Generation X's existential panic after Luke Perry death

[Ubiquitous]

When actor Luke Perry, best known for portraying TV heartthrob Dylan
McKay on the '90s teen drama "Beverly Hills, 90210," died Monday
after suffering a massive stroke, there were the usual public
displays of sadness when a public figure leaves us. But his passing
was especially painful for people of a certain age.

As one fan expressed on Twitter: "I'm in mourning for Generation X
today, for real."

Perry died at just 52 years old. Which makes him the first Gen X
icon to succumb to natural causes. That's an unsettling reality
check to those of us who identify as Gen Xers, the 65 million people
born between 1965 and 1980. We're used to death - we've lost plenty
of heroes to drugs and suicide, everyone from Kurt Cobain to River
Phoenix to Chris Cornell. But Perry is the first to die of something
we only expect to happen to old people.

It doesn't help that Perry's death came on the heels of a pretty
egregious generational slight. A CBS News story in January, which
focused on millennials, included an infographic of every generation,
from the silent generation (those born between 1925 and '45) to baby
boomers (born between '46 and '64) to the post-millennials (born
between 1997 and the present). Generation X was conspicuously
absent.

"Gen X is definitely having a midlife crisis," says Matthew
Hennessey, 45, author of "Zero Hour for Gen X: How the Last Adult
Generation Can Save America from Millennials."

"It's not just about growing older. We have this creeping dread that
we're going to be displaced and forgotten."

A 2014 Pew Research Center study dubbed Generation X "America's
neglected middle child," and that nickname increasingly seems to
hold true. "We're bookended between these two monster generations,
the baby boomers and the millennials," says Hennessey. "It feels
like the torch is being handed right over our heads."

As proof of this, Hennessey points to the current political climate,
which is dominated by baby boomers like Hillary Clinton and
President Trump, and millennial upstarts like Alexandria Ocasio-
Cortez. Barack Obama is sometimes credited as a Gen X president, but
he was born in 1961, a full four years before Generation X's start
date.

Even our cultural contributions often feel reduced to side notes.
Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield, 53, author of books like "Love
Is A Mix Tape" and "Talking To Girls About Duran Duran," says he
felt unsettled after watching Mike Myers and Dana Carvey introduce
the movie "Bohemian Rhapsody" at this year's Academy Awards.

"They were doing their `Wayne's World' routines word for word," he
says. "It was bittersweet to see Wayne and Garth, a touchstone of
Gen X culture, remembered as nothing more than a tiny detail in the
history of a boomer rock band."

So what is our legacy? Will Gen X be remembered as the also-rans,
the generation who managed only a smirk and faded into the distance
without ever leaving their mark?

Possibly, and that might not be a bad thing. "I think that's the
whole point of Generation X," says Douglas Rushkoff, 58, author of
"Team Human" and a professor of media theory at Queens College. "Gen
X is really just a marketing term for a group of people who were
inscrutable to marketers. We were the ones they couldn't figure out
so they moved on to millennials. It's a bit late now to look back
and say, `Hey, why weren't we ever represented back to ourselves by
mainstream media and advertising?'?"

Our generational midlife crisis - the realization that time is
fleeting and our friends (both real and fictional) are dying and
we're maybe not going to accomplish everything we hoped when we were
younger - brings what truly matters into sharper focus.

And for many Gen Xers, who are famous for their cynicism and apathy,
what truly matters is not taking any of this generational stuff
seriously.

"Who cares?" says Neal Pollack, the 49-year-old author of
"Alternadad" and nine other books. "Do you really want to be in
charge? If Thanos snapped his fingers and every single member of Gen
X vanished, the world would be fine. Let Donald Trump and Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez fight it out in the trenches. It's a good show."

Pollack believes that Gen X never wanted or needed a legacy, purpose
or logo. "That's part of our charm," he says. "I'm just trying to
live out my back nine in decent health, decent humor and a shred of
integrity. I choose cynicism and aloofness, now and forever, and I'm
not going to change my tune because Luke Perry died."

--
Trump: A president so great that Democrats who said they would leave
America if he won decided to stay!