A GENERATION OF INDIFFERENCE?

At a typical nightclub in Kyiv revolving spotlights cut through thick layers of smoke, and the “music” is a deafening cacophony serving as a natural backdrop for cold-eyed high style beauties wearing skin-tight clothes and clutching purses to themselves rather than male dancing partners, local toughs with shaved heads wearing leather jackets, boys and girls sporting Martian hairdos, and groupies with miniature knapsacks. Who are these youngsters? College graduates? Aspiring designers? Gangsters? Hackers? They all belong to the late 1990s rising generation and they identify themselves as generation-X.

This generation has been the subject of sociological debate for the past decade. The appellation could be accurate, since the twentieth century is best expressed in terms of generations bringing their own cultures, concepts, and lifestyles. The confused generation of the fifties was replaced by an angry one of hippies, punks, followed by yuppies flashing their toothy grins. Every new wave is eager to express itself, its credo, and its heroes. Now the X-generation is different. They worship no idols. Nor do they want to topple them afterward. They have no large-scale programs. No more hot gatherings. Individualism is the watchword now. Even dancing in a nightclub they are aloof, moving in a cramped space yet seeming isolated from each other by some invisible partitions. Everyone for oneself, but not for leadership or self-assertion. Just because this stand seems most convenient.

Some analysts consider the X-generation the embodiment of total indifference. True, they care little about politics, sex, revolution, rock music, or sports; they make no distinction between “me” and “us.” They ignore countless other social notions that used to worry their predecessors. This is hard to understand and is therefore alarming. They call themselves exnyks. The X-prefix originates from the algebraic symbol denoting an unknown value. Accordingly, their interests are technology-influenced. They like to watch rock videos, listen and dance to techno-pop, they believe in virtual reality, wear clothes as though borrowed from Steven Spielberg’s wardrobe or in a unisex style making them look androgynous. And they are not averse to drugs, preferring grass (thank God).

Are they interested in only computers and dancing all night? How can they live like that? Their lifestyle could be questioned in many other respects by worried, irritated, and uncomprehending elders. No coherent answers would be forthcoming. Probably because for the first time in our long decades of authoritarian and propaganda-governed modus vivendi and operandi, we are faced with a generation made up of true individuals keenly aware of all past and present falsehoods, loath to accept another moth-bitten notion of “fraternity.” Generation-X representatives seem confident that one soldier marching out of step with the platoon does not necessarily mean that this platoon is doing the drill right. Life does not abide by barracks rule. Man is to be commanded by no one except the Lord. Freedom means primarily one’s ability to live and let live, be it in on a cramped dance floor or in terms of sexual preference.

In Ukraine, hard put to accept virtual realities because of its recent totalitarian past, the X generation marks a phenomenon totally unacceptable to old-timers but which should be greeted by those keeping their eyes and minds open to new realities. These are children bred by the “new Russian/Ukrainian” generation of underworld dons and thugs building quick dazzling fortunes on human blood and suffering. They are products of “stability”, they know how to turn it into hard cash, and they have more than money-making on their minds. They have discarded the hateful Soviet to-have-or-to-live dilemma. They have answered to both in the affirmative. In reality, they are no better or worse than their predecessors or descendants. Most likely, this generation-X marks the spot of but one of the multitude of coordinates in this complex and inexplicable world of ours.

Photo by Viktor Marushchenko, The Day

The public isolation of X generation, only the music is in common