REFLECTIONS OF A SILENT GENERATION

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December22,

1945

What’s wrong with

this picture?

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1st Sgt.John H.Lumpp

Service Company

67th ArmoredRegiment

2nd

Armored

Division

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Father and Son

HERMAN J. LUMPP

SGT. JOHN H.LUMPP

4277 Federal Blvd.

Denver, Colorado

1943 4

2rd Armored

In the field with “Monty”

British Field Marshall

Montgomery

(Gen. George Patton facing away?)

Winter 1944

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Millennials 6

WHAT DEFINES A NEW GENERATION?

• Solves a problem facing the prior youth generation

• Corrects for behavioral excesses it perceives in the current midlife generation

• Fills the social role being vacated by the departing elder generation

Millennials 7

WHAT’S THE “LIFE-CYCLE” OF A GENERATION?

• Public discovers the new youth (15-20 years after first birth year)

• Full possession of youth culture (20-25 years)

• Gets maximum public attention (25-30 years)

• Ebbing of public interest (30-35 years)

Millennials 8

WHAT ARE RECENT GENERATIONS?

• LOST 1883-1900• G.I 1901-1924 • SILENT 1925-1942• BOOM 1943-1960• X 1961-1981• MILLENNIAL 1982-2002• (New Adaptive) 2003-

Millennials 9

GENERATIONAL NUMBERS

WHO ARE THE “SILENTS”?

Generation Type: Adaptive

Born: 1925-1942Total number: 49 Million (GI=63;BB=79)

Oldest: 85 (2010)

Youngest: 68 (2010)

Percent Immigrant: 9%10

A “SANDWICH GENERATION”

• Agenda dominated by – 63 m “Get-It-Done” older GIs and 79 m

younger “If-it-feels-good-do-it” Boomers

• “Born 20 yrs too early or 20 yrs too late”

• Their story a book largely written about someone else

• No leaders, no program, no sense of power, no culture of its own

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Millennials 12

ADAPTIVE GENERATION

• Recessive

• Grows up overprotected, suffocated

• Matures risk-adverse, conformist

• Indecisive Mid-lifers (no agenda)

• Respected as sensitive elders

Some Well-Known “Silents”

• Marilyn Monroe (1926)

• Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929)

• Sandra Day O’Connor (1930)

• Clint Eastwood (1930)

• Elvis Presley (1935)

• Woody Allen (1935)

• Jack Nicholson (1937)

• Neil Armstrong (1930)13

Presidential Candidates

• Walter Mondale (1928)

• Michael Dukakis (1933)

• Jack Kemp (1935)

• Gary Hart (1936)

• John McCain (1936)

• Jesse Jackson (1941)14

Silent Presidents

NONE

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Why “Silent”?

• 13 of its 17 birth years were in crisis

• Class of 1949: “Taking no chances”

• Focussed on the system rather than on individual achievement, invention

• Transitional, middle, betwixt and between,

• “First you say you do, and then you don’t…you’re undecided now, so what’re you going to do?”

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Why “Silent”?

• “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit”

• The Organization Man”

• “The Lonely Crowd”

• “The Apartment”, “The Out-of-Towners”(Jack Lemmon)

• Keep your record clean (McCarthyism)

• Don’t rock the boat

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SOME KEY EVENTS

When they were—

0-13 (1938) Snow White sets record

3-20 (1945) VJ Day (WW II Ends);A-Bomb

8-25 (1950) Korean War (50-53)

12-29 (1954) McCarthy and Perm Records

15-32 (1957) Sputnik; Rock and Roll

19-36 (1961) JFK President; Peace Corps

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SOME KEY EVENTS

When they were—

21-38 (1963) JFK Killed; Feminine Mystique

26-43 (1968) MLK and RFK Killed

27-44 (1969) Moon Landing; Divorce up

32-49 (1974) Watergate; Nixon Resigns

37-54 (1979) Carter’s “malaise”;Iran Hostages

46-63 (1988) GI Bush beats Silent Dukkakis

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SILENT YOUTH

• Overprotective, strict parents(Lost/GI)

• 1st gen born mostly in hospitals

• Always respect adults

• Family survival; make do

• Expect news to be bad news (war, etc.)

• Carry a low profile

• Expectation: get a good job, get on your own, settle down

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SILENT RISING ADULTS

• Scrutinized forbearers rather than self

• Encouraged growth, productivity, expertise

• Supported GI Institutions: “If I had a…”

• Clean-cut sports figures

• Organized and gave voice to Boomer dissent and revolt (SDS, YAF)

• Bridgers, facilitators,

• Brought compassion, refinement21

MID-LIFE SILENTS

• Tried to catch up/stay up w/ Hip Boomers• Envied Boomer passion• Conflicts with GI Manliness (Woody Allen vs.

John Wayne)• Norris/Eastwood combine GI machismo and

Boomer judgmentalism• Unsure: “vicars of vacillation”• While divorce spread, they were the ones

who had kids in the house22

SILENT ELDERS

• Wanted top role—voters went for the GIs:

• Drive the youth industries: dietary aids, exercise classes, cosmetic surgery, hair replacement, relaxation therapies.

• The silent are the only living generation whose members would rather be in some age bracket other than the one they are in.

(Do it over knowing what you know now.)

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SILENT RELATIONSHIPS

• Idealizing romantics: “Happy ever-aftering”

• Earliest marrying, earliest babying in US history (23/20)

• 94 % of silent females were mothers

• At mid-life abandoned GI worship for belated Boomer sex-revolution (no fault)– “Ah, but I was so much older then; I’m

younger than that now.”—Bob Dylan song

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SILENT WORK

• Organization Man

• Steady, regular, responsible

• Rising affluence, few war causalities, lowest crime or other social pathologies

• Lowest children in work force

• Steepest rise in per capita income

• Security conscious

• Middle aged before their time25

SILENT WORK

• Facilitators, experts, technocrats

• Helpmates for other generations

Presidential aides: Salinger (JFK); Moyers (LBJ); Erlichman (Nixon); Cheney (Ford); Ergenstat (Carter); Baker (Reagan); Sununu (Bush)

• Consumer advocates (Nader)

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SILENT CITIZENS

• Remember WWII from childhood• Class of ‘64: 16% Peace Corps (vs. ‘65)• “Rebels without a cause”• Followed GI role models to discover teenagers

were in!• The Can’t-Do government (more staff, studies,

debates, less action)• Referenda, grass-roots ballots• Generally supported the losers

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SILENT LEISURE

• Transition from GI to Boomer– Big Band (Goodman), cool jazz (Brubeck),

Sinatra to Tennessee Ernie Ford…(our parents’ music)

– Gogi Grant, Bobby Darin (1936), Kingston Trio to Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Big Bopper, Buddy Holly, Four Freshmen, Pat Boone, Harry Belafonte to…

– Elvis, Beatles, Beach Boys to….– Acid rock, heavy metal…

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SILENT LEISURE

• Movies: Good Guys win; Happy Endings– Westerns: Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Gene

Autry, Hopalong Cassidy– “Tammy and the Bachelor”– “Wizard of Oz”– “Three Coins in the Fountain”

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SILENT LEISURE

• Radio:

Lone Ranger, Straight Arrow, Sgt. Preston of the Yukon; Superman, Gunsmoke

Our Miss Brooks; Great Gildersleeve• TV:

I Love Lucy, Gunsmoke, Burns and Allen

I Led Three Lives, Foreign Assignment,

Bishop Sheen, Quiz shows (“You Bet Your Life”; “$64000 Question”)

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SILENT LEISURE

Mostly you made your own fun.

In College: 3.2 beer

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