Generational shifts?
The idea that each generation is distinct in its outlook and
faces unique challenges is nothing new; in Douglas Coupland’s
landmark novel Generation X, one of the characters remarks of his
parents’ generation:
Do you think we enjoy hearing about your brand-new million-dollar
home when we can barely afford to eat Kraft Dinner sandwiches in
our own grimy little shoe boxes and we’re pushing thirty? A home
you won in a genetic lottery, I might add, sheerly by dint of your
having been born at the right time in history? You’d last about ten
minutes if you were my age these days.11
Often what look like big, aggregate changes in attitudes
across society can in fact represent shifts in views from one
generation to the next. As older generations die out, replaced
by younger cohorts, the balance of public opinion shifts, even
if views within generations have remained relatively stable.
This effect is observable in modern Britain on a range of
social issues, from the morality of homosexual relationships to
gender roles within families, religious faith and political
participation.12 Younger generations tend to value personal
choice more, and traditional institutions less, than their
processors did. Figure 6 illustrates this kind of effect, with the
example of gender roles within the family. Attitudes vary
substantially between generations – with the Pre War
Generation holding a much more traditionalist view – but have
remained remarkably consistent within them. As the Pre War
cohort shrinks as a proportion of the population, therefore, we
can expect the balance of opinion in the population as a whole
to move in a more liberal direction.