GenX

For GenXers (born 1961-1981), there is an intense need to know personally one’s enemies and allies. The archetype in which GenXers fall is that of Nomad. Think about being nomadic. You need to know your people, your tribes and which other groups your tribe considers friendly and not-friendly.

GenXers are more tribal than other generations. Think of all the branded/logo-focused clothing and the rise of that phenomenon during GenXers’ ascent into young adulthood. Tribes, bay-beee, tribes.

Also, Nomads’ lasting contributions to society are in the realms of liberty, survival and honor. GenXers in general don’t trust or want much alignment with others, preferring the edges to the center, but when they do connect, it’s tribal. Look for the indications. You’ll see them.

GIs - the Hero generation. What "total war" will today's Millennials fight?

GIs – the Hero generation. What “total war” will today’s Millennials fight?

Boomers

For Boomers (born 1943-1960), their enemy is found in opposition to their values. Opinions change. Values don’t. Boomers, whose archetype is the Prophet, orient toward their inner spiritual world of values, vision and religion, and it is here where they have the greatest impact on society. Think Red State-Blue State stagnation, and the values wars that started in the Vietnam War era (and have neither been forgotten nor forgiven). Notice how it’s more important for many Boomers to defend values than to move conversations (personal, business, government, community) forward.

Millennials

For Millennials (born 1982-2004ish), their enemy is The Total Enemy. Millennials are a peer-oriented generation … throughout their entire lives. Generally upbeat, can-do and aligned to the heart-space of their generation’s core, most Millennials are very aligned with Boomers’ moral direction and guided by GenXers’ exquisite capacity to marshal resources and make the impossible possible. But their enemy — and they fight this in their young adult years — is The Total Enemy, and as such, don’t be surprised if in the 2020-2028 period or so, we experience another Total War (similar to WWII, but not WWI) in which the enemy needs to be utterly and completely vanquished.

Millennials’ archetype is the Hero, and as such, they “need” to fight the battle that is the War of the Worlds battle that can be won by their foot soldiers, led by GenXers generals and created by Boomers’ moral compass.

This is cyclical path of their Hero archetype, and their cultural contributions are community, affluence and technology.

Gen Eh?

For the Homeland Gen (born 2005ish – 2025ish) and the Silent Gen (born 1925-1942), their enemy is The Insensitive Majority. Growing up behind the peer-oriented, Common Man, dissent-quelling Millennials/GI Generation/Hero archetype; they grow up to loathe The Insensitive Majority.

But being the Artist archetype, they express this loathing through song, art, stories and the culturally current-to-the-times version of “civil rights.” They advocate for the minority voice, the unheard, the under-represented. This archetypes’ cultural contributions are due process, plurality and subject matter expertise.

More information on generational archetypes is found in any of the William Strauss and Neil Howe books, videos, etc.