GENERATION O is that college kid at the White House gate recently, lifting his shirt to reveal "Obama" painted in red on his chest. Or that stylized Obama T-shirt that makes irony look old, the "Obama Girl" on YouTube, or the thousands of notes on Barack Obama's Facebook page: "U are the best!!!" "yeah, buddy." And, of course, Generation O is the president-elect himself.

「歐世代」是最近那個在白宮大門口掀起衣衫秀出胸前用紅色油彩寫著「歐巴馬」三個字的大學生；或使政治反諷顯得老掉牙的歐巴馬時髦Ｔ恤，YouTube上的「歐巴馬女孩」，或歐巴馬Facebook上成千上萬則留言：「你最屌!!!」「耶！哥兒們」。 當然，歐世代也是總統當選人歐巴馬本尊。

Only a Fugees-loving, pick-up-bas-ketball-playing, biracial president l mes-sage on election night that said: "I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first." He signed it sim-ply "Barack." After all, they were close. He and his biggest fans, the generation of young adults who voted for him in record numbers, together had slogged through 21 months of campaigning. And in his moment of victory, Barack Obama shared the glow of success. "All of this happened because of you," the e-mail message said. "We just made history."

只有愛聽「流亡者三人組歌曲」和愛打臨時組成的籃球賽的黑白混血總統當選人，會在當選夜發給支持他的選民電子郵件簡訊，上面寫著：「我將到葛蘭特公園和聚集在那裡的所有人談話，但我要先寫信告訴你們。」他只簡單署名「巴拉克」。畢竟他們已經太熟了。他和他的頭號粉絲，那個空前多人投給他票的年輕人世代，21個月來一路作伙辛苦打贏了選戰。在勝利的時刻，歐巴馬要和他們分享榮耀。電郵上說：「由於有你們，這一切才可能成功，我們剛剛改寫歷史。」

With that simple "we" in millions of in-boxes, the post-baby-boomer era seems to have begun. The endless "us versus them" battles of the '60s, over Vietnam, abortion, race and gender, seemed as out-of-touch as a rotary phone. Of course, that was Obama's goal. In his book, "The Au-dacity of Hope," he was explicit in his desire to move beyond "the psy-chodrama of the Baby Boom genera-tion — a tale rooted in old grudges and revenge plots hatched on a hand-ful of college campuses long ago."

就是數百萬收件匣中所提到的「我們」這簡簡單單的兩個字，似乎為後嬰兒潮時代揭開序幕。為了越戰、墮胎、種族和性別，60年代無止無休的「我們槓上他們」的抗爭，似乎都和傳統撥號電話一樣和時代脫節了。當然，這正是歐巴馬的用意。在他的著作《歐巴馬勇往直前》中，他表明，希望能一舉跨越「嬰兒潮世代的心理劇碼，這個根源於很久以前幾所校園醞釀的宿怨和報復情節的故事。」

Obama's victory was greatly helped by his young allies. More 18- to 29-year-olds went to the polls this year than in any election since 1972 — between 21.6 million and 23.9 million, up from about 19.4 million in 2004. And 66 percent voted for Obama, according to exit polls. These young voters and those slightly older, who together may forever be known as Generation O, were the ground troops of the campaign. They opened hundreds of Obama offices in remote areas, registered voters and persuaded older relatives to take a chance on the man with the middle name Hussein.

歐巴馬一戰成功，得力於他年輕的戰友甚多。今年18至29歲的選民投票率創1972年來新高，約在2,160萬到2,390萬之譜，2004年只有1,940萬，而根據出口民調，其中把票投給歐巴馬的占66%。這些年輕選民和那些稍微年長的選民，將永遠並稱「歐世代」，他們也是這次選戰的螞蟻雄兵。他們在鳥不生蛋的地區設立千百個歐巴馬競選辦事處，並說服年長的親友給這個中間名字叫海珊的男子一個機會。

They saw in Obama, 47, who was born at the tail end of the baby boom era, the values that sociologists and cultural critics ascribe to them. Gov-ernment under Obama, they believe, would value personal disclosure and transparency in the mode of so-cial-networking sites. Teamwork would be in fashion, along with a strict meritocracy. But with two wars and a financial crisis to face, Genera-tion O may soon discover the limits of their consensus-oriented focus and unyielding faith in networks and communication.

