Generation X

A column by David Brooks the other day intrigued me when he wrote about students he taught at Duke University last fall, calling them “Children of Polarization”:

Today’s college students, remember, were born around 1987. They were 2 or 3 when the Berlin Wall fell. They have come into political consciousness amid impeachment, jihad, polarization and Iraq. Many of them seem to have reacted to these hothouse clashes not by becoming embroiled in the zealotry but by quietly drifting away from that whole political mode.

::snip::

For many students, the main axis of their politics is not between left and right but between idealism and realism. They have developed a suspicion of sweepingly idealistic political ventures, and are now a fascinating mixture of youthful hopefulness and antiutopian modesty.

This struck me as being a signature of an outer planet combination, and sure enough I found that in 1987 when these kids were born, Saturn and Uranus were conjunct in Sagittarius, linking the restriction and limitation of Saturn with the rebellious idealism of Uranus. The suspicion (Saturn) of sweeping idealism (Uranus) and the combination of hopefulness (Uranus) and modesty (Saturn) express the collision of these two planets which are very different in nature. Saturn seeks to build form and establish firm structures in society; it sets rules and boundaries and frowns on rebellion. Uranus, on the other hand, seeks to destroy the status quo – to break down barries and build a new order.

Brooks goes on to say, “If my Duke students are representative, then the U.S. is about to see a generation that is practical, anti-ideological, modest and centrist (maybe to a fault).” It sounds as though the hard line of Saturn in these Duke […]