March 07, 2008

The Generation Gap

Miscommunication and pride are the primary reasons for the generation gap. These traits are quietly encouraged in society and are filtered through media (whatever form it may be). The family unit must relinquish attachment to these constrictive ideas. Families should communicate honestly without fear of consequence. Comment from digg: An interesting article, if a little skinny on the substace side. I personally beam off generational theories and often bring them into my work as a therapist so I was pleased to see that the article emphasised the need for communication between the generations. Personally, I think the main problem is that different generations view their own formative period as a tempalte for the world at large (so for the Great Generation it was the 40's and the Baby Boomers it was 60's) and while this is understandable enough, it can become a very rigid construct and we also have a tendency to glorify the past. For example, the experience of the Great Generation in the war arguably led them to crave for a world where 'saftey' was the ultimate goal (understandable enough if you had experienced the horros of WWII). However, this in turn led to a very conformist view of how people should behave and ultimately precipitated the counter culture revolution.The real doozy in all this is the baby boomers who are a bit of a spanner in the works. After the great progressive gains of the counter culture revolution, hope finally gave way to the cynacism of the 70's and in this lay the seeds of the Raegan/Thatcher agenda which, in itself ran completely at odds with the counter cultre. Yet somehow, it was the Baby Boomers who were the ones who (partially at least) championed this approach and today (I'm speaking from a UK perspective here) we see a horrible demonisation of youth (Generation Y)by the very generation that sought to liberate the young. This will come to a crunch in the coming years as the Baby Bommers grow old and put a huge strain on the welfare state that they are partially responsible for dismatling. Add into the mix that Generation X will soon be taking control of the levers of power and we have a very volatile mix (there is a feeling amongst some in Generation X that they were royally shafted by the Baby Boomers...and not without some justification)...brace thyselves for more inter-generational confli

read more | digg story

No comments:

ShareThis