Baby boomers not all alike

Sun News/ Myrtlebeachonline ^ | 7/11/04 | Jeffrey Zaslow

[secret garden]

Is it because you accidentally told them who you have voted for in your wild, impetuous past? ;)

[Howlin]

The boomers embraced what was a sub-culture before them. A culture of free love, do what feels good, institutionalized rebellion and violent protest.

Why don't you name a few FR Freepers who did that.

[CyberCowboy777]

Your taking this all too personally.

Boomer is a general term, and the majority of the boomers did embrace at least parts of the culture.

My generation embraced MTV and even earlier rebellion than the boomers (gotta out-do your parents I guess). I am not afraid to admit my generations faults - you?

[Howlin]

You are painting us ALL with a broad brush. Contrary to what you may believe, the vast majority of us weren't in the streets in the late '60s and '70s.

[CyberCowboy777]

The foot soldiers in the Marxist/pantheist environmental movement may be GenX, but the movement has been run by boomers for decades.

And the movement was started in the '20's IIRC, just not embraced until the boomers needed another way to rebel.

[Mo1]

All these things existed before the boomer's, and certainly their parents are to blame for much of the economic socialism we currently live with, but the social decline that happened in the '60's and '70's I place mostly at the feet of the boomer's.

By that thinking .. then I guess the next generation will blame ALL the Gen X'ers and Y's for this huh??

NOW DO YOU SEE HOW WRONG YOUR ARGUMENT IS????

It's NOT a generation thing ..

[Warren_Piece]

Another great resource for this kind of thing:

Here

An excerpt:

Outlook

Some have suggested that Generation Xers are proud to not be from the baby boom generation and actively rebel against the idealism the baby boomers advocated in the 1960s. Some would also argue that it is not merely the idealism of the 1960s which Generation Xers are rejecting, but a deeper cynicism of the fact that such "idealism", inevitably doomed in its gratuitous naïveté, so quickly gave way to an era unequivocally focused on commercial and industrial progress; a period which incubated many of the problems facing their, and coming, generations. They fantasize about how the 1960s and 1970s supposedly offered Boomers easy sex without consequence while resenting the lasting damage done by an era in which they now realize they were the babies adults were trying so much not to have.

Other people born in the described time period reject the labels as not particularly useful, and point to social class, geography, and other factors having far more influence than chronology. The fuzzy boundaries of Generations X and Y give some credence to this argument; though perhaps, more obviously, such facts underwrite the very problem central to the definition of Generation X, and alluded to in the title itself—namely a crisis of identity.

The problem may be that this generation lacks a core. While Boomers couldn't escape their generational center, Xers struggle to find one. Generation X is the most immigrant generation born in the twentieth century.

Generation X has survived a hurried childhood of divorce, latchkeys, space shuttle explosions, open classrooms, devil-child movies, and a shift from G to R ratings. They came of age curtailing the earlier rise in youth crime and fall in SAT test scores -- yet heard themselves denounced as so wild and stupid as to put The Nation At Risk. As young adults, maneuvering through a sexual barricade of AIDS and blighted courtship rituals, they date and marry cautiously. In jobs, they embrace risk and prefer free agency to loyal corporatism. Politically, they lean toward pragmatism and nonaffiliation. Sometimes criticized as "slackers", they nevertheless were widely credited with a new growth of entreprenuership and the resulting dot-com boom.

The really freaky think is the devil-child movie thing. I never realized until i read '13th-gen' just how anti-child most of American society was in the late 60s and throughout the 70's. Looking back, I do remember restaurants without high chairs, adults-only apartment complexes, and the like. We were the first generation whose parents took pills not to have. And hollywood subconsciously viewed us as evil (see devil-child link above).

No wonder so many of us are messed up. And no, xsm, I don't blame you personally.

[Howlin]

That works for me!

[CyberCowboy777]

Contrary to want you want to deny, the culture is a reflection on the generation. Never would this culture have taken such hold and caused so much damage had only a few taken part.

