Teens: Then and Now

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A few of my thoughts about the teenagers of the 1930s and this 21^st century teenage generation of today.

Those who were teenagers in the1930s into the early 1940s were given the name ‘Greatest Generation’ in recent years by Tom Brokow of NBC. (They never called themselves that because they never thought themselves anything close to great, in spite of what they went through and, most importantly, Achieved.)

To those of you born in the late 1980s into the 1990s, I am going to call you GEN21. I knew one group as a child and know the other as a sage old guy. I’ll talk about the generations in between from time to time in the future. But I find it particularly relevant and very fascinating to compare the Greatest Generation and the Gen21 for the reasons I’ll explain.

OK! First, if you are interested in knowing more about me, please go to my website, www.berniemoran.com . It has a profile on me as well as a heads up about a DVD narrative I wrote and produced, dealing with the teenagers of the 1930s. (I was a little kid then, observing and looking up to them.) The website has a couple of clips from the DVD. You might find it interesting. Now the comparison;

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In 1930s most families were poor, and I mean Poor. The social lower classes were the bulk of our population. The middle class was small but very strong. The parents of the teenagers did not have much, if any, education. Mothers stayed home, fathers worked and as husband and wife they were bound together for life. A large number did not speak much, or no, English. Even though there was strong parental presence at home, it was the teenager who learned and ‘instructed’ their elders. Most teens did not finish high school. They worked and brought their pay envelopes home. So life was very tough for them. They did have something upon which they did rely; they had each other. The phenomenon was the level of unexpected creativity they generated. (More about that in the future.)

You, the Gen21 have many times more of everything. Your parents are mostly reasonably well educated, articulate, selectively communicative, in many cases both working, a significant number not bound by marriage, not together and/or stepparents. And most prominently, almost if not all of them, hopelessly running around like headless chickens. So like that 1930s generation, you gen21 are very much, for very different reasons, self- reliant. Also, like that older generation you ‘instruct’ your elders; in your case, in the elements of state of the art global electronic communications and computers. And you too, like them, mostly have each other and really stick together; I really like that about you.

As a sage old observer, the wonder is I see the signs of an entrepreneurial spirit among you. If it is as widespread as I hope it really is, then you are indeed a lot closer to being

like that 30s ‘greatest’ generation. So, in spite of the many pronouncements about how screwed up the younger generation is, you all may well be positioned to challenge that ‘greatest generation’ level of achievement of post WW11, which is unequaled in our history. That’s a wonderfully exciting prospect!

I’ve got to think more about all this and welcome related thoughts from anyone.

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Believing that you will immediately get it, I’d like to begin with asking Gen21 for your take on the fundamental issue we all deal with and that is your take on ‘personal accountability!’ I ask this important opening question because I know that the 30s group lived in a time where one was judged to be totally accountable, with any modification to that thinking considered a extenuating circumstance for consideration.

So how about it? What’s your take on ‘personal accountability?