I am now going to stop updating you all on the ongoing saga of my broadband.
the engineer is coming round, but I think it's better if we don't tempt fate and I promise that the blogroll updates, etc will happen as soon as I can.
Now here is the point that I want to make.
The life we experienced and can remember defines us in quite a narrow sense, far more so than we often appreciate. There is an outlook which pertains to every age group which is defined by that age group. It is the world we grew up in and judged as we first saw it. Sometimes we forget that.
In my case;
I do not remember any other Labour government than this one. I remember Thatcher being there all through my early years, but it was only during the Major government that I was able to understand what was going on.
To me there remains a sense that 'Eastern' countries, such as Poland, Hungary etc are different to the 'free' countries of the west. That Iron curtain that I remember from childhood looms in my conception of the world. The only Soviet leader I remember is Gorby, but I remember his fall vividly and I remember hearing the words Glasznost and Perestroika.
I do not remember the Falklands, but I remember the first gulf war and I remember finding it very exciting.
My primary school had two BBC Micro computers.
I can remember the 80s housing boom, because my old man was on the right side of it.
My childhood TV favourites were Dangermouse, Dungeons and Dragons and Knightmare.
I am too old to have paid tuition fees.
I had transformers, but am too old to have been affected by the Ninja Turtles thing.
My parents recorded the charts every week diligently, until the day Belinda Carlisle made number one. I remember when Stock, Aitken and Waterman ruined the charts.
I am of the E generation. That is a generation which is passing now. I am increasingly conscious of this, conscious that my outlook on life is conditioned by a generation brought up in boom time, that reached adulthood reared on shallow values to use our first votes to elect a charlatan. We have lived through a social sea change. And now we're searching for something more.
We want to find the values we were never given.
Monday, 14 May 2007
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5 comments:
Excellent.
I am slightly older and such values were imparted on me, though I appear to be unable to do anything but look around me in frustration at the lack of appreciation for the things that are truly important.
I would advise any person with the ability to do so to emigrate. The damage caused to our coutnry by this most recent of governments seems to me to be irrevocable.
When I was growing up the problem seemed to be deflation in the housing market.
I was just old enough to remember the gulf war with any kind of reliability.
The first World Cup I remember was 1990, watching Engalnd at world cups can scar children for life.
"We want to find values we were never given."
It's postmodernity. That's the problem.
I used to love the Ninja Turtles :)
The first World Cup I remember was 1990, watching Engalnd at world cups can scar children for life.
god, isn't that the truth. Since Mexico 86 England collapsing out of world cups and Euro championships has accompanied every single stage of my life. I am too young to remember England winning, or just plain being beaten, and too old to know anything other than penalties/bizarre goals.
Very interesting post and it is true that we are all shaped by our own generation. I like my own generation of women, for instance, because we grew up in the swinging 60s, we have humour and nothing much shocks us. [I abhor narrow-mindedness.] You explain well the desire of your generation for change.
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