Who’s Value?

Generations are not stationary entities. They ebb and flow, guided by the social, cultural, and technological tides. The definition of success, therefore, cannot remain untouched as the world relentlessly evolves around us. Each generation brings its unique challenges, aspirations, and values to the table, demanding a revised understanding of what it means to succeed. Our parents want what’s best, but to whom? What they believed was ‘best for us’ has had each generation after asking, what does success mean exactly and what does ‘for us’ mean to each generation that follows thereafter. As the sciences influence zeitgeist processing and understanding, it influences how we learn to deal with life as much as it influences us how to treat whatever is arising.

In the pursuit of success, mankind often becomes consumed by conscious strategies, meticulous planning, and overwhelming determinations. However, beneath the surface of these conscious efforts lies an undeniable truth: man, in general, is hopelessly unconscious. The unconscious mind plays a pivotal role in achievements and failures that are often overlooked. We will explore how mankind's hopelessly unconscious efforts, driven by intuition, desires, passions, traumas, environmental/social conditions and creativity, are indispensable in our relentless evolution of success. It is through the unconscious that motivation, determination, and resilience are harnessed to propel us forward.

With the invention and freedoms revealed by birth control and certain changes in political policies, Gen X’ers (1965-1980) born from the Baby Boomers were brought up defining their success to be the first of the individualistic and unrestrained. With industries refining costs as well as lowering the barrier to entry to afford life’s ‘finer things’, the world was just beginning to feel smaller, more accessible and broadening the middle class experience. By affording the materialistic symbols of success, they believed that having the ability to show their wealth was in itself considered a success. Their motivations may have been the first to think less about providing generational wealth and prosperity building upon family and faith, as the Baby Boomer (1946-1964) generation previously understood success, but to be more individualistic and “live it up” and to enjoy the sun while it’s shining. As they grew becoming the prime demographic of influence, the opportunities Gen X’ers hadn’t previously afforded were past down the line. Seeing a wider impression of life, they raised their children to go a step further.

As life got more and more convenient, modern man to some extent turned its attention from material things to its own subjective processes. Should we call this mere curiosity or course correction? At any rate, time has a way of revealing change in man’s fundamental outlook. Growing up around the pursuit of success valued in material goods, Millennial’s (1981-1996) reflected and redefined the term success based around happiness. They lived in the previous generation’s shallow sense of stability placed in material happiness and how quickly things could turn for the worst with this mindset. Additionally, they saw the vast potential in the start of the internet which opened up opportunities never accessible and therefor unperceivable previously. Many of this generation began pursuing new and emerging fields that placed value around passions rather than exclusively on what promised wealth. In doing so, they hoped to feel more fulfilled than their previous generations had. Rather than pursuing a job based on salary as security, they believed happiness was the core of success and that pursuing it meant living a life worth living with salary becoming more of a byproduct that rewards those who pursue their dreams. In a way, taking the ‘live it up’ mentality to ‘live it fully.‘ A fault in the theory is that happiness is fleeting and no amount of pursuit is without its fair share of difficulties regardless of passion or determination, so if someone were rich and unhappy or poor and happy, which of the two results were regarded as true success then?

By the 2000s, this generation was starting to have children. Now, in their early 20’s, Gen Z (1997-2012) has been predicted to summarize the idea of success as having influence regardless of character after the rise of influencer culture within social media, having an innate awareness of each persons social-market-value. With the floodgates of seamless integration in technology and information at their fingertips, they have far more information than any other generation previously before. They are informed about all matters in society for better and worse, true and false, perverse and pure. History still has a few more years until it fully reveals their influence and manifestation of their impact on the economy. But at a glance, it appears that they feel they want to be different like everyone else. This contradictory statement points out a trend and desired desperation of wanting to feel unique and seen within the cacophony of socialized media and entertainment. As phone’s broke the social confines previously held at the school yards and water coolers - expanding and leveling the barrier to entry of reaching some form of fame. Instead of wanting to see the world like Millennials, they wanted to world to see them. The world wasn’t getting smaller with technology, people were now feeling bigger than before. In this society, discussions on an individual's worth often revolves around two distinct measures: social value and market value. They believe these two dimensions are intertwined and collectively shape the core of an individual's contributions to the world as crucial for understanding the holistic impact people can have on society.

First and foremost, let's explore social value. Human beings are inherently social creatures. We rely on connections, relationships, and community to thrive. Social value encapsulates the impact we have on those around us, the positive influence we exert on individuals and communities, and the ways we contribute to the betterment of society as a whole idealistically. Gen Z considers the profound impact of individuals with high social value whether they agree with it or not. Celebrity or ‘Star Power’ has expanded beyond the movie and TV screens to a broader term, ‘Influencer’ - entering into the private lives and homes, being placed within higher forms of status than previously granted, building bridges across industries and their intended communities. Their contributions extend beyond tangible outcomes and permeate societal structures as their lives beyond the camera become publicized as entertainment. These individuals possess the power to rally communities, inspire change, and uplift the disenfranchised, but that only occupies a thin layer of the narcissistic bulk that occupies the first decade in the social media boom.

In seeing how the economic and social systems evolve over time, the variety of circumstances each generation is dealt permeates and changes what is considered valuable. These external factors, grounded by the wavering mass-minded conditions of the physical and now prominently digital world, feverishly question traditions and norms through their newly assumed enlightenment over previous generations faults.

To maintain traditional values means teaching the older and more time-tested lessons with new, engaging and relevant stories to help the next generation understand and process their distinct circumstances. Each generation has a different set of standards, values and methods of doing that are not inherently good or bad, but require checks and balances to mitigate potential problems when defining and then establishing new norms. We should emphasize the past with logic in order to hold the scales against breaks from traditions rather than dismantling them all together with feeling.

"Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater" is an idiomatic expression for an avoidable error in which something good or of value is eliminated when trying to get rid of something unwanted. Along this tangent, if someone where to dislike the functions of the city they live in, the solution is not to demolish everything into a pile of rubble, but to ask, what infrastructures do not work and why. Only after exhausting ‘the why’ to its death can a proper plan be expressed. If I want to stay and change the structure, are my changes to accommodate my own needs or for the betterment of the general public's and generations to come? Are my issues with the infrastructure related with my own resistance to change, or in other words, should I move to a ‘better’ location that suits my needs rather than make everyone else submit to mine? In order to not repeat myself unnecessarily, It would be more productive for younger generations not to dismantle the previous foundation’s and rebuild from scratch. Instead, they should preserve, refine and then improve upon. So, what is so valuable today that it’s worth changing long after you’re individualistic existence is no longer relevant? 

Success within Capitalism could be simply put as the ability to survive by accumulating enough wealth through providing value within a society.*

-Busy Brain