself, I've been pretty disappointed and saddened by the performances of the first two Boomer POTUS. Yep, with ~80 million of them, Boomers will be around for LONG time. The youngest are now just 44. ;)

See I'm a bleeding-edge GenX'er... one who grew up watching Boomer's self-centered orgasmic dissonance... and have had to live (and work around) the worst dysfunctional aspects of the generation (and as bad as the EARLY boomers were, the middle and especially LATER boomers are much, much worse in my experience).

So NONE of what has transpired under the Boomer leadership has surprised me in the least, nor will ANY of the disastrous things that are now heading towards us like a freight train.


On average 12,000+ Boomers turn 50 EVERY DAY, And now, on average, 12,000+ Boomers also turn 60 EVERY DAY. These trends will be continuing for awhile.

Demographics is destiny. :)

Oh, and well do I know it.

Have you seen Chris Martenson's Crash Course? ...he does an excellent explanation of the impact this demographic "boom" will cause.

BTW, as an EARLY GenX'er, I've known for years that the "retirement crisis" and the resulting market crash (bigger than the current one -- the worst is yet to come... in the next 5-10 years) was mathematically inevitable.

See, the whole "debate" over pensions, 401K's and Social Security is MOOT.

It really doesn't MATTER whether the retirement is funded by Social Security (taxes) or by stock sales of 401K's or even by sales of "hard" assets (like homes) -- the crash is inevitable when you have more sellers than buyers. And the taxation burden that is also coming is likewise inevitable -- it's a simple consequence of having too high a ratio of non-workers (retirees, + bureaucrats, + welfare dependants, + disabled, etc) to active workers (and I mean in PRODUCTION jobs, not just paper pushers on Wall Street or in Washington D.C.)

It'll be interesting to see what the Millenials decide about Obama AFTER they have lived under him for a few years... something tells me they really are NOT going to like receiving what they have been asking for... whether they will have by then learned their lesson, or will beg for more of the same... remains to be seen. (But as an X'er... I'm not optimistic).
:(

[Truth Warrior]

You mean SO FAR.

Well, since the youngest Silent is 63, I think that SO FAR is a pretty safe bet. A significant number of Silents have run for POTUS, there's just something about them that enough folks just don't seem to cotton to.

GenX will be likewise screwed.

Could be, we'll see. ;)

See I'm a bleeding-edge GenX'er... one who grew up watching Boomer's self-centered orgasmic dissonance... and have had to live (and work around) the worst dysfunctional aspects of the generation (and as bad as the EARLY boomers were, the middle and especially LATER boomers are much, much worse in my experience).

All in all, I've been pretty underwhelmed working with most of the GenXers too. A very few of them seem to have their heads screwed on straight.

BTW, I have two GenX stepsons and a Millennial daughter.

So NONE of what has transpired under the Boomer leadership has surprised me in the least, nor will ANY of the disastrous things that are now heading towards us like a freight train.

Well, since Obama is one of your "favorite" LATER Boomers, I think I have to agree with you, sadly. ;)

Oh, and well do I know it.

Have you seen Chris Martenson's Crash Course? ...he does an excellent explanation of the impact this demographic "boom" will cause.

No, I haven't seen that. I'll check it out. Thanks.

Have you read this one? I REALLY like it.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0688119123/thetimepage (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0688119123/thetimepage)

BTW, as an EARLY GenX'er, I've known for years that the "retirement crisis" and the resulting market crash (bigger than the current one -- the worst is yet to come... in the next 5-10 years) was mathematically inevitable.

See, the whole "debate" over pensions, 401K's and Social Security is MOOT.

It really doesn't MATTER whether the retirement is funded by Social Security (taxes) or by stock sales of 401K's or even by sales of "hard" assets (like homes) -- the crash is inevitable when you have more sellers than buyers. And the taxation burden that is also coming is likewise inevitable -- it's a simple consequence of having too high a ratio of non-workers (retirees, + bureaucrats, + welfare dependants, + disabled, etc) to active workers (and I mean in PRODUCTION jobs, not just paper pushers on Wall Street or in Washington D.C.)

