I’m annoyed by this on principle and across the board, but I do want to point out that “Greatest Generation” all the way to “Baby Boomers” makes zero sense in most of the planet. You can sooooort of get away with Millenials to Alpha because the Internet is a bad idea, and Gen X at least applies to probably most of Europe as well as the US and Canada, although it’s still weird across the board.
But everything before that? Super specifically US-only.
Those generations are common like that at least in Germany too. It’s not as specific as you think. And even if it was then it’s made up regardless so who cares. It’s a useful concept.
I don’t think the names are particularly relevant, but the idea that people born in those years have done shared experience notably different from other times is—to the extent it can ever be true for any specified dates (which is a very low extent)—fairly consistent across at least western countries and their colonies.
Is it? I mean, to start with the obvious, not every Western country was on the same side of WW2, and not all of them had the fighting happen in their territory, which means not all of them were levelled. And not all of them were Marshall planned after. And of course not all of them were on the same bloc during the Cold War. Gonna guess the Polish have a slightly different recollection of the 70s and 80s. Which then means for a whole bunch of post-soviet countries the 90s played out very differently, too. And of course the 90s probably had a slightly different flavour if you were in or around former Yugoslavia. And that’s Europe, don’t get me started on South America, which is fairly Western, last I checked. I don’t even need to start thinking about Africa or Asia.
Post-9/11, maaaybe. Before? You’re glossing over so much stuff it’s hard to even conceptualize it.
Can you bundle people consistently based on what age they had relative to specific events in history and the shared culture that results from it? Sure.
Is the experience of each of those bundles of people homogeneous worldwide or even in any arbitrary slice of “Western world” you want to pick? Absolutely not.
not every Western country was on the same side of WW2, and not all of them had the fighting happen in their territory, which means not all of them were levelled. And not all of them were Marshall planned after.
This isn’t actually relevant to my point. They didn’t have the same experience as other Boomers (or whichever generation) in other countries, but did have a notably different experience from Xers (or whatever) in their own country. Because it may not have been in identical ways, but yes, every western country was affected by WWII in some ways. Even those like my own that never saw conflict at home. So the experience of being born in the immediate aftermath of the war is a handy generation-defining experience, even if what that experience translates into is different for a German compared to a Brit, or to an Australian.
Of course, it’s also fair to say that there’s a much bigger difference between a German born in 1946 and one born in 1963 than there is between two Germans born in 1963 and 1965, even though one case has two “boomers” and the other a boomer and gen X. And in either case, the experience of someone in West Berlin is probably extremely different from someone from Hamburg, from someone born in the small town of Deesdorf. And for someone born to wealthy parents or poor. Generations help categorise, and the rough boundaries we use are roughly useful, but that’s a lot of rough.
Can you bundle people consistently based on what age they had relative to specific events in history and the shared culture that results from it? Sure.
Is the experience of each of those bundles of people homogeneous worldwide or even in any arbitrary slice of “Western world” you want to pick? Absolutely not.
Or, to go back to the very first post:
I’m annoyed by this on principle and across the board, but I do want to point out that “Greatest Generation” all the way to “Baby Boomers” makes zero sense in most of the planet. You can sooooort of get away with Millenials to Alpha because the Internet is a bad idea, and Gen X at least applies to probably most of Europe as well as the US and Canada, although it’s still weird across the board.
But everything before that? Super specifically US-only.
So… is there a point you’re making in addition to mine? Because you sound like you disagree, but what you wrote doesn’t seem to disagree.
My point was that the dates can stay the same regardless of where you go, even if the stereotypes change.
What it seems like you were saying is that the dates themselves become irrelevant if you leave America. If that’s not what you meant, your comment lacked clarity.
Can you bundle people consistently based on what age they had relative to specific events in history and the shared culture that results from it? Sure.
I mean, I don’t know how much clearer that can be about not saying what you say I’m saying. Yes, you can bundle people consistently on how old they were during the dotcom bubble or 9/11 or whatever else. That’s the same thing you’re saying. I mean, very clearly what you’re saying.
For the record, that doesn’t mean everybody will react to those events the same way. 9/11 didn’t matter as much in some places of the world as it did in the US or in the countries unlucky enough to be on the reciving end of whatever the hell the US was doing immediately after.
But insofar people of a certain age experience history and culture together, it’s a global-enough situation to tag the people that lived that period together. Under no circumstance are Polish or Romanian people who were young adults in the 80s and 90s “Gen X”, though. That makes zero sense relative to the reference Gen X is going for. They weren’t the aimless drones of capitalism seeking meaning in a lifelong peacetime, they were in “holy shit, stuff is going down” revolutionary mode in a way the US Gen Xers weren’t even in living memory of at all. That’s not Gen X. That’s the opposite of Gen X.
