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 ...
"Where the heck was the so called "Greatest Generation"????"
Busy creating, birthing, and raising the Boomers. :) I raised that question several years ago with my Greatest Gen father (now 86), and asked him why our generation had been so insulated, given so much, and especially not forced to encounter many of life's rough edges.... he said, "We didn't want you to". It was a deliberate decision on his generation's part.
I think it's understandable; even before they were old enough to go to war, this generation understood the privations of the depression, and I know my father and many fathers were determined that would be completely a thing of the past, something unknown to their children.
Now, if they just hadn't had so MANY of us..... :)
Yeah. As I said, life sucks in America, especially to those who have built some idyllic view of life in the 50s, when the average lifespan was 66 years, most jobs were boring as hell, and blacks were forced to use separate drinking fountains.
You live in the most benevolent country in the entire history of the universe. Any 20-something who gripes about his lack of opportunity or the moral decadence all around him is somebody I want to slap out of his selfishness and say "Go out there and make something happen. Change things, instead of waiting to be led around by the hand."
The author makes a good point. The most vocal ones of our generation reshaped our society, and not for the better. But many of them are proud to this day of their contributions.
These vocal ones rallied much of their generation to protest against the Vietnam war. They took advantage of a flaw in human nature to leverage the anti-war sentiment for the benefit of their social reengineering program. The flaw in human nature of which I speak is the tendency of people to get overcommitted to one cause (the protest against Vietnam) and to not notice that other members of the movement are manipulating the cause for the sake of other unrelated goals.
The leaders of the movement were socialists (communists) who wanted more than anything to destroy the political/economic system of the United States. To do this, they had to gain control of the educational system and destroy the moral/religious backbone of our society.
Much of the activity started on college campuses. There were protests, endless speeches in plazas, sit-ins, love-ins, riots. It was our generation against the older generation. "When we get in control, things are going to change."
There was a rejection of any moral authority. Relativism reigned supreme, as it still does today. Women burned their bras. Couples did outrageous things in public. Proclaiming "free love", every sexual moral standard was violated.
Hollywood catered to the changing morals and made trashier movies, with more explicit language and sexual scenes. Radio stations played music that badmouthed every part of our society, and broke every taboo. This has been going on for so long now, that most people think it was always like that. But it wasn't.
And then there was the rampant use of drugs. Marijuana, LSD, mescaline, uppers, downers, and heroin for the real hard-liners. References to drugs appeared in much of the music and in a lot of movies. The more that young people thought, "Hey, everybody's doing it," the more they were encouraged to try it themselves.
And behind the scenes, the socialists were cheering. Now they make up most of the faculty on college campuses and have graduated a generation of brainwashed, unthinking parrots as public school teachers. They have also taken over journalism.
Socialism has failed everywhere it's been tried. But that doesn't stop the religious fervor that these people have for Marx. In a fit of self-loathing, they want to bring down the structure of our society even though it would mean their own demise.
Maybe some of the hangers-on have had second thoughts, as the author of this article expresses. But the true believers are still pushing their agenda. They have truly sold their souls to the devil.
Good point!
Maybe we should take away the right to vote at age 70.
the greatest generations parents were rough on their kids to make them strong.
but I guess they never turned it around and did the right thing in raising their kids. It was easier to let them run wild.
I wouldn't be so quick to blame the 'baby boomers' themselves, they were the subject of some serious brainwashing/propaganda..
And you can rest assured that many of us are making changes in our world. Who just took over Congress for the first time in 40 years? Conservatives! It is a cycle, thank God, and things seem to be turning back the other way.
Yes, we live in the best country in the world. And, while you may want to slap the younger ones out of their "selfishness" and insist they go do something about the moral decadence, the generation that espoused the view that we must accept all on equally moral terms, regardless of the deviance of his/her behavior, has bequeathed to us a country and a culture in which such a discussion is illegal in many settings. So, I am not sure how best to please you, apart from stilfing my outrage and continuing to abide by the laws the loveniks left us.
Remember, Satan was the first liberal/leftist.
Boomers are his creation.
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
the seniors are bankrupting us- because the boomers turned their backs on their parents and expected government to take care of them.
You obviously have the answers to fix it all. I'm so glad. I can die knowing the world will be in good hands.
The "greedy senior citizens" to whom you refer have been forced to become activists to get any of their own money back. Thought you might be interested in hearing the other side.
Carolyn
#1 - You will get every dime you put into Social Security (plus interest) within 5 years of when you start collecting it. After that, it will be all welfare - or will you stop taking other people's money then? Didn't think so.
#2 - A young person today will never, ever see their money back. They will never break even. You Social Security checks are their Social Security payments today.
#3 - Social Security is a TAX. There is not "trust fund" and there are no personal accounts with your name on it. It was originally started to help the the elderly in absolute poverty (and only kicked in after the age of the average lifespan of an American). It was never designed or intended to be a national pension plan.
#4 - Greedy Geezers vote - That is why Social Security has never been cut and why it is expanded year after year. It will literally bankrupt our country - but seniors vote and they want more and more. And the politicians they vote deliver the goods.
The modern socializm also contributes -- in the old days if you didn't straighten up and fly right people would step over you while you lay in the gutter. Now you have teams of do-gooders to prop you up and enable you to keep costing society for decades. Take methadone, for example. In the old days, you'd have just died instead of having your habit subsidized for decades.
I always disliked "boomers".
The Clinton generation.
Remeber that G-d afwal show "30 something" with those horrible Yuppies?
DIE YUPPIE SCUM - as the commies used to say in NYC - at least they got one right.
By the by - For those of you here who blame the ills of the world on the boomers; please, do yourselves a favor! Save this entire thread - put it away for 30 years or so and, when your kids and your grandkids start blaming you and your generation for everything that is wrong in THEIR world, pull this tattered, yellowed thread out and re-read the things you wrote.
Don't for get that the ones you're talking about also have received/are receiving more from SS than they paid into it. A nice gig, if you can get it.
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