Our life is marked by the experience that everything is getting better: we trust in the future. The first great collective catastrophe that we experienced caught us approaching middle age: the pandemic of 2020. They also call us the generation of the key, because many of us carried the house key hanging around our necks.
I recently discovered that I belong to generation X. I found out because I read an article on Genbeta.com, which publishes curious things about the company and work. They explained that generation Z already surpasses boomers in the world of work. I noticed that it did not belong to either of them, nor was there any mention of our contribution to the productive effort. I started to investigate and it turns out that those of us in Generation So this lack of concern for the generation to which one belongs is not my fault. My son knew what his was long before I knew mine.
Nothing is coincidental, those of us born between 1965 and 1980 are a generation in the shadows: children of the boomers – who overwhelm us in numbers – and parents of the millennials, who have the modern and mythical aura of those who are new to the millennium.
Those of us who are between 44 and 59 years old today are the lucky generation. Our grandparents lived through a civil war. Our fathers and mothers suffered from hunger and post-war repression. That phrase that our grandmothers told us when we didn’t want yogurt – “it’s obvious that you haven’t been through a war” – has made us adults aware of our privilege. Our life is marked by the experience that everything is getting better: we trust in the future. The first great collective catastrophe we experienced caught us approaching middle age: the 2020 pandemic.
They also call us the key generation, because many of us wore the key to our house hanging around our necks. Our mothers had joined the labor market and we arrived every afternoon with our brothers to an empty house. Of course, we still enjoy quality public education. We learned to make ourselves a sandwich and heat our breakfast on the gas stove very carefully, because there was no microwave. We did our homework without our mother sitting next to us. And we enjoyed hours and hours of play with hardly any adult supervision. That has made us responsible, free and creative. Since we are the shadow generation, there are not many books about us but a few years ago Jeff Gordinier wrote a very interesting one: X saves the world: how generation X was left behind, but can prevent everything from being a disaster.
Gordinier affirms that we X are skeptical, we do not blindly follow anyone and it is difficult for us to become fanatics; We are more pragmatic than idealistic and we look for the best solutions to problems. The author assures that we are a creative generation (the one that made the brilliant Pulp Fiction). We are marked by political disillusionment, but precisely because of this, we have learned to resist and persevere in the search for solutions. According to Gordinier, generation X is the best prepared to face current challenges such as climate change or geopolitical instability.
In our experience things always improve. On the other hand, our children become adults in the narratives of extinction: the climatic or the religious-cultural one, depending on whether their family conversations have been articulated around global or national values. They have opportunities to travel and enjoy leisure anywhere in the world, which were unaffordable for us. However, in two of the issues that ensure people’s vital security (work and home) they are treading on quicksand. Being from the lucky generation, I was able to pay rent with my first salary and, at the age of 29, buy an apartment whose mortgage took up a tolerable 25% of my income.
Generation X is in power today. Among the members of the current government of Spain, there are three boomers and two millennials; the remaining seventeen are X. I suspect that in the business world the proportions will be similar. We are obliged to use that power and influence to spread our good fortune with beneficial measures for the youngest. To do this we have creativity, pragmatism and resilience. And in political terms, I can’t think of a more appealing plan than creating a better life for our children.
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