他們在嬰兒潮世代快結束時出生、47歲的歐巴馬身上看到社會學家和文藝評論家所劃歸他們的價值觀。他們相信，歐巴馬政府會更重視個人的意見和有如社交網站那麼透明化，會讓團隊合作當道，外加嚴格的菁英領導。但新政府即將面對兩場戰爭和一場金融危機，歐世代可能很快就會發現，他們光凝聚共識及對網路和通信死忠有其限度。

In many ways 2008 looks a lot like 1960, said Robert Dallek, the presi-dential historian. In both cases, a young Democrat won on a promise of youthful change. Voters, Dallek said, "want something fresh." Presi-dent Kennedy responded not just with soaring rhetoric and new programs like the Peace Corps. He also trans-formed communication between the president and the people. At the White House, he projected an image of openness and transparency. He let photographers take pictures of the Kennedy children. He held televised news conferences for the first time.

總統歷史學家羅伯特‧戴立克指出，2008年在很多方面看似1960年。在這兩個案例中，都是由年輕的民主黨人當選，兩人也都承諾年輕化和改革。戴立克說，選民「想要新鮮的東西」，甘迺迪總統的回應不只是高談闊論和推出「和平工作團」等新計畫，他也改變了總統和人民之間的溝通方式。他在白宮投射一種開放透明的形象。他讓攝影師為甘家子女拍照。他也是史上首次舉行電視記者會的總統。

Such a sweeping success could also breed trouble. The pain of dashed hopes, if it comes, could be eased by this generation's news media diet. Or it could be worsened by the psychol-ogy of how they were raised and came of age. Ronald Alsop, author of "The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation is Shaking Up the Workplace," said that because today's young people have been trained to trust teams and systems, they often struggle when things do not go according to plan. Com-pounding the problem, they have also been told by everyone that they are destined for greatness. the question is whether they will settle for anything less than a central role.

這種一面倒的勝利也可能帶來負面效應。希望破滅的痛苦，可以因這個世代所吸收的媒體資訊而減輕，但他們也可能因其成長方式的心理特質而惡化。《千禧年世代如何改變職場》一書作者艾爾索說，由於今天年輕人受到的訓練是要信任團隊和制度，當事情不如他們預期規畫時就會痛苦掙扎。雪上加霜的是幾乎所有人都告訴他們，他們命中注定要做大事，問題是他們是否甘於退出核心角色。

As if on cue, President-elect Oba-ma posted pictures of election night on flickr and introduced a new Web site, change.gov. "Share your story and your ideas," it says, "and be part of bringing positive lasting change to this country." The site is in many ways an extension of the Obama campaign: casual, cool, interactive.

總統當選人歐巴馬好像預見這些情況，他在電腦相簿上貼上勝選夜照片，同時又開一個新網站change.gov。「請分享你的故事和構想，」網站上說，「在帶給這個國家持續正面的變革上請勿缺席。」這個網站在很多方面延續歐巴馬競選的精神：不拘形式、酷、互動。

But if these are the traits of the young, might they alienate older Americans Dallek said that for the new president to succeed, he must be seen as representative of not just the new, but also the traditional. Many baby boomers are unlikely to be comfortable with this generation's technological boosterism and ease with blurred identities and mixed ethnicities. Seeing a new crop of young people texting their way to the Oval Office may never soothe those fearful boomers. For others, the gen-erational transition may bring relief as the country seems to move past old, entrenched conflicts.

但假如這些是年輕選民的特質，他們是否會和老一代美國人漸行漸遠？史學家戴立克說，新總統要成功留名青史，必須被視為不只是新生代、也是傳統世代的代表。很多嬰兒潮世代對科技掛帥的歐世代不可能不感到芒刺在背，也不會坐視自己的定位模糊和種族大融合。看到一群年輕新秀以電郵打進橢圓形辦公室，也許永遠無法撫平那些心存疑慮的嬰兒潮世代；但對其他人，當美國似乎正要跨越老舊而根深柢固的衝突之際，世代交棒使人總算鬆了口氣。（取材自紐約時報）

【詞解】
Fugees 流亡者三人組歌曲
 pick-up-basketball-playing  臨時組成的籃球賽
biracial黑白種族
slogged through 辛苦走過
in-boxes 收件匣
psychodrama 心理劇
ground troops 螞蟻雄兵
meritocracy 菁英領導
technological boosterism 科技掛帥
blurred identities 定位模糊