The Roman numeral explanation is interesting, but looks like a folk
etymology for the term.  As listed in the Wikipedia article reference
earlier (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X), the term was coined
by a British author in a study of British youth, and subsequently
popularized by a British punk rock group.  The Gen X phenomenon was/is
world-wide, and any suggestion that it has an American origin, based on
American history, and (presumably) only of relevance to Americans
strikes me as a bit limiting.

I hope this post doesn't come off as a "shoot the messenger" kinda
thing--I intend no disrespect to anyone over this.  However, cyber-space
is overwhelmingly dominated by American culture, and this seems (to me,
anyway) to be giving rise to an Ameri-centrism that will allow erroneous
claims (such as the Roman numeral Gen X thing) to go unchallenged.  I
just wanted to take the opportunity to set the record straight on this
matter, and demonstrate that there's still a big world out there beyond
the U.S.

     - Tim (a proud Canadian Gen-Xer)

>>> [log in to unmask] 08/31/05 7:35 AM >>>
On Mon, 29 Aug 2005 10:29:51 -0500, Creel, Wesley
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Good Morning All,
>I would like to build on what Deb has said, regarding the definition
of
>the term "Generation X"...... I remember reading a definition a
couple
>of years ago....(I think it was an essay in the Atlantic Monthly,
that
>the letter "X" referred to the Roman numeral X, meaning 10....and the
>generation in question was the 10th generation, following this
nation's
>revolution of 1776......

The term "Generation X" was popularized by the Doug Copeland book of
the
same name, published in 1991.  The phrase reflects the confusion
expressed
by so many cultural observers who finally noticed that there were all
these
young people running around who -- gasp! -- weren't boomers.

Strauss and Howe in their book "Generations" (also published in 1991)
label
us the "13th Generation" -- the 13th to know and live under the
American
flag.  Since independence, we're about nine-and-a-halfth, assuming one
accepts the generations they defined.

Eugene Dillenburg 

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