Are baby Boomer this dismal.?

[cyclezealot]

From "Baby Boomers: The Ungreatest Generation."
Today's Common Dreams, by Gregory Foster.
We started out with such promise. Remember Kent State and Selma. And "Are you Going to San Francisco."
How about Janis Joplin's "Freedoms Just another word."
What the hell happened. The country is a total mess. George Bush is a Boomer? Is that us.
I say it is the result of apathy of the TV age and it will only get worse with future generations all the more the result.
Remember the argument about TV being the hot message but a cool medium. I think we have been brainwashed from our original promise. Segments enclosed.
the link.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0716-22.htm
The United States today is in a dismal state of affairs—as far perhaps as it is possible to be from the mythical American Dream of peace, prosperity, security, and unity without fomenting open rebellion in the ranks of the citizenry. If you're in doubt about why this is, just stop to ponder who's running the country these days and what that means. In virtually every walk of American life—certainly in government, business, and academe—the Baby Boomers are fully in charge, and it isn't a pretty sight. In fact, it's downright ugly.

In the interest of full disclosure, I herewith admit to being a card-carrying Boomer myself and not especially proud of it. Not completely ashamed yet, not altogether embarrassed, but certainly not proud.

Just look at the "leaders” we've put forward over the past fourteen years to represent us—as president and vice president, as Cabinet and sub-Cabinet officials, as party front men on both sides of Capitol Hill. To put it charitably, euphemistically, they've given new meaning to the concept of leadership. I needn't name names; you know who they are. And though some of them, and others like them, had already shed their diapers by 1946, Vietnam was their formative life experience, and they have been card-carrying practitioners of the Boomer ethos ever since.

Published on Sunday, July 16, 2006 by CommonDreams.org
Baby Boomers: The Ungreatest Generation
by Gregory D. Foster

The United States today is in a dismal state of affairs—as far perhaps as it is possible to be from the mythical American Dream of peace, prosperity, security, and unity without fomenting open rebellion in the ranks of the citizenry. If you're in doubt about why this is, just stop to ponder who's running the country these days and what that means. In virtually every walk of American life—certainly in government, business, and academe—the Baby Boomers are fully in charge, and it isn't a pretty sight. In fact, it's downright ugly.

In the interest of full disclosure, I herewith admit to being a card-carrying Boomer myself and not especially proud of it. Not completely ashamed yet, not altogether embarrassed, but certainly not proud.

Just look at the "leaders” we've put forward over the past fourteen years to represent us—as president and vice president, as Cabinet and sub-Cabinet officials, as party front men on both sides of Capitol Hill. To put it charitably, euphemistically, they've given new meaning to the concept of leadership. I needn't name names; you know who they are. And though some of them, and others like them, had already shed their diapers by 1946, Vietnam was their formative life experience, and they have been card-carrying practitioners of the Boomer ethos ever since.

These individuals aren't the brightest or best, nor the most virtuous or competent, among us. Quite the opposite in most cases. But they're clearly the most ambitious; as such, they define who we are and how history will remember (or forget) us.

Whatever we Boomers may have been or done in our individual capacities, on the big matters that legacies are made of we have been outclassed, out of our depth, unable to offer the strategic leadership that would leave something of value to posterity. Most importantly, we have shown ourselves singularly incapable of greatness.

Maybe there's something to former NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw's claim that the World War II generation was “the greatest generation any society has ever produced.” We'll overlook the fact that they bequeathed the Cold War, nuclear weapons, and McCarthyism to the rest of us. What defined that generation (and supported the claim to greatness), Brokaw notes, was sacrifice, selflessness, modesty and, most of all, signal achievement.

By contrast, Boomers have, for the most part, never had to make significant sacrifices. We didn't live through crippling depression, and we didn't have to wage a grand, glorious, unifying war against regnant evil. Ours was a pointless, prolonged, desultory (and did I say pointless) war that divided the few who served from the many who didn't and left a permanent scar on the psyche of a generation.

Boomers are anything but selfless and modest. In the main, we are totally selfish—self-absorbed, self-indulgent, self-serving. Our most visible members are unrepentantly shameless self-promoters, intent on being someone rather than doing something. Given the choice between mingling with celebrities and bettering the human condition, we'll take the former every time.