Right. That’s my point, though. Depending on where you are in the world and how joined at the hip with the US you are culturally this particular set will start making sense at a different point. In some cases not at all.
Where I am millenials are the first that definitely sync up. Up until GenX we are in a completely different set. I bet in other parts of the world even with how fully online we all are even then it doesn’t click.
I’m annoyed by this on principle and across the board, but I do want to point out that “Greatest Generation” all the way to “Baby Boomers” makes zero sense in most of the planet. You can sooooort of get away with Millenials to Alpha because the Internet is a bad idea, and Gen X at least applies to probably most of Europe as well as the US and Canada, although it’s still weird across the board.
But everything before that? Super specifically US-only.
Those generations are common like that at least in Germany too. It’s not as specific as you think. And even if it was then it’s made up regardless so who cares. It’s a useful concept.
You are telling me Germans consider people born in the first 20 years of the 20th century to be “the greatest generation”?
Holy crap, you may hang out with the wrong Germans. Did they seem particularly excited about the recent NRW elections?
I don’t think the names are particularly relevant, but the idea that people born in those years have done shared experience notably different from other times is—to the extent it can ever be true for any specified dates (which is a very low extent)—fairly consistent across at least western countries and their colonies.
Is it? I mean, to start with the obvious, not every Western country was on the same side of WW2, and not all of them had the fighting happen in their territory, which means not all of them were levelled. And not all of them were Marshall planned after. And of course not all of them were on the same bloc during the Cold War. Gonna guess the Polish have a slightly different recollection of the 70s and 80s. Which then means for a whole bunch of post-soviet countries the 90s played out very differently, too. And of course the 90s probably had a slightly different flavour if you were in or around former Yugoslavia. And that’s Europe, don’t get me started on South America, which is fairly Western, last I checked. I don’t even need to start thinking about Africa or Asia.
Post-9/11, maaaybe. Before? You’re glossing over so much stuff it’s hard to even conceptualize it.
Can you bundle people consistently based on what age they had relative to specific events in history and the shared culture that results from it? Sure.
Is the experience of each of those bundles of people homogeneous worldwide or even in any arbitrary slice of “Western world” you want to pick? Absolutely not.
This isn’t actually relevant to my point. They didn’t have the same experience as other Boomers (or whichever generation) in other countries, but did have a notably different experience from Xers (or whatever) in their own country. Because it may not have been in identical ways, but yes, every western country was affected by WWII in some ways. Even those like my own that never saw conflict at home. So the experience of being born in the immediate aftermath of the war is a handy generation-defining experience, even if what that experience translates into is different for a German compared to a Brit, or to an Australian.
Of course, it’s also fair to say that there’s a much bigger difference between a German born in 1946 and one born in 1963 than there is between two Germans born in 1963 and 1965, even though one case has two “boomers” and the other a boomer and gen X. And in either case, the experience of someone in West Berlin is probably extremely different from someone from Hamburg, from someone born in the small town of Deesdorf. And for someone born to wealthy parents or poor. Generations help categorise, and the rough boundaries we use are roughly useful, but that’s a lot of rough.
OK, but… you just said the same thing I said.
To reiterate:
Or, to go back to the very first post:
So… is there a point you’re making in addition to mine? Because you sound like you disagree, but what you wrote doesn’t seem to disagree.
My point was that the dates can stay the same regardless of where you go, even if the stereotypes change.
What it seems like you were saying is that the dates themselves become irrelevant if you leave America. If that’s not what you meant, your comment lacked clarity.
That is explicitly not what I’m saying.
I mean, I don’t know how much clearer that can be about not saying what you say I’m saying. Yes, you can bundle people consistently on how old they were during the dotcom bubble or 9/11 or whatever else. That’s the same thing you’re saying. I mean, very clearly what you’re saying.
For the record, that doesn’t mean everybody will react to those events the same way. 9/11 didn’t matter as much in some places of the world as it did in the US or in the countries unlucky enough to be on the reciving end of whatever the hell the US was doing immediately after.
But insofar people of a certain age experience history and culture together, it’s a global-enough situation to tag the people that lived that period together. Under no circumstance are Polish or Romanian people who were young adults in the 80s and 90s “Gen X”, though. That makes zero sense relative to the reference Gen X is going for. They weren’t the aimless drones of capitalism seeking meaning in a lifelong peacetime, they were in “holy shit, stuff is going down” revolutionary mode in a way the US Gen Xers weren’t even in living memory of at all. That’s not Gen X. That’s the opposite of Gen X.
Maybe not that. But the silent generation onwards.
Right. That’s my point, though. Depending on where you are in the world and how joined at the hip with the US you are culturally this particular set will start making sense at a different point. In some cases not at all.
Where I am millenials are the first that definitely sync up. Up until GenX we are in a completely different set. I bet in other parts of the world even with how fully online we all are even then it doesn’t click.