[qam1]

Xer Ping

Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social aspects that directly effects Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1982) 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.  

[dogbyte12]

Around 2010-2020, we are going to be in hell. Combine baby boomer narcissism, with being senior citizens. Oh man will it be ugly. Free Prune Juice and hip replacements as constitutional rights.

I always challenge the baby boomer lefties who brag about their generation stopping Vietnam, that it took 10 years after Gulf of Tonkin for the war to actually end. Even if you accept their self inflated egos and they did stop the war, taking 10 years to do it, is really not something to write home to mom about.

[Wormwood]

With the exception of my mother and one of my old professors, I personally don't know a single 'boomer' who wasn't a self-important blowhard.

And I'm not too sure about my mother. ;-)

[Jeff Chandler]

Talkin' 'bout my gen-eration! We are a self-absorbed bunch, aren't we?

[EggsAckley]

Great article. Thanks for posting it.


I am a member of the "entry level" boomers, born, 1945. During the sixties, I was on the fringe of the hippie thing, but saw their hypocrisy quickly and backed off. There they were, ragging on their parents for "all being alike," and the hippies themselves were all alike. It was laughable. My parents were the best of the best, the WWII generation!

[Fiddlstix]

That's the thing with baby boomers -- such a high opinion of themselves, such a low opinion of everyone else.

As a person somewhat older than the "boomers", I can say that I have certainly experienced that from some of them....
But
To be fair. There are many "conservative boomers" out there too.
(Also, being a father of "baby boomers", I have to say.....it does seem to take them a bit longer to "grow up" than it did back in my generation)

[FourPeas]

He said that those who went to Vietnam tended to, upon their return and for the rest of their lives, "do more reading." And become more engaged in world affairs.

I'd like to see the data on this. Oh, I forgot, this dude is a "Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnam-era journalist". He's much too important and well read to need to use actual data -- his opinions are what matter most. Blech.

[T-Bird45]

Thanks for the article, good reading. I have liked this writer for some time.

As to the material, I agree with the author that Halberstam is definitely a one-hit wonder with his book on Vietnam. I am of the boomer generation but was at the tail-end of Vietnam, graduating high school in 1973. I did register for the draft and the war was always in the back of everyone's mind during high school. This is what makes it so hard to avoid as a divining rod to a generation's soul.

The replay today on the presidential election stage of who went and who didn't is probably the last round-up for this contentious piece of history as a measuring stick of a man's worth. I agree with the author that it is best set aside and use the 9/11 measurement as rooted in today's reality.

[nutmeg]

ping!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.

[wildbill]

Most interesting thing about this piece is that Navarette is Mexican-American and generally liberal.

[netmilsmom]

>>And another said of her cohorts: "I'll admit mistakes. Apparently, we raised a generation of self-indulgent people with no sense of history.'' <<

Oh my Goddness. This woman is the Pot calling the Kettle black. I have two Baby-Boomer sisters. One is a self absorbed tightwad who wonders why her kids won't call her, married to Mr. Paranoid who thinks everyone is out to get him (sidenote: Last week discovered that this pair was holding my Sears card in an old prayer book!!!). The other sister is a flaming liberal/recently out of the closet lesbian (after two marriages and four kids) with Munchausen Syndrome who believes that she judges herself when she dies so can do whatever she wants.
Being born on the cusp of the GenXers, I denounce them both and can't understand at all where they came from. My parents were normal.

[claudiustg]

---No one can ever accuse baby boomers of having an inferiority complex. In the 1960s and early '70s, their mantra was: "Don't trust anyone over 30.'' Now it has become: "Don't listen to anyone under 40.''---

Ok, so tell us what happened on "Friends". We'll listen.

[PresbyRev]

Thanks for the article ping.

The Boomers, surely there are exceptions, have never left the '60's. So many live in a land of make believe wherein they are forever 18, 19 maybe 21 years old - look at the t.v. commercials - Depends undergarments are being marketed as 'hip,' 60 is the new 40, arthiritis and menopause commercials feature women in their 30's with young children pitching pills and potions. Movies - the Boomers (folks in their '50's or early '60's always seem to have teenage 'loser' X'ers for children, while they remain 'with it & worldly, the perpetual overachievers.)

It is going to be a complete freakshow through the 2030's as that generation dies off.

The WW II generation has my respect and admiration - they weren't perfect, but neither are those of us styled X'ers. But, they knew when to grow up and they forged a world in which America has come out on top in a Pax Americana. The Boomers have seemed obsessed with throwing that away for four decades.

