I wonder if today’s generation has it better, with their parents telling them they’re gifted, that they’re worldbeaters, that they deserve success.

My upbringing was different.

One day a girl with glasses came to play with my older sister. Maybe my father was feeling the solidarity, since he was a lifelong glasses wearer, long before contacts were ubiquitous, surgery was an option and glasses were hip, he latched on to Kathy. He kept telling my sister how great she was. That a girl with four eyes could laugh and still get the best grades in school.

My sister has never gotten over that. It’s become a family joke.

We grew up hearing how great everybody else was. Maybe our parents were trying to inspire us, but we ended up with a feeling of inadequacy, and a need to prove ourselves, which we can never fully achieve.

My mother was hip. In an era when suburban moms made cookies and picked up their kids at school, my mother went to Broadway plays and told us to ask our friends for rides, or to walk. At times we felt isolated, if not quite neglected, but we were inspired by her passion. Drawn to icons with shadows so large we would always live in them, never emerging ourselves. Like the one cast by Anna Quindlen.

My mother couldn’t stop raving about her. Her column in the "New York Times", "Life In The Thirties". Ms. Quindlen was only marginally older than me, but oh-so-much more successful. With a husband and kids, never mind a position on the paper’s Op-Ed page. She was a God in my mother’s perceived pantheon. I longed to become a God.

So, I ignored Ms. Quindlen. Worse than that, actually hated her. For stealing my mother’s affections. I was almost giddy inside when she ankled the "Times" and failed to leave her mark as a novelist. That’ll show her. Or my mother.

But years after leaving the Gray Lady, Anna Quindlen resurfaced. On the last page of "Newsweek", her column alternating each week with that of George F. Will, the left winger opposing his right wing views. And I switched to "Newsweek" many moons ago. When I realized the "Washington Post"’s publication I read at the doctor’s office was far superior to the "Time" I was getting at home. And, both newsweeklies are now challenged, but I maintain my "Newsweek" subscription. Not specifically to read Anna Quindlen, but I do check her out.

And what stuns me is my mother was right. Anna Quindlen is just not your usual overachiever. She’s a thinker. Anybody can knee-jerk a reaction, but to contemplate the issues and come up with a new position is more than admirable, it’s what we revere. I’ve come to revere Anna Quindlen. But rather than feeling inadequate, I now feel solidarity, I cheer her on… Because her reasonability, her restraint and her logic are the antidote to right wing blowhards that dismiss Democrats as bloviating bleeding heart liberals… Who react from the heart instead of the head.

Catching up on magazines after lunch today, I read Ms. Quindlen’s effort from the August 4th issue of "Newsweek", entitled "The Techie In Chief", wherein she addresses John McCain’s computer illiteracy.

She doesn’t raise her voice, she just notes that the terrorists use laptops. And that those who don’t surf have no notion of what the public truly thinks.

My switch from Hillary to Obama was cemented by Barack’s reference of Google. Something I use every day. Something even my mother uses on a regular basis. I’ve never heard a politician reference Google before. I’ve never heard a record exec reference "googling" something. Oh, I’ve heard music industry fearmongering regarding the search giant, but I haven’t heard those in power, those making pronouncements, demonstrate a knowledge of how the Internet truly works, and how citizens’ lives are intertwined.

Ms. Quindlen goes on about "how corporate executives crash and burn sometimes, estranged from the grass roots of both the company and the marketplace by business lunches and private jets." Ain’t that it exactly. Having won in the last world, in the last century, they believe they’re entitled to rule in the future. And it is this distance from reality which angers us. What’s worse, artists, who we used to revere, who used to tell us which way the wind blows, are now ensconced in such air conditioned comfort, worried that their coifs will be destroyed, that they can’t even feel the wind.

In Vail Saturday a 48 year old salesman whom I trust with my life on the ski slopes told me he loved the Chili Peppers, whose hat adorned my cranium, but he hated Metallica, managed by the same blokes at Q Prime. Because of Lars and Napster. Billy didn’t even steal music, but he wouldn’t give a dime to Metallica, because Lars had it wrong.

This is not the target demo. This is not who is supposed to care. But you’d be surprised who does care, who has made a judgment based on computer illiteracy, on lack of understanding of the way things now work. Just because you’re rich, that doesn’t make you’re an expert on technology. You’ve got to use technology. If you don’t, you’ll pay the price, just like the major record labels.

I’m inspired when Anna Quindlen gets it right, when anybody speaks truth in a world full of bullshit. That’s what drew me to music to begin with. The Beatles weren’t playing the game, they were creating their own, realizing that a youthquake of baby boomers had broken from their elders, and rather than respect authority, it was your duty to question it.

That same concept rules today. There’s a generation gap as wide as the one in the sixties. Only this time, baby boomers pampering their children, trying to be their best friends, don’t realize that dieting and wearing young clothes don’t insure hipness, don’t insure that you really know what’s going on. You’ve got to surf, social network and text. You’ve got to use the youth’s tools. You can’t be too busy or to rich to… Or your career will end up in the toilet.

Will fearmongering deliver the Presidency to an ancient Republican once again? It’s possible, but I’m thinking not. Because sometime in the last six years, in an era when some who can vote have known the Internet for their entire conscious lives, the country has changed. Barack Obama raised all that money using technology. And all those youngsters who aren’t supposed to vote are now following the election online, are engaged in the process, and many will enter the booth. But even if McCain wins, that doesn’t mean our country is the same as it was four or eight years ago. Technology is woven into people’s lives. Scrabulous is an addiction of those who’ve never played Scrabble. Googling is second nature. You can only succeed in business and art if you know this, if you’re immersed in technology.

The Techie in Chief

The terrorists have laptops in their hideouts. Can America afford to have a leader who is just learning how to use one?