Generation-X culture vs Boomer culture

[John]

Each generation drinks its own poison. The poison is different for
each generation, but it's always poison nonetheless:

• The Heroes are so traumatized by the last crisis war that they
  become too authoritarian and drive their children away from them.
  They grow old being lonely and estranged from their children.
• The Artists are caught in the middle of the generation gap during
  the awakening, and they come to power during the Unraveling, where
  they paper over problems because of their indecisiveness. They grow
  old feeling guilty and being blamed for all the short-sighted
  "indecisive" compromise decisions they made.
• The Prophets challenge the Heroes during the awakening. Arrogant,
  narcissistic, idealistic and sure of themselves, they dominate society
  through the Unraveling period, when nothing, including the nation as a
  whole, is as important as the individual. Once the indecisive Artists
  retire, the Prophets' arrogance and rage against their now-deceased
  parents turns to indignation and rage against each other and the
  Nomads. With all the old compromises unraveled, the Prophets supply
  the idealistic visions that lead the nation into a new crisis war.
  They grow old hated by the Nomads.
• The Nomads become disaffected by the Prophets' excoriation, and
  the Nomads return the favor by hating the older Prophets. And the
  Nomads end up being more powerful than the Prophets during the next
  crisis war, because although Prophets provide the vision, Nomads pick
  and choose among the Prophets and decide which of their visions to
  implement. While Prophets are visionaries, Nomads are doers, and they
  implement the programs that lead the nation into the next crisis war.
  They blame the crisis on the Prophets, but grow old becoming bitter
  and reclusive, realizing that their actions caused the crisis.

Note:
Lost Generation are Nomads.
GI Generation are Heroes.
Silent Generation are Artists.
Boomers are Prophets.
Generation-Xers are Nomads.
Millennials are Heroes.
"Homeland Generation" are Artists.

John

[Reality Check]

There is much truth in the Generational Dynamics model.

But I believe there is another change that does not follow a three generation cycle, because it is too young.

Automation of corporate and other large organizational structures.

A human system of corporate knowledge, records and "morality" existed until it was automated out of existence starting in the 1970s and culminating in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Internal organizations of corporate administration and rule enforcement had sizable staffs in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, but after that they were downsized out of existence. Today that staff consists of a corporate vice President setting policy and waiving policy, automated systems to enforce policy subject to waivers by the policy setter, and a few others with no policy related duties.

In the military a large Senior Non-Commissioned Officer staff exists, at least it did until very recently, to enforce the rules and make sure everybody followed them. These individuals could retire after 20 years and were mostly immune to intimidation. They communicated with each other and made any violation of ethics by even the most senior Leaders common knowledge and subject to sanction.

The equivalent of that existed in large corporations during the 1950s, 1960s and part of the 1970s. Since then it has simply been automated out of existence.

This has allowed more and more policy setting powers to be concentrated in fewer and fewer people.

Automation is not a total explanation, but it is another new factor that did not exist 4, 5 or 6 generations ago.

[Tom Acre]

Dear Tom,

> I agree w/ everything except that its a "self-selection
> process". And this is the subtle but extremely important point;
> the Boomers grossly neglected their duty as gatekeepers and
> selected the dishonest Xers. The Boomers thereby shaped the
> institutions they inherited from Silents and GIs into houses of
> fraud.

What you and I are saying is not very different. As I've said,
Boomers are incompetent managers and easily duped, but highly
idealistic. By "self-selection process," I mean that the
honest Xers didn't get hired because they didn't lie, while the
dishonest Xers lied and duped the Boomers, appealing to some
idealistic nonsense. The Boomers were incompetent managers and
incompetent gatekeepers, leading to the fraudulent institutions.

John

We agree, except it was a much more active process by Boomers. The Boomers weren't merely "incompetent managers/gatekeepers". The Boomers wanted the wealth and selfishly, greedily demanded dishonesty and fraud from their subordinates, disposing of anyone who did not comply. These Boomers took the basically ethical organizations they inherited and molded them into the perverse Leviathans of deceit and chicanery that shadow our future.

[John]

These Boomers took the basically ethical
organizations they inherited and molded them into the perverse
Leviathans of deceit and chicanery that shadow our future.

