It’s time to start blaming Generation X for things.
In the generational wars, people are sorted into two separate but equally important groups: millennials (AKA Gen Y) and baby boomers (AKA boomers).
This has become something of a meme to the point where, strangely, anyone who is older and in a position of power is referred to as a boomer, even if they’re not, while anyone who is younger is called a millennial, again, even if they’re not. For some reason everyone forgets about Generation X, and also whatever we’re calling the generation after millennials.
However they are now entrenched in popular usage, for better or worse.
If we look at the composition of governments and who is leading countries, it’s clear that Gen X should start shouldering some of the blame. They’ve been in positions of power for a while now, and terrible thinkpieces that fan the flames of generational warfare should start to reflect this. Should Gen X be doing more to address the climate crisis even though it is largely the fault of boomers? I say yes, yes they should.
For example, here’s the age distribution for heads of government from OECD companies, using generational definitions from Pew Research:
You’ve got Donald Trump (a boomer) on one end, and Jacinda Ardern on the other (she’s almost a millennial). The main thing to note is that there are a lot of Gen Xers there. In Australia, we now have our first Gen X prime minister, Scott Morrison. While the boomers have largely overseen the climate crisis, it’s a Gen X prime minister who now has no effective policies for meaningful cuts to Australia’s emissions.
Canada has Justin Trudeau, and New Zealand has Ardern. Ardern and her government have been widely praised for their response to the Christchurch massacre, which included a ban on most automatic and semi-automatic weapons.
In the UK, Theresa May is a boomer, but Britain has previously had a Gen Xer in number 10 in David Cameron.
And if I understand basic physics, it’s almost certain that Gen X will only continue to become more prevalent in positions of power, so everyone should probably brush up on their knowledge of Nirvana’s back catalogue or start using quotes from Reality Bites in everyday conversation.
Finally, these generational terms (iGeneration lol) aren’t really of much use for actual demographic purposes. Aside from baby boomers, the date cut-offs are pretty arbitrary. They’re mostly used by marketing companies to sell cereal or juice machines that connect to the internet and have their own cryptocurrency.
Also, If anyone has pioneered a system for classifying generational date cut-offs based on data, I’d quite like to see it, so please email me. Please do not email me to tell me why I am wrong, cheers.