During our coming of age, when inexperience and unworldliness should have made us the most modest, we were the most impatient and intolerant. We had all the answers, even if we didn't understand the questions.

Hypercritical then, we are hypocritical now. Those who refused to serve when it was our turn are now among the most strident, hawkish flag wavers around. And most of those who were vehemently anti-establishment then have now sold out to (or bought into) “the system.”

Most notably, there's the matter of achievement. Remember the famous lines from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night? “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.” Given the improbability of being born great and the random infrequency of great events, true greatness is almost all about achievement.

So, have we Boomers achieved anything worthy of the ages? The answer, plain and simple, is no. We've been too busy getting ahead. Greatness requires vision, courage, and boldness, none of which we have to offer. We're reformed malcontents turned myopic creatures of convention, perpetuators and exploiters of the status quo, technocrats posing as statesmen. Opportunism is our motive force, rhetoric our métier.

From us you've not gotten, and won't get, sweeping new ideas, institutions, or initiatives that can live in perpetuity and inspire future generations. We still don't have a clue how to get beyond the Cold War (much less how to extricate ourselves from the Iraq debacle with the country's dignity intact), or how to achieve comprehensive health care, reform education, or rid politics of the corrupting influence of money. Surely you don't expect us then to live up to the rhetoric of our youth and eliminate poverty, injustice, or war, craft an enduring post-millennial ideology, or create futuristic global institutions. What's in it for us?
........

There's a verse of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's that is relevant here:

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And departing, leave behind us,
Footprints on the sand of time.
What the hell happened. I am a baby boomer myself, too.

[NJCher]

1. might want to edit your subject heading

Here ya' go:

Are Baby Boomers this Dismal?




Cher

[maxsolomon]

2. see my sig line

i was born in 63 - i don't want to be a boomer - call me a Slacker.

[patrice]

3. Was it Boomers who came up with the Hummer? n/t

[OwnedByFerrets]

4. Which "hummers"?

The great ones or the evil ones. :rofl:

[patrice]

11. ?

The ones in "cupcake land".

[unhappycamper]

5. cyclezealot:

Please be aware that DU copyright rules require that excerpts of copyrighted material be limited to four paragraphs and must include a link to the original source.

[pooja]

6. It is pretty sad that Boomers revolutionized freedoms for so

many back in the day... now they bitch about some kids nose ring and pink hair... Can you imagine if your kids rebeled the way you did.. Crossed the country hitch hiking, piled into a vw van, tripping on acid, protesting for rights.. the end of wars... what happened? Relize its too good for your kids to revolt and make a great country.. I know keep them in-line and threaten to take away their cell phone, ipod, or t.v. priveleges.. that'll work.

[patrice]

13. Freedom still matters to some of us Boomers.

But what you say is true about some too.

[Warpy]

7. Oh, for krissakes, not this again!

"By contrast, Boomers have, for the most part, never had to make significant sacrifices. We didn't live through crippling depression, and we didn't have to wage a grand, glorious, unifying war against regnant evil. Ours was a pointless, prolonged, desultory (and did I say pointless) war that divided the few who served from the many who didn't and left a permanent scar on the psyche of a generation.

"Boomers are anything but selfless and modest. In the main, we are totally selfish—self-absorbed, self-indulgent, self-serving. Our most visible members are unrepentantly shameless self-promoters, intent on being someone rather than doing something. Given the choice between mingling with celebrities and bettering the human condition, we'll take the former every time."

I was unable to find much about Foster, but his writing suggests he missed the 60s except as a child listening to his parents sniveling about how selfish the scruffy antiwar protestors were.

The problem is, as usual, that he's lumping two distinct cohorts together. The first cohort, roughly 1946-1954, bore the brunt of Vietnam and protested against it, were hammered hardest by OPEC's inflation, double digit unemployment and the double digit interest rates that followed those. They had pension contributions made during the first 25 years of their working lives legally stolen when they changed jobs and their wages have been held artificially low. They have had a miserable economic fight and they are exhausted. If you want privation, look at older boomers. The depression might not have been as deep, but it's lasted a lifetime.

They're also our best source for remembering how this country used to be.

