{"id":13402,"date":"2008-12-29T17:55:37","date_gmt":"2008-12-30T00:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/12\/29\/wouldnt-you-like-to-be-a-cusper-too.html"},"modified":"2008-12-29T17:55:37","modified_gmt":"2008-12-30T00:55:37","slug":"wouldnt_you_like_to_be_a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/12\/29\/wouldnt_you_like_to_be_a.html","title":{"rendered":"Wouldn’t you like to be a Cusper, too?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wow — I had no idea I was a “Cusper”<\/a> — never heard the term before this article by Marian Salzman.<\/p>\n

\n

After strutting and tub-thumping and preening their way across the high ground of politics, media, culture and finance for 30 years, baby boomers have gone from top dogs to scapegoats in barely a year.<\/p>\n

As baby boomers lose their authority and appeal, generational power is shifting one notch down: to cuspers (born roughly 1954-1965), who arrived in style in 2008 with their first truly major figure, Barack Obama (born 1961). <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Yes, it’s true. I now have a president who is younger than I am.<\/em> Yikes! But at least he’s the same “cohort” as I am. I’ve always considered myself on the tail end of the Boomers — I’ve seen that listed as around 1961 or so. <\/p>\n

Cuspers, the age cohort that have been living in the shadow of the boomers, now have even more reasons to stake out their own separate identity and values.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It’s taken a long time for this rising demographic to be recognized as a distinct generation in its own right. They’ve been called “late boomers” because they missed the formative boomer experiences of the ’60s, such as civil rights and anti-war protests.<\/p>\n

They’ve been called tweeners or cuspers because they straddle the divide between Boomers and Gen X. American social commentator Jonathan Pontell has worked hard to establish their identity as Generation Jones. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Hrm. Well, “Cuspers” is kind of a dorky term, but I’m willing to accept it, I guess. However, isn’t an 11-year age cohort a bit sketchy as a “generation” to track people by?<\/p>\n

\n

Whether we call them cuspers, Generation Jones or Generation Obama, there are enigmas and paradoxes within this generation and its fans. They respond to Biblical imagery, but they’re not dogmatic in their faith.<\/p>\n

They value traditional notions of family but see men and women as equals in parenting. They go back to older American values — civility, community, responsibility — yet keenly embrace technology and use the Internet naturally.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Well, that all applies to me.<\/p>\n

\n

The cusper generation is as much an ideal as it is a demographic group, and that appeal extends well beyond the birth years that define it. Watch out for tweets (messages on the Twitter platform) that proclaim “Ich bin ein cusper.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Oops. “Cusper” just “jumped the shark.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wow — I had no idea I was a “Cusper” — never heard the term before this article by Marian Salzman. After strutting and tub-thumping and preening their way across…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13390,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/01\/04\/wouldnt_you_like_to_be_a.html","url_meta":{"origin":13402,"position":0},"title":"Wouldn’t you like to be a Cusper GenJoneser, too?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 4-Jan-09 2:53pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So led by a comment on my Cusper post, I find that the more accepted term for the folks born mid-50s to mid-60s (self included) is the less-other-referential but still-goofy\u00a0\"Generation...","rel":"","context":"In "Fourth Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Fourth Estate","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/fourth-estate"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49087,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/27\/american-motorists-are-motoring-less.html","url_meta":{"origin":13402,"position":1},"title":"American motorists are motoring less","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 27-Dec-14 11:17pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Overall driving mileage is continuing to decline, even post-Great Recession, down to 1995 levels. In part that's because of the relatively sluggish recovery, in part because the Boomers are driving less and the current generation is tending to live (intentionally) in places with better transit. I think +Steven Flaeck also\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24648,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/18\/you-can-only-manage-change-for-so-long.html","url_meta":{"origin":13402,"position":2},"title":"You can only "manage" change for so long","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 18-Dec-11 3:08pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Whether talking about social institutions, political ones, or religious ones, efforts to manage change that don't actually involve change are doomed to failure. Especially when people can vote with their feet.\"I don\u2019t think that anything we said mattered much because I don\u2019t think any of it was what they wanted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40197,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/12\/24\/rt-illuminati_stop-barack-ob.html","url_meta":{"origin":13402,"position":3},"title":"RT @Illuminati_Stop: BARACK OB…","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 24-Dec-13 4:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"RT @Illuminati_Stop: BARACK OBAMA WAS BORN IN 1961. OSAMA BIN LADEN WAS BORN IN 1957. 1961-1957= 4. YOU KNOW HOW OLD HITLER USED TO BE? THA\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4713,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/07\/15\/opening_the_tap.html","url_meta":{"origin":13402,"position":4},"title":"Opening the tap a bit","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 15-Jul-03 10:03am","format":false,"excerpt":"Huzzah and hey-nonny-nonny! Denver Water is giving us a third day of watering each week. Folks in my address cohort will be able to water Wednesday, Saturday, and now Monday...","rel":"","context":"In "Weather (mine)"","block_context":{"text":"Weather (mine)","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/weather-and-seasons"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129890,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/22\/whos-voting-for-whom.html","url_meta":{"origin":13402,"position":5},"title":"Who's voting for whom?","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 22-Feb-16 7:02am","format":false,"excerpt":"Exit polls have serious limitations, but this one held to look at who was voting for whom in the GOP South Caroline primaries has some interesting trends. Trump was broadly the winner, not just among a few cohorts, but Rubio came out as the choice for those opposing Trump, leaving\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}