Baby Boomers and Generation X
43
national debt. Bankrupt Social Security. Holes in the ozone layer. Crack.
Downsizing and layoffs. Urban deterioration. Gangs. Junk Bonds. The
temptation to become simply a part of the system—to acquiesce—can be
strong, but rather than do that, Xers have revealed a strong competitive
streak, reflected in slogans like NO FEAR. (Homblower 58)
This competitiveness and disregard for binary absolutes is also reflected in
their pohtics and their views on government. The principles on which America
was founded are ones with which the Xers agree; it is the present implementation
of those principles (through religious and political institutions) which Xers have
no faith in. Unlike older traditionalists, Bridgers distrust the concepts of a collective
national will, are suspicious of consensus, and hate to see dissenters coerced. We
are unlike supply siders with their tendency toward deficits and debts, and are not
as intensely committed to idealized individualism as older libertarians (Howe 164).
Bridgers do not beheve that a huge bureaucratic system is the way to deal with
national problems hke spotty health insurance. We would rather trust our immediate
communities to come up with local solutions which allow for immediate
idiosyncrasies. But before you try to label this group “conservative,” remember
that Bridgers are opposed strongly to issues like censorship, failure to protect the
environment, and prohibiting abortion. Howe points out that rather than commit to
a party platform, Bridgers operate on basic principles: wear your politics hghtly,
so that you may change them when necessary; survival comes before ideology; fix
only what is fixable; clean up after your own mess; and finally, a candidate’s personal
style says more than his credentials or platforms about how he will perform in
office (165-70). “The do-it-yourself, no-one-is-going-to-look-out-for-me-but-me
spirit among Xers is a product of coming of age when that was the message coming
from the Administration,” says Mia von Sadovsky, 29, an ad agency researcher. A
survey by Third Millennium found that 53% of Gen Xers believe that the TV soap
opera General Hospital will outlast Medicare. If permitted, 59% of Xers would
opt out of Medicare and save on their own. Of any adult generation, they have the
weakest attachment to political parties, and in 1992 Gen Xers cast a higher
percentage of votes for Ross Perot than any other adults did. “We have a libertarian
streak,” says Thau, a student interviewed by Margaret Homblower. “We grew up
in a period with one instance of government malfeasance and ineptitude after
another, from Watergate to Iran Contra to the explosion of the Challenger to
Whitewater. We believe government can’t be trusted to do anything right”
(Homblower 58).
Whether it is political parties or marketing blitzes, Xers have become more
aware of how people manipulate us: in our political lives we have Watergate and
Vietnam and all the “Gates” since; in religion there are the televangelists’ scandals,
priests as child molesters, and the use of God by churches to justify discrimination.