JIGSAW GENS
Hemingrebels — A Legacy of Gaiety & Opulence
The Lost Generation (“Distorters” or “Hemingrebels”) bathed themselves in passion and decadence
I first got the idea to produce a full Medium series on the history of America’s generational divides after actress Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) appeared on CBS’s The Talk in September 2022. When asked about how she relates to her own children, Gellar admitted — with refreshing authenticity — how she tends to mix up “the Gens.”
Appreciating Gellar’s modest and humble tone, I decided to make a positive effort in helping the general public distinguish why people from separate generations frequently view the world so differently.
Ted Scheinman of Smithsonian Magazine calls it “the Kids These Days effect.” He observes a tendency of older individuals with authoritarian tendencies to automatically brand America’s youth as stupid and disrespectful.
This pattern keeps repeating, from one generation to the next. UC-Santa Barbara’s John Protzko and Jonathan Schooler attribute this to “false memory.” At any given time, many folks from older generations will unfairly compare present-day young people to the young people of yesteryear who’d existed back when they themselves were either…
