Posted on 11/04/2008 7:30:41 AM PST by iThinkBig
The Baby Boom Generation will never be mistaken for the Greatest Generation that survived the Great Depression and defeated evil in a World War that killed 72 million people. I hate to tell you Boomers, but putting a yellow ribbon on the back of your $50,000 SUV is not sacrifice. Our claim to fame is living way beyond our means for the last three decades, to the point where we have virtually bankrupted our capitalist system. Baby Boomers have been occupying the White House for the last sixteen years. The majority of Congress is Baby Boomers. The CEOs and top executives of Wall Street firms are Baby Boomers. The media is dominated by Baby Boom executives and on-air stars. We have no one to blame but ourselves for the current predicament. Blaming Franklin Roosevelt or Lyndon Johnson for our dire situation is a cop out. Baby Boomers had the time, power, and ability to change our course. We have chosen to leave the heavy lifting to future generations in order to live the good life today.
(Excerpt) Read more at ragingdebate.com ...
Taste in music is shaped by the music you hear while growing up. My Greatest Generation in-laws are Big Band. My Silent Generation parents are.... Dad is Marty Robbins & my mom is Sinatra, show tunes, with a streak of Hootenanny (sp) folk music. I had a couple of friends into country & like I said about disco, only listened to it when I went out dancing.
Hip hop & most rap, blech! OTOH, I like some grunge & even some punk that made into the "mainstream".
...And we're winning!
“Bill Ayers is a poster-child for the failings of the Baby Boomers.”
Bill Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohrn are John McCain’s generation.
When I was growing up my dad only played Big Band and oldies. He said, “I want you too know what good music is before you get into that rock.” (little did I know he was listening to rock when working to stay awake). I listen to just about every type of music now. I can listen to Big Band, country, rock, and new age all within the same half hour.
I agree with you that you cannot generalize an entire generation but it does not invalidate the bleak TRUTHS that our children face.
I am about to turn 40 and have two (soon to be three) small children and I feel sorry for them. Too many Americans have lived above their means on credit and much of the bill will be passed to our children. Our government has led the credit charge and the unfunded mandates will crush it.
I would put 60% the blame on misguided politicians who created a disastrous entitlement system that has bled us for decades and will kill us. The other 40% of the blame belongs to the generations that refuse to acknowledge the problem much less do anything to reverse course. The consumer debt load means we will not have the capital to save the current system.
We face enormous challenges that most Americans are ignorant of and our current course of action is to put it on the credit card. It will end eventually.
LOL I can't seem to help myself. Time to get back to Youtube to bat around some Obots, I guess.
God bless, Toki! Grab the future. It’s all yours.
The baby boomers are the children of the greatest generation.
Looks like they weren’t so great at teaching their kids.
That indeed is a wonderful and true article. Thanks for posting it!
As we all ponder how our society got to this point and how to turn the tide, I exempt the US military from such discussions. The US military has displayed honor and still does in it’s foundation.
Hmmm, seems to me I've read more than a few screeds from boomers trashing previous generations. In fact, it has been a favorite activity of that generation, at least the most vocal portion of it.
I agree. Mankind will face such struggles until we can:
1) The globe comes to the understanding Liberty and personal accountability is 1st, Equality is second to reach global consensus that freedom is worth dying for.
2) Safely alter genetics to root out certain behavioral traits that may no longer be required. I don’t expect that to happen in our lifetimes, that is for sure.
“As we all ponder how our society got to this point and how to turn the tide, I exempt the US military from such discussions. The US military has displayed honor and still does in it’s foundation.”
I’m not talking about the military, I was describing America’s last great warrior generation the boomers, the last generation to flood the enlistment offices.
I’m not in the military, nor are my three boomer brothers, we are just representative of many other boomers in that we all enlisted in time of war to pull a hitch for the old red, white, and blue.
At the time our sisters were not being desperatly sought by the military because we boomer men were willing to serve instead, and our 42 year old mothers were not even eligible to enlist as they are now.
I'm GenX (post-baby boom), with that generation noted for its sarcasm and general lack of respect for authority. Then there's the 1980's-1990's generation (GenY?), with its iPods and in-their-own-world post-modernism. All three have a common thread: disregard for others and self-aggrandizement.
Honestly, I have very little optimism for any of the generations; the only one I respect and admire are those remaining in their 80s and 90s: the "Greatest Generation", and worthy of the title. What made them "great"? Hardship.
As much as I hate the prospect of an Obama presidency, I can see good coming from it as we (Boomers, Xers, and Y'ers alike) are called upon to fight tyranny, undergo hardship ourselves, and come out with better and stronger character. We'd best be ready for it, clothing ourselves with prayer, and linking arms to fight for the more noble things that unite us: the God-given value of the individual, the Rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Well said!
As a Boomer, I for one have to agree, in general, that our generation has been self-centered with a heavy sugar coating of immature selfless “compassion” motivated more by making us look and feel good about ourselves than anything else, and therefore often blinding us to the inherent futility and/or long term destructiveness of our efforts.
That indeed is a wonderful and true article. Thanks for posting it!
I love your tagline.
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