
Whenever I meet people of my age (I'm in the fourties), and they start to tell about their life, I often listen to similar stories. Most of these people tried to do it right: they studied something or have a comparable qualification, most are coming from middle-class families; not the worst makings for a successful life.
But apart from private difficulties (especially relationship problems) there's a noticeable lack of success in these biographies. While our parent generation (people who grew up in the 1950s and 60s) had its dreams, if not visions, about a bright future, and an implicite mandate to form and design it, most of this situation changed.
The worth of certain qualifications changed signficantly: a psychologist has to invest several thousand Euros for additional qualifications after his leaving certificate (they are not part of the course of studies but have to be paid privately). A job in science is a warranty for a life of uncertainty: usually labour contracts are temporary and there's a great gap between (older) people with a lifetime post and those without. Teachers no longer become civil servants (usual career until not so long ago): now they are jobless during the holidays. A decade of neo-liberalism and excessive deregulation taught us to have self-responsibility for our life and to invest in our private pension plan - now many of these plans got destroyed in the financial crisis. Losing the job becomes a real threat, and the way how my country treats jobless people didn't get nicer, not at all!
They are still trying to do it right. But economy and politics still tell us that there are no warranties on anything. Now the financial system is in a touch and go situation, many have already lost some money. They're reading about globalization and don't have a clue what that means, because they neither think politically nor economically. They watch things come and go and hope for better times, but will these times come naturally and without guidance? Shouldn't we care about things, about our future instead of just fulfilling our employers' demands?
When I'm reading the news, I'm always learning that older people are right now ruining the economy and younger people are told they belong to a certain 'elite' (another term that we don't like but that we got used to because only the 'elite' can save our competitiveness in the global market). But the middle-aged, middle-class people keep silent. We had our economic booms, we learned to love the Internet, and now we see that technology is going to turn against us. Governments call it 'war on terror', but it's actually a war on the inner enemy, the final goal is the domestication of people that we pay with our civil rights. But there's only few resistance, and many 40+ people are not aware of the permanent loss of privacy or don't have an opinion about this at all.
While people of the 1930s were called the 'silent generation' I would like to call our age-group the 'blurry generation'; some of us are lucky and can live a life in safety and prosperity, others are already belonging to the working poor. They don't look like poor people, though, as many of them are still receiving money from their parents. But what will happen when these parents will be gone one day? We still keep silent, because politics was always off the cards. We try to function as usual, but the old recipes don't work any longer. The world we know is going to change and we still don't know the vocabulary of power. Our descendants won't love us for this.
My (old) coffee-table book of selected postings.
More MadScientist: eclecticimaging.tumblr.com, the guy behind this blog
@Linerberry: I think you hit the nail right on the head. We're the first ones (at least in the Western world) to live within a recession after several decades. When I'm discussing the actual situation with my parents, they simply don't understand; they're used to steady growth, a working economy and a life in (modest) prosperity. My wife thinks that TV and the means of distracions are the only reason why we don't see regular street riots so far. Though the street riot scenes at Paris, France, two years ago are a writing on the wall.
@Taina: I wouldn't propose constant economic growth and permanent consumism; we are living in a limited world and there is no such exponential growth possible. The questions is: is the 40+ generation prepared for the change? We're so used of just continuing the life of our parents that we are missing the means to react on the loss of that life. We've been told the 'TINA' formula ('There Is No Alternative') so much, that many people even don't recognize that things as we know them will come to an end soon. Facing this change and questioning the dogmas of the last twenty years would be a real task for this generation, but I don't see much will to this.
@Observing: you are closer to 50 than 40: Now you're talking like my mother who told me at my 40th: 'Now you are heading towards 50!' :-)
Generations of people have worked for below average wages, have paid into the system, and are now told there is no money, pay it yourself.: Germany is ca. 10 years behind that: my generation will be the first that has to pay much more into the system than generations before, and that will receive less money than ever. There's only small hope for younger people, who get used to this situation from their early days.
How many times can your wage be taxed..?: If I would work in England I would pay British taxes as well as German taxes. Double taxation is actually forbidden, but the German tax offices don't care. When my uncle died a few years ago I had to pay a significant tax, although the money he once earned has already been taxed.
systematic daylight robbery by the corrupt governments: I think this is only a small part of the whole story but basically you're damn right.
@Ana Lúcia: I still think this is possible (I don't know exactly how, though). But unfortunately human nature doesn't recognize slow changes. We get used to things that change over a long time. This made our species so successful. Climate change is a good example for this: as long as it's only a problem of 'other people', we usually don't care. Additionally, our distraction mechanisms are working very well: even if the catastrophe is shown in TV channel 1, the next sitcom waits at channel 2. While there is no real need to bother about things, most people simply won't do that.
@Michael Skorulski: That's at Düsseldorf's Kö, our most expensive boulevard. Thank you. :-)
@JoeB: So it is. And after reallocating the assets from bottom (taxpayers, ordinary people) to top (companies, enterprises; I think this was the neoliberal credo) nothing will be left for the remnants of the middle-class. It's vaporizing. What annoys me most is that this happens almost silently.
@dj.tigersprout: With still water you would recognize the trees of Düsseldorf's Kö, our expensive shopping mile. :-)
@akarui: That's a small canal alongside Düsseldorf's Königsallee, our expensive shopping boulevard.
@Twelvebit: The smart thing to do is probably to move to Asia. - My wife says you're right. :-)
Today I've read about a study that today's young people are less bright than teens some decades ago. A possible cause might be found in the way today's teens are learning things (training instead of exploring), but I think it's a bitter irony that people get dumber in the Information Age. Maybe it's sort of an allergic reaction of the body of society against too much knowledge, I don't know. There are cycles in the history of mankind where highly developed cultures were swept away and replaced by dark ages. Surviving is the key, having a garden and some books is a good idea, as somebody has to pass the knowledge on the next generation.