[wordup] So maybe the slackers had it right after all

[Adam Shand]

From: Brett Shand <brett at shand.net>
Via: http://www.nettime.org/archives.php
Source: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/02/09/so_maybe_the_slackers_had_it_right_after_all/

So maybe the slackers had it right after all
By David Scharfenberg
February 9, 2009

WE MOVED to San Francisco and Brooklyn and Mission Hill. We jumped  
from job to job. Put off marriage. Never bought a place. And we never  
heard the end of it. We were drifters, they said. Layabouts. No  
respect for work and real estate or the value of a good pair of  
cufflinks.
But now, in the cold glare of a recession, everything looks different:  
We've got no house to lose, no career to dash, no school-aged children  
in need of pricey Wii gaming systems.

Not recession-proof, exactly, but recession-resistant, at least.

Of course, it's not like we saw the crash coming. We didn't plan for  
this, didn't time the market. And we made some bad choices along the  
way: The persistent neglect of our 401(k)s, battered stock market  
notwithstanding, will catch up to us someday.

But in retrospect, it's clear that we did something right. We lived a  
smaller life, a life we could afford. And as the country rebuilds the  
economy, as it tries to replace it with something more sustainable  
than a leaning tower of subprime mortgages and consumer binging, it is  
time to reevaluate that much-maligned Gen X archetype: the American  
Slacker.

"Slacker," like most labels, has always been a crude and misleading  
shorthand. We were a bit aimless, us urban, liberal-arts types. We  
were a little too enamored of irony, perhaps. A little too frivolous.

But there was something to be said for a life in the moment; for a  
dalliance in California, for concerts and failed screenplays, for a  
little fun before the fall. And the truth is, we were always more  
purposeful - more responsible - than our fathers and uncles and  
grandmothers realized.

Those of us who took low-wage jobs were not just marking time. Not all  
of us, anyway. We were doing work we cared about, as journalists and  
teachers and social workers.

All that job-hopping and freelancing? We were dilettantes, on some  
level, it's true. But we also understood, before most, that something  
had shifted - that we were moving to an economy of telecommuters and  
independent contractors and less-than-loyal employers.

And while the best minds on Wall Street cooked up the real estate mess  
that destroyed a global economy, we were sensible enough to steer  
clear of that overpriced condo and move into a dingy, three-bedroom  
rental with a few of our meathead friends.

You see, while Alan Greenspan and Countrywide Financial were creating  
a capitalism of disastrous excess, we were busy working on a more  
workable model. Not without its indulgences, of course. The exuberance  
of the dot-com bubble was undoubtedly irrational. But we did pretty  
well, this little slice of Generation X.

We brought you the Internet, worked on green technology, and filled  
the ranks of Teach for America. We crossed the color line, ate local  
produce, and bought secondhand clothing. We lived in smaller spaces,  
drove smaller cars, and took the subway to work.

It all seemed like a quaint liberal fantasy at the time. And on some  
level it was. But now, with a creaking economy and an overheated  
planet, it reads more like a survival manual: a guide to multicultural  
living in an increasingly diverse society, an incubator for the  
technology that might save the American auto industry, an antidote to  
our awful adventures in sprawl.

Of course, we could abandon this life as we get older, I suppose. We  
could grow impatient with our little apartments and cramped  
hatchbacks. We could set our sights on the kind of suburban existence  
we've forsaken. But I'd like to think we're smarter than that.

We created something worthwhile - a sustainable neighborhood, a tech  
future, a life we can manage. And we won't let it go too easily.

At least I hope not. As the nation rebuilds a crumbling capitalism, it  
could use a little perspective, a little wisdom. Bet you didn't think  
you'd get it from us.

David Scharfenberg, a guest columnist, is a Boston-based writer.