Posted on 07/12/2004 9:38:33 AM PDT by qam1
1946, 1964 classes don't always agree........
There's a great distance between Barry Manilow and Barry Bonds.
Manilow, the singer, was born in 1946, the first year of the postwar baby boom. About 76 million births later, Bonds, the baseball slugger, became one of America's last boomers. That was in 1964, when demographers say the boom ended.
Typically, those born within that period are lumped together as the "baby boom generation," as if their values, beliefs and habits are unified. In fact, as the "late-wave boomers" turn 40 this year, it's clear that the classes of 1946 and 1964 are often very different, at times resulting in alienation and even finger-pointing.
John Dieffenbach, a 40-year-old attorney in Pleasantville, N.Y., says many of the oldest boomers are "a self-aggrandizing" bunch who treat him like an auxiliary member of their generation. "I'm part of their club but don't get the benefits." He doesn't get the "benefit" of nostalgia - being able to say he recalls when Kennedy was shot or the Beatles arrived in America. And people his age might not receive full Social Security benefits when they retire because the oldest boomers may strain the system.
The oldest boomers came of age at a time of affordable housing, easier acceptance to colleges and better job markets. The youngest boomers struggled through deeper recessions, crowded workplaces and, now, outsourced jobs.
Younger boomers also worry that in the next decade or so, their 401(k) values will fall as retired older boomers cash out of stocks.
"I share very little culturally with a 58-year-old," Dieffenbach says. In 1986, when the media declared "Boomer Generation Turns 40," he was just 22. In 1996, when newspaper articles celebrated "Boomers Turn 50" - counting the candles on their cakes (400,000 a day) and the cash spent on their birthday presents ($1 billion that year) - Dieffenbach was just 32.
"I'm waiting for the 'Baby Boomers are Dead' stories," he says, only half-jokingly.
This month, a new book, "Kill Your Idols," features essays in which rock critics who are young boomers and Generation Xers tear down allegedly classic boomer albums such as "Tommy" by The Who, released in 1969, and "Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys, out in 1966.
"I grew up with the notion that I missed out on the greatest party ever because I wasn't at Woodstock," says the book's co-editor, Jim DeRogatis, born in 1964. "Well, I've seen the movie, and it's a stone-cold bore."
In his essay, DeRogatis slices up The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." He mocks one of the 1967 album's songs, "Fixing a Hole," which he says embodies the myopia and self-centeredness of older boomers: "It really doesn't matter/If I'm wrong I'm right/Where I belong I'm right."
The song reminds DeRogatis of two boomers born in 1946: Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. In his autobiography, "Clinton takes 957 pages to say he really didn't do anything wrong," DeRogatis says, while President Bush "still won't say he was wrong" about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.
Dennis Peterson and his daughter, Dee Ann Haibeck, are boomer bookends, born Jan. 1, 1946, and Oct. 28, 1964. Peterson of Bellevue, Wash., says people from his era "opened the door for a lot of discussions America hadn't been having" - about such divisive matters as race, women's rights, the Vietnam War. He says those of his daughter's era "didn't have the testosterone to get involved in social issues. I don't think they had our sense of responsibility."
Haibeck feels some of her dad's hippie contemporaries "changed our culture for the worse" by making society too liberal.
Dieffenbach has a suspicion about why he and others born in the early 1960s are counted in the boomer generation. As the oldest boomers continue to lobby for power and their legacy, they think there's strength in numbers, he says. "They're just using us to increase their volume.'
BTW, can't help but puzzle a bit over this. It’s a strange attitude for a conservative to have. What if our predecessors had said this about slavery, or women not having the right to vote? Conservatism strives for excellence, not mediocrity. And it doesn’t have to be accomplished in a day.
Stop whining, X'er. It's getting you nowhere but bitter. When you reach my tax bracket, you might have a clue.
The stats are what they are. You said that the divorce rates started to rise in the 60's. They didn't.
"They vote majority democratic every time and had voted themselves huge portions of the public coffers since the end of WWII."
That is NOT accurate at all. It is the children of boomers who typically vote for Demoncrats who in turn fund anyone and everything imaginable.
Persoanlly I don't mind helping out a war veteran that risked their lives and possibly injured. It's not as though they are "cleaning up."
Kids? I leave you with a few things to think about. Please do.
EACH generation has had it's flaws. Sin started in the Garden of Eden and continues to this day.
NEVER has homosexuality or abortion been so high as now. YOU have the power to stop these two trends. These are deadly and HORRIBLE things that YOU CAN STOP!
Someone mentioned "we" had/have such a high rate of divorce. So? YOU stop it! You have the power...do it.
When I was a child, my grandpa had to live with us. It was hard on my mom, I'm sure...but we all just did it. Are you going to be ready when it's YOUR TURN? You talk about SS...but are YOU ready to open up your home for Grandpa or Grandma? Are you?
You talk about society being so bad because of the Boomers. So? STOP going to the movies, STOP buying your kids (if you're old enough to have them...) the violent video games. STOP watching the sitcoms that promote both of these and stop buying from their advertisers! YOU have the power.....DO IT!!!!
DO NOT HAVE CHILDREN until you can afford to have your wife stay home and be a mom. NO MORE daycare! Suck it up, don't drive those expensive cars until you can afford them, don't ask your parents for help w/the down payment on your homes...just DO IT yourself!
Don't complain about everything we've done. Good grief, we've all made mistakes, as will you. Remember the Golden Rule? Careful what you're saying...your kids are listening.
You talk about Clinton, etal? Huh...so do we. We can't stand him. So? Go out and work your be-hinds off, electing GOOD AND HONEST people! RUN FOR OFFICE YOURSELF! YOU have the power! DO something with it!
How many of you Californians on this thread saw the thread where the flag at the Reagan Ranch was desecrated? If you can't find it, FRmail me, I'll find it and post it here. My point is, YOU kids are young. YOU call up there and ask if you can PLEASE help guard that ranch and that flag. GET INVOLVED! YOU HAVE THE POWER!
Bad books? Liberal books? WRITE SOME GOOD ONES!!!!
I saw one of you kids, on one of these threads, say something about computers...and you were advising your buds to NOT buy their parents a computer because they'd be constantly asking you for help. Darn good thing your parents didn't feel the same way about YOU when you were a little kid.
And......one last thing. You refer to yourselves as Reagan GenXers (or something like that). Well....that's nice. That's real nice. Were you BORN when he was in power? Just born? WHO elected him? Your generation or ours? Have you even READ his autobiography? You'd be ashamed of your attitude if you did. Am I right or wrong?
So? Shall we all drop this continual bashing? Can we ALL band together AS CONSERVATIVE AMERICANS and win this WOT? This war on society?
I DARE YOU!!!!!!
They are not. 1964 has always been the last year they assign to the baby boom generation. I was born in '58 and have siblings born in early '60s so am aware of when the cutoff has always been.
Like others, I find it absurd to lump people in a category like that and say one despises "them".
That's odd. I was born in '58 and all of those are the hallmarks of my youth! I do find it odd to be categorized--always have--as a baby boomer along with those old enough to fight in the war.
I have no idea I disliked you; thanks for that information.
In fact my first 45 was by The Beatles. I still have it. ("I'm Happy Just to Dance With you" + "I'll Cry Instead")
Americans are not all the same and neither are all "Republicans" or "Democrats". Sounds like a rehash of "new study reveals men and women are different".
My mom told me to keep o9n working to pay fica so she'd keep getting her checks.
There's a whole lotta paintin' goin' on heah...
LOL
No, comments have been made about boomers, period. No qualifiers added.
But as I said, don't let the facts get in your way.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.