Whirlwind

Millennnials: Reaping the Cultural Whirlwind

A recurring theme of this blog is the widening gap between Baby Boomers and Millennials in terms of wealth distribution and cultural inheritance. The data paints a stark picture: Baby Boomers, through a combination of historical windfalls and economic expansion, have accumulated unprecedented wealth, wielding significant power and influence that…
April 29, 20247 Comments
Pump Up the Volume 1

Pump Up the Volume, Pump Up the Jam

A Gen X introvert's Baby Boomer dad uproots their family from New York and moves them across the country to a prefab Arizona suburb. Gifted a short-wave radio to keep in touch with his friends back east, the isolated and disoriented Mark finds an outlet for his existential angst as…
April 26, 202416 Comments
Stage Three Cancer

Nostalgic for Stage Three Cancer

A common obstacle to communication that can crop up between people with different outlooks and motives is the risk of talking past each other. This kind of miscommunication can arise on any subject. No topic of conversation is immune. Take Dunkaroos, for example. One man might point out that they…
April 12, 202426 Comments
The World You Were Raised to Survive In No Longer Exists

The School of Hard Knocks

The recent post on Generation Y drew a lot of comment. One of the most prominent questions pertained to why so many members of generations after X are seemingly unsalvageable. As Bruce Lee taught us, understanding the problem points to the solution. So let's examine Gen Y's besetting vice: terminal…
April 9, 202415 Comments
Generation Video Banner

Generation Video Grand Opening

OG readers will know that I have a soft spot for retro film review podcasts. Whether it's author JD Cowan's Cannon Cruisers or, to go all the way back, the late, great Drunken Zombie Podcast, listening in while a couple of guys talk 80s and 90s movies is a guilty…
April 5, 2024
Terrifying Plan

Gen Y: The Plan Is Terrifying

Longtime readers will know Generation Y as the gaslit generation. Baby Boomers instilled them with a false view of reality that left them unprepared to survive in the real world. As a result, the “mugged by reality” experience is a Gen Y touchstone. Now that Gen Y has hit middle…
April 4, 20249 Comments
Perverse Generation

Faithless and Perverse Generation

American members of Generation Z face overlapping crises of identity, faith, and general happiness, if recent reports are to be believed. According to several high-profile surveys, young adults in America may be the most faithless and perverse generation yet. And they're suffering the mental and spiritual health consequences. Young people…
March 22, 202428 Comments
The Mall

The Idea of a Mall

Yesterday a fascinating intergenerational conversation took place on X. And it put me in mind of a subject we haven't touched on in a while: The cultural impact of the mall - how it rose to dominance, and how it faded. While loving the idea of a mall is a…
March 19, 202428 Comments
Howdy Doody Reboot

No Howdy Doody Reboot

A recent post on the Pop Cult occasioned a salient and topical discussion in the comments. Author JD Cowan writes: That’s just it, isn’t it. Nothing is made for younger generations anymore. The average age of Cartoon Network viewers is 29. Disney World is filled with single wine aunts and…
February 28, 20249 Comments
Nintendo vs Sony

The Riddle of the Pop Cult

Author JD Cowan wrote a post yesterday that shed new light on elements of Cultural Ground Zero and the Pop Cult and showed how they're interrelated. So it was of course fitting that he prominently featured this now-ubiquitous image by retro artist Rachid Lotf. We've been plumbing the riddle of…
February 23, 202419 Comments