It'll be interesting to see what the Millenials decide about Obama AFTER they have lived under him for a few years... something tells me they really are NOT going to like receiving what they have been asking for... whether they will have by then learned their lesson, or will beg for more of the same... remains to be seen. (But as an X'er... I'm not optimistic). :(

Agreed, and as a realist, neither am I. ;)


Thanks! :)

[Conza88]

They didn't have a POTUS...

That's a good thing right?

Greatest generation.... i.e the Draft and stooges of the state... Fighting wars for the sake of the state....

Fighting bullshit scenarios on a battlefield that served absolutely no purpose what so ever.

Collectivism vs Collectivism... YEAH,, awesome... :rolleyes:

Silent Generation? How about right now? The silence is DEAFENING....

[Truth Warrior]

They didn't have a POTUS...

That's a good thing right?

Greatest generation.... i.e the Draft and stooges of the state... Fighting wars for the sake of the state....

Fighting bullshit scenarios on a battlefield that served absolutely no purpose what so ever.

Collectivism vs Collectivism... YEAH,, awesome... :rolleyes:

Silent Generation? How about right now? The silence is DEAFENING.... Well Ron is a Silent, so is that a good thing? :rolleyes:

[Pete]

I don't think that Silents being skipped for the presidency is particularly ominous, but more a phenomenon of charismatic actor RR being elected at an advanced age and succeeded by Bush I, at the end of which the sheeple were ready for Change in the form of charismatic actor Clinton. In this election, Powell could have been a contender had he chosen to run, IMO.

[Truth Warrior]

I don't think that Silents being skipped for the presidency is particularly ominous, but more a phenomenon of charismatic actor RR being elected at an advanced age and succeeded by Bush I, at the end of which the sheeple were ready for Change in the form of charismatic actor Clinton. In this election, Powell could have been a contender had he chosen to run, IMO. I don't know if skipping a whole generation is particularly ominous, but I do find it rather interesting. :)

It's never happened before.

[Conza88]

Well Ron is a Silent, so is that a good thing? :rolleyes:

Lol... :eek:

Well.. the generation produced him, can't be all bad.. :s

Yeah, interesting indeed though...

Maybe cus they were around the great depression?

Interesting but.. all presidents have been bad basically, so it can't be that bad a thing.. :|

:confused: *shrugs*

[Truth Warrior]

Lol... :eek:

Well.. the generation produced him, can't be all bad.. :s

Yeah, interesting indeed though...

Maybe cus they were around the great depression?

Interesting but.. all presidents have been bad basically, so it can't be that bad a thing.. :|

:confused: *shrugs* I think if you check, that you'll find that his parents produced him. :D

[Conza88]

I think if you check, that you'll find that his parents produced him. :D

It's getting late... I'm slipping.... ahaha :D

[Spirit of '76]

To me the BIG question is whether ANYONE from GenX will be allowed to gain any prominence... or if we are forever destined to be F'd over by the Boomers... and then supplanted by the GenY (aka "Millenials") before we get the chance to do anything.

In which case we'll be stuck just like the Silent Generation was... as slaves to both our elder and younger brothers.
:mad:

Strauss and Howe (a couple of Boomers), referenced in the article TW posted, made some interesting predictions about the future of Gen X in their book "13th Gen: America's 13th Generation, Born 1961-1981".


I'll give you the condensed version:

"1. Over the next fifteen years [the book was published in 1993], the festering quarrel between the 13ers and Boomers will grow into America's next great 'generation gap'."

They say the Boomers will view Gen X as shallow, selfish, and shocking. They say that Gen X will have its "greatest cultural impact on the marketplace... yet over time their what-you-see-is-what-you-get brassiness will spill over into religion and politics." They predicted this view of Gen X by Boomers would start to give way during the first decade of the 21st century.

"2. 13ers will never outgrow their 'bad' image."

They point out that Gen X is the "most incarcerated generation in American history", then go on to predict that thanks to the Boomers, it will be the "most executed generation as well". They predict that even at age 40, many Gen Xers will still be seen as undesirable as employees by the Boomers.

"3. The 13ers will become one of the most important immigrant generations in U.S. history."