A large portion of the generation may not have been at Woodstock, but a large portion did buy into the culture.

Who holds power today and what are the consequences of the culture they bring with them?

[Warren_Piece]

Contrary to what you may believe, the vast majority of us weren't in the streets in the late '60s and '70s.

You are correct, but don't overstate your case. All polling data shows that your generation was far more liberal as incoming college freshmen than the current crop. You may wish it weren't so, but conservatives were definately in the minority when the boomers were young.

[Howlin]

Here's a perfect example of why I loathe the Baby Boomers. So full of themselves, so self-righteous, so arrogant and condescending. And of course, the irony is that for all of their talk, they are the most selfish, self-centered, self-absorbed, self-important bunch of brats the world has ever seen. I wish the entire pack of pompous, spoiled jack@sses would go save someone else's world and leave us and ours alone. I'm a 37-year old Gen X'er, and am more than a little tired of the Boomers telling me and everyone else how awful we are, how much we don't care as much as they do about whatever, and of the Boomers trying to tell everyone else what they should and shouldn't say or do.

Geez.....give it a rest.

[CyberCowboy777]

If my generation causes damage to the culture then I accept blame on the generation.

Why is that so difficult to do for you boomers?

I have seen first hand and footage of many anit-war protest of the last couple of years and can tell you that more than a few present are boomers and many of the groups are run by boomers.

[Howlin]

All polling data shows that your generation was far more liberal as incoming college freshmen than the current crop.

You're sadly mistaken if you believe that those of us who sat through the Vietnam draft were liberal.

[Howlin]

Who holds power today and what are the consequences of the culture they bring with them?

Again, you paint with too broad a brush, so you diminish your point.

And as a gentle reminder, take a look at that picture Mo just posted to you; do you plan to deny that that is YOUR generation?

[Tamzee]

I'm an X-er.... and consider this thread sewage.

Assigning "blame" for cultural changes to groups of individuals simply by the date they were born is even junkier science than John Edward's cerebral palsy propaganda.

[Howlin]

They fantasize about how the 1960s and 1970s supposedly offered Boomers easy sex without consequence while resenting the lasting damage done by an era in which they now realize they were the babies adults were trying so much not to have.

"Fantasy" is a good word to describe that passage.

Generation X has survived a hurried childhood of divorce, latchkeys, space shuttle explosions, open classrooms, devil-child movies, and a shift from G to R ratings.

Good god, do you think it was all roses for us? We had TWO wars, a presidential assassination, and all the things THEY lived through.

Unless you are of the group that contends that once you reach 18 you stop learning in life.

[Mo1]

If my generation causes damage to the culture then I accept blame on the generation

Why .. you didn't cause it

And just like in Vietnam .. there are WHOLE BUNCH of Good Honorable Brave people fighting for Freedom today

Should they be blamed for what bunch of Liberals are doing??

IT'S NOT A GENERATION THING .. IT'S A RIGHT vs. LEFT THING

[Howlin]

Assigning "blame" for cultural changes to groups of individuals simply by the date they were born is even junkier science than John Edward's cerebral palsy propaganda.

You know I was just thinking the same thing.

Perhaps the legacy of the Generation Xers is that they are the first generation to be so damn ungrateful that they blame everything wrong with their lives on the people who did the best they could before these whiney babies came along.

[Tamzee]

I have seen first hand and footage of many anti-war protest of the last couple of years

Blame should be assigned participation, not solely by a few numbers on a driver's license.

[CyberCowboy777]

You simply refuse to accept that your generation has had any negative impact.

You will not even admit that your generation has been one of the most liberal.

Maybe we should call the Boomers the Greatest Generation?

Do a little research into who runs and funds those anti-war groups, while your at it look at the funding of the environmental groups. I think you will be surprised.

Nobody here, certainly not me, expects anyone to believe that 99% of all boomers where/are bad people. Just a large portion where decidedly more liberal.