It's one small week for moon nerds, but one giant Boomergasm

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Opinion

It's one small week for moon nerds, but one giant Boomergasm

By David Dale

The only word for what we are experiencing this week is “Boomergasm”. The festivities and the philosophising about the 50th anniversary of the moon landing prove yet again why Generation X is justified in complaining that Baby Boomers had more fun than any generation that followed.

As boomers took a walk on the wild side, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong took a stroll on the moon.

As boomers took a walk on the wild side, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong took a stroll on the moon. Credit: NASA via AP

The last Boomergasm was two years ago, with the anniversary of the release of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (May 26, 1967). From now on, the gasms will come thicker and faster: Woodstock, the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison, the start of Watergate, and the election of Gough Whitlam.

Gen Xers had a kind of mini-gasm in November 2017, when they commemorated the death of Michael Hutchence, but in all important details he was really a Baby Boomer. This year, the only cause for Xgasm will be the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall (November 9). But that led ultimately to the rise of Vladimir Putin (and thus, Donald Trump).

Gen X not only has reason to hate the Boomers (who kept the jobs the Xers should have inherited), it is also forced to envy the Millennials (who created new jobs for themselves out of a communications revolution). Plus, the Millennials are having too much fun with their gadgets. Expect a millegasm in 2021 for the 20th anniversary of the iPod, and another in 2022 for the 15th anniversary of the iPhone.

Let's pause a moment to define our terms.

Baby Boomers: Born between 1946 and 1964. Theme of their formative years: Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Key moment: The moon landing.

Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Generation X: Born between 1965 and 1984. Theme of their formative years: No sex, overpriced drugs and no memorable music (apart from Michael Jackson, whom we now prefer to forget). Key moment: The recession we had to have.

Millennials: Born between 1985 and 2004. Theme of their formative years: Sex, drugs and Instagram. Key moment: The smartphone.

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There’s been some trouble with the naming of the last group. I wanted to call them the iGen, for obvious reasons. Some lazy commentators talk about Gen Y and Gen Z, meaningless derivatives of Generation X – Douglas Coupland’s brilliant summary of the anonymity and alienation felt by people born in the shadow of the Boomers.

We settled on a reference to the year our computers were supposed to break down, but didn’t.

Next question: How will we name the generation born between 2005 and 2024? I fear it might have to be the Trump Generation. But I can’t think about that now. I’m too busy looking backwards.

David Dale, a former anthropology correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald, teaches media at the University of NSW.

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