The 50th Law (with 50 Cent)

The Generational Phenomenon
In our first years of life we are sponges, absorbing deeply the energy,
style, and ideas of our parents and teachers. We learn language, certain
essential values, ways of thinking, and how to function among people.
We are slowly inculcated with the culture of the time. Our minds are
supremely open at this moment, and because of this our experiences
are more intense and bound with strong emotions. As we become a few
years older, we become aware of our peers, those more or less of the
same age, going through the same process of assimilating this strange
new world we were cast into at birth.
Although we are encountering the same reality as everyone else
alive at the time, we are doing so from a peculiar angle—that of being a
child, physically smaller, more helpless, and dependent on adults.
From this point of view, the world of the adults can seem rather alien,
as we do not understand so well what motivates them, or their adult

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cares or concerns. What our parents might take as serious we can often
see as comical or odd. We may watch the same forms of entertainment
as they do, but we see them from the angle of a child, with little life
experience. We don’t have the power yet to affect this world, but we
start to interpret it in our own way, and we share this with our peers.
Then, when we reach our teen years or perhaps earlier, we become
aware that we are part of a generation of young people (focusing more
on those around our age) with whom we can identify. We bond over
our particular way of seeing things and the similar sense of humor we
have developed; we also tend to form common ideals about success
and coolness, among other values. In these years, we inevitably go
through a period of rebellion, struggling to find our own identity,
separate from our parents. This makes us deeply attuned to
appearances—to styles and fashions. We want to show that we belong
to our generational tribe, with its own look and manner.
Often a decisive event or trend will occur during these youthful
years—this could be a major war, a political scandal, a financial crisis
or economic boom. It could also be the invention of some new form of
technology that has a profound impact on social relations. Because we
are so young and impressionable, such events have a decisive influence
on the generational personality that is forming, making us cautious (if
it is a war or crash in the economy) or hungry for adventure (if it is
something that sparks prosperity or stability). Naturally, we view such
decisive events very differently from our parents and are affected more
deeply.
As we become more aware of what is going on in the world, we often
come to see the ideas and values of our parents as not fitting very well
our own experience of reality. What they have told or taught us does
not seem so relevant, and we hunger for ideas that are more related to
our youthful experience.
In this first phase of life, we shape a generational perspective. It is a
kind of collective mind-set, as we absorb the prevailing culture at the
same time as our peers, from the point of view of childhood and youth.
And because we are too young to understand or analyze this
perspective, we are generally ignorant of its formation and how it
influences what we see and how we interpret events.
Then, when we reach our twenties and into our thirties, we enter a
new phase of life and experience a shift. Now we are in a position to

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assume some power, to actually alter this world according to our own
values and ideals. As we progress in our work, we begin to influence
the culture and its politics. We inevitably clash with the older
generation that has held power for some time, as they insist on their
own way of acting and evaluating events. Many of them often view us
as immature, unsophisticated, soft, undisciplined, pampered,
unenlightened, and certainly not ready to assume power.
In some periods, the youth culture that is generated is so strong that
it comes to dominate the culture at large—in the 1920s and the 1960s,
for instance. In other periods, the older generation in positions of
leadership is much more dominant, and the influence of the emerging
adults in their twenties is less noticeable. In any event, to a greater or
lesser degree, a struggle and clash occurs between these two
generations and their perspectives.
Then, as we enter our forties and midlife and assume many of the
leadership positions in society, we begin to take notice of a younger
generation that is fighting for its own power and position. Its members
are now judging us and finding our own style and ideas rather
irrelevant. We begin to judge them in return, describing them as
immature, unsophisticated, soft, et cetera. We might begin to entertain
the notion that the world is heading downhill fast, the values we found
so important no longer mattering to this youthful set.
When we judge in this way, we are not aware that we are reacting
according to a pattern that has existed for at least three thousand
years. (There is an inscription on a Babylonian clay tablet that dates
from around 1000 BC that reads, “Today’s youth is rotten, evil, godless
and lazy. It will never be what youth used to be, and it will never be
able to preserve our culture.” We find similar complaints in all cultures
and in all time periods.) We think we are judging the younger
generation in an objective manner, but we are merely succumbing to
an illusion of perspective. It is also true that we are probably
experiencing some hidden envy of their youth and mourning the loss of
our own.
When it comes to the changes generated by the tensions between
two generations, we can say that the greater part of them will come
from the young. They are more restless, in search of their own identity,
and more attuned to the group and how they fit in. By the time such a
younger generation emerges into their thirties and forties, they will

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have shaped the world with their changes and given it a look and feel
that is distinct from their parents.
When looking at any generation, we naturally see variations within
it. We find individuals who are more aggressive than others—they tend
to be leaders, the ones who sense the styles and trends of the time and
express them first. They have less fear about breaking with the past
and defying the older generation. Danton exemplifies this type. We
also find a much larger group of followers who are not so aggressive,
who find it more exciting to keep up with trends, helping to shape and
promote them. And finally, we also find the rebels, those types who
defy their own generation and define themselves by going against the
grain. This could include the beatniks of the 1950s or those young
people in the 1960s who gravitated toward conservative politics.
We can say of these rebel types that they are just as marked by their
generation as anyone, but in reverse. And in fact, much of the same
spirit of the generation can be detected underneath this reverse version
—for instance, those younger people in the 1780s who rallied around
the aristocracy and in defense of the monarchy often felt a very