seventh onober 6 and c-span, c-span.org, or listen on the free radio app. >> matthew hennessey discusses his book on the role of generation x and his concerns generation.llennial he joined us on monday for washington journal. journal" continues. ast: matthew hennessy is member of the wall street journal and serves as an associate editorial editor. he is also the author of the book "zero hour for gen x: how the last adult generation can save american from millenials." good morning. why is saving needed? guest: you can see every morning when you open up the newspaper. it is millennials this, millennials that. i use the term in the demographic term but as a proxy for what i see as the ill effect of technology on all of our

lives. part of the reason i wrote the book was i noticed i was getting distracted all of the time by my phone in situations i do not want to be distracted in. i wanted to analyze that and what i found when talking to people my own age as there was a lot of anxiety about that. and i spoke to younger people, people we call millennials, i did not detect anxiety about it so i wanted to explore that and see if i cannot figure a way back from the digital distraction that was plaguing me. host: aside from the digital part, you wrote this. this is a moment when members of generation x should be setting the national agenda. we should be entering political and national influence. if we do not act, the millennial generation will sweep generation x overboard. how did you come to that conclusion? function of a numbers. generation x is a small group of people compared to the generation before and after.

i have this vision in my mind of , who have outrs stayed there welcome, let's put it that way. the president is a baby boomer. every major institution in the united states is run by baby boomers. i have vision of them passing the torch to millennials. i'm speaking figuratively and i'm being dramatic for affect. in individual cases that is not what is going to happen. as a way of illustrating my approach to this issue, i thought that was a good visual. host: when it comes to current society, power millennial shaping it, what are the main concerns aside from the digital part of it? guest: i'm concerned about the changes in attitudes. the approach to technology is important and i do not want to skip it. i am concerned about paying for things. i'm concerned about waiting for things. these are the main things i've noticed have changed in american life in the last 10 years. host: give an example.

guest: i work in the newspaper business. that has been well documented that newspapers are going away in part because people find it annoying to pay for the content they consume. 10 to 15 years ago we saw that same revolution taking place in the music industry. you have a 25-year-old or a whyear-old, they do not see they have to pay for stuff when it is all online for free. that stuck me as a fundamental shift. i do not think anyone who grew up in the 1970's or 1980's would dispute the relationship between the quality of the media you consume and what you pay for it, c-span notwithstanding. host: notwithstanding. host: you're saying this is more of a mindset that has you concerned? guest: when i talk to them i do not get the sense they are at all concerned from the drift of society away from a face-to-face world or a handshake world to a digital world.

they are comfortable moving every aspect of interpersonal and professional relationships online or onto the phone. sayings survey research millennials are far more comfortable texting, would much rather text someone than speak to them on the phone and in person. that struck me as something worth commenting on. we note in our daily lives -- it is not in dispute. in some cases we are swept away with it as well. i do not have anything personal against millennials. not lovemy meals do this line of reasoning and i get pushed back and that is fine and i hope to get some this morning. there are a lot of people who say this is bogus. even discussing people in these terms is a waste of time. it is an artificial construct, this idea of generations, and i'm sensitive to that, and i make the point of saying i understand the limits of this kind of analysis but i do not

see there is any less value in talking about issues this way that in discussing people in terms of their racial or socioeconomic -- their background. say at the election time white working-class voters do this, college-educated voters do this, i am simply using the vocabulary. host: our guest is with us. "zero hour for gen x: how the last adult generation can save american from millenials." that is the topic for the remainder of our time. we have divided the lines differently. if you were born before 1965, (202) 748-8000, if you are born between 1965 and 1980, (202) , and if you're born after, and if you're born after 1980, (202) 748-8002. there's a lot of concern

dater prior toe world war -- and the millennial generation is between 1980 at the turn-of-the-century. that is the kind of -- a lot of people are concerned with them doing their job. the millennials, that is such a millennials, that is such a big -- they are gigantic.

cracks it's in large part to do with the inability to sell paper -- papers. this model works for some, but there is not as much money in it as you think.

as news commodified's - c ommodifies and these large companies aggregate, you will see less and less of the good quality stuff. maybe you are satisfied with what you've got at the moment. but i'm not sure we will all be satisfied. before 1965 -- this is ann from wisconsin. ann: i hear this all the time. i don't like the baby boomers. you said a comment about how you were the last generation not to be cut -- the boomers were the last generation. when you got in trouble at school, your parents made sure you are responsible for what you did. you.blame the teacher, not who is the last adult generation?

you are not right about the representation of gen x. there is fault -- far more people your age in the senate and house and governorships than born in 1958. we were sick of nixon. we did not get involved in politics. scott walker and paul ryan are gen x'ers. so was president obama. just be glad for what you have. the millennials aren't the first ones that have technology. pedro: thank you. guest: i think a lot of people would disagree that barack obama is a gen x'er. i am not sure what your he was born. he does not present as a gen x'er.

