General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSometimes, those who blame the Boomers forget...
&feature=related-- Mal
randome
(34,845 posts)We are all responsible for where we are now.
malthaussen
(17,193 posts)Okay, so for what, 2500 years at least (let's just say all of recorded history) we've known the difference between right and wrong, yet still evil prospers. There's a flaw in the design there, methinks.
-- Mal
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)My complaint, and I am a boomer, is that we fucking lost the recipe somewhere between 1975 and today. A generation that was going to change the world for the better, that was all about peace and love, has become the generation that has produced the most reactionary and corrupt government of this country since the gilded age. We didn't make this world a better place, we made it worse.
malthaussen
(17,193 posts)Interesting parallel, I think. Like Romney and so many of our Boomer generation politicians, the men who created the Gilded Age started out by evading service in the Civil War. Clearly, it is not a good idea to put political power in the hands of people who have no regard for serving their country. Of course, the parallel is not precise, since not every draft evader is a conscienceless, empty-souled psychopath like so many of our soi-disant "leaders." Hell, I'm technically a draft dodger, and I am the most amiable of men.
While the bulk of the Boomers were either doing their duty or actively fighting the stupidity, the politically-ambitious were quietly building up their stock options and making the contacts necessary for success. We didn't "lose the recipe," we simply turned our political clout over to the amoral. It would be interesting to understand the reasons for this abdication.
-- Mal
RKP5637
(67,107 posts)a better world, more harmony, more love than war, a strong faith in the fellowship of mankind to lift up all in the world, more and more education, the use of technology for good causes than evil, etc., etc. and in many ways all of that loftiness has gone to hell in a hand basket.
Instead, more and more greed, cheating, corruption and a very diversionary reactionary government was unleashed. And across the world chaos increases and increases.
glowing
(12,233 posts)That statement always seems so tragic.
grilled onions
(1,957 posts)There used to be silly mini movies shown at school called You Are There and it tried to put you in the middle of historical events. In the 60's we were there! We had such hop for the 3 K's. No it was not $$$ and no it was not the infamous "three k's" but rather The two Kennedy's and King. We were in the middle of a war we did not understand,did not want and got to see far too many boys,mandated by law, shipped to the rice paddies never to come home or to come home unable to speak of the horrors or so physically maimed that they were never whole again.
We were blamed for the huge growth spurt in classroom sizes. Later on we have been blamed for taking too many jobs,hogging up social security etc. But then as in many times in our past a former war(sorry police action) that we call the Korean War was in part to blame for this bounce of newborns circa 1950 or so. How ironic that one war's "booms" created a boom of babies that we are still at fault for just being part of a population explosion.
We had hopes and dreams and we could have come a long way if not for others who stopped our ideas from maturing. We had good leaders but these leaders were viewed a major threat and were eliminated before they could improve our world. Let's hope the next generation of "boomers" can get their ideas across before it's too late.
RKP5637
(67,107 posts)read your reply. "We had good leaders but these leaders were viewed a major threat and were eliminated before they could improve our world." Often when someone good rises, they are stuck down. So we move along in this muddled rut we call American Exceptionalism.
PatSeg
(47,418 posts)and I remember what things were like before the sixties and seventies. So many things that younger people take for granted came to pass because of the Boomers. We didn't read about it in history books, we were witnesses.
Romulox
(25,960 posts)mindfulNJ
(2,367 posts)We can thank boomers for the women's movement.
malthaussen
(17,193 posts)But as for leaving the world: 1) The Boomers aren't done yet 2) It was the "greatest generation" who gave us Nixon, Reagan, and the elder Bush (actually, Ron is even a generation before). True, though, the Boomers have to take credit for Clinton and the younger Bush, each of whom screwed things up in their own way (NAFTA, the War on Terror). What I think is interesting is that it is not "mainstream" Boomers who accelerated the Decline of the US Empire, but people who were outside of their generation all along (hell, you can even include Bill Gates and Steve Jobs in that equation, whatever you may think of the value of the personal computer revolution). Makes me think that as we look at the rising generation, we should pay attention not to the regular folks, but to those on the fringes who have much ambition and no morals. These are, apparently, the ones who succeed time after time, generation after generation.
