It’s too soon after the Woodstock anniversary, but once again Beloit College has reminded most of us what it’s like to be literally old school. The Wisconsin college has just published its annual “Mindset List for the Entering Class of 2013.”
It’s a look at the frame of reference and, well, “mindset” of those born in 1991. And a reminder to the rest of us about perspective – and what can’t be taken for granted. For example, for the class of 2013 Miles Davis has always been dead, Pan American Airways has always been gone and Jack Kevorkian has always been a felon. Condoms have always been advertised on TV, and Moldova, Georgia and Belarus have always been independent nations. And stuff like wars, coups and car chases have always been on television in real time.
This is now – from the cultural to the technological to the geopolitical. That was then.
But here’s something else that has always been. Every incumbent generation has to keep up, and every new generation has to, as they say, read the minutes of previous meetings.