Posted on 07/26/2006 8:48:06 AM PDT by NYer
Well, talk about rants - you didn't prove one thing I said wrong.
The seniors receiving SS today who are getting all of these benes you're complaining about, aren't boomers. They are part of the Greatest Generation. Boomers are approaching retirement age, but the vast majority of us aren't there, yet. And, as I noted previously, I anticipate that Congress will have to sharply curtail SS benefits for the boomers because the labor pool from successive generations who will have to foot the bill, will have to pay a substantially higher SS withholding. Congress has put itself between the Devil and the deep blue sea and, my guess is, when the fiscal reality smacks them between the eyes, they will vote to cut benes. You guys are young enough to still hurt them - all WE can do is squash their feet with our wheelchairs or get in one good whack with a cane. With bursitis, we can't even throw an iPod at them!!
See my post #4
Hah! Mr. Rockefeller! I suppose you even had shoes! We didn't have any money at all when I was a kid. The only thing we had was a cousin whose thumb smelled a little bit like a penny!
We were so poor, even the mice were hunch-backed!
I'm outta here...
It's the boomer's kids you'll really have to worry about. There is a group right now, between 12-18, who have grown up with the comforts of the Boomer generation and don't see any way they can maintain that. Having the hippy generation for parents, they have no moral underpinnings whatsoever. They no longer live with both parents in most cases and in many cases, their parents were never married to begin with. The reason their parents had them to begin with was for their own self-fulfillment.
These kids are incredibly sophisticated users of technology but are socially inept. The most important relationships in their lives are not permanent, so they place little value on relationships. They hang out on MySpace and socialize in internet chat rooms where they can interact with little consequence. They are already so corrupt that they don't blush at hardcore porn, which they carry around on $400 iPods in their pocket. Commercial enterprises and public schools have effectively isolated them from their parents for a good two-thirds of every day. They are becoming cynical, yet docile consumers.
They don't anticipate a future that is nearly as good as what they have now and many of them figure the whole world is going to either blow up in a nuclear war or will be destroyed by global warming. They have no dreams, no ambition, and think they have no future. They have virtually no interest in religion, because the can't foresee a future in this life, much less beyond the grave.
I call them "The Last Generation." With few exceptions, they are without God in the world. In the coming years of judgment and hardship, they have nothing from which to draw strength or believe in. If any generation was to slouch towards Armageddon, it's this one. Out of all the kids I've worked with in Church groups for almost 30 years, this generation is the least interested in things like faith and service. Scouting? Forget about it! Sports? Forget about it? All they want is a GameBoy or PSP so they can practice killing someone. Trying to find something that reaches them and motivates them is almost impossible. With almost every need met, they have nothing that they desire, except shopping for new desires. It's a generation in need of want.
Just curious, to which generation do you belong ?
The boomers weren't just rebels, they were products of the intellectual and cultural climate of the post war era. I guess they could have picked up on the better aspects of the culture of their time. If they'd seen where things were headed, they very well might have done things differently, but wisdom always comes too late.
It's not the milege, its the prospect of a five year old walking to school all by themselves, and it has nothing to do with being rich or poor.
Nothing is unthinkable or unspeakable anymore, and I think you know that.
If you are as smart as you imply, with all that hard-charging you've done, I figure you got the point.
Much of what you say I'll agree with. However, I am much more optimistic than you, perhaps because I live in Texas. My Catholic parish has an incredible LifeTeen program, and our middle school program has expanded to two nights a week to handle the overflow. Last year, we had approximately 700 middle schoolers, and close to 150 active LifeTeen members.
Each generation learns to live with their world as it is. For example, I knew EXACTLY when it was 12 noon, because that's when an air raid siren (150 feet from my house) was tested every day for the 12 years I lived there.
Hang in there, buddy. Keep up the good work, because you're making a difference to the kids.
With that in mind,it's important to remember that there will always be groups and individuals that have more power to direct the ways things go in the world and then there are the masses that those in power influence.What I see is that the "greatest generation" and their "best and brightest" were unable to turnover the reins to "the Wilderness Generation" because they didn't want to give up their heady position of controlling others. The masses bought into their agenda not realizing where it would lead them.
Meanwhile the "Wilderness Generation" waited their turn to apply what they had learned as they watched the world unwind. Just as they believed they were ready to start contributing from a position that would permit them to exercise legitimate authority,the "Boomers" pushed them right out of the picture and moved themselves into the positions of influence and control.
Thus our country and/or society lost a generation of voices and ideas that might have been able to effect the transition from one group to another more smoothly. Because of the pride,avarice,egos and lust for more power,prestige and priveleges accorded to important people of both the "greatest generation" and the "boomers" we have not realized the potential that would have accrued naturally to a country that was allowed to grow organically from its foundation,a nation that in so many ways has been truly blessed.
Combine the qualities of the elite with the loss of belief in an absolute Truth of the masses and we have a gaping hole that needs to be mended or it will engulf us all. The loss of belief in a transcendent God that is not us,was the result of a deliberate undermining of orthodox religion and a part of the overall plan of those elitists who took the reins. I think we really need to pray.
I called it the "Wilderness Generation" because those of us born between 1932 and 1952 (approximately)are akin to those crying in the wilderness. We were able to observe what went wrong but unable to participate in fixing it unless we compromised our values. I know this thumbnail analysis leaves much to be desired but I know that some of it has a big bearing on what's happening these days.
Bollocks. The US winning the Cold War was a foregone conclusion with or without the boomers help. Unless you now categorise people like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher as boomers. Boomers suck a**.
Oh yeah, and I'm Gen X, just so you know. Boomers are mostly hippy druggie leftists. I'm the new generation of young pro America conservatives. Being in Canada is neither here nor there in my mind, as Canada no longer exists as an entity in my mind.
Wouldn't like to place a little bet on that would you? I've been diagnosed with lung cancer -- looks like the govt. will win this one.
carolyn
Carolyn
Wouldn't like to place a little bet on that would you? I've been diagnosed with lung cancer -- looks like the govt. will win this one.
I am sorry to hear that -
I live in a nice area, but I also volunteer in areas where I see the effects of the "me" generation, let it all hang out, etc....people who did buy into what you were saying.
So true, their generation will be remembered for those kinds of things, of course, we all realize that not everyone supported those kinds of things. I am just glad I am not part of that generation. Thank God it is all cyclical.
Perhaps I run in more sheltered circles, but I do have 2 kids in this age group; and one almost and I just don't see this.
THe kids I know from this generation ( my kid's friends and those in their homeschooling and church group) are just the most upstanding and good people. They're not asking for anything; they see the problems, and they are ready to take them on. Once in church, our pastor had them stand up to receive a church-wide prayer. he Holy Spirit spoke and said that many would try to take them, but that they were HIS generation. That's how I've always thought of them. I think we'll see great things from them.
Speak fer yerself. I have disagreed with the liberal agenda my entire life (which started in 1947).
&&&
I have pretty much, as well, but there were some stupid concepts that I bought into/went along with as a young adult.
What bothers me most is the legacy of the emotional trauma of divorce that was foisted upon the