paul ryan is leaving the house and scott walker is in electoral trouble. pedro: how do she fit into the picture? cortez --across your ocasio cortez? she has sort of popped out of nowhere. -- has been a useful in example as to be kind of as, there isenergy

a new crop of young up and com ers. who knows how it will ultimately play out? she could play out quicker than anyone realizes. the "new york one story, youee will see three over the next few months. in local and house races around the country in which young people in their 20's and early 30's are making good progress against established candidates. that is a very salient storyline at the moment. bleed-over into the next cycle. i am not calling for generation xers to put a flag down. i am making more modest suggestions.

to do with your personal life and his self-regulation in the way you raise your children. i am not making the political case for a wave of gen x'ers sweeping the political tables. born after 1980, from california, this is dave. caller: good morning. you mentioned millennials don't think they should have to pay for news or music online. the bernie sanders rallies were almost exclusively millennials. bernie was telling them they should not have to pay for health care or their college education. they should be entitled to a basic national income. one of the me reasons bernie is so attractive because he is telling

them they are entitled to all the stuff you and i have had to work for. that is why they are attracted to socialism, despite what is happening in venezuela, where the country is collapsing. you should take the trip to venezuela to see the results of socialism. or cuba under castro. the results of socialism have been the same. losebody is so poor people their freedom and because the government destroys the incentive to be enterprising and productive. matthew: i don't agree with most of what you have said. i don't want to turn this into a left-right thing. about younger people, they tend to be more to the left and as you get older you tend to drift to the right.

not in all cases. approach toferent understanding why socialism at this moment, or what people are calling socialism, is popular among people who are millennials, around the age of 30 and below. whichit to the ease with problems can be solved online on the internet, all of the gizmos and gadgets. silicon valley has been offering young people in the all immersive way that it has shaped their lives. if you grew up in a world in a problemcould solve at school or a problem in your personal life, or you could text your parents instantly, you are constantly in touch, you had all of this ability -- and more than just the ability, the faith that

some sort of technology could solve their problems, i think you become impatient with problems that are difficult, and that will require a longer time. to solve. -- time period to solve. if i'm going to diagnose anything with millennials in the political system, that is what i tie it to. all-encompassing belief that problems should be solvable. what is being called socialism looks to be too young people like a solution that all we need to do is flip this button. care,ollege, free health all of this is possible because we are just spending the money on other things. we could have all the good things we want. i think there is an element of conditioning that has gone on.

remember -- there was afraid when i was a kid -- the divorce rate peaked in about 1980, a lot of my friends came home to empty houses. there were a lot of single-parent families. you ended up with this generation of people that knew how to take care of themselves. knew how to go out into the neighborhood on a saturday morning or a weekday after school and their parents wouldn't necessarily know where they were. if you had a quarter in your pocket, you could find a pay phone, but your parents may not have been home. i think that fostered in people like me a kind of reliability and adaptability and resiliency that it is not just me who is saying it, but it has been remarked upon in great detail, has kind of gone missing among the generation that is now moving through their 20's. host: matthew with us.

say, in my to ers have little-x loyalty to the people who built their careers, and that is ok. guest: i think that is ok, too. we are all so familiar with this stereotype of a millennial who is really impatient with the jobs they are given to do, constantly wondering, when am i getting promoted? i know a nonprofit leader who said they had a performance review with a young millennial employee, and the in person said, what have you got planned for me? it is the kind of thing that makes you laugh, if you think about it, but it is so widespread that it has become an issue. i know that there are plenty of hard-working,ic,

patient to millennials out there. the military is filled with millennials. they are all around the world and doing wonderful things, and they know how to take orders and do jobs. they're going to come back and reintegrate into their communities and wonderful and positive ways. i am making broad claims for the purposes of gaining people's attention. hello, matthew. the previous caller took a lot of my thunder away. i want you to comment on the fact that so many of these a freeials believe that college education and free medical care and all of this, they don't seem to realize when they are 40 and 50, they are going to be paying for it instead of supporting their own kids. guest: i work for the editorial page of the wall street journal,

so you're not going to hear me advocating for socialized medicine or free college tuition on this program. host: from maryland, angela is next. caller: thanks for writing a book on gen-x. we are not talked about at all in books or online, from what i have researched. i know the baby boomers went from protesters of war, to feminism and their rights, come the 80's, they turned into the me generation. i will also include the thoughts of kurt this morning. once: i have a friend who said to me the baby boomers went to war on the institutions of the united states of america. on the institutions of the united states of america. that is an extreme statement.