-- Mal
Romulox
(25,960 posts)of your argument.
raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)Probably much, much worse actually. If there is one thing we can seemingly count on from our history it is our ability to outdo ourselves in ignorance and selfishness.
Romulox
(25,960 posts)raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)Romulox
(25,960 posts)raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)RadiationTherapy
(5,818 posts)That has a lot to do with psychology research and breakthroughs that were adapted into modern day marketing and politicking and I am not certain any population in any time or place could have withstood it, but if not for the 2-car/2-home/closet full of clothes mentality that emerged during the 70s and 80s among middle class, 18-35 year old boomers, we may have evolved into a society that is less polluted and better adapted to walkers, bikers, and mass transit.
malthaussen
(17,193 posts)When the Boom began, marketing experts (all of previous generations) were excited by the possibility of the huge new consumer market. The Boomers were targetted from before birth to become a consumer market. Now, who created this, the marketing experts or the consumers? Obviously, a little of both, but when all of your most trusted adult role-models are telling you that happiness consists in "dying with the most toys," is it the malleable young mind that is at fault, or the cynical manipulators who are trying to add to their bottom lines? Sure, the parents of the Boomers were targetted, too -- after the war, when they were supposedly adults and capable of critical thinking. Post-war prosperity lead the US to really believe it was possible to have both guns and butter -- but that was not the idea of a bunch of Barbie-owning toddlers, but of the "Best and Brightest" of the WWII generation. The result was an enormous blank check that was left to the limitless future to pay off. Alas, that future is now here -- and it is not as limitless as we were led to believe. Even now, y'know, the big complaint is that people aren't able to "get ahead," by which is meant have the two cars and a picket fence dream fostered by the post-war mentality. IMO, this is missing the point, which is that people aren't even surviving, let alone "getting ahead."
-- Mal
RadiationTherapy
(5,818 posts)I agree with nearly everything you say, but that doesn't mean the production, consumption, and pollution (and poor planning, etc) didn't happen. It did happen and boomers were a large part of it, but I do see them as victims of a larger scheme.
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)Odin2005
(53,521 posts)The Greatest Generation saved the world from Fascism and then you guys called then Fascists.
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)of a single "generation".
Second, the people responsible for reversing the 60s ethos were not rank-&-file boomers, they were the ruling class, in a deliberate, planned push-back that included propaganda, legislation, and economic terrorism.
Le Taz Hot
(22,271 posts)SOMEBODY gets it!
JustAnotherGen
(31,816 posts)And I don't blame them for anything.
They were and are a sucker punched generation.
Work hard, mind your p's and q's, do the right things - and you will reap great rewards. But that didn't happen. And now we are sitting on a tinder box of folks whose homes are underwater, don't have pensions/life savings, through no fault of their own watched good jobs go away, etc etc
Another Billy Joel song says it better - Allentown:
Every child has apretty good shot, to get at least as far as his old man got, but something happened on the way to that place. They threw an American flag in our place.
Sucker punched. And anyone of my gen x peers ought to be ashamed of themselves if they focus their energy on perceived assery on the part of the non-elite in the Boomer generation. Our sole focus needs to be making sure these folks - our parents - have a roof over their head, clothing, food, medicine, electric and gas.
They are going to need our help. Maybe it's because I'm black and a woman - but for the doors they smashed open for me with a battering ram - I owe them that much. America is not perfect. We aren't the greates nation eveeeeer.
But we can be if we make sure these people who are approaching their senior years are taken care if. I'm not kicking the boomers when they are down.
flamingdem
(39,313 posts)Divide and conquer is the strategy of the elite classes basically.
JustAnotherGen
(31,816 posts)It's just more 'otherism'.
For every George Bush and Mitt Romney - there are 3000 Americans their same age that busted their asses all of their lives and are now in a precarious financial position. And it's not their fault.
The Rules of the Game changed and no one told them until the oldest of these folks (my mom turns 65 this year) were well into their late 50's.
SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)ornotna
(10,800 posts)Thank you.