Ever since I discovered it was “a thing” I’ve been kind of happy to be a member of Generation X.

I relate to “our” movies and music pretty well, even if my life doesn’t quite epitomize the Gen X dream. (But, really, who’s does? And what is that dream, anyway?)

Once dismissed as “slackers” I think we’ve pretty much proven that, if nothing else, we’re survivors. That’s due in no small part to having so many promises to us broken and so many pie-in-the-sky dreams come crashing down.

One of the big things, of course, is the ongoing disillusionment of the American Dream we were raised on.

That steady diet of “You can do anything!” and “Endless opportunity” was fed to us by our parents (who, at least most of the time, truly believed it–those Baby Boomers were doing very well back in the day, so it seemed sensible) and the media we were soaking in.

Good old Gordon Gecko and his “Greed is Good!” mentality, echoing what we could see on the news nightly. Michael J. Fox showing us The Secret of My Success as he worked his way up from the mail room to a corner office right quick. Even the creeping directionlessness in Reality Bites and the teenage angst turned aggressive nihilism of Heathers had hints of hope and a brighter future if we’d just apply ourselves.

All of that was part of the media culture that targeted us and what helped make us what we are, for better or worse.

I have a feeling you should consider today’s vlog the first part of a series of musings on this. (Though I’m not going to explicitly schedule that out…)

Don’t forget that you have some say over what goes on for the next 100 days… click the big green button below here to get to the page where you can submit topic suggestions and questions (so I know what kinds of things you want to see go on in these videos).

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