One of my coffee buyers wrote to me: “Generations don’t exist”, referring to Duffy’s book, “The Generation Myth”. This is not a new idea. But most of us have been brainwashed to believe the term “generation” in fact means something special as with “Gen Z”— when it is just a word appropriated for uses it was never intended for.
Before WWII, people didn’t talk about “generations” as we do today.
Afterwards, with the advent of new media such as TV and marketing and consumerism, it became a “thing”, as a general target group category.
As I write in my upcoming special article /book on culture, civilization and Putin, cultures evolve – and also devolve. They are organisms.
Marketing and consumerism may be regarded together as a form of “managed cultural evolution”, manufacturing new trends and fashions, which inevitably mean new values, which means new belief systems.
That’s why marketing professionals are alway talking about “value creation”, not that they really know what ‘value” is at all.
After WWI, men were considered full adults at 21, and could vote. Women were considered full adults at 30! There was a concept of “young”, “mature”, and “old” but not a “younger generation” such as we have today. Past childhood everything was about age and experience. One reason, of course, was that people also lived shorter, simpler lives. We didn’t have the extras years to defer our needs as we do today.
After WWII, 21 was still widely considered the age of “maturity”.
But more and more of the middle class – or at least those who aspired to be middle class —were going to college and university before entering the white color work force – which meant, for many, putting off things like marriage and owning a home, not as much as today of course.
Blue collar workers started earlier. But, hey, they were the working (lower) class!
Emerging Adulthood
By the 21st Century, we had something called “emerging adulthood” , which is variously defined but appears to have 5 stages according to Dr. Jeffrey Arnett, the This result of changes that occurred in the 60s and 70s.
Age of identity exploration.
Age of instability. ...
Age of self-focus. ...
Age of feeling in between. ...
Age of possibilities.
Specifically:
According to Arnett, Emerging Adulthood is a distinctly new developmental stage (between adolescence and adulthood)that is a result of four societal changes that occurred in the 1960s and 1970s:
The Technology Revolution
The Sexual Revolution
The Women’s Movement
The Youth Movement
Now a “movement” in such contexts would/ could imply a group of people working together to get national acceptance of certain ideas, such as, say, black rights.
But sex and female roles are culturally complex, compared to racial discrimination, which is a more straightforward moral issue. So “Sex” and “Women” are still being argued. And the “Youth Movement”? Another semantic can of worms.
“Emerging adulthood’ as actually been around in one way or another since the 19th Century . It was never a matter of young people needing time to “develop maturity” – but rather it was the need of social and economic systems to sideline the young longer in order to indoctrinate them – some of them anyway – for more complicated roles in a technocratic civilization.
That meant universal education, among other things.
First we invented the Child.
Then we invented the TeenAger.
Now we have “Emergent Adults” (Proto Adults…? I guess we need a new word) .
“Emergent” or “Disadvantaged” ? Or….?
There is an excellent article in the NIH database on this subject.
Summary of ten myths about generations and generational differences
Myth #1:
Generational “theory” was meant to be tested
The sociological concept of “generations” has been re-characterized and misappropriated over time.
Generational “theory” is not falsifiable, nor was it intended to be.
Culture, and the generational groups it forms and is formed by, cannot be disentangled.
Myth #2:
Generational explanations are obvious
The mechanisms by which generations emerge are oversimplified in the literature.
Explanations for social phenomena are more likely associated with other time-based sources of variation than generations.
Sources of time-based variability are often conflated and confused with one another in popular discourse and in research.
Myth #3:
Generational labels and associated age ranges are agreed upon
The specific birth year ranges that define each generational grouping vary substantially.
-There are notable differences in the ways researchers address cross-cultural variability in generational research.
Inconsistencies in labeling have significant conceptual and computational implications for the study and understanding of generations.
Myth #4:
Generations are easy to study
The conceptualization of generations as the intersection of age and period make them impossible to study.
There exists no research design that can disentangle age, period, and cohort effects.
Artificially grouping ages into “generations” does nothing to solve the confounding of age, period, and cohort effects.
Myth #5:
Statistical models can help disentangle generational differences
No statistical model exists that can unambiguously identify generational effects.
As long as age, period, and cohort are defined in time-related terms, they will be inextricably confounded with one another.
This issue has befuddled social scientists for so long that it has been called “a futile quest.”
Myth #6:
Generations need to be managed at work
Research generally does not and cannot support the existence of generational differences, so there is nothing to “manage” in this regard.
Organizations open themselves up to an unnecessary liability if they manage individuals based on generational membership.
The focus should be shifted toward managing perceptions of generations rather than generations themselves.
Myth #7:
Members of younger generations are disrupting work
Blaming members of younger generations for changes in the work environment is a form of uniqueness bias.
Generationalized beliefs have a remarkable consistency across recorded history.
Changes are more likely reflexive of the contemporaneous environment and the innovations and unexpected changes therein.
Myth #8:
Generations explain the changing nature of work (and society)
Generations give a convenient “wrapper” to the complexities of age and aging in dynamic environments.
Generations are highly deterministic.
It is more rational and defensible to suggest that individuals’ age, life stage, social context, and historical period intersect across the lifespan.
Myth # 9:
Studying age at work is the antidote to the problems with studying generations
Age and aging research are neither remedies for nor equivalent approaches to the study of generations.
Despite its limitations, aging research draws on sound theories, research designs, and statistical modeling approaches.
Studying age alone is not a substitute for generational research; rather, it transcends generational approaches and engenders more useful and tenable conclusions for researchers and practitioners alike.
