REFLECTIONS OF A SILENT
GENERATION
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December
22,
1945
What’s
wrong with
this picture?
2
1st Sgt.
John H.
Lumpp
Service
Company
67th
Armored
Regiment
2nd
Armored
Division
3
Father and Son
HERMAN J.
LUMPP
SGT. JOHN H.
LUMPP
4277 Federal Blvd.
Denver, Colorado
1943
4
2rd Armored
In the field with
“Monty”
British Field
Marshall
Montgomery
(Gen. George Patton
facing away?)
Winter 1944
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WHAT DEFINES A NEW
GENERATION?
• Solves a problem facing the prior youth
generation
• Corrects for behavioral excesses it
perceives in the current midlife
generation
• Fills the social role being vacated by
the departing elder generation
Millennials
6
WHAT’S THE “LIFE-CYCLE”
OF A GENERATION?
• Public discovers the new youth (15-20
years after first birth year)
• Full possession of youth culture (20-25
years)
• Gets maximum public attention (25-30
years)
• Ebbing of public interest (30-35 years)
Millennials
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WHAT ARE RECENT
GENERATIONS?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
LOST
1883-1900
G.I
1901-1924
SILENT
1925-1942
BOOM
1943-1960
X
1961-1981
MILLENNIAL 1982-2002
(New Adaptive) 2003Millennials
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GENERATIONAL NUMBERS
Millennials
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WHO ARE THE “SILENTS”?
Generation Type: Adaptive
Born: 1925-1942
Total number: 49 Million (GI=63;BB=79)
Oldest: 85 (2010)
Youngest: 68 (2010)
Percent Immigrant: 9%
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A “SANDWICH GENERATION”
• Agenda dominated by
– 63 m “Get-It-Done” older GIs and 79 m
younger “If-it-feels-good-do-it” Boomers
• “Born 20 yrs too early or 20 yrs too late”
• Their story a book largely written about
someone else
• No leaders, no program, no sense of
power, no culture of its own
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ADAPTIVE GENERATION
•
•
•
•
•
Recessive
Grows up overprotected, suffocated
Matures risk-adverse, conformist
Indecisive Mid-lifers (no agenda)
Respected as sensitive elders
Millennials
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Some Well-Known “Silents”
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Marilyn Monroe (1926)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929)
Sandra Day O’Connor (1930)
Clint Eastwood (1930)
Elvis Presley (1935)
Woody Allen (1935)
Jack Nicholson (1937)
Neil Armstrong (1930)
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Presidential Candidates
•
•
•
•
•
•
Walter Mondale (1928)
Michael Dukakis (1933)
Jack Kemp (1935)
Gary Hart (1936)
John McCain (1936)
Jesse Jackson (1941)
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Silent Presidents
NONE
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Why “Silent”?
• 13 of its 17 birth years were in crisis
• Class of 1949: “Taking no chances”
• Focussed on the system rather than on
individual achievement, invention
• Transitional, middle, betwixt and between,
• “First you say you do, and then you
don’t…you’re undecided now, so what’re
you going to do?”
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Why “Silent”?
•
•
•
•
“The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit”
The Organization Man”
“The Lonely Crowd”
“The Apartment”, “The Out-of-Towners”
(Jack Lemmon)
• Keep your record clean (McCarthyism)
• Don’t rock the boat
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SOME KEY EVENTS
When they were—
0-13 (1938) Snow White sets record
3-20 (1945) VJ Day (WW II Ends);A-Bomb
8-25 (1950) Korean War (50-53)
12-29 (1954) McCarthy and Perm Records
15-32 (1957) Sputnik; Rock and Roll
19-36 (1961) JFK President; Peace Corps
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SOME KEY EVENTS
When they were—
21-38 (1963) JFK Killed; Feminine Mystique
26-43 (1968) MLK and RFK Killed
27-44 (1969) Moon Landing; Divorce up
32-49 (1974) Watergate; Nixon Resigns
37-54 (1979) Carter’s “malaise”;Iran Hostages
46-63 (1988) GI Bush beats Silent Dukkakis
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SILENT YOUTH
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Overprotective, strict parents(Lost/GI)
1st gen born mostly in hospitals
Always respect adults
Family survival; make do
Expect news to be bad news (war, etc.)
