T-t-t-t-talking 'Bout My Generation

But there is also a parallel between the Generation Gap that became pronounced in the 1960s and the gap we're experiencing today. Watching that video - after I got over laughing at Tommy Smothers interaction with Pete Townshend at the end - was like a visceral punch to the gut as it brought back the arguments I used to have with my father in the late 60s and early 70s, my own personal generation gap.

Last week, I compared our experience in Alternate Broadband over the past four years to an extended road trip from college (Shamalama Ding Dong - Life is a Highway), reveling in the recklessness of youth that pursues a journey of discovery not so much for the practical goal at the end of the road, but for the experience of the journey.

Yesterday, I wrote about my kid's entrance into adolescence (Digital Adolescents Stuck in Digital Puberty), suggesting that as a society we are stuck in that awkward period of unrest and confusion - adolescence. I also highlighted our aging political leadership and their analog roots in yesterday's post (From Analog to Digital - A Long, Strange Trip), pondering whether the really, really old men and women in senior positions in Washington can truly grasp the historical significance of technology changes we face today, and whether they have the energy to deal with those changes wisely.

It's no coincidence that I wrote about adolescence and its corollary, senescence, in one day. I'm here in my personal life now, stuck in between my kids and my parents. This is My Generation, the tail end of the Baby Boom. I lost my dad three years ago (and miss him every day), and recently moved my 75-year old mom back to town. Thinking about different perspectives of generations is inescapable for me - it's a big part of my life right now. Understanding the Generation Gap is also very important to understanding how society works today.

It's inevitable for those at the beginning of their lives to look forward to the future with anticipation, and for those at the end of their lives to look backward with nostalgia. And where we choose to place our benchmarks has a large role in determining how we perceive the present.

When older folks look back and marvel at how far they've come, it's sincere. But it's also dangerous if that nostalgia and love of the past causes them to take their eyes off of the future, wistfully reminiscing about the Good Old Days.

And when younger people look forward and pine for the future before they're ready, impatient to have it all now, it's dangerous if they act on their wishes without full awareness of consequences. They risk repeating the mistakes of the past if they neglect the lessons of history and are in too much of a hurry.

We need each other. Each generation has something to offer. We need the accumulated wisdom, maturity and caution of the older generation, and the energy, initiative and optimism of youth. We need both conservatives and progressives if we are to move forward as a society. We need the dynamic tension, the push and pull, the arguments that will help us preserve what's worth saving, and leave behind the things that keep us from moving ahead.

Processing these thoughts, I come to the inescapable conclusion that we desperately need leadership, at all levels of society, who will face the facts with honesty and courage, who will lead us into the changes we need to make as a society.

My focus in my job and on this website is on the broadband infrastructure that will take us to the future we deserve. Too many people look at how far we've come in ten years with broadband internet and mobile telephony. Too few look at how far we have to go to reach our potential.

It's vital that we set benchmarks that will stretch us. It's like what my kids go through daily now in private school - the faculty gives them a ceiling to reach for, an incredibly challenging curriculum that makes them stretch to the limits of their abilities. And they do, time after time - it's amazing what they're learning. In contrast, what I see all too often in public education is a culture that focuses on a floor that all have to rise above, a minimal standard to pass, and the result is mediocrity more often than excellence. We're lucky to be able to afford private school, and I would think this is a challenge for public schools to rise to, and some do.

As a society, when it comes to broadband, we're in the same boat. We desperately need to stretch to an impossibly high ceiling, to set our benchmarks on having the best infrastructure that technology can give us. We risk our future when we settle for a floor, a benchmark of 200 Kbs, when we accept mediocrity, when we marvel with nostalgia at how far we've come in ten years, instead of being impatient that we're not the leading country in the new Network Age. I hate to say it, but we are set on the path to mediocrity if we don't change our ways.

We need to be more impatient with our leadership, like that young Pete Townshend from 40 years ago, banging his guitar against the speakers to express his frustration... what are we banging against to express our frustration?

I don't hope I die before I get old, but I do hope I live to see broadband reach its potential.