They say that Gen Xers will include the highest percentage of naturalized US citizens in the 20th and 21st centuries, and that identity politics, ethnic rivalry, and conflict over ethnic diversity will be one of the defining characteristics of Gen X. They say that "as immigrants and nonwhites flaunt their unique identities, many white 13ers will see themselves as endangered, sparking social movements that others will condemn as know-nothing nativism".

They then go on to say that over time, the perception among Gen Xers that immigration threatens to fragment society will lead all generations to clamp down on immigration.

"4. Early in life, the most successful 13ers will be risk takers who exploit opportunities overlooked by established businesses."

They say that Gen X will take advantage of overseas markets in a way no other generation has. They also say that Gen X will "mount gray-market challenges to credentialed monopolies... and set up profitable alternatives to rule-encrusted state enterprises (mail, school, waste disposal, security)."

They say that union membership will decline and that "13ers will leave public and private bureaucracies leaner, more personalized, and more oriented toward doing the job than staffing the process."

"5. Reaching midlife, the 13ers' economic fears will be confirmed: They will become the only generation born this [the 20th] century (the first since the Gilded) to suffer a one-generation backstep in living standards."

They say Gen X will experience higher rates of poverty, lower rates of home ownership, and lower pension and healthcare benefits than their parents. They say Gen X will not match its parents' income rates at the same age, even adjusted for inflation. They say the poverty gap will widen among Gen Xers to degrees not seen in living memory.

The go on to say that "[a]round the year 2020, accumulated "hard knocks" will give midlife 13ers much of the same gritty determination about life that the Great Depression gave the midlife Lost [generation] or Reconstruction gave the Gilded [generation]."

"6. 13ers will strengthen the American family."

They say Gen X will consist largely of dedicated spouses who will work hard to avoid the high divorce rates and broken homes so common among the Boomers. They say Gen X parents will be heavily protective of their children and will shield their children from the same harsh realities they themselves faced in order to protect their innocence.

They say that in midlife Gen X will promote a sense of modesty and morality about sexuality.

"7. Reaching their fifties in a mood of collective exhaustion, 13ers will settle into the midlife role of national anchor, calming the social mood and slowing the pace of social change."

They say that midlife 13ers "will clean up entertainment, de-diversify the cutlure, reinvent core symbols of national unity, reaffirm rituals of neighborhood and family bonding, and re-erect barriers to cushion communities from unwanted social upheaval."

They say that Gen X will act as cultural mentors to the Millenial generation and "play a crucial formative role -- reintroducing wholesome songs and friendly humor."

"8. Throughout their lives, 13ers will be America's most politically conservative generation since the Lost."

They say that "until their mid-40s, the dominant brand of 13er conservatism will have a strong libertarian and free-market leave-me-alone flavor; later in life, it will lean toward cautious, pragmatic stewardship."

They go onto say that "Their attachment to the 'conservative' banner will be sealed if aging Boomers rely on liberal standards to rekindle a spirit of national community and to rally younger generations to their cause -- say, through some new CCC-like mandatory youth service."

They predict that Gen X will be most effective when the issues they confront are local and personal.

They say Gen X "will seek to simplify the complex, narrow the bloated, and eliminate the unworkable."

They predict that Gen X will not win a generational plurality in Congress until around the year 2020.

"9. As they reach their turn for national leadership, 13ers will produce no-nonsense winners who will excel at cunning, flexibility, and deft timing."

They say that "if 13ers turn out like earlier generations of their type -- Lost, Gilded, Liberty, and Cavalier -- they will ultimately become a stellar generation of get-it-done warriors, able to take charge of whatever raging conflicts are initiated by their elders and bring them to successful conclusions."

They say that "as they come to power around the year 2020, younger voters will view them as a welcome change from the ponderous" Boomers.

"10. Before the year 2030, events will call on pockmarked 13ers to make aging Boomers get real -- and, perhaps, stop some righteous old Aquarian from doing something truly catastrophic."

I love this part:

"Gazing down the road, some 13ers already wonder how they're going to cope with their next elders when those crusading Boomers finally go gaga. Just think about it: Of all today's living generations, which one is someday most likely to risk blowing up the world just to make a point?"

They go on... "The day may come when 13ers do to Boomers what the Gilded did to Union Radicals and Confederate Fire-Eaters after those aging enthusiasts had razed half the continent: In the election of 1868, Gilded voters touched off the biggest generational landslide in American history and slammed their next-elders out of office."

