Our generation will be remembered like our grandparents are
We often think of what our grandparents time must have been like, with the Kennedy’s and Luther King’s, but with all this history now, we can be sure that our grandchildren will think of us in the same historical light.
By Wilson Dizard on Thursday, November 13th, 2008 - 407 words.
Read this interesting message from Fareed Zakaria. He says Obama has the opportunity to both realign the old political order of the Reagan-Thatcher right and the Clinton-Blair left. He says that Reagan’s revolution has been exhausted. Also, he says that Obama has the ambition and the opportunity to be as influential to the future course American politics as FDR was. There are real similarities, I think, between Obama and FDR, but he’s also like two RFKs and half an MLK.
Many, many black people at the Ohio Democratic Party’s victory party on Tuesday night were crying. Some of them were engaging in what looked like some Pentacostal poses, witnessing the miraculous election. I remember seeing this one rather large black woman look somewhat entranced, feet planted firmly on the ballroom floor, back straight, and left arm outstretched. It was pretty bizarre.
I just remembered that my friend Ben Leubsdorf, who now works for the AP in Detroit, went with his parents to the Democratic National Convention in Boston back in ’04 and Ben snagged me a sweet original Obama poster. That poster remains above the mirror on my wall. It is now a billion times sweeter than it was when I got it.
I was talking to my friends tonight about how people will talk about us as people today talk about my grandparents’ generation, at least in the amount of shit we’ve had to deal with already in our short lives, as well as the miracles we witnessed. Secular miracles, of course, like the moon landing. The internet is a good example.
Of course, that’s all a bit narcissitic. It’s possible that people born in the mid-1980s will be as inconsequential to human history and unchallenged by war and calamity as those nuts born in the mid 1970s, that useless Generation X. Screw those guys and their start-ups and their lattes and their gadgets. They don’t know what pain is.
Of course, since we don’t do wars like we used to, probably nobody will know how strange American life can get like those my grandparents age.
Finally, I’ll say that Barack Obama is the first American President who, if such an election were to be held, would win the entire planet by an enormous landslide. That’s the re-alignment I find fascinating. In the past, the rest of the world was either too hostile or too disillusioned or too indifferent to American politics for such a thing to be said. Think about it.
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Interesting post and blog. Relevantly, many prominent experts and publications have pointed out that Obama is part of Generation Jones, born 1954-1965, between the Boomers and GenXers.
This link takes you to a page you may find interesting: it has, among other things, excerpts from publications like Newsweek and the New York Times, and videos with over 25 top pundits, all talking specifically about Obama’s identity as a GenJoneser:
http://www.generationjones.com/2008election.html
I just wanted to say, for some reason, that I didn't come up with the limp wristed title for this story. Matt Kennard did. If I'd had my way, it'd be “Will the future be as terrible as the past?” or ''Earning Respect from the Future by Living through Calamities of all Sorts” or, finally, ''Life's an Adventure of Pain and Fear, but at Least you Get a Cheap Bus Pass and Movie Ticket towards the End, if You're Lucky to Live that Long.” Please pick your favorite of these three and consider it the title.
Dizard, write a coherent argument that I can follow, and your title will write itself, everyone one of you graphs has its own headline, it's an editors nightmare brother….
About GenJoneser, interesting
“Life's a Bitch, Then You Get Respect, Then You Die.”
We all have a lot to learn from Nas.
Also, ''our'' generation wasn't the best way of putting things. That's my mistake, I should have caught it. I really mean ''my'' generation, which might be yours if you're reading this. Or, of course, you could have lived for more than 2 decades and some change.
As long as I'm on the internet, I'll make a pointless comment about music. I do this because no one can stop me. I'll keep it short. ''Swagga'' is an excellent song, featuring K. West, Jay Z., Lil Wayne, and T.I., in that order, rapping about their various exploits. One line I particularly enjoy:
“Can't wear skinny jeans 'cus my knots too thick.”
-Jay Z, talking about his wads of cash and how they can't fit in skinny hipster pants. Walle, another rapper and Washington D.C.'s only one to have attained any sort of respect and fame, talks about his fondness for skinny pants and bright shoes. Check out Walle, too.
While I'll say that not all of each artist's musical canon is perfect, indeed some songs are mediocre or unlistenable, especially in T.I.'s case, but each of them really pulls it off in this single. The rappers rap over a short sample from M.I.A.'s “Paper Planes,” another great song. They just choose M.I.A. saying ''Non one on the corner had swagga like us” and take it from there.
Well, that concludes my commenting on my own story. You, dear reader, if you are reading this, should comment immediately, because other factories of comments are kicking our ass in today's tought market for comments. Meanwhile, I must excuse my self and use the bathroom.
Hey, interesting story. I just now stumbled on your blog and am already a fan.