i understand what he meant. in a lot of ways, i see a lot of resonance with the impatience of the millennials. millennials have the benefit of that great size and with that same attitude of disruption, welcoming disruption in every the new york city taxicab industry to the hotel industry to the media industry to hollywood to just about every industry you could think of that is being disrupted because of technology or because of connectedness or because of social media. they appear to welcome it. there is very little in the way of expressed concern. i have been happy this year to note that a lot of people in my pullingeem to have been back a little bit from their gadgets.

the steady trickle of news -- that does not always have our best interest at heart. i know a lot of people saying i am not sure this is moving in the direction we thought it was moving and we ought a pump the brakes. i've been pleased to see that. host: when it comes to military power, only 43% of money was believe that is an important goal. when it comes to american exceptionalism, millennials are less likely to embrace the idea. is that what you're seeing in your writing? chance togives me an make an interesting point which is infrequently remarked upon with regard to generation x. we grew up the ante with the cold war. we do not live in the 1950's

.etting under your desk it was there and that anxiety was hanging over us. foraw a red dawn and rocky and there was no doubt in our mind that there were good guys and bad guys out there. miraculously we saw the good guys win in the berlin wall fall and the collapse of communism. i'm not suggesting we were walking around thinking about it all of the time but it naturally fed into our approach to the world. this basic understanding that not all systems are equal and not all outcomes will be equal in unequal systems. when we see companies like google or apple playing footsie with china and agreeing to do re that we

interpret as censorship of the -- or the limiting of information on the nurse -- on the internet, it bothers us deeply. we grew up in the anti-communist 1980's. there is another component of this, which is some of our free speech seems to be a topic that is up for negotiation or discussion among people in their think this's and i takes a lot of people over the age of 40 by surprise. it is deeply concerning because there was no doubt about it when i was in school and anyone who was my age is free to call and disagree with me. think this takes a lot of people over the notion of freedom of speech, whether online or on the town square or just rambling on a box in front of the capital was nonnegotiable part of being an american citizen. threatenuld credibly it and expect to be considered a friend of liberty and democracy.

somehow we've gotten to the point where we have seen on the college campuses this notion of free speech is somehow code for other nefarious political programs. it is shocking to people or are my age. i'm not that old. host: from new york, this is michelle. caller: ima millennial that used to be squeamish and ashamed of that characterization that we are entitled and out of touch. i argue these other generations are the ones out of touch. we do not need these generations to save america from millennials. millennials are busy saving americans could let's take the baby boomers and their kids. they sustained themselves on the government dime, the g.i. bill, subsidized government housing. free college. jobs that have pensions and benefits. they had all these things for

themselves and their kids and left other generations to fend for themselves. they did not work hard to secure these things for the future and for their last track they gave us the international embarrassment that is donald trump. millennials have decided we are going to work on behalf of america and our fun is in city -- our fellow citizens, race and gender aside, we are demanding fair wages and spearheading american innovation. we are fixing the mess these other generations have created. host: that is michelle. guest: i will take exception with one thing you have said. x'ers having to do anything. the baby boomers are refusing to get out of the pool, they are going to ultimately -- as i said

, generation xf has little to do with what world you are describing. i am familiar with your argument. i familiar with your argument. a.m. the amount of energy you bring to it is quite common among people who are millennials. i know nobody likes to be lumped into a group. nobody wakes up in the morning and says good morning, millennial. i do not know what to tell you. i really don't know how to answer that. from ian in washington, d.c. ist: i wanted -- caller: >> i wanted to comment on the 1980born in and i are from's -- i'm from southern appalachia.

there are many public university systems in the country for decades that have been providing , free college, free university education for their populations. usually you have to maintain a grade point average of 3.0, which is pretty doable. the reality is this type of programs are sustainable, they have been going on. it is easily done. georgia, tennessee, i barely paid anything for my undergrad. i paid cash for a private top 20 law school education. i have a lot of luxury and being able to do that. school for private my preschooler. i wager i'm paying more for

private preschool than many of these older people who are talking about people wanting free stuff for their entire education. host: thanks, color. caller.s, guest: i'm a graduate of hunter college of the city university of new york. tuition there was $3000 a semester. that is $6,000 a year. during my first few semesters there i have almost no income. i was an adult. i was not living in my parent home, no one was supporting me and i paid almost nothing, through a variety of grants and subsidies that are already in place. what you are pointing at is the confusion that older people tend to have when they hear demands for free college.

