Third Millennium

Third Millennium

It is evident in our contemporary society that the Silent and Beat Generation have had a profound and guiding influence on how young adults identify themselves and others, and how these previous generations have shaped America’s identification. The 21st century, however, also holds a significant role on how society interacts as the remarkable advancement in technology has caused an unhealthy dependency and consumption of mass media. Frank Conroy, a noted figure from the Silent generation who lived through the economic and social hardship caused by the bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945, would be astounded and perhaps even a bit overwhelmed by the economic inequity in America and the degradation of morality and the presence of unquestioning conformity in society.

The mid 1920s and early 1940s can easily be described as a time of simplicity and common austerity. This particular group of people are known as being “silent” due to the chilling, unnerving impact of the simple bomb that annihilated the city of Japan and vaporized 80,000 Japanese civilians. Once the power of the atomic bomb was acknowledged by American society and essentially ended the war, people developed a powerful feeling of apprehension and guilt after what their nation had caused in order to achieve victory, which changed the behavior of the members of the generation.

In October 1968, Frank Conroy mentioned in an issue of Esquire that the sixties were a time of extreme plainness of style and attitude as the majority of its people possessed no sense of group identity. Conroy also stated that the members of his generation were embarrassed at their own minority and oftentimes kept quiet as a way to withdraw attention from themselves. The Silent generation had “activist mindsets” yet never acted out to support what they stood for as members of society because they feared the consequences for their actions. Nowadays, people usually only follow what they believe to be socially acceptable in fear of being rejected as a part of society. The sixties were also the time when the population rose to about twenty-eight million which was considerably a dramatic change and improvement for the Silent generation as the exponential growth most notably altered the way America collaborated as a whole.

Following the immense increase of population in America during the late sixties came a new flamboyant attitude that was established by the Beat generation. This specific group consisted of what modern-day media considers to be the “punks” and a notoriously known minority group referred to as “hippies”. The publicity that this group received was unfavorable and offensive. The Beats were simply people who decided that they wanted to put an end to mass conformity and rejected mainstream media, and rather establish a new name and identity for themselves unlike what they were mistakenly accused of being: rebellious fools who never followed the rules. They did not act out in rebellion, yet created a rise out of the American people, shaking them from the lingering nightmare of Little Boy. There was no longer silence as people actually started to develop a new form of culture and “norms” for future generations.

What was once deemed as insubordination and disobedience is now favored by minority groups worldwide. The Silent generation and the Beat generation - having had the greatest impact on the 21st century - are the ones that broke America out of its silence after being mortified by the effect of the second World War. The influence of previous generations is effortlessly observable today and will only become more prominent as American society continues to grow and evolve as a nation.