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Popular Culture Review
live in. Straightforwardness should not be mistaken for simphcity, however. When
it comes to things like the news, Bridgers hate propaganda claiming to be news, or
linear-plotted entertainment with its happy endings. The hit TV show X-Files weaves
in layered story lines and leaves questions unresolved. “Generation X actively
pursues the deflation of the ideal,” says Karen Ritchie in her book. Marketing to
Generation X, “No icon and certainly no commercial is safe from their [Xers’]
irony, their sarcasm or their remote control (Homblower 58).
Bridgers view Boomers as a generation which spoke in ideal terms but was
unwilling to take the difficult step of actually implementing those ideals in a practical
fashion. Boomers spoke of all men being created equal; many of them marched for
the ideal, but most of their actions simply seem to have replaced one preferential
system with another. Th e mongrelization of cultural traits by Xers seems to frustrate
previous generations. Fragmentation and eclecticism are Gen X hallmarks.
Compared to a generation ago, nearly twice as many of today’s twenty somethings
— 28% — agree “there is no single way to live” (Homblower). In this cohort,
blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans assert their identity more than
ever. And whites are more multi-cultural. Fair-haired dreadlocks are commonplace.
Fashion designers knock off urban street trends rather than the other way around.
Gay rights are assumed: as the latest campus cause. Body piercing has gone
mainstream. “Compared to any other generation bom in this century, theirs is less
cohesive, its experiences wider, its ethnicity more polyglot and its culture more
splintery,” write historians William Strauss and Neil Howe in their new book. The
Fourth Turning, a study of generational change. “Today’s young adults define
themselves by sheer divergence” (Homblower 58).
E. Dionne notes that the great reforming generations are the ones that marry the
aspirations of service to the possibilities of politics and harness the good work done
in local communities to transform a nation. My generation has that potential to be a
strong bridge towards the new paradigm which Millennials are operating under.
The bottom line is that what Bridgers have learned is the tenuousness of the
constmcts we give authority, including the authority we give to ourselves. This is
a major step in changing how we see ourselves and how we teach the next generation
to see each other. If any authority could be proven to be rehable, the matter would
be easier, but all have failed us. Tolerance is a word that has become both chche
and misused; humihty is a more reasonable standard to hold ourselves to. What
Bridgers must remember from their experience is how vulnerable our behefs are
to deconstmction. Such humility can form the foundations of our bridge to the
next generation.
Penn State University-Erie
Gregory W. Fowler