Perhaps X'ers and Millennials can clean up the Boomers messes. I hope.

I could rant on, but won't. Thanks again for the ping.

[Mike Bates]

From June, 1997:

Talkin’ bout my generation

In the mid-sixties hit “My Generation” the Who declared they hoped they’d die before they got old. It appears most rockers have further considered the matter and decided death isn’t that great a career move.

Watching recent inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was a reminder of what geezers “my generation” has become. Wrinkles, gray hair, and paunches that make Marlon Brando look like a health nut made up the uniform of the day. The “Young Rascals” are older than the president of the United States is, even though they don’t have their remaining hair feathered as nicely.

Something that was obvious was a change in mind-set. As usual in such situations, the recipients rattle off a litany of people to whom they’re grateful. Lots of the rockers thanked God for what He’d done for them. Considering the booze, drugs, and profligate living many rockers engaged in, they should be giving thanks. It’s a miracle some of them are still around. David Crosby of Crosby, Stills & Nash thanked his wife for sticking it out with him while he did a prison stretch for drugs.

One thing that struck me was the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame must be running out of groups to induct. This year it brought in Buffalo Springfield. Buffalo Springfield? They had one, count ‘em, one whole hit, “For What It’s Worth.”

You remember it. It starts:

“There's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear

There's a man with a gun over there. Telling me I got to beware.”

It goes on to explain that young people speaking their minds get so much resistance “from behind.” Wherever that is. After telling us that, they go on: “Paranoia strikes deep. Into your life it will creep. It starts when you're always afraid. You step out of line, the man come and take you away.”

Paranoia sounds like something these guys are pretty familiar with. Not to mention a complete detachment from reality. Those of us who were around back then know that most of the time young people said and did pretty much what they wanted with impunity. Protest rallies, shrieking obscenities at the president, using the flag as the seat of your jeans. . . . just about anything went. I only wish that “the man” had come and carried off some of those jerks.

Maybe Buffalo Springfield was inducted because the pooh-bahs who run the Hall of Fame think their song captured the spirit of a generation. It did, insofar as we boomers were – and continue to be – the most self-indulgent and pontificating generation in history.

Our parents made it through two monumental catastrophes, the Great Depression and World War II. They wanted our lives to be so much better than theirs had been. So they coddled us. We grew up spoiled and smug and egocentric.

The smugness was reinforced in colleges and universities across the Nation as we unquestioningly accepted the Leftist dogmas many instructors dished out. Bill Buckley had it right many years ago when he observed colleges claimed to be centers of academic freedom, but in reality they practice indoctrination.

As boomers bought into the liberal bromides, we were rewarded with being told we were the smartest generation to grace the face of the earth. Ever. We even started believing it.

Now we’re attempting to resist the rules of nature. When we were kids 50 was old. Not any more. We have the right to be young forever, darn it. And if we don’t feel like we did 30 years ago, then some doctors had better come up with pills that’ll do the trick. It’s our right. After all, we went to all the trouble of being born and are the smartest generation. Ever.

Don’t forget that, you young whippersnappers. Or we’ll have the man come and take you away.

Michael M. Bates: My Side of the Swamp

[GrandMoM]

Sacrifice replaced by Selfish.

...the last few generations have been brought up with too much and to little: too much opportunity and things, too little gratitude and obligation.

We actuallly have a large segment of population (Gen. X & Y )that couldn't imagine giving without getting, sacrificing out of obligation, suffering out of responsibility, or following through out of honor. Dr. Laura Schlessinger

[Khurkris]

Gee....another article about nothing. But I bet he looked good writing it.

[js1138]

So the delusional dems think the Viet Ets are on their side? I guess they have no way of knowing. I quit listening to NPR 15 years ago.

[philetus]

If we let go of the past, there won't be much of a future.

[HungarianGypsy]

Honestly, I think both generations need better spokesmen or representation. The loud Boomers seem to be idiots like John Kerry and Bill Clinton. George W. Bush is a much better representative. A real man.
Then there's my generation. I am married and have four children, yet sometimes feel years older than some of the people my own age. I know a single 34 year old who still whines about the "rich Republicans", while he's still making $10 or $11/hr. at a data entry job. Never realizing that money isn't going to just fall into your lap. He has yet to take responsibility for life instead of just whining about it. I'm sure that's how a lot of Boomers must see us. Not to mention the airheads that like to say "Dude" a lot.
I know I am repeating myself, but we really need better representation.

[Nick Danger]

All Boomers eat watermelon and have fuzzy dice hanging from their rear-view mirrors.