A post-cynic's manifesto

American Demographics, May 1, 2004 by Matthew Grimm

Did it work? To a degree - companies garnered chunks of markets they otherwise might not have. But, they also accelerated fragmentation. Longing for the days of three channels and undivided attentions, advertisers sought incremental "impressions" by inserting themselves into any new media crevice they could, "peer advisors," "street teams," VNRs too. This onslaught only exacerbated the noise. Mass media, still grasping for Xers dollars, applied boilerplate "creativity" to an ever-consolidating entertainment businesses that drew fewer fans, eyeballs and/or cash transactions.

So, attention shifts to newer, softer-headed youth. Xers don't set the "cutting edge" anymore. Besides, we're overeducated, having fewer kids, getting our news from the Web and not worshipping God as much. We're still a crappy target. "The effort of a Gen X member to survive - to eat, clothe themselves, house themselves, etc. - means that they have to eventually purchase things," says Rushkoff. "They'll need strollers. So then all the corporation has to do is create the illusion that they've produced the stroller in some little cottage business. The only choice for the Gen X member is whether to be conscious of the futility of his or her efforts to buy something without participating in the perpetration of the mass illusion."

Sure, our distrust of authority has borne out in spades, but so what? As Rushkoff puts it, "Our national psyche has descended into something much more like fascism than anti-authoritarianism. Our allegiance to commercial culture above all else will probably cost America its role as a major force for innovation. Gen X was an effort to arrest the development of this cancerous solipsism, this sacrifice of our children for the betterment of the quarterly bottom line." Now, Rushkoff says, that more idealistic concept of Generation X, if not the people itself, "has been quite systematically and intentionally marginalized out of memory. Resistance is futile."