Boomers are far from competent enough to pull this off
by themselves.

John

[Higgenbotham]

These Boomers took the basically ethical
organizations they inherited and molded them into the perverse
Leviathans of deceit and chicanery that shadow our future.

Boomers are far from competent enough to pull this off
by themselves.

John

Competence wasn't the main ingredient required to pull this off; the main ingredients required were ruthlessness and cleverness, which the Boomers possess in spades. Competence and intelligence are required to build a civilization; ruthlessness and cleverness are required to loot a civilization at its apex.

I'm an Xer but was born at the cusp of the Boomer/Xer divide. I believe it is only for that reason that I was able to see through the deceit of the Boomers and explain step by step to my Silent (the few who were left) and Xer colleagues exactly what the Boomer managers were doing.

As far as getting the competence that the Boomers did need, they demanded it...or else.

As an example, one day I was given an assignment by some Boomer managers which was outside my area of responsibility. I was confused. I went to one of my Boomer colleagues who was a cynic from Berkeley and asked him why I was given the assignment. He replied, "It's because they know you will give them lots and lots of technical information and they can pull the information they want out of your report to justify their aims and attribute it as your recommendation." I realized he was absolutely correct. I proceeded to give the Boomer managers lots of technical information, but not the information I knew they wanted. They called repeated meetings and began to beat up on me. The meetings started with 2 Boomer managers and escalated to the point where the department lawyer and personnel became involved. I filed a grievance. During the grievance meeting, I handed information to the top people in the agency, information they did not want. They left the information on the table and got up and walked out of the meeting. As they left, I told them that I would e-mail copies of the information. They ordered me not to.

To give a simple analogy, let's say there are some missing funds. The guy who stole the funds has 3 accounts the funds could have gone to, one in the US and two overseas. The funds are in the 2 overseas accounts. The Boomers tell the Xer to check for missing funds and mention the US account. They say a report is due immediately and to hurry. The Xer is suspicious and learns that there may be overseas accounts. He finds a vague money trail to the overseas accounts. He reports that to the Boomer supervisors. The Boomer supervisors call the Xer in and tell the Xer that a report is due and to check the US account, write the report, and get it in. This in very simple terms is analogous to the situation I was in.


First Known Use of RUTHLESS
14th century

[Higgenbotham]

In 1984, I was hired by a Fortune 500 US based company out of college to help manage a lab in a manufacturing plant. So practically everyone who worked in the facility was a Boomer (under age 40 at the time).

After training and about a week on the job, one of the techs told me, "It's time to empty the bucket." The bucket was a 5 gallon pail that contained about 50% chloroform, a probable human carcinogen. The contents of the bucket were being dumped down the drain on a pretty regular basis. I told my Boomer boss we can't be doing that because the stuff is toxic. He said, oh, OK, and he put a sign over the bucket saying the lab techs had to dump it. I then told him, no, we really can't have anybody dumping the bucket down the drain and we need to get a bid to dispose of it properly. He said, OK, get some bids. So I did and the lowest bid was $5000 per year. My boss was transferred and there was another Boomer boss now, so I gave him the bids. He said $5000 was too much and he wasn't going to spend it. Now, mind you, this was a company that made about a BILLION dollars per year in profit and is in the top 50 Fortune 500 companies.

[John]

Dear Higgie,

> As an example, one day I was given an assignment by some Boomer
> managers which was outside my area of responsibility. I was
> confused. I went to one of my Boomer colleagues who was a cynic
> from Berkeley and asked him why I was given the assignment. He
> replied, "It's because they know you will give them lots and lots
> of technical information and they can pull the information they
> want out of your report to justify their aims and attribute it as
> your recommendation." I realized he was absolutely correct. I
> proceeded to give the Boomer managers lots of technical
> information, but not the information I knew they wanted. They
> called repeated meetings and began to beat up on me. The meetings
> started with 2 Boomer managers and escalated to the point where
> the department lawyer and personnel became involved. I filed a
> grievance. During the grievance meeting, I handed information to
> the top people in the agency; information they did not want. They
> left the information on the table and got up and walked out of the
> meeting. As they left, I told them that I would e-mail copies of
> the information. They orderd me not to.

Well, last week I asked you what their motivation was for screwing
you. Now we know! That must have been a horrible experience
for you.

