Posted on 03/10/2019 4:51:50 PM PDT by LibWhacker
When actor Luke Perry, best known for portraying TV heartthrob Dylan McKay on the ’90s teen drama “Beverly Hills, 90210,” died Monday after suffering a massive stroke, there were the usual public displays of sadness when a public figure leaves us. But his passing was especially painful for people of a certain age.
As one fan expressed on Twitter: “I’m in mourning for Generation X today, for real.”
Perry died at just 52 years old. Which makes him the first Gen X icon to succumb to natural causes. That’s an unsettling reality check to those of us who identify as Gen Xers, the 65 million people born between 1965 and 1980. We’re used to death — we’ve lost plenty of heroes to drugs and suicide, everyone from Kurt Cobain to River Phoenix to Chris Cornell. But Perry is the first to die of something we only expect to happen to old people.
It doesn’t help that Perry’s death came on the heels of a pretty egregious generational slight. A CBS News story in January, which focused on millennials, included an infographic of every generation, from the silent generation (those born between 1925 and ’45) to baby boomers (born between ’46 and ’64) to the post-millennials (born between 1997 and the present). Generation X was conspicuously absent.
“Gen X is definitely having a midlife crisis,” says Matthew Hennessey, 45, author of “Zero Hour for Gen X: How the Last Adult Generation Can Save America from Millennials.”
“It’s not just about growing older. We have this creeping dread that we’re going to be displaced and forgotten.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I’m the same age as Luke Perry. His death does not cause me the slightest existential trauma, although of course I’m sorry for his family and friends.
The writer must have a small pool of friends in the entertainment industry. I am part of the GenX cohort, and not one of my friends has “lost it” in the wake of Luke Perry’s death.
I’m a hair away from 60. I check the obits now and then, but the only existential question I have is “how do they get people to die in alphabetical order?”
As a gen x’er I had my existential crisis just out of high school when my boss at the fast food joint (barely in his 30s) has a heart attack and died.
This article was obviously written by a shallow twit.
I don’t think any of my friend even know.
Why not? We’re born that way.
That's not really what the article was about.
You got me.
I am a Gex X’er NOT sharing in this shock, because I have never abused drugs. Perry was 52 going on 70. He put himself through hell, with cocaine and alcohol. And it took a fatal toll.
Luke Perry passing is a blip on the radar with me. Now Susan passing from cancer hit me in the gut. She started kindergarten with me and we grew up together in our small town. She played softball with us boys, ran track with me in HS, and was all around cool. I graduated HS with 54 kids. I started kindergarten with 48 out of those 54. Susan is missed. Luke Perry? Never knew him.
I am trying to think of Baby Boomer (I am one) cultural icons who died of natural causes before their time.
Not hardly. The author of the article may be in some sort of panic, but the vast majority of GenX is not freaking out in response to Luke Perry’s death.
Well, I’m at the tail end of the baby boom and frankly have no idea who this guy was. But here’s a news flash, people at every age die every day
I was born the same year as Luke Perry.
His death is kind of curious, but he was not currently a big star, so it has no real effect.
Also, by the time you reach middle age, you typically know people your age who died tragically due to accident, war, crime, or illness.
I hear ya, and I know exactly what you mean.
Last summer my son dove in a lake to search for a friend who jumped in and never came up. He found him, dragged the body to the beach and started CPR.
Yes, it his him and the others pretty hard then they went on.
It helped that the kid who died was a strong Christian and moved safely into the arms of the Lord.
I doubt people were shocked or panicked, but as the article says, this wasn't drugs or suicide or murder or an accident or even cancer. This was something young people think only happens to older people, and that gives a generation something to ponder if people in it are inclined to.
“..we’ve lost plenty of heroes to drugs and suicide, everyone from Kurt Cobain to River Phoenix to Chris Cornell....”
Kurt Cobain?? Hero??? River Phoenix?? Hero?? Chris Cornell?? Hero??
Damn this guy sets the “hero” bar pretty low.
I’m 58. MY heroes were the guys like my old man and uncles, Airborne and Marines, who saved a world from national socialists and imperial Japanese lunatics.
But, yeah... Kurt Cobain... a “hero”, uh huh.... an idiot Grunger who erased his face with a shotgun because he was too cowardly to face life. No sympathy at all from me.
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