The second cohort, roughly 1955-1964, missed the 60s except as something on TV that their parents complained about. The drug scene was still around in the late 70s, but it had degenerated from exploration into dissolution. Music had been corporatized and formulized and resulted in disco. The antiwar movement ended when the war did, and there was no place to put that youthful enthusiasm but the pursuit of money.

They were total suckers for Reagan, especially those who found themselves getting out of school during Carter's presidency.

I hate it when boomer bashing articles like this one come out because they're invariably written by wonks who don't know what the fuck they're talking about from some ivory tower.

Read them with a pound of salt.

[Gormy Cuss]

14. Have disagree with your characterization of the second cohort.

Most of those born in the late 1950s remember the 60s quite well. They were too young to be drafted but grew up with the draft as something looming ahead. Those born in 1955-57 were especially aware of this. Those born before 1958 generally remember the trauma of the Kennedy assasination and remember clearly the civil unrest of the late '60s. They may have participated as children and teens in civil rights or peace marches. They may have had relatives injured or killed in civil rights actions or Vietnam. It was hardly a TV experience for many of them.

Granted, there were the sheltered kids in suburbs with no connection other than TV and their parents' gripes. Those lucky kids may have become the Reagan suckers you envision, as well as the youngest boomers who were babies when most of the above was going on.

The reality is that a number of the earlier cohort of boomers had no better connection either and were happy to jump on the Reagan bandwagon too.

[Warren DeMontague]

24. Yes. Everyone was listening to Disco in the 70s.

That's why May '77 Grateful Dead kicks so much ass. Because no one was at the shows.

Just like we were all listening to hair metal and Huey Lewis in the 80s.

I don't know, it sounds like you've gone from boomer-bashing to "second half of the boomers"-bashing.

Both generalizations are weak.

[Demit]

8. What a stupid essay. The author generalizes to the point of meaninglessnes

He talks about every single person born in the US over a span of eighteen years as if they are a monolith, and all the same. A waste of time to read sweeping generalizations like this. "Rhetoric our métier"? Holy moly.

[lonestarnot]

19. And how do you "not gotten?"

[Demit]

20. How intriguing. Translation, please?

What exactly are you asking?

[Raine]

27. That's what I was thinking...

I was born in 1950 so I'm a 'boomer' but I resent being all lumped together like we were all doing the same thing and should think the same way then and now. x(

[KoKo]

9. Dick Cheney runs America. Ronnie Reagan's group and the holdovers from

Nixon's administration are NOT Boomers. At most they are Pre-War and War Babies. Henry Kissinger and James Baker who still run foreign policy through their clones are not Boomers.

They have "trained" alot of young Boomers (Young Repugs) to follow as their mad children though.

The Boomers I know (the older ones who protested against Vietnam) are out there working against these fascists. Many are here on DU.

I think the Boomers should be defined by the decades they grew up in and not the broad brush that many columinists like to paint them with.

[graywarrior]

10. The writer sounds like he remembers the 60's, therefore

he wasn't there. Plus, he sounds like a fucking asshole.

[Jade Fox]

12. The world is currently being run by....

a small group of wealthy, far-right Conservatives. They have spent 30 years and millions of dollars consolidating their power. That seems far more relevant than whether or not they are Boomers. Those who began the plan to take over some 30 years ago after Nixon was impeached are probably older, but are now passing the baton to their Boomer counterparts.

Sources: Robert Parry "Secrecy and Privilege: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq"
David Brock "The Republican Noise Machine"

Boomer bashing is popular now because Boomers are the currant majority generation, and they always gets blamed.

[saltpoint]

15. I personally feel that since babies don't decide their era of birth, the

strategy of lumping them in chronological groups is mostly horseshit.

[cyclezealot]

16. Tripping acid was not the central focus of my boomer circles.

First came the disco phase and then came Reagan. The world today is just not what I expected of all our work.

[CBGLuthier]

17. Nixon, Reagan, Bush the 1st

Not boomers. Greatest gen'ers. All Assholes. End of discussion.

[cyclezealot]

21. not saying I totally agree.

But, might say. At the very least, I did not expect the mass of boomers to be apathetic. Seems to be the case to me.

[AnnieBW]

18. I'm On the Cusp

I was born in November of '64. I identify more with Generation X than the Boomers, though. They piss me off too much.

