What a great piece - and Mr. Potter is correct, some of us in Gen X (certainly every single person I know) thank our lucky stars repeatedly that we grew, learned, experimented and essentially lived our lives without the glare of social media or smart phones recording every 2nd. It was glorious and frankly, I enjoy being the "forgotten" generation - it is pretty funny that they only remember us when we are guinea pigs. All kidding aside, Mr. Coupland also isn't wrong. My body isn't a petri dish. I happily took the AZ vaccine because I believe in science. I don't believe in uneducated half assed politicians making decisions that can have ramifications for millions of Canadians who took this vaccine. As a Gen Xer, I actually don't expect much from people (particularly politicians) but I do hope for some competence. We have yet to see it from our leaders, Provincial or Federal.
100% on the freedom aspect. I wouldnt trade the freedom I had as a gen-x'er to come into my own for anything today. I really look at the kids in my neighbourhood with a pitying eye. To me they live in some Panopticon nightmare. NO THANKS!
As to all the push back re AZ, I am mixed on that. I got mine back in May. If I had a choice that day, I would have taken Pfizer for a number of reasons. Seemingly better efficacy for one and less downside, even if that downside is relatively miniscule. But AZ was all there was and it seemed a riskier prospect to wait another 3-4 weeks for an mRNA one...
Think of it this way. If someone said, "Would you like one free 649 loto ticket or two free tickets?" How many of us would say, "Doesnt matter. Statistically it makes effectively zero difference. Just give me one"....
As a Gen X'er, I constantly uncover small but significant differences in how I grew up vs. the experiences of a typical Boomer or Millennial. A friend recently asked if I knew anything about a particular Stephen King book that her 14 daughter wanted to read. She was afraid it might be inappropriate. I replied that I read the book when I was 11 and even though it had some horror and decidedly adult content, it was absolutely worth reading. Not long afterwards, I remembered that I bought that book at the mall, to which I had ridden my bike while both parents were working, younger siblings in tow, and paid with money I had earned cutting lawns. I never thought to ask parental permission to read it and my parents likely knew nothing about Stephen King. Would the situation had differed if my parent's could have Googled "Stephen King" or faced social media backlash if I'd posted about reading that book?
Agreed, I'm a middle Boomer which means most fashions, views, marketing & services are shaped before I start to want or need them. As a lifelong career changer, I was caught up in the time of Gen X trying to secure careers or at least some financial viability. As a Boomer raised on the Canadian prairies, I am so thankful for the freedom we had to roam around on bikes, take ourselves to tobogganing hills, play without a lot of structure. Of course, that's a white, middle-class view of life, I know it wasn't so great for many people, but the lack of income disparity & the lower expectations for achievement & acquisition made for a much easier childhood for us than many of today's children.
I love Doug's writing, but you have to be pretty obsessed with your own generation (with him, an occupational hazard, I guess) to think this last year has picked on anybody, generationally speaking, more than the last of the WW2 generation.
Like their WW1 parents before them, "they were trapped on wire and dying in waves", (if you'll just change "wire" to "care home").
If it's Boomers vs. Xers, then the actual casualty figures from StatsCan to date, would be:
1,036 Xers (40-60) and
7,064 Boomers (60-80)
..nearly all the other 17,000 are the Silents and the WW2.
But we're very sorry about the two dead of Ox/AZ, and they'll be getting government payments (unlike the care-home 8,000...)
What a great piece - and Mr. Potter is correct, some of us in Gen X (certainly every single person I know) thank our lucky stars repeatedly that we grew, learned, experimented and essentially lived our lives without the glare of social media or smart phones recording every 2nd. It was glorious and frankly, I enjoy being the "forgotten" generation - it is pretty funny that they only remember us when we are guinea pigs. All kidding aside, Mr. Coupland also isn't wrong. My body isn't a petri dish. I happily took the AZ vaccine because I believe in science. I don't believe in uneducated half assed politicians making decisions that can have ramifications for millions of Canadians who took this vaccine. As a Gen Xer, I actually don't expect much from people (particularly politicians) but I do hope for some competence. We have yet to see it from our leaders, Provincial or Federal.
100% on the freedom aspect. I wouldnt trade the freedom I had as a gen-x'er to come into my own for anything today. I really look at the kids in my neighbourhood with a pitying eye. To me they live in some Panopticon nightmare. NO THANKS!
As to all the push back re AZ, I am mixed on that. I got mine back in May. If I had a choice that day, I would have taken Pfizer for a number of reasons. Seemingly better efficacy for one and less downside, even if that downside is relatively miniscule. But AZ was all there was and it seemed a riskier prospect to wait another 3-4 weeks for an mRNA one...
Think of it this way. If someone said, "Would you like one free 649 loto ticket or two free tickets?" How many of us would say, "Doesnt matter. Statistically it makes effectively zero difference. Just give me one"....
As a Gen X'er, I constantly uncover small but significant differences in how I grew up vs. the experiences of a typical Boomer or Millennial. A friend recently asked if I knew anything about a particular Stephen King book that her 14 daughter wanted to read. She was afraid it might be inappropriate. I replied that I read the book when I was 11 and even though it had some horror and decidedly adult content, it was absolutely worth reading. Not long afterwards, I remembered that I bought that book at the mall, to which I had ridden my bike while both parents were working, younger siblings in tow, and paid with money I had earned cutting lawns. I never thought to ask parental permission to read it and my parents likely knew nothing about Stephen King. Would the situation had differed if my parent's could have Googled "Stephen King" or faced social media backlash if I'd posted about reading that book?
Agreed, I'm a middle Boomer which means most fashions, views, marketing & services are shaped before I start to want or need them. As a lifelong career changer, I was caught up in the time of Gen X trying to secure careers or at least some financial viability. As a Boomer raised on the Canadian prairies, I am so thankful for the freedom we had to roam around on bikes, take ourselves to tobogganing hills, play without a lot of structure. Of course, that's a white, middle-class view of life, I know it wasn't so great for many people, but the lack of income disparity & the lower expectations for achievement & acquisition made for a much easier childhood for us than many of today's children.
I love Doug's writing, but you have to be pretty obsessed with your own generation (with him, an occupational hazard, I guess) to think this last year has picked on anybody, generationally speaking, more than the last of the WW2 generation.
Like their WW1 parents before them, "they were trapped on wire and dying in waves", (if you'll just change "wire" to "care home").
If it's Boomers vs. Xers, then the actual casualty figures from StatsCan to date, would be:
1,036 Xers (40-60) and
7,064 Boomers (60-80)
..nearly all the other 17,000 are the Silents and the WW2.
But we're very sorry about the two dead of Ox/AZ, and they'll be getting government payments (unlike the care-home 8,000...)