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The baby boomers and the price of personal freedom
The Guardian ^ | 22 August 2010 | Will Hutton

Posted on 08/22/2010 1:07:34 PM PDT by Publius804

The baby boomers. Born between 1945 and 1955, they are busy ignoring the biblical calculus that a man's span is three score years and 10. Having enjoyed a life of free love, free school meals, free universities, defined benefit pensions, mainly full employment and a 40-year-long housing boom, they are bequeathing their children sky-high house prices, debts and shrivelled pensions. A 60-year-old in 2010 is a very privileged and lucky human being – an object of resentment as much as admiration.

I'm at the heart of all of it – guilty as charged. Born 21 May 1950, I'm the quintessential baby boomer. And for the last three months, while most of the rest of the world has been getting on with their lives, I've been wrestling with the implications of my new seniority. Sixty may or may not be the new 50, but it is a significant milestone; I've been on the planet for an awfully long time. What sense can I make of the decades I have lived through? To what extent am I and my generation unfairly lucky? What is the best way to live my life from now on?

To a degree I have some sympathy with the resentment, marshalled in a cluster of recent anti-boomer books. Individually, we may not have been the authors of today's flux, uncertainty and lack of social and cultural anchors, but we were at the scene of the crime. The cultural, economic and institutional cornerstones of British life have been shattered – and the way our love of fun was channelled is undoubtedly part of the story. The upside is that some of the old stifling prohibitions and prejudices have gone, hopefully for ever.

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: boomers; hippies; sixties
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1 posted on 08/22/2010 1:07:41 PM PDT by Publius804
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To: qam1

Ping!


2 posted on 08/22/2010 1:09:19 PM PDT by Publius804 (Buckle up - with Obama at the controls it's gonna be a bumpy ride. God help us.)
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Comment #3 Removed by Moderator

To: Publius804

I thought the baby boom was 46 to 64. Matter of definition, obviously.


4 posted on 08/22/2010 1:14:35 PM PDT by Steely Tom (Obama goes on long after the thrill of Obama is gone)
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To: Publius804

What total, self-serving, unmitigated, whiney, HORSESHIT!


5 posted on 08/22/2010 1:14:55 PM PDT by dljordan ("His father's sword he hath girded on, And his wild harp slung behind him")
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To: Publius804

>The upside is that some of the old stifling prohibitions and prejudices have gone, hopefully for ever.

Those unnamed prejudices stifled what exactly?

Fantasy.


6 posted on 08/22/2010 1:15:05 PM PDT by bill1952 (Choice is an illusion created between those with power - and those without)
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To: Publius804
The baby boomers. Born between 1945 and 1955,

The guy is an idiot, the boomer generation is those people born from 1946 to 1964.

7 posted on 08/22/2010 1:16:25 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: RachelFaith
When the Apocalypse happens, shoot anyone over 50 on sight.

Hey! Not so quick on the trigger!

8 posted on 08/22/2010 1:16:45 PM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
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To: dljordan
What total, self-serving, unmitigated, whiney, HORSESHIT!

Yep. Typical boomer, down to attributing significance to boomer pop music.

9 posted on 08/22/2010 1:17:05 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Judas Iscariot - the first social justice advocate. John 12:3-6)
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To: Steely Tom
I thought the baby boom was 46 to 64. Matter of definition, obviously.

You are correct, check government documents and Federal definitions.

10 posted on 08/22/2010 1:17:46 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: Pearls Before Swine

LOL!

OK, if they have a FR screen name and own a firearm, they are the few good guys.

Shoot the rest.


11 posted on 08/22/2010 1:18:13 PM PDT by RachelFaith (2010 is going to be a 100 seat Tsunami - Unless the GOP Senate ruins it all...)
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To: Publius804

We make up a good percentage of tea partiers too.


12 posted on 08/22/2010 1:19:12 PM PDT by abigail2
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To: RachelFaith
When the Apocalypse happens, shoot anyone over 50 on sight.

I was going to say, "when the apocalypse happens, shoot anyone named RachelFaith." :-)

13 posted on 08/22/2010 1:19:12 PM PDT by meyer (Our own government has become our enemy,...)
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To: Publius804

Ya know? Boomers have paid more into the system and have received less than any generation.

I dont understand why everyone hates my generation.


14 posted on 08/22/2010 1:19:16 PM PDT by mylife (Opinions $1 Halfbaked 50c)
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To: ErnBatavia

You gotta see this one,


15 posted on 08/22/2010 1:21:00 PM PDT by Graybeard58 (Nobody reads tag lines.)
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To: Publius804
There are many fine, upstanding people born within this time period who basically did everything right. One doesn't want to paint with too broad a brush and imply that all Baby Boomers are bad people.

But I think western society went through a long rough patch in the 20th century. WWI was really devastating, and although the 1920's were a bit of fun, the Depression in the 1930's, and WWII were horrific times. Afterwords, the older people were very happy to settle down into dullness and some meager level of material enjoyment. And who could blame them?

But too many of the young people understood nothing of what had gone before. They wanted freedom. They wanted to escape any sense of responsibility. Let's live it up! That world the older folks think is just fine is really all wrong -- let's start making changes!

It's not like dark days will ever come back again, eh? I said -- it's not like the dark days will come back; right?

Right?

16 posted on 08/22/2010 1:21:05 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy
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To: RachelFaith

“When the Apocalypse happens, shoot anyone over 50 on sight.”
Don’t blame all the baby boomers - and don’t make childish threats.


17 posted on 08/22/2010 1:21:24 PM PDT by dainbramaged (If you want a friend, get a dog.)
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To: Publius804
♫People tend to put us down♪ talking bout the geritol generation♪

♫J..jj..Just because we are around♪♪

18 posted on 08/22/2010 1:23:12 PM PDT by mylife (Opinions $1 Halfbaked 50c)
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To: Steely Tom
I thought the baby boom was 46 to 64. Matter of definition, obviously

Post WW2 when troops started coming home and impregnating their wives, that would make it '46 when the babies started coming.. I was born in 45.

19 posted on 08/22/2010 1:24:21 PM PDT by Graybeard58 (Nobody reads tag lines.)
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To: RachelFaith

If you want to look at the destruction of Western Civilization, then look to 1935 to 1975 when the end of our nation was legislated, and decided, and it’s decline probably made irreversible.

By the time the boomers started coming into power in the late 1980s, they were an improvement over the Warren Courts, The Great Society, the Vietnam, the New Deal, forced integration, forced busing, NOW, the ACLU, the unionized government workers, the 1965 immigration act, affirmative action.

As bad as things are today, boomers have slowed the worst of the left’s damage and America has moved to the right.

Many people of all ages hope that boomer Sarah Palin can keep the trend going.


20 posted on 08/22/2010 1:25:47 PM PDT by ansel12
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