Posted on 07/26/2006 8:48:06 AM PDT by NYer
My cohort of early baby boomers has been called a lot of names in its nearly six decades of existence—we were the insolent teenagers of the 1950s; the self-centered Yuppies of the 1980s; now we are the aging spendthrifts who will bust the federal budget and bankrupt our children with unreasonable demands for creature comfort in old age.
But maybe it would be more appropriate to think of us as the Faustian generation. We didn't exactly sell our souls to the devil—not collectively, anyway—but as we jog toward senior status, it's hard to escape the sense that we were complicit in our own unique kind of unholy bargain.
Most of us born in the early years after World War II grew up in a world of stability and order: lasting marriages, moms at home, fathers with permanent employment, local merchants who knew us and watched us, neighborhoods where the people next door were ever-present and predictable. The three television networks ran essentially the same programs; the bread and soup and cereal all tasted alike. It was snug; it was also, as we all know, widely perceived as monotonous and a little claustrophobic, as well as unfair to many members of society
"The dull ache will not depart," Faust says in the first part of Goethe's epic, as he laments the cozy tedium of his cloistered life. "I crave excitement, agonizing bliss." That does pretty well as a mantra for the best and brightest of the early baby boomers as they reached mid-adolescence in the early 1960s
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Go back to DU, troll. I don't know of any Catholics that use the witticisms and perjoratives that you've put on display in your posts. They abound on democraticunderground.com, though.
The US winning the Cold War was a foregone conclusion with or without the boomers help.
You must take your history lessons from the Alan Colmes Analysis of Modern History.
Another way the "greatest generation" made sure those that immediately followed them were silenced was the contrived Korean War (UN) as well as the Viet Nam War (US). 90,000 voices were silenced,they were cannon fodder for those who wanted to hang in there and used as a "cause celebre" for those who then siezed the reins.
Supposedly it wasn't the veterans of the area who screwed things up, but those born in the 1930s and even the war years who paved the way for the worst of Boomerdom.
The term "greatest generation" can be interpreted as an indirect way of still more Boomer self-flattery: Man, our parents were the greatest--they spawned us, after all! They were so god-like, they went through so much character-building hardship. it's no wonder we boomers can't live up to their standards!
In fact it's probable the WWII generation was like most everyone before it, but their importance has to be blown out of proportion to justify boomer laxity.
Thanks for the link.
I am very much a Joneser. Guess it's lonely in the middle. Culturally & aesthetically I share many things with the Boomers, yet my values are far more conservative.
Example: my best friend is a Boomer. Lord love her, but she is raving liberal & neurotic. Likes Hillary, has gay relatives, into activist causes. Not hippie, though, but VERY Kerry-like.
My stepmother, too -- very Californian, into Esalen -- peace, man -- touchy-feely, got-to-respect-everyone-in-the-world.
My roommates, though, are in their 30s, and they love talking to me. Somehow I'm a citadel of wisdom, maybe because they're so badly educated. However, their lifestyles are very conservative. Makes me sort of wish I had been born 10 years later. Yet their tastes in art & music -- euuhhh!
The 80s & 90s? Yuk! Give me the 70s movies & music. The decade sucked in other areas, but the culture was great.
Surely, this is the most humble and self-effacing country as well.
I understood your point and I agree. I was making a joke. Check fun knob for adjustment.
Surely you jest. The decade of disco and leisure suits. I couldn't wait for the 70's to end. I liked some of the music of the 70's, but definitely not the disco stuff. Yuck.
The angst-ridden Gen-Xers amuse me. They're all hopping mad at the thought of having to support themselves for the rest of their lives . . .
Well, the ones I saw at The Moving Wall were totally bored and completely unappreciative of the sacrifice represented by those 58,000 names. No time or appreciation of what freedom costs.
It was the boomers who were touched by that memorial of the war that touched our generation. Both those who went and those who did not.
The best description of the Baby Boomers is the SELF-destructive generation........
Really seems to sum it up.
I don't think they're talking about all boomers, but surely many of those in power and places of authority. It's hard not to think of places untainted. Educators, authors, those in government, and Hollywood, have all worked hard, promoting each other over other's who disagreed. Bea Arthur alone and her 70's soapboxing tried to influence a whole generation. I was just a kid but I recall her rants, recall even being swayed by some of them at first. But the 'women's movement' has really failed women and become the feminazi swill it is today. But I digress. Luckily we have FR, and we now know that there are boomers not like that and the left hates that now conservatives have a voice.
After all it IS all about me!
LOL, that is still the mantra. It doesn't seem to be stopping, just changing the ways it's expressed.
They were certainly a lot like the Lost Generation of the UK, 1919 - 1939. And look at what happened after their drugged out, oversexed, appeasing era. Now, our own Lost Generation are in charge. Chamberlainism runs rampant. God help us.
The vocal ones rallied many in older generations. That is something that always gets missed in these debates. It was symbiotic - the nutso Beatnick / Communist minority from amongst the Greatest Generation and Silent Generation riled up all the kiddies on campus, who then influenced Main Street to oppose the war and to be way too tolerant of way too many things.
But the "edumacated" and "sophistercated" ones among them sure loved "The Big Chill!"
Wilderness and Xers have much in common. I am in my early 40s and am just now experiencing the sorts of opportunities to gain power that Boomers had when they were in their late 20s.
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