We just assumed you could handle it. Our bad.
Apparently, we were wrong. We apologize.
Who am I kidding, no we don't.
We stood in between unquestioning servitude and self-defeating ideology, and took the hit. We were raised by people who lived by the creed that children should be seen and not heard. That a person was not a person until they had “made it”. That every adult had the God-given responsibility to “keep an eye” on everyone else's kids.
We weren't feral or abandoned. We lived each day deeply sensing that all public spaces were shared spaces. We enjoyed the safety net of a community that, yes, would correct you if you stepped out of line. But, the same safety net was always just a cry for help away should you get in over your head.
We got spanked. Sometimes at school. Sometimes in public. Was it the ideal teaching tactic? Not always. Too often, it was just a punishment without context. But it was an immediate, physical reminder of the boundaries that so many pop-psy blogs instead conjure up out of pseudo-empathetic ether. It was a form of touch, harsh at times, but still a touch. It stood in direct opposition to the current ethos; “Don't you dare touch me in any way that challenges my view of the world or my personal comfort.”
Gen X was the OG slacker generation. We learned from our grandparents and parents the false kind of sacrifice that gave everything to industry and left nothing to family. We saw the wilted Flower Child, first hand,and the fantasy of unrestrained self indulgence. We saw AIDS kill. No vaccine or therapy should erase that. So forgive us for feeling uneasy when the cry of “Love is all you need” is raised again.
We didn't grow up with digital distraction, but it nicely fills our desire to pretend like we don't care while giving us a giant megaphone for snark. We breathe in that contradiction with glee.
Gen X Didn't Break the World. Neither did the Boomers, the Zoomers, or the avocado toast crowd (just a bit of fun, little brothers). Division did. Our point of view may be more cynical, less performative, and less all-inclusive. Any rational person has to see that not all viewpoints are acceptable. It's a question of where to draw the line.
That line doesn't have to be a dividing line. It can be a conversation.
We've got skills, let's talk.