But your experience doesn't contradict anything I've said. As I
pointed out last week, the Boomer managers were doing the bidding of
the business tycoons and bigwig politicians that you mentioned. The
Boomer managers had been told by the politicians that they needed
regulatory support for whatever you were asked about, and they were
told that next year's budget depended on it. The politicians appealed
to the managers' idealism, and the Boomers' narcissism took over and
they rationalized that whatever they were going to force you to do was
for the good of the world. You stood up to the Boomer managers, but
the Boomer managers didn't stand up the politicians.

I can imagine that the scenario you described was repeated a million
times in financial institutions. The financial engineers told the
Boomer managers that RMBS CDOs were the way to help investors and
customers. If anyone in the organization objected, saying that models
were fraudulent, the financial engineers would complain to the
managers, and the managers would screw the people objecting, just as
you were screwed.

The only way that this situation could arise is from the combination
of Xers and Boomers. Competent managers would have stopped the Xers,
and ethical Xers would not have tried to control the Boomers. You
need both generations, working together, to create the current crisis.

> In 1984, I was hired by a Fortune 500 US based company out of
> college to help manage a lab in a manufacturing plant. So
> practically everyone who worked in the facility was a Boomer
> (under age 40 at the time).

> After training and about a week on the job, one of the techs told
> me, "It's time to empty the bucket." The bucket was a 5 gallon
> pail that contained about 50% chloroform, a probable human
> carcinogen. The contents of the bucket were being dumped down the
> drain on a pretty regular basis. I told my Boomer boss we can't be
> doing that because the stuff is toxic. He said, oh, OK, and he put
> a sign over the bucket saying the lab techs had to dump it. I then
> told him, no, we really can't have anybody dumping the bucket down
> the drain and we need to get a bid to dispose of it properly. He
> said, OK, get some bids. So I did and the lowest bid was $5000 per
> year. My boss was transferred and there was another Boomer boss
> now, so I gave him the bids. He said $5000 was too much and he
> wasn't going to spend it. Now, mind you, this was a company that
> made about a BILLION dollars per year in profit and is in the top
> 50 Fortune 500 companies.

So what happened? Did the chloroform get dumped down the drain
again?

There's a definite difference in tone between this story and your
previous one. In this story, your Boomer boss at least listened to
you, and you don't say anything about being punished for standing up
to him, even if your advice was finally ignored. In your previous
story, you were not simply ignored -- you were actively screwed. I
would call that a difference between the Boomer culture and the Gen-X
culture.

I have stories similar to yours in the computer industry, where my
advice was ignored. In the 1980s, life went on. In the 2000s, I was
screwed. The Boomer culture was stupid and incompetent, but it didn't
have the nasty, vengeful quality of the Gen-X culture -- which is
still continuing.

John

[Higgenbotham]

The Boomer managers had been told by the politicians that they needed
regulatory support for whatever you were asked about, and they were
told that next year's budget depended on it. The politicians appealed
to the managers' idealism, and the Boomers' narcissism took over and
they rationalized that whatever they were going to force you to do was
for the good of the world. You stood up to the Boomer managers, but
the Boomer managers didn't stand up the politicians.

I don't know if this is an accurate depiction of why the Boomer managers did what they did (idealism and narcissism) but it is an accurate description of how the politicians and Boomer managers corrupted the regulatory process. There's one point I would add, though. Politicians don't like agency managements who need to be "told" what to do; they like agency managements who can put their finger in the air and feel the political wind and then "know" what to do without being told.

The story I related appears bad but, paraphrasing Galbraith, what appeared to be bad continued to worsen. I agree that the situation was not unique but was part of an ongoing pattern of behavior within that agency and within other agencies across the country.

So what happened? Did the chloroform get dumped down the drain
again?

My direct experience didn't go beyond what I posted. Shortly thereafter, I assumed my assignment on third shift. That was the expected assignment and wasn't payback for bringing the issue up.

There's a definite difference in tone between this story and your
previous one. In this story, your Boomer boss at least listened to
you, and you don't say anything about being punished for standing up
to him, even if your advice was finally ignored. In your previous
story, you were not simply ignored -- you were actively screwed.

