We’ve (I’m a 51 model) much to answer for I’m sure, but I’ll hasten to point out that the ones who got all the press were not the whole generation. Many of the people who used us as political pawns when we were dumb kids were members of what has been beatified as the ‘Greatest Generation’ (Timothy Leary, Herbert Marcuse etc.) Please don’t think I don’t have reverence for what they accomplished and endured because I do, but spoiled and hedonistic as many of us boomers were (mea culpa), we were not the creators of the leviathan state which has become such a monster in our time. When I measure myself with men like my father, I find myself wanting in so many ways, but I’ve known many my age who could have played in his league.
That's exactly what I was thinking about myself.I consider myself to be basically "respectable" (by today's standards,at least) but I could not now...and have never been able to...hold a candle to *either* of my parents.