Generations

Around the same time Douglas Copeland was publishing Generation X , Peter Strauss and Neil Howe were publishing Generations. The Strauss and Howe book interprets history as a repeating pattern of interplay between the generations and makes predictions based on those generational dynamics.

The Strauss and Howe theory is interesting - their historical interpretation is spot on in a number of cases. But I have some misgivings. One is that their interpretation means human kind will be endlessly repeating the same dynamics ad naseum with similar results. I tend to believe in evolution and believe we can change. A second issue is that their model does not take the rate of change into account, which has been accelerating for the past few hundred years.

I fall somewhere on the cusp as to whether my birthdate makes me a boomer or a Gen Xer. Culturally and politcally, I am much more aligned with the Gen X camp than the boomer camp. I definitely prefer the Clash over the Beatles. If I had a vote, I would have voted for Obama over McCain (might be regretting that a little bit now though)

But recently I found out that one social scientist was positing a new mini generation Generation Jones that straddles the cusp. Mmmm kind of works.

So who are we ?. I guess time will tell.