On the Residual Generation:

9-8-21

In the artistic world “residuals” are the payments that are made when creative work is used for profit.  Singers get residuals every time their music is played.  Residuals are transferable, saleable or become part of an artist’s estate.  There is another kind of “residual” in our nation.  It is those economic and social benefits that were earned by prior generations but continue to flow to succeeding generations.  Like most artistic residuals, they tend to become less valuable as time goes on and the appreciation of the original creation lessens.  They don’t last forever, and the beneficiaries can’t live on them forever either.

We talk a lot about generations.  The Greatest Generation, the Baby Boomers, Millennials, Generation X-Y & Z, and the emerging Alpha Generation.  But the biggest American Generation of all hasn’t even been recognized with a name.  It spans a period from 1945 and continues in a diminished capacity today.  Let’s call it the “Residual Generation” or just GenerationR.  Technically, because it covers more than one birth cycle, we might accurately call it “GenerationsR”.  These are the people who have gotten the residual benefits of the work, sacrifice, struggles, collective productivity and accumulated assets from those who came before us.  But just like artistic residuals, if you don’t keep creating new things of value, the old residuals dry up.

“GenerationsR” pays a lot of lip service to “standing on the shoulders” of giants.  But we’re pretty light on emulating them or realizing their gift to us is running out.  Those prior Generations used America’s untapped natural resources, the economic thrust of the Industrial Revolution, an ideology of workers uniting for their common betterment and plain hard work to create a society that won two World Wars and became the dominate global leader for a half a century.  That economic success and status led to a period of successful struggles for social justice for many who had long contributed to the nations progress.  What all too many of us don’t seem to understand is that we’ve been living on those residuals.  The residuals are running out and we’re resisting our responsibility to build a future for Generation Alpha and beyond.

Examples of residuals that are going away are rife.  The unionized industrial and manufacturing jobs, employer-paid healthcare, guaranteed pensions, affordable higher education, low energy prices, stable climate conditions, the New Deal social safety net and those social advances of the 50’s on.  All disappearing as the natural resources, global dominance, and control over wealth, that formed the base for these residuals, are disappearing.  In their place are both challenges and opportunities.  Technology, communications, a global economy, climate change mass migrations, and changing demographics are all before us to manage and bend to serve people.  The residuals do nothing to deal with what’s coming at us.

For those who are still holding on to their middle class or even upper-class lifestyles, based on the residuals, there may not seem to be any urgency to address the new challenges.  Those who don’t or won’t realize that the economic security and social stability they see slipping away is the depletion of residual benefits from prior generations, are listening to the alluring voices of Pied Pipers who promise a return to what they have enjoyed.  Those promises are yielding only temporary or no relief.  Instead of that disappointment turning into a “learning moment”, the mislead are getting angry.  Some are deciding that if the residuals can’t support everyone, then it’s time to offload enough “others” to keep the gravy train rolling for them.  Add up those who don’t feel any urgency and those who think they can keep the residuals working for them, and we end up with a significant drag on necessary change.

The political voices who are willing to tell us the whole truth are facing hurricane force headwinds.  The storm of resistance all but drowns out the truth, that the residuals are ending.  That we must reinvent our nation and ourselves to survive and prosper in what’s been called the Information Age, the Computer Age, the Digital Age, the New Media Age and the Climate Revolution.  Those who are the truth-tellers are ridiculed as alarmists, elitists, enemies of personal freedom and worse.  Doesn’t matter how many facts or proof they bring to their positions.  They call for drastic change, and lots of us want nothing to do with that.  As a counter, they have funded and gotten behind all kinds of medicine men (and women) who sell us the Elixir that will cure what ails us.  Just take continuous swigs from that bottle of Dr. Fox and all your troubles will be gone. 

Underlying a good bit of the resistance is the American experience.  GenerationR’s has lived through a lot of political hypocrisy.  Much of what we’ve been told will be good for us, has turned out to be bad for us.  We have borne witness to the ascendency of a class of people who have been in a position to profit from the emerging world and the ability of the wealthy and powerful to successfully rip us off.  The mistrust of the political system has been dishonestly earned in this nation.  Who you gonna trust?  The Dr. Feelgoods, or your lying eyes?

We better sort it out, and quickly.  Others are moving forward, and they will claim both the leadership of the future and its rewards.  Time for GenerationsR to stop mistaking residuals for a healthy nation.  Or ride a horse that is already into the ground.  Instead of standing on the shoulders of past giants, we must become the first generation of the giants of a new age.

ihg 9-8-2021

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