_Generations_ redux

Having dragged my way further through Steve Bannon's favourite book, Generations, I am amused to report that the authors' prognosis for the Boomers was hilariously - and often tragically - wrong on the most important levels. They got the authoritarianism right, but that's about it - and knowing when this was written, they were putting on some severely rosy glasses to write this even at the time.

There's a quote on the back, from the Oakland Tribune: "Generations might change the world as much as Darwin's Origin of Species."

I can confidently say that no, no, it will not.

I can say that the severe shortcomings of their historical sections are directly related to many of the complete failures of vision in the sections attempting to project forward. (See also: I've read better histories on the backs of cereal boxes.) That part - the connection there - is kind of interesting. The complete abrogation of any attempt to address any part of American systematic racism, the complete failure to take the fundamentalist movement seriously (particularly in conjunction with authoritarianism and the role that waves of authoritarianism have shaped American history), a comprehensive inability to even recognise the role of outright misogyny in sexism (and a definite "all sides" approach to dealing with it when they reference the oppression of women at all - which they do, once) - these all inform their bad projections in fundamentally destructive ways.

(Also, they dramatically underestimated the Boom's utter refusal to consider anyone outside their cadre as valid, and their intent on holding onto power as forever as possible.)

Their treatment of Generation X is even more hilariously misread, continuing as it does the Boomer mid-80s "darwinian hyper-predator generation" theme. And they didn't see computers/technology coming at all.

That said, some of the economics they apply to Generation X have shown up, but more for Millennials, and for completely different reasons than they laid out for GenX.

As for the section on Millennials themselves... well. I just started laughing out loud, put down the book, took a moment to type what made me laugh, to wit:

"The Millennial youth culture will be more clean-cut and homogeneous than any seen since that of the circa-1930 G.I.s."

It gets worse from there - "Where Boomers and 13ers had once seen computer as a force for social individuation, Millennials will see them as a force for social homogenization" and "From music to fashion to cinema, the adolescent culture will accentuate, even celebrate, sexual distinctions" provide a bit of a look into how it goes.

Maybe they were writing this for incels. No wonder Bannon likes it so much.

There is one bit at the very end which includes a bit of insight both into what's gone wrong with the book and with life:

"As these examples make clear, the scripts awaiting both generations [Boom and GenX] are markedly at odds with their recent phases of life. Future generations of Americans must rely on aging Boomers to build a very unyuppielike ethic of community responsibility and principled self-sacrifice. Where their G.I. parents were heroes young, history warns Boomers to expect their greatest test in old age."

The Boomers aren't facing a test.

The Boomers are the test.

As for Generations, well, I'm glad I didn't waste my time actually reading it back when. It's a quote seen rather often, but it's true here:

"It is not a book to be lightly thrown aside. It should be thrown with great force."