My Generation: Generation Sparse Snarkers

Looking at all the news and browsing through various internet forums (where people of all persuasions hang out; rich, poor, white, black, Latino, Asian, conservative, liberal, religious, secular, calm, hotheated, fringe, comfortably mainstream), and I've come to a conclusion: My generation (the Millenials, 90s, and very late 80s children) is a generation of very austure, penny-pinching comedians. A generation of moneyless mockers. Of pocket-change parodists.
Now, why do I think this? Because the first part (of being poorer than their parents and being forced to make great financial sacrifice; we are the generation coming of age in the almost mythic (in a cultural sense) "Great Recession", the Depression for the new century. We are, more than any generation in 70 years, forced to elevaluate the cost of our finanical decisions. Of course, those middle-aged adults already in this situation face the same decisions, but, like the generation coming of age before the Greatest Generation, they don't comphrend the full cultural signifiance of the Great Recession.

The comedian side of this generation is a bit harder to realize; it's only when you realize the figures that Generation Sparse Snarkers seem to  idolize that you understand. What does this generation respect? Not experience or ideology; that is the refuge of the older generations. This generation respects Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and the like, comedians all. Many of this generation go to comedians for news; they respect the integrity and news-telling skills of the unserious over the professional journalists. Even the political pundits inject satire into their politics nowadays, just to be admired by this generation.

And our heroes of the past are no different; who do we respect and why? Who from history is popular right now; certainly not those who built stability or great empires. No, we respect historical leaders with a sense of humor; Winston Churchill's witty dismissal of those who accussed him of being a drunk, Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt when they satrizied their opponents, Harry Truman when he used his rough manner to mock his opponents, and those similar to these jokester presidents. We don't  pay as heavy attention to their actions (though we still do look at what they actually did), and focus rather on their comedic talent.

Even our music, in some cases, gravitates to the "poor/disadvantaged comedian"; new forms of folk, hip-hop, rock, rap, punk, and country music are becoming popular, and rather than complain about what they do not have, these new music artists take aim at those that are perceived to have too much. The older music that does the same thing as this new music has been embraced in much the same way. For example, I personally have started to listen to The Dead Kennedy; their fierce satirical lyrics appeal to me, and fit my generation's woes, even though they are decades old.

So yeah, I think the culture of my generation is of austerity and comedic wit. I feel that we feel these things are the things that define our generation. I feel this is how our generation will be seen by future generations.