[Warren DeMontague]

22. What a pantload.

Bill Clinton was easily the greatest president of my lifetime (sorry, Jimmy Carter has been the greatest EX-President) ... these kinds of big generational generalizations suck.

[marions ghost]

23. Nothing but divisive BS

:boring:

[TahitiNut]

25. "Remember Kent State"???

I doubt you could come up with a worse reference in claiming some "high water mark" for the baby boom generation. The people behind the rifles were baby boomers, too!!! They were mostly guys who joined the National Guard to avoid being drafted and sent to Viet Nam. (I, for one, was glad they weren't there.)
:eyes:

[welshTerrier2]

26. generalized garbage

don't blame bush on all baby boomers ... boomers are not the greatest generation; they are not the worst generation ...

to blame a generation for what goes on in the world is absurd ... to say "boomers are in power now" is more absurd ... many of us are bitterly opposed to the policies of our government ... could we do better? perhaps ... should we do more? perhaps ... but to blame an entire generation for the ills of the world is garbage ...

[kerry-is-my-prez]

28. I think the 2 generations after them are worse the "me" generation.

and generation x - or whatever it's called.

[Sapere aude]

29. In the sixties there was a group of goodie goodies who accepted anything

the authority told them and did as they were told. They are the conservatives of today. Yes they are boomers but they did not rebel in the sixties. They missed out on sex drugs and rock and roll and the age of free love. That's what pissed them off then and that's what drives them today. Clinton is like the rebellious ones and Cheney is like the goodie goodie ones. Many of us hold onto the same values as we did in the sixties so to lump all boomers into one group makes no sense to me.

[treestar]

30. the "greatest generation" is crap

there are plenty of selfish people in that generation. And the idea they are superior because of WHEN they were born is only as laughable as the idea some people have that they are superior because of WHERE they were born.

And they raised the baby boomers so they can take some responsibility. Not to mention the fact that they are possibly the first generation whose direct offspring found their way of life to be so phony and materialistic they did all they could to change the world.

As to war, the boomers were the ones that were drafted into a useless war in Vietnam - much harder to deal with than one so generally agreed upon as WWII. Some boomers sacrificed their lives in that mess - the "greatest" generation sacrificed their own children to a war like Vietnam. Notice they are the ones who are nostalgic for war - often on the bandwagon of the latest imperialistic crusade - since WWII was so "romantic" and they, obviously, survived it.

As to who is in charge now, that has more to do with the conditions set by the earlier generation - the "greatest" generation, like Pappy Bush, are the ones really in charge, aren't they? They're controlling the money, etc. Dubya is that generation's puppet.

Of course present company excepted. But it shows how silly it is to generalize. I am a baby boomer, but barely, on the young end. But each generation will have a different world, and its own challenges. That "greatest generation" crap has always pissed me off for that reason. We'd have done the same in that situation and vice versa.

[Humor_In_Cuneiform]

31. As a boomer of the first batch, frankly I'm sick of all this writing

about the boomers.

I'm sick of these kind of broad strokes used to paint a whole generation that ranges from Dub to Phil Ochs, who passed on way too early.

I was surprised they were being written, at least some of them, by other boomers.

I think they're already referring to some of us as "geezers." I keep thinking I can wish that the young people of their middle age will treat them the same, only to remember it is our own age group that is leading the assault.

What a bunch of hooey! Way too early to assess the impact of a generation. At this low point in our nation's history of course it will come out bad.

"The Greatest Generation" came along way later in the lifetimes of that generation, and I'm not so sure I believe that anyhow. They went to war, they had little choice.

That isn't the stuff out of which greatness is made, IMO.

But then again what is greatness?

I'm certainly not going to try to claim that label for that part of the boomer generation that shared my political beliefs, actions, and idealism.

But I'm also not going to lump all together and put all of us down in one fell swoop.

I'd think these writers would have something more relevant for here and now to write about, but wait, this kind of verbal tripe is so much easier to write. And it cannot be disproved or proved.

Lazy writers, IMO.

Not the greatest writers, not award winning journalists. Nope.

[Yupster]

32. Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll

Dudes.

I'm a boomer myself, and overall I'd say we are pretty self-absorbed bunch.