Intergenerational dynamics in america, curious on opinions!
Diagnosising america, and gen z
So I am a gen z guy here. I am very interested in psychology and have had the good fortune of not going to college. What is my intent with this article? It is simply to understand how other gen Z guys and girls feel as well as to accurately describe the angers and resentments amongst gen z. What I hope to accomplish is to inspire others to relate their stories as well as provide some solutions on how things get better.
There are 3 players in this game. Gen Z, us. Gen x (Gen x and millenials) our parents, and the boomers, their parents. Let's dig.
In order to understand the boomers, I will share my personal life experience. This will help breakdown the psychological intergenerational relationships prevalent in modern society:
My experience as a Gen zer is that as a kid I felt very happy. I grew up in your typical middle class house with a middle class family. However, as I got older I noticed more and more that the average adult was depressed as well as i guess, weak and broken to an extent. What I noticed about Gen x specifically was two things: 1) a lot of men were afraid to assert themselves in the way that adults should in order to provide a kid a reciprocal stability in their life... and 2) the women of Gen x were avid liberals. The women were the ones entrenched within the school systems and these were steeped in being overly compassionate and a destructive feminine ethos akin to Carl jungs "devouring mother". Basically the devouring mother prevents a child from leaving the nest for her own political gain within a family. The school system i grew up on stifled male aggression and forced us to sit down and learn about things that are so morbidly irrelevant to becoming independent adults that it should be a crime. The men in Gen x had little to do against this, as this generation in my estimate is even more lost than us because they resent status (i will go into this later)
After graduating school, I realized the severity of the financial crisis first hand. I've been jumping between having roommates at an apartment, and living with my parents amidst this crisis whilst struggling to save money. Fortunately I went through the blue collar route instead of the college one which we can all say with certainty is an indoctrination camp that costs a second mortgage for several years. I have not used my parents money in order to escape this, instead my goal is to establish myself by myself. As a result I can relate to a lot of peoples struggles.
Gen x: for Gen X, we see a heavy anti authoritarian movement in the 90s known as the grunge movement. You gotta ask where this comes from... it is definitely the boomers. Gen x suffered first hand from what we all know to be the most entitled generation in America which are the boomers. As a result, I beleive a lot of men in Gen x to have become weak father figures-they resent status as it reminds them of their tyrannical fathers. Therefore the parenting style of Gen x reflects this: they try to be the compassionate parents they desperately wished to have. This of course is naive, as compassion is only half the puzzle to embodying a genuine father archetype whilst the other half is reciprocal, intelligent assertiveness.
Here is the intergenerational dynamic:
Boomers=tyrannical, entitled
Gen x=anti authority, compassionate. Women=haters of men
And Gen z. We are pitted against a dispute between our fathers and the boomers. Since Gen x resents authority and is overly compassionate, they compensate for their lack of assertiveness by ignoring their children and giving them everything in life. Gen z is characterized by immorality: hook up culture,
Mental health issues, and
No solid footing in the housing market
Gen x's solution is simple: they dont want to stand up to their parents and are exhausted by the corrupt system. Therefore they try to "help" Gen z by allowing them to live with them indefinitely as well as try to be supportive of Gen z, when its really the case that Gen x is lazy and weak.
What does this mean the solution is? Well since the boomers sold america out (allowing corruption to take place in the 60s) for a paycheck and to appear outwardly successful, Gen xs role should be to call this out for once. Why are there ABSOLUTELY NO PEOPLE contending with this housing crisis? Heres what I would do if i was a Gen xer:
stop ignoring the sadness of betrayal caused by the boomers
stop giving gen z everything to compensate and hide from your resentments
take the boomers wealth back from them, and reassert a more healthy masculinity in the american spirit
This could look like this: open a housing complex for section 8 tenants. A section 8 tenant uses the american system (created by the boomers) to give the boomers cheap housing and in return you get $1400/m paid via the system. This means that you will be buying cheap housing for the boomers, and not only are they now moving out of their houses but now you are also using their own system against them and making money via it. Step 2: reinvest this income in apartments and townhouses for gen z. Use discernment and be selective, find someone who wants to do good in this world-and offer this house to gen z at a discount rate.
Under this system, the boomers will lose their wealth to gen x, gen x will regain their dignity, and gen z will have a more stable footing to become productive members of society instead of being in a constant resentment driven power struggle against both gen x and the boomers.