"11. Throughout their lives, 13ers will neither ask for nor receive much assistance from government."

They predict that in their 30s, Gen X will push to cut welfare benefits, in their 50s raise income taxes, and in their 70s vote to cut social security.

They say that 13ers "will take pride in the handouts they didn't receive, in their life-long talent for getting by on their own, and in their ability to divert government resources to help those younger than themselves."

They say that Gen X will be much "like Lost Generation elders in 1964 -- who voted more for Barry Goldwater than any younger generation, even after he promised to slash their retirement benefits..."

"12. As mature leaders and voters, 13ers will favor investment over consumption, endowments over entitlements, and the needs of the very young over the needs of the very old."

They say, "Whether by raising taxes, by freezing the money supply, by discouraging debt, or by shifting public budgets toward education, public works, and child welfare, elder 13ers will tilt the economy back toward the future."

They say that "like the post-Civil War Gilded, who led the nation through twenty-eight consecutive budget surpluses, 13ers will leave behind a smaller federal debt than they inherited. Like the postwar Lost, who resisted the call for Keynesian pump-priming, 13ers will prefer recession to an out-of-kilter national balance sheet. Either way, elder 13ers will be national survivalists, determined to store up capital for future contingencies and opposed to doing anything too risky, too wasteful, or too ambitious."

"13. Thirteeners willmake caustic, independent, yet self-efacing elders."

They say that when Gen X gets old, it will watch as the country take increasing interest in young people with ambitious new dreams, but that 13ers largely will willingly step aside and "take pride... in having pulled America back together and restored ballast to the ship of state... pride in having rebuilt the social foundations... pride in having produced more than they consumed, in having made simple things work again, in having done more for others than others ever did for them."

[revolutionist]

The Baby Boomers have created, and ruined an entire generation. Generation Y has been completely destroyed by the baby boomers. The Baby Boomers have completely coddled their kids and haven't exposed them to the real world one bit. It is upsetting that an entire generation of infantilized young people from the failure of Baby Boomer helicopter parenting will not be able to make it very well in the real world because the never ceasing coddling of Generation Y will give the generation an inability to deal with failure.


So after Gen X, Gen Y (My generation unfortunately) will probably be more statist than any other. I don't have much optimism for my generation.

[Spirit of '76]

The Baby Boomers have created, and ruined an entire generation. Generation Y has been completely destroyed by the baby boomers. The Baby Boomers have completely coddled their kids and haven't exposed them to the real world one bit. It is upsetting that an entire generation of infantilized young people from the failure of Baby Boomer helicopter parenting will not be able to make it very well in the real world because the never ceasing coddling of Generation Y will give the generation an inability to deal with failure.


Yeah, the whole kid-on-a-leash thing freaked me out when I first saw it.

Ah... I remember the good ol' days when you could ride a bike without a helmet... ;)

[heavenlyboy34]

Silents are the ONLY American generation in history that didn't.

As a front edge Boomer myself, I've been pretty disappointed and saddened by the performances of the first two Boomer POTUS. Yep, with ~80 million of them, Boomers will be around for LONG time. The youngest are now just 44. ;)

On average 12,000+ Boomers turn 50 EVERY DAY, And now, on average, 12,000+ Boomers also turn 60 EVERY DAY. These trends will be continuing for awhile.

Demographics is destiny. :)

These stats give me a headache just thinking of them and the ramifications! :eek:

[forsmant]

Who decided the cutoffs for these generation labels?

[Spirit of '76]

Who decided the cutoffs for these generation labels?

Strauss and Howe have website that explains their process:

http://www.fourthturning.com/html/exploring_history.html

[BuddyRey]

This stuff is very interesting!

I was born on the X-Y "cusp" in 1984, so I'm not exactly sure where I and those of my age group fit in, but it sure seems that there are interesting times ahead for the under-35 set.

With regard to the Silents, I can't help but remember what the "Silent" proto-countercultural figure Ken Kesey said about himself; that he was "too young to be a beatnik and too old to be a hippie." For the early-to-mid-'80s babies, a fitting counterpart might be that we are "too young to be Grungeheads and too old to be Emos!"