Carry a low profile
Expectation: get a good job, get on your
own, settle down
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SILENT RISING ADULTS
•
•
•
•
•
Scrutinized forbearers rather than self
Encouraged growth, productivity, expertise
Supported GI Institutions: “If I had a…”
Clean-cut sports figures
Organized and gave voice to Boomer
dissent and revolt (SDS, YAF)
• Bridgers, facilitators,
• Brought compassion, refinement
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MID-LIFE SILENTS
• Tried to catch up/stay up w/ Hip Boomers
• Envied Boomer passion
• Conflicts with GI Manliness (Woody Allen
vs. John Wayne)
• Norris/Eastwood combine GI machismo
and Boomer judgmentalism
• Unsure: “vicars of vacillation”
• While divorce spread, they were the ones
who had kids in the house
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SILENT ELDERS
• Wanted top role—voters went for the GIs:
• Drive the youth industries: dietary aids,
exercise classes, cosmetic surgery, hair
replacement, relaxation therapies.
• The silent are the only living generation
whose members would rather be in some
age bracket other than the one they are in.
(Do it over knowing what you know now.)
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SILENT RELATIONSHIPS
• Idealizing romantics: “Happy ever-aftering”
• Earliest marrying, earliest babying in US
history (23/20)
• 94 % of silent females were mothers
• At mid-life abandoned GI worship for
belated Boomer sex-revolution (no fault)
– “Ah, but I was so much older then; I’m
younger than that now.”—Bob Dylan song
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SILENT WORK
• Organization Man
• Steady, regular, responsible
• Rising affluence, few war causalities,
lowest crime or other social pathologies
• Lowest children in work force
• Steepest rise in per capita income
• Security conscious
• Middle aged before their time
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SILENT WORK
• Facilitators, experts, technocrats
• Helpmates for other generations
Presidential aides: Salinger (JFK); Moyers
(LBJ); Erlichman (Nixon); Cheney (Ford);
Ergenstat (Carter); Baker (Reagan);
Sununu (Bush)
• Consumer advocates (Nader)
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SILENT CITIZENS
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•
•
•
Remember WWII from childhood
Class of ‘64: 16% Peace Corps (vs. ‘65)
“Rebels without a cause”
Followed GI role models to discover
teenagers were in!
• The Can’t-Do government (more staff,
studies, debates, less action)
• Referenda, grass-roots ballots
• Generally supported the losers
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SILENT LEISURE
• Transition from GI to Boomer
– Big Band (Goodman), cool jazz (Brubeck),
Sinatra to Tennessee Ernie Ford…(our
parents’ music)
– Gogi Grant, Bobby Darin (1936), Kingston
Trio to Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Jerry
Lee Lewis, Big Bopper, Buddy Holly, Four
Freshmen, Pat Boone, Harry Belafonte to…
– Elvis, Beatles, Beach Boys to….
– Acid rock, heavy metal…
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SILENT LEISURE
• Movies: Good Guys win; Happy Endings
– Westerns: Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Gene
Autry, Hopalong Cassidy
– “Tammy and the Bachelor”
– “Wizard of Oz”
– “Three Coins in the Fountain”
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SILENT LEISURE
• Radio:
Lone Ranger, Straight Arrow, Sgt. Preston
of the Yukon; Superman, Gunsmoke
Our Miss Brooks; Great Gildersleeve
• TV:
I Love Lucy, Gunsmoke, Burns and Allen
I Led Three Lives, Foreign Assignment,
Bishop Sheen, Quiz shows (“You Bet Your
Life”; “$64000 Question”)
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SILENT LEISURE
Mostly you made your own fun.
In College: 3.2 beer
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