Today GenXers were called out to account for what we have done for the past 30+ years by younger people who see us as not taking responsibility for the mess our society is in. The following is my personal account. 1/
It began when I arrived in Aust. A said JHoward was leader of the Liberal Party & he decided to speak against Asian Migration - I & others my age went out to protest against it in all Aust. Capitols. ALP's Bob Hawke won the election introducing Universal Super 2/
Then Kuwait was invaded by Iraq & the USA under George Bush Snr & Bill Clinton decided to go to War, as always Aust followed. We protested against it & were ignored.
Note there are Wars I won't mention bc they were there before I was born. 3/
In the early 1990's we protested against the introduction of HECS - we were ignored and guess who was the first amongst the first gen to pay HECS? GenXers. 4/
In 1996 the French decided to test an atomic bomb under Moruroa Atoll - We protested that worldwide and the French President Jacques Chirac said, "Fine don't buy our Champagne, here is Gérard Depardieu" We lost that one. 5/
Of course during this time we were also worried bc the Tassie Govt still stood by the laws of against Sodomy - we protested against that - eventually the Laws were changed.
We threw our support behind a man called Eddie Mabo who stood up & took his case that of his people to the High Court of Aust where it was decided that terra nullius should not have been applied to Australia - YaY!! #alwayswasalwayswillbe
We wrote to politicians & protested to Save The Tarkine in Tassie by declaring it World Heritage - Dr Bob Brown leader of the Greens - had hair back then - but it happened so we rejoiced
Then JHoward was elected & told us "We shall decide who comes to this country and the manner in which they come" & whilst others rejoiced - we went ..
8/
He introduced the GST on books & sanitary products, the casualisation of the workforce and tried to kill us with a pesky legislation called Work Choices, which gave bosses more rights to sack workers for no reason - we joined the Union movement & protested 9/
The campaign involved mass rallies, marches, tv, radio adverts, judicial action & e-activism. The Libs passed WorkChoices until in 2007 for some miracle Mr Kevin Rudd was elected & kicked WorkChoices to the gutter - YaY!
The worse loss GenXers had imo was in 2001 when, yes, you guessed it! JHoward decided to support another invasion of Iraq with GWBush, without the support of the UN & the Coalition of the Willing took us to War. We protested in all Capitols in record numbers & we were ignored
Note your 1990's early 2000's Indie Rock for an idea about the mood of young people at that time. I saw my friends killed themselves after returning from War, due to drug addiction, oh bc back then depression was called an emotional crisis & we all had to get over it.. 10/
At some point most GenXers - with the exception of the privileged few - decided that we had to get jobs to eat & pay bills. Mr Kevin Rudd was replaced by Julia Gillard & Gillard by Rudd and then Mr Turnbull by Abbott & then back to Mr Turnbull 11/
During all these years countless of Reclaim the Night marches were organised at times attended by ..the organisers & nobody else. Women focused on Smashing the Glass Ceiling as well as DV - yes Women have been dying at the hands of their partners for quite some time 12/
Mr Rudd asked us to make Climate Change a priority, but the ALP skipped the team field trip & Ms Gillard gave us the NDIS & finally we got the first report into Mental Illness in Aust through The National Mental Health Commission headed by Mr Alan Fell..
At some point I think GenX fell into a mood of despair, depression & anger thus we claim we did not care - with Nirvana singing Here We are now entertainers ..etc, etc music isn't my forte..
Living in a society that is not of making is demoralising. The words 'Society is to blame' were not uttered as a joke. We were educated & knew/know we were being screwed with our pants on and there was nothing we could do ..
Distractions in the form of Technology spin us around like a record round, round round.. and it was not until recently a girl by the name of Brittany Higgins brought us back to full attention & we showed up to protest again
This time Xers, Boomers, Millennials blah - all Aussies who want a better society & a better country will have the numbers to make a difference BUT only if we put petty crap aside and unite for Climate Change, Renewables, Better Industrial Relation rights etc..
In conclusion yes, GenXers failed Millennials.
All I can do is own it & say I'm still around, you have my support. I hope you fare better bc at some point there will be a generation calling you out to account as well.
Yes, I probably forgot a lot of things and I apologise in advance before you all gang up on me for talking shite..
Fin
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