(03-05-2023, 04:39 PM)Datacop Wrote: [ -> ] (03-05-2023, 05:56 AM)Rudolf von Goldenbaum Wrote: [ -> ]Meanwhile the leading edge of Gen Alpha was barely in elementary school -- they might regard it in a manner akin to how Zoomers themselves regard the 2008 recession.
I increasingly see Zoomers recasting the 2008 Recession as a deeply traumatic event that DESTROYED their lifestyle, even if it's totally fictional. For the vast majority of people nothing really changed after 9/11 either, frankly. It just became another event people could point to and say "look, this thing, this caused all my grief."
I've heard some Zoomers lament the 2008 recession, but a lot of others don't really pay attention to it -- many weren't even alive then, or were barely so. Older Alphas will probably regard Covid in a similar manner, either as a disaster that robbed them of part of their childhood or as a nothingburger depending on their self-conception.
The point you raise about the role that interpretation plays in generational events is evident all the way back to the Baby Boomers. They are perhaps the Quintessential Generation, in that they are the first to be so radically different from their predecessors and successors (no other generation has earned so much attention/scorn from every other). Let us examine the song "We Didn't Start The Fire," which lists a series of figures and happenings that are central to the Boomers' conception of themselves. Although they are all noteworthy in some sense, even the most important of them (Korea and Vietnam) were no more truly world-changing than Covid or 9/11 & the GWOT. From 1945 onwards, broad trends like globalization and mass immigration gradually changed things like culture and living standards, but to this day individual events barely affect the vast majority of Boomers, Xers, Millenials, or Zoomers, despite what some claim ("nothing ever happens").
This ultimately leads us to the ones who participated in the last Great Events of History: the so-called "Greatest Generation." In a sense they are the First Generation, since the Lost Generation (their only named predecessors), as you might infer from the name, didn't leave much of an impact. They lived through the period that defined the Modern Era (1920s-1940s), surviving the Great Depression, fighting WWII, and shaping the postwar world order that followed. Interestingly, the "Greatest Generation" formed the baseline against which subsequent decline can be measured (hence the name), yet they themselves helped cause said decline through the way they ran society. Despite being "racist," sexist," "homophobic," and even "anti-Semitic" at first, they would moderate over time, and their politicians actively passed policies that to this day cause immense damage to White interests (in America: desegregation, the Hart-Celler Act, and the Great Society programs to name a few). There were obviously some dissidents, as there are in every generation, but they formed the exception rather than the rule. In this way the "Greatest Generation" shaped the mold that would form their children, the Boomers, and all subsequent generations, making each more and more degenerate as time went on.
Returning to the topic at hand, these observations lead me to believe that the Alphas will need some truly earth-shattering event like WWIII* or some truly powerful AI in order to break the mold set by the "Greatest Generation." To a system is failing's point, as much of the current youth as possible must be redpilled and ready to be act in a purposeful yet decisive manner if/when the time arises. In such an event the outcome could go either way, but hopefully Gen Alpha would live up to their namesake by forging a bright new template for the Betas, Gammas, and the rest of the alphabet generations to follow.
*Aside that might merit discussion in a separate thread: WWIII would probably be more like WWI in that the countries are distinguished by their geopolitical objectives more than their ideological differences. Just as every power in WWI was "imperialist" to varying degrees, every power in WWIII would espouse equal rights and troonheart nigger. This is already on display in Ukraine, with Azov + NATOtroons vs Wagner + muzzies + commies. The hope is that such a conflict would pave the way for ourguys to seize power eventually, much like Fascists post-WWI.