Save the Boomers, Save the World: Redeeming Culture

The entertainment industry is in the full throes of the changing of the generations; films and television are beginning to reflect the visions of Generation Xers like Jason Reitman, (Up in the Air), Judd Apatow, (Knocked Up), Brad Byrd (Up, The Incredibles), and other young artists who dare to buck the tired irony-cool cynicism that has shaped and stifled too much of the culture. Suddenly, after decades of being shut out, minimized, or mocked, film characters have room in their lives for optimism, and even something almost like faith. The Church, if it seeks to be relevant in the future, needs to welcome this development and encourage -- even patronize -- such talents.

Pope Benedict XVI, who has an artist's heart, seems to realize this; he recently met with artists to discuss the role of beauty in the health of the world. That is a start, but more is needed. The Boomers' exit from cultural influence creates a two-sided pastoral challenge for the 21st-century Church.

First is the effect on the gargantuan Boomer generation of a lifetime of listening almost exclusively to their own voices. The movies being created by and for the Boomers today are a very unentertaining mix of "Never regret! Life starts at 70!" and "Life is a cruel joke, ‘full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.'" Movies like It's Complicated showcase a bunch of grey hairs still acting badly, swallowing their shame, and ignoring their appropriate role as the wise mentors of the younger generations. The Dorian Greyish dark echo of this kind of story, are movies like There Will Be Blood and the chillingly titled No Country for Old Men, in which the characters' lives of narcissism and greed devolve into cynicism and brutality.

“Vatican II was also the product of an earlier generation, in fact, much earlier, since many of the evil council fathers who promoted the bad aspects of it, blindsiding the decent fathers who simply thought they’d come for a procedural nip and tuck, were actually from the “Greatest Generation” or before. IMHO, Vatican II destroyed the Church and its possible influence in stopping the chaos of the 1960s-70s, and was one of the things that left the Boomers (us) adrift.”

And of what generations were those “decent fathers”? Knowing that you claim your generation was too young to do anything.

This is the problem - there are always malcontents in every population. The issue is whether they just happen to gain foothold, or if they are actively knowingly bolstered by a whole population.

Just because some malcontents (or perhaps just incompetents) gained power doesn’t mean the whole population is like them.

The real problem comes when a whole population embraces that thinking. THAT is where the Boomers (hippies, specifically - who have dominated the discourse culturally, journalistically and politically of their gen) get the knocks. Tons of hippies embracing the worst and then being the mouthpieces for the worst, perpetuating it even more.

It’s just that your declaration that people older than Boomers are socialists, in essence, was implied by your hawking the Boomer voting stats. You never showed likely Silent/”Greatest”(not) stats to back up that those whole generations were more socialist than Boomers. (Again, not that all Boomers are - just the hippies for sure. And besides voting, it’s the hippies who defined that generation, if not with numbers, with their big mouths and putting their hands into everything about the “culture”.)

Yes, I could try to look it up myself, but since you were bent on proving Boomers are better than all others via presidential voting, I assumed you had it on hand because it would prove you “correct”.

What I am trying to do is to show people that the media lies and gives false pictures of American history, you are one of those that have fallen for the media rewrite of history and the "generation war" hook, line and sinker. This whole idea of generations as history is weird to me, and is a media creation, there is no "super generation of boomers" that has been running the nation for 60 years with another 30 years to go. The boomers are the Reagan generation if anything, they were the teenagers and the twenty somethings of his Presidency, in 1980 the boomers ranged in age of 16 to 34, they were only starting to enter the world of business, government, institutions, they had not been running the world from 1935 to 1975. Senator Byrd only left office this very year, 2010, Ted Kennedy left office last year.

Make a list of the most radical, permanent, unchangeable legislation, the breaking up of communities, the introduction of 6 foot fences and burglar bars to our homes, badly fought wars, Supreme Court decisions, etc, only include the things that destroyed America and made it impossible to recover it, things like the 1965 immigration act, government employee unions, forced integration that destroyed the American communities, affirmative action, Kinsey sexuality, NOW, the ACLU, the NAACP, Nation of Islam, the government taking over the schools, the teachers union, Vietnam, Roe V Wade, just keep building that list and then see who actually did all that, and when the left peaked (1935-1975), and when the hard left started losing their momentum.

The media and the left have succeeded in rewriting a history of the worst period in American history (a history that has written our destruction into stone), 1935 through 1975 and making it seem like some super cool kids somehow took over and ran America during that 40 year period, the reality is different, the boomer generation, once they started moving into the actual adult age when a generation starts taking over the jobs (the late 1980s) actually seemed to move the country to the right some, the left in my estimation has met with much less (permanent) success since 1975, in some areas like gun control, the people have had great success in turning back the war against the second amendment that the previous generations fought from the 1930s to 1970s.

1932 Democrats, 1936 Democrats, 1940 Democrats, 1944 Democrats, 1948 Democrats, 1952 Eisenhower, 1956 Eisenhower, 1960 Democrat, 1964 Democrat.

The 101st Airborne Division introduces itself to the American people, 1957.

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