[Erin] Talkin' bout their generation

Earlier today, commenter "michael" left this comment below the "Games People Play" post:

Slightly off topic and I wish Erin or Rod would post on it: am I the only one taken aback by the outpouring of praise for George Carlin on his death? From the media accolades, you'd think an ex-President had died. I never heard his routines but from accounts he seemed indecent, anti-God, anti-Church. Am I missing something or just too culturally backward?

Actually, I considered posting something about all this--but initially decided against it. Was Carlin's death a newsworthy event? In the sense that his "Seven Words" and other envelope pushing routines had an effect on free speech, obscenity considerations, and the power of the government to establish broadcasting rules, yes; and this is not a small matter. But I think the attention paid to Carlin's passing speaks to another phenomenon.

A hint may be this NY Times editorial from earlier today, on the subject of the new version of Guitar Hero that will feature the Beatles:

For fans of a certain age, those of us who literally grew up with the Beatles, the idea produces a certain sense of loss. What made the Beatles matter wasn't only the music. It was also the unfailing sense that they defined the leading edge of a culture that was genuinely ours. These video-game talks remind us that it has been nearly 40 years since that was true. [Emphasis added-EM].

The oldest of the Baby Boomers are now 62; how old the youngest are depends on whether you see the Boomers as a monolithic generation born as late as the early 1960s, or whether you agree with the growing belief that the generation born between 1954-1965 is properly its own generation, sometimes called Generation Jones, whose cultural reference points and self-identity remain very different, and sometimes sharply at odds, with the Boomer generation.

But if you accept the notion that even the youngest of the true Boomers is now reaching their mid-fifties, then the attention paid to Carlin's death starts to make sense. Carlin caused outrage and was even arrested for performing his "Seven Words" routine--in 1972; like the Times editorial says sadly about the Beatles culture, that was nearly forty years ago, and while it may have almost as shocking for Carlin to appear in scruffy attire and with earrings as it was for him to spout vulgarities, both of those things are commonplace now, and have, for the most part, lost the power to shock, or to produce more from audiences than a yawn or a giggle.

So the passing of Carlin, like the mundane talks over creating a Beatles-version of the popular Guitar Hero game, is a reminder to what has probably been the most talked-about (and, arguably, the most self-focused) generation in American history that their time of great cultural influence is coming to an end. The next decade will see the retirement of the vast majority of the "first wave" or "true" Boomers, and their impact on the culture will no longer be the impact caused by edgy comedians or protest music, but instead will be seen in the rise of retirement communities and of a new "boom" in products and services geared toward those of advancing age.

While Carlin's death definitely deserved some attention, I think the sense that the media made a much bigger deal out of it than it otherwise would have is due at least as much to the sense that another Boomer icon is gone as to the discussion about the FCC, obscenity rules in broadcasting, and free speech. Those of us born later, too young to remember Carlin or even, in some cases, to have heard of him, might wonder about the fuss--but to the Boomers Carlin's comedy was like the Beatles' music--part of a culture that, with all its faults, was genuinely theirs.