Relationships Between Generations

For whatever reason, the Source did not choose to say anything on the topic.  She didn't even enlighten us as to why she had been interested in suggesting it.  Not only that, but she made no contributions during the meeting or at the end to sum up the ideas that she agreed with.

First one Intent Learner read off what seemed to be a Wikipedia definition of the "generations" of the past few decades of the US, with the idea of making the point that we as a society like to believe that members of the same group that has seen the same events and experienced the same up-bringing must be the same.  The problem, of course, is that the terms like "Greatest Generation" or "Gen X" are promoted by the media to give us an easy stereotype to use, not a real analysis of the full population that makes up each social generation, which is a fairly artificial division anyway.  The people within each generation have little that unites them besides somebody's division of time; the ones born at the end will have more in common with the next generation than their own and the ones born at the beginning with the preceding generation.  This is simply because time is a gradually rolling out phenomenon rather than something that can be neatly divided into portions with practically no overlap.  When we talk about relationships between generations, it makes little sense to talk about these media produced ideas unless we are considering the memes that we accept to represent the real personalities of real people.  The ideals and goals of real people are forged by their life experiences, and while there may be some shared inspiration from common socio-cultural experiences, these events do not limit themselves to affecting only one "generation", but are felt by all.  Every group of people will have members who are "altruistic", "cynical" or "humanitarian" but it is unlikely that that particular characteristic will be significantly more observable in a group whose births cover an arbitrarily chosen span of time.  The only way to discuss relationships between generations, in my opinion, is in the family context.  This is the only area where the lines are clear.  And what about those relationships?  As in all human interactions, respect should be the foundation of our relationships with each other, respect for fellow, individual human beings.  However, it seems many people of older generations are not quite able to see those of a younger generation as complete people, especially their own children, who are merely an extension of themselves.  The adolescent rebellion that often takes place as children become adults and create their adult selves can be seen as a personal attack, since the easiest way to show one's independence from another is to stand in contrast rather than in symphony.  Depersonalization from both sides prevents honest and useful communication, and impedes the development of an open and desirable relationship.  In short, aside from the responsibilities of making sure immature individuals reach maturity, the relationships between generations have no significant difference from those we have with any other person.

The Actress was fixated on the "generation gap" and the conflicts it brings with it.  In her own family, she found the older generations to be much too strict and inflexible, unable to adapt to changing social attitudes toward behavior, particularly in women.  A newcomer brought up the attitudes that children have towards their teachers, saying there was a definite lack of "respect" in the old style today.

The True Philosopher also mentioned the psycho-social influences on individuals as being important to their development as adults, as well as the tendency of youth to rebel.  In his writing, he analyzed the illusion of the forward march of time towards a goal, dragging humanity with it, when we should be thinking of reality as cyclical.  We think of ourselves as completely new and different from our forebears when what changes is really just the details. 

The Instructor was reminded of Shaw's idea of life being a torch to make burn, and then hand off to the next runner (generation).  She works with children and finds the contact with them helps her feel young.  At the same time, she believes that "modernity" is not limited to the young who have not become set in their ways, since she has met many open-minded older people, who have a younger aspect in that sense than those decades younger.  She also told us that this discussion was focused purely on the West, since our attitudes towards generations and individuality were not the same in other areas of the world, such as Asia.  The True Philosopher, being Asian, acknowledged that it was American influence that opened schools and universities to women in his country, although that was after being a colony of another Western state for some time.

The Seeker of Happiness repeated the ideas of cyclicalness and social influences on forging a "generational" perspective, and said that he as an individual was lost in modern society; it is completely different from the one he saw when he was growing up, although he did not refer to his favorite topic of happiness by saying whether people seem happier or not.

The Leader took a more forward-looking stance, asking in his writing whether future generations exist, and if so, should we keep them in mind when we make decisions today?  In discussion, he stated that the generation gap and its importance were overrated.  Although children have "fresh" minds, adults have practical experience, and besides that our access to information has increased gradually over time.  There is no clear division between social generations.  There are relationships between age groups, such as parents and children or teachers and students, that have value for examination, but these groups are particular and specific to time and place, not universal.

The discussion then wandered into the field of women's rights, perhaps because it's one of the areas that has seen the greatest change over the last century or so, and the one that affects most of the members of the group.  Some people warned us that the changes were recent and so could be lost, others reminded us of the penalties women paid in the past for acting as individuals rather than members of a family as daughters or wives, for example, attempting to purchase their own birth control.  Although it could be interpreted as a digression, it is a concrete example of creating relationships between generations; the way we treat others, other genders, other beliefs, other groups, has much to do with what our parents taught us.  Our parents' support for the rights and personhood of others is the foundation of our social behavior, although we can change and improve it based on our own experiences.