it is almost free now if you're willing to go to a state school or a city school, if you have those kinds of systems where you live. , itou work hard and show up is almost impossible to not be able to find an affordable undergraduate education. book,you write in the "asking a millennial to critique the internet is like asking him to disown his hometown, pointing out the flaws and shortcomings of the ways we now live is like inviting him to commit treason." expand on that. guest: to hear you say treason and sounds like i'm not being very nice. what i found is that in talking this, you gett different reactions depending on

how old you are. when i talked to baby boomers about this the sense i get is that they are mostly resigned. it is a sense you would get among older people. we do not understand what is happening, we do not know why we have to live in a world where the toaster can talk to the kids are wearing fitbit's connected to the computer that is sending data back to silicon valley. outess it is going to work and we will just leave it be. i'm being very general. there is resignation about this among the older generation. out and we will just leave it be. this is the way the world is going to be in the future. everyone is going to be in driverless cars and shuttling from here to there with google and all sorts of futuristic things. it will be the jetsons, and that will be fine. remember the way

the world was before the internet, are feeling that displacement deeply in an emotional way. i noticed myself changing. i am not capable of doing the things that i used to be able to do quite easily and i'm not sure i love it. i do not think i want my kids to grow up this way. that is where i am at. when you talk to millennials, there is a blitheness about the technology in their lives. of course these big companies know everything there is to know about me. they are only trying to get me a better user experience when i am online. i do not care they know everything about me. i do not care they know what my dear and preferences. i do not care if they are listening to me at the kitchen table when i'm talking with my

, if it means that later on the day i will not be bombarded with irrelevant ads if they can target me with the stuff i really want and they can figure out how to help me live that are and faster and easier. what is the big deal? part of the reason i wrote this book is because i wanted to address that sense of what is the big deal. i use strong line which here and there because i think the threat is quite dire. i speak for myself, by the way, not for the wall street journal. i am not sure people have fully quickly weard how have gone from a brick and mortar world i grew up in to this always-connected, always-on, always-listening

world. it has been about a decade which is a very short period of time. in that time, i'm attesting to this personally, i feel like i have had the wiring of my brain shifted around. first thing in the morning i checked the phone. the last thing before i go to bed i checked the phone. when i'm trying to make pancakes i'm checking the phone. when i am not supposed to be at work i am at work. all these things which would and shocked my grandfather had him shaking his head and saying why would you want to live that way -- i want to also say i understand it has not all been bad. i understand there are many great benefits to the internet, to these devices. i know disabled people are able to interact and connect with the world in ways they never had before. all good. i am asking people to consider the downside a little more

critically than they have. host: from new york, eric is next. caller: thanks for taking my call. i was born in 1963 so i am at the tail end of the baby boom generation. , talkingr growing up about the associate economic dimension -- talking about the socio-economic dimension. one parent has the freedom to stay home and take care of their kids. it was a different world. parents and kids spent time together. families were attached. late 1970's and 1980's, all of that had changed. after reagan and trickle down economics you have a situation where the middle class began to shrink rapidly. low-wage service jobs. it took does going comes, parent incomes, both

parents working. i think millennials are a product of that. i would call that the socio- economic decline of the american middle class. host: that is outside -- guest: that is outside the purview of my book, which is a critical look at the way technology is messing with our heads. i take your point. when you said parents and children spend more time together, i immediately thought -- you've probably seen on the in the, all the kids backseat with the rise eyes on a devices or those kids in a restaurant. one of my targets is the amazon alexa, which is obviously a popular consumer product and is in a lot of homes but i was thinking in the green room before i came on that a kid only needs to be around one of these things once. if you've ever seen children, the first time they encounter an

ipad or an iphone or these amazon alexa's and you see how incredibly they change, almost instantly. the addictive potential of these devices is extraordinary. frequently refer to millennials as digital natives. this idea they are uniquely equipped for the modern world or for the future by future of their upbringing and the , how theyon of it grew up with these devices and know them intimately. they shape and guide their thinking. a guy like me might have trouble with snapshot or not understand whatever the latest edition of some app is or wire they are all using it. millennials are fascinated with all of it. my concern is i have seen my kids around and amazon alexa and i see how they flip out.

i do not mean to throw them under a bus. i think it is a common phenomenon. treating these devices like they are a servant. , auote a woman in the book magazine article, who said people talk to their amazon alexa, you would not talk to a dog that way. if you were to bring a device like that into your home, you are asking for trouble. nativityon of digital term.extremely misleading it does not mean what you think it means. it is quite negative. if you said to someone i am going to bring an addictive drug in your house and give it to and we will call them digital junkies, you might have a different attitude. you might think twice before bringing these devices in your house. host: more can be found in the book.

zero hour for generation x.

-- the senate banking committee looks into the effectiveness of u.s. sanctions against russia. with testimony from the acting deputy treasury secretary and other banking officials. also live at 10:00 eastern. all of the hearings online at sea spun.org or on the free c-span radio app. -- c-span.org where the free c-span radio app. a palestinian refugee talked about growing up in gaza. role the u.n. has played in his life. this event was hosted by the jerusalem fund.