As you noted, one variable is the time differential and it's important. The variable you didn't note was private industry vs government. I have always considered the second variable to be the dominant factor in comparing these situations, though it's certainly correct to say that both the private sector and the government sector worsened with time as the Silents moved out, the Boomers assumed more control, and the Xers moved in.

Government (or any uncompetitive monopoly) employment tends to draw (or create) the type of person who feels entitled, abuses their authority, and lacks responsibility. The managers in government have the lack of profit motive accountability with the resultant luxury of time to create wasteful bureaucratic tortures to satisfy their whims while managers in the competitive private sector simply do not have that luxury.

[gerald]

Government (or any uncompetitive monopoly) employment tends to draw (or create) the type of person who feels entitled, abuses their authority, and lacks responsibility. The managers in government have the lack of profit motive accountability with the resultant luxury of time to create wasteful bureaucratic tortures to satisfy their whims while managers in the competitive private sector simply do not have that luxury.

I am inclined to agree. I spent some time in my earlier years working in a large corporation and witnessed empire building and ass covering. When I became an entrepreneur that kind of activity did not fly, one had to be productive and satisfy your customers or you failed. It can be brutal. I do not mean to imply I am the best, but I survived. I watch the financial events with a kind of morbid amusement, like watching a ship sink .One of the issues that seems to be avoided is what happens when there are more people who want, then those who produce? print money? And of course another issue is, principles and laws. When they mean nothing what then? lies and force? It is all very complicated, but interesting.

Gerald

[John]

Breitling commercial -- Too Late Baby

When commercials come on, I normally mute the tv and ignore them. But
this commercial kept coming on several times a day, so I finally
turned the sound up and paid attention to it, so I could figure out
what was going on.

Here's the plot: Jill rides a motorcycle to a rendezvous with an
unnamed male who arrives in a small plane (P-51 Mustang). She's
apparently a few minutes late, so he points to his $200,000 watch,
indicating that she's "Too late baby." Jill watches his plane take
off. Meanwhile, he's now headed for a new rendezvous, this time with
Anna. As the commercial ends, he's grinning from ear to ear, very
pleased with himself for being wealthy enough to blow off one
beautiful woman, and head for another.

Now, I would consider this commercial an example of the difference
between Gen-X and Boomer cultures, because I find this commercial
absolutely appalling, because the behavior of the Gen-X male is
absolutely appalling.

The issue is not that Boomers wouldn't do the same thing. The
issue is that Breitling is showing this commercial all the time,
and obviously must be selling watches with it. Here are some
comments from the Youtube site:

• Sure my next watch will be a Breitling!!!
• Hehe, nice advert, would have loved to have seen more of
  the Mustang [plane] though
• Coooool !!!
• Got the Breitling.!! Now I want the P-51 Mustang.!!
  Oh and the hot chick wit bike.?!
• Lovely commercial !
• Pro: Wonderful location, nice Mustang, cool bike, hot lady.
  Contra: horrible music (probably royalty free) and very bad acting.
  But anyhow: like it!

Apparently, there were no comments from Boomers, because Boomer
comments would something like the following:

• This commercial is a real turnoff.
• Just because you're wealthy, that doesn't mean you have the right
  to be nasty to people.
• After seeing this commercial, I'd never consider buying
  anything from Breitling

So the difference between the Gen-X and Boomer cultures is that
Gen-Xers approve of this kind of appalling behavior, while
Boomers do not.

One thing that I keep coming back to is that I find the Gen-X culture
very hard to believe. Alan Greenspan said a few years ago how shocked
he had been by how widespread the dishonesty had been in banks in the
early 2000s, leading up to the crisis. This is exactly the same
reaction that I have every time I look into one of these things --
that behavior that I and other Boomers consider to be absolutely
appalling is quite acceptable to Gen-Xers, and is even glorified.

If all it affected were a few hurt feelings on the part of some
supermodel, it wouldn't really make much difference. But it's
exactly this appalling behavior that's caused the financial
crisis, and is lurching us into world war.

This is the new "credibility gap": Boomers can't believe that
Gen-Xers could possibly approve of all this appalling behavior,
and Gen-Xers can't believe that their behavior is causing
the financial crisis and other problems.

John



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhhQP6_yrBk