ROWAN C MILLAR
  

 THE GENERATION GAP

     

I feel that we are all the victims of a generation gap, or
rather a generation gap mentality. Maybe just a general gap
between everyone. I can't say for sure how new of a thing 
this is, because I've not been around very long. I think 
that Baby Boomers are the big generation, the main generat-
ion to have real solidarity and be seen as a whole, and all 
of us that have come after have been to some degree in the 
shadow of Baby Boomers. I find that we are curious about 
Boomers but we often try to hide that curiosity, along with
our admiration, and we try and be something "different
but the same." 

Many of us have the sense that the 60's and 70's were 
good times and were a cultural peak, but we're not sure how 
to relate that to ourselves. I'm not sure how much of our 
lack of respect to Boomers is spontaneous, or how much it 
stems from Boomers' own ideas of how older generations 
should be treated. Maybe using the term "us" is not quite 
appropriate, because I'm unusual in the way that I have a 
lot of respect for Boomers and am notashamed to admit it or 
to try to delve into bits of Boomer culture that I find. 
And I don't always blame my fellow Gen Yers and Xers for 
not doing the same, so much as I wish they weren't cut off, 
as they are, from the fascinating culture of Boomers.

I think much of the problem is a lack of communication 
between parents and their children, the kind of deafening 
silence we read about in autobiographies that I'm sure 
pervades American culture. My parents have been rather 
generous with their telling of interesting facts and stories, 
and they are both Boomers, both 53. It's hard for me to 
fathom a life without that, not that it would be necessarily 
unbearable, nor has my life been easy for me. There is the 
famous Woodstock in '69 which everyone knows about and many 
have even seen the video of and there is a general respect 
for it among us and a belief that it was a good time, but 
what of the culture that spawned it? As my uncle (another 
Boomer) tells me, the idea that Woodstock is the essence 
of the 60's is a misrepresentation, as it was actually more 
like an end to the serious solidarity of the yearspreceding 
it. He says that Woodstock represented the beginning of the 
party mode of the 70's which didn't involve as much idealism. 
I'm sure that's not entirely true, because in the 70's and 
even the 80's and 90's there have been great evolutions of 
idealism, but I see his point. His point is that people focus 
on this big drugladen music festival like that's all there 
was to the 60's, like there weren't changes in mass 
consciousness,like it wasn't a diverse time with lots of 
interesting things that had nothing to do with Woodstock.

 What about all the tiny Woodstock-like things that happened? 
The love-ins and sit-ins and communes and rallies and books 
and discussions and ideas? What about the cultural renaissance 
that swept the world where in people were no longer confined to 
such narrow lifestyles, wherein people were allowed to fuse to-
gether what they liked from multiple cultures? What about the 
war and all of the social changes that happened among those both 
in favor of it and against it? Not to say that hasn't been 
recorded at all, and maybe it's been recorded much better than 
similar things have in the past, but I still long for more.

 In terms of the "counterculture" or "subculture,"people 
often don't tell their children or often even their peers about 
their past experiences out of fear. It's kind of like mass 
denial. How else can a society learn from its mistakes and gain 
from its achievements, though? People are generally encouraged 
to talk to their kids as much as possible and to read them 
stories, but I don't find much encouragement of storytelling 
itself. There are obviously vast differences between the way 
different people view the past, but is silence the best solution? 

 I think that more cross-generational dialogue would make 
our culture much richer. This is an amazing time, but the past 
is amazing also and it's full of things that would seem almost
pointless were they not to be told to anyone. All of the 
adventures, all of the experimentation and enlightenment, so 
much has been done that seems to have been done for the purpose 
of posterity, with a story in mind. So much that has been done 
as though there were multitudes watching, people living their 
lives as if in a book or a movie. And yet young people these 
days generally are clueless about the past. I'd like to talk 
more about "Boomers' own ideas of how older generations should 
be treated. " Baby Boomers are famous for being at odds with 
the generation of their parents, giving rise to the "Don't 
Trust Anyone Over 30" trip, and a general celebration of youth.
This idea about parental relations could have, even sub-
sonsciously, molded the minds of Boomers' own children who 
Boomersmight've had trouble imagining being any different 
from themselves. Obviously, even if this is true, there are
vast exceptions, and I think parental relations have made 
many leaps forward on many levels. Still, I think there was a
side to the Boomers' war against The System/The Man/their 
parents that involved a lot of tearing down and not as much
building up. 

As I write this I'm reminded of the incredible effort I've 
seen Boomers (including my parents) put into child rearing, I 
want to give credit where it's suandrely due, but I still think 
it all deserves looking into. What it kind of boils down to is 
my belief that generations needn't suffer such casualties 
warring between each other.  Right now there are vast 
possibilities and vast pitfalls and I envision more of a joined 
effort, I pray for one, I pray for us to set aside differences 
long enough to work on our overwhelming amount of common needs. 
Maybe the Internet will help this kind of thing take place. 
Truthfully, I'm not real into computers and I hope that we 
aren't reliant on them for this kind of thing, and that we can 
just do it, as it were. I actually am vaguely planning to start 
up some kind of discussion/true storytelling program or 
something, probably involving Boomers International. In a way 
I feel it's my duty, as one whose parents haven't withheld
much information, to try to share with others the blessing. 
There've been times I've wanted to have nothing to do with my 
parents, when I even wanted to erase any hint of them from my-
self, but it's not realistic or historically well advised to
have to start from scratch. Many my age would initially reject
an offer of stories of their elders' past, and I'm not sug-
gesting it be forced on them. 

I think the entertainment industry is possibly partly to 
blame for gaps between generations. They market different things 
to different generations,and often capitalize on the feelings of 
elite grandeur and such of various age groups and social castings. 
It's proven that we as a society can be very unified, and our 
hospitals and police and whatnot amaze me constantly with their 
efficiency. I see no reason why we shouldn't take things further 
instead of wallowing in the mire of hopelessness.

I've decided to use this last paragraph to talk about little 
backpacks. They may have nothing to do with generations or gaps 
or anything along those lines, but I feel they demand scrutiny, 
and this seems as good a place as any to do it. When I say little 
backpacks, I mean those little tiny ones, usually black and I 
suppose leather, that so many girls and women have started 
wearing enmasse these last few years. Please let me say:I hate 
them. My hatred stems partly from a deep love for regular 
backpacks, even the huge ones used for longterm hiking/camping, 
great vesicles for anything a heart desires to carry. Then along 
come the little backpacks. As if to say "Women have no business 
carrying anything bigger than a makeup kit" or some such. There 
were already fanny packs and purses...I'll end my complaining 
there. 

Rowan C. Millar is a Generation Y'er.  
 
He lives in Silicon Valley. 
 
 


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