you know, a lot has been said about how the boomers are entering mass retirement, which is good news for everybody, but something that hasn't been pointed out is that the oldest gen xers are entering year 50 - the prime of their existence insofar as making measurable change is concerned.

they're going to have a short time window. i mean, they had their influence muted by the reality that they were dramatically outnumbered by the boomers for far too long to begin with, and they're going to be outnumbered again by the millennials (who seem to be worse than the boomers) within a few decades.

...but this is the generation that was in control of the rise of technology. they're the architects of giant recent shifts in human culture. there's a huge amount of wealth, there, and a very different DIY attitude.

i may be being overly optimistic, but it seems like we're on the cusp of a big change from an industrial economy to a technological economy, and it's coming packaged with a generational shift that has a legit desire to fuck some things up. the haliburtons and standard oils are being phased out for microsofts and googles and ebays.

what i'm getting at is that there is some hope that they may have an interest in finally fulfilling the promise of technology, as seen in the science fiction paperbacks and blockbuster films that they grew up reading and watching.

it's a narrative i'm going to keep an eye on.

well, actually, maybe the window may not be so short.

millennials have fuck-all, opportunity wise.

about the best a millennial can hope for is to climb it's way up a technology firm...

this is hopefully just a start. first, take on the media:

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/dec/19/pierre-omidyar-first-50m-media-venture-glenn-greenwald

i mean, i'm not naive enough that i don't realize this is big money with big money interests, but it's precisely because i'm not naive that i realize that media follows the directives of it's founders - see fox news, for example. it's not the end of history. murdoch's empire will be replaced with something else.

    ...and i think there's some hope, here, with a generational shift, that different principles will be thrust to the forefront.

i mean, there's a reason there was a liberal shift in the middle of the last century, and the popular movements we saw were a *result* of it rather than the cause of it. there used to be a class of wealthy british and american liberals that sought to manipulate public opinion through media. they just died out, and were replaced with something much more conservative.