Myth #10: (This one is important!_
Talking about generations is largely benign
Talking about generations is far from benign: it promotes the spread of generationalism, which can be considered “modern ageism.”
Generationalism is defined by sanctioned ambivalence and socially acceptable prejudice toward people of particular ages.
Use of generations to inform differential practices and policies in organizations poses great risk to the age inclusivity, and the legal standing, of workplaces.
So much for “equality”
The Age of Artificial
Technology is artifice. Ergo this is the Age of the Artificial
Paleo peoples, who lived in Nature, did not have “emerging adulthood”.
At sexual maturity , young people became full adults in most band societies. Of course, with all kinds of celebrations and rituals.
As far as we can see (which is not very far) there was a wide variety of practices and customs spanning all kinds of cultures to mark the transition to adulthood, often involving challenges, social re-incorporation, and symbolic actions. This extended into the Neolithic period and to the advent of tribal; cultures as well.
Examples of adulthood rituals
Vanuatu’s Land Diving: Young boys jump from a tall tower with a vine tied to their ankles, a ritual believed to ensure a good yam harvest and prove their manliness.
Japanese Genpukku: A coming-of-age ceremony where boys were given adult clothes and a new name, and girls would receive adult clothing in a separate ceremony called moji.
African Initiation Rituals: Young people are withdrawn from their families to live in communal settings, where they learn adult responsibilities like sexual life and marriage, and are given a new name upon rejoining their community.
Ancient Chinese Guan Li: For boys, the “Cap Ceremony” involved a master of ceremonies giving the boy a series of hats, with each new hat signifying a step into adulthood.
Ancient Greek Mentorship: In Ancient Athens, young men were paired with older mentors who guided them through the transition to manhood, a relationship that could have sexual and career-oriented aspects.
Common elements of adulthood transitional customs and rituals
Separation: A ceremony to leave childhood behind.
Liminality: A dream state usually induced through drugs, exhaustion or pain. Eg. “The Spirit Journey”.
Incorporation: The individual is integrated into the adult community with adult status and responsibilities.
Symbolic Actions: Rituals often involve symbolic actions like cutting hair, changing clothes, or receiving a new name to signify the change. Also tattoos, scarification and the like.
Tests of Strength and Knowledge: Many rites involve demonstrating physical strength, courage, or knowledge deemed necessary for adult life.
Education: Ritualistic indoctrination and special knowledge (among the iKung the use of poisons).
Sex. Many “band cultures’ and some tribal cultures allow children freedom experiment with sex and roles. At adulthood many also allow young adults to choose their sexual roles regardless of biological— as with the “two spirit” people of Native Americans.
In other words, what we do in our society is not ‘natural” – it is “nurtural” and reflects the complexity of our very hierarchical and unequal culture, it and its technocratic nature. We are taught be something that we wouldn’t otherwise be.
Paleo cultures did not have “generations”. They did not have “movements”. They had biology and necessity.
Russia?
How about “generations” in other cultures?
Say, Russia which is fast evolving civilization, growing while the West declines?
In Russia there is no GenZ – not as it is defined in the US. The age group 18 to 25 was belongs to what might be termed the Putin era. Some (in the West) call it “the Putin Generation”.
Media and information: These people grew up with digital technologies – not as pervasive or overwhelming ubiquitous as in the US—but still influential.
Intergenerational dynamics: Differences between young and older Russians are mostly differences of perspective and experience. Research shows younger people guiding older relatives through the modern digital world while also receiving historical knowledge from them, transcending generational divides (using “generation” in its proper sense) In the American case, the media concept of “generation” militates against this kind of thing.
Trend creation, cultural innovation: Russian young people innovate to define cultural tastes in fashion, slang, and musical preferences such as their recent interest in nostalgic folk music So do American young people .
Changing societal views: Younger Russians are more tolerant of divergent sexual tastes compared to older generations, while often maintaining conservative religious values.
Varying political perspectives : The young are critical of various political stances and especially local government, they are not a monolithic group and they respond positively to Putin’s efforts to incorporate their participation in national development and his emphasis as their importance.
Why the Generation Meme….
Your thoughts please!
On Nature and love….
Chappy is a feral cat. He spent the first two years of his life wild. He is still wild, afraid of human beings. Fortunately, he does not consider me human. Come to think of it, maybe I am not.
Both Chappy and Ichi “talk” a lot .
And Ichi remembers the lady who looked after him and bottle-fed him as a kitten - fourteen years ago
He is shy just like Chappy and hides when people come ordinarily. . But when she visits and he immediately comes and purrs and cuddles. He does not forget.
If I talk on the phone to her, he listens (cats have 7 to 10 times better hearing then you or I) and purrs.
Who is the superior creature?
The Book for Coffeebuyers
This new line of analysis about “generations’ has proven very helpful in clarifying some of the thinking going into the book now being proofread for upload to coffee buyers, which, while it deals with Russia and Putin, does so in the context of civilizational analysis. I think I am doing the admirable Emmanuel Todd one better in this regard.
Many thanks for the many messages and suggestions. When I finish the book, which will top out at 150 pages, I hope it will have been worth the wait. My challenge is to make it easy to read and digest, without sacrificing depth.
As usual, support our work by buying us coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/julicow.
Uman Thought at it's BEST.
Creating DIVISIONS after DIVISIONS for millennia after millennia. And we still act surprised that degenerate uman animals are always fighting, torturing and culling each other!
These generational labels create consumer ghettos and preformatted identities that are obviously easier to manipulate and exploit by both commerce and propaganda.