Is Gen X Too Young to Count?

Whatever. The word is like a gauntlet thrown down between my generation and theirs. It embodies all the ambivalence of their situation

Whatever. I don’t know. I don’t care. I don’t want to find out. It is what it is. Whatever.

I first encountered the Whatever Generation (also known as Generation X) when one of them came to work for me. She was self-directed, bright and with a chip on her shoulder the size of a tree. She had the job that she would do in mind (no matter the description) and a map of boundaries set (no matter the requirements). She wielded no ax when you crossed her line, only a shrug and that utterly distancing word--whatever.

For the longest time, I thought this young, gifted and black woman was some kind of anomaly. But a recent poll suggests she is typical of her generation. Supremely self-confident but also cognizant of the world and all its flaws, she is prepared to do better than her parents--by climbing a ladder that lacks some of the traditional rungs--through a self-defined involvement that challenges conventional civic activity.

Youth Voices is a project of the Washington-based Center for Policy Alternatives. Through focus groups and polling, CPA hopes to identify the common dreams and concerns of those 18- to 24-year-olds who vote at half the rate of the general population and communicate more cynicism about the political process than the most grizzled pundit

More than a thousand young adults were sampled nationwide, and they responded to questions with a shrug and that “whatever” word, a word that communicates indifference, concern and ambivalence, optimism and pessimism and the confidence that their voice is important but misunderstood, yet vital

Indeed, three-fourths of the “whatevers” who responded to the Youth Voices poll said they felt both misunderstood and underestimated. Yet their willingness to engage in traditional political expressions--just 13% volunteered for a political candidate or party compared with 87% who worked through a church or other religious organization--compounds their underestimation.

Youth voices echo American voices when they focus on economic security, health care and employment. They are wiser than our majority voices when they acknowledge the strain that racism and discrimination place on our society. They are more cautious than the rest of us when they bring issues of personal security home, voicing opinions about crime and punishment that are, frankly, unyielding and conservative. They are ahead of the curve when they focus on issues of business ownership as a way to balance that precocious optimism with national economic realities.

As I read the results of the youth poll, I was startled at the image I had of a young person determined to make her way despite the odds. My image was of a young person who knew which cards to hold and when to fold, which image to trust and which to discard

The youth voice seems aware of every hurdle one will need to clear and appears undaunted by the prospect of that clearing. These youth say they trust government to provide education, economic security and other perquisites. But while they trust government, they do not rely on it. So they straddle the fence between anxiety and optimism, wondering which way the wind will blow for them.

The Center for Policy Alternatives has captured the ambivalence of this youth voice with its poll, the bravado of young people who say they can fly combined with the sober reality of accepting clipped wings

These anxious optimists are the children of Labor Secretary Robert Reich’s “anxious class.” Uncertain. Unsure. Hopeful.

Whatever.