Things have changed, but they are also very much the same.
What kind of lens are you looking through when you assess our culture in 2013 — positive or negative? Many people in our society naturally assume it’s impossible for different generations to work and thrive together. But what if this tendency toward generational disparity is due to a long-held media slant on things that started long ago?
In the Bob Dylan-saturated 60s, we were all more than aware of that disparity — catalyzed first and foremost by the Vietnam War. This war, the lightning rod that opened the floodgates of youth, had been duly prepped in the years before by Elvis’s hip-shaking and the bowl cuts of the Beatles.
For the younger eyeballs out there, the arrivals of Elvis in the 1950s and the Beatles in the 1960s were once-in-a-lifetime cultural phenomena that altered the course of the world — with the aid of the concurrent rise of a device called television, which also turned out to be pretty important. And there’s this guy named Bob Dylan, a singer songwr- … never mind.
The cultural sea change set in motion by Elvis, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Motown and Vietnam (the first televised war) was as drastic then as the digital divide is today among our other modern cultural touch points. But it’s still just the same. It’s still just change!
The times they are a changin’
Whether we like it or not, we’ve got to live through it. Fortunately, we get to make the choice about whether we do so:
- with grace,
- kicking and screaming, or
- with denial and ignorance.
For Boomers, it’s almost as if our adolescent taunt has come back to bite us. It’s the new version of “get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’” — only now it’s directed at us. I think our generation is far more likely to opt for option A — a graceful acceptance of change — but it’s definitely not the easiest thing in the world to do. It’s especially difficult when people, devices and culture are spinning through unprecedented change at an exponential pace.
Change requires adaptation
Just as in the 60s, modern cultural change must be synthesized, rationalized, socialized and ultimately catalyzed in synergistic ways across all generations to help us remain productive and stay connected through the change. Navigating this shift through a more collective perspective — together as one instead of treated as “us” and “them” — is a much more powerful position to be in.
Change, absurdity, humanity — we’re still here
There will always be change and thus disparity. But curiously, the increased rate of change in our modern world actually helps us better observe the absurdity it creates. Let’s seize the moment to insert our humanity back into the whirling cacophony of change & connect with the fact that we’re all still here, no matter what else changes next. We can be empowered or divided by that eternal phenomenon.
Why not opt for the upside of the ride?
Check out our blog for more insights on how other WiseTribe members use change to enhance their lives. Join us to contribute your ideas!
Ann Odell is a creative strategist providing transformative services to entrepreneurs and Fortune 1000s. She is also a Baby Boomer and a passionate advocate for crossing the generational divide. You can connect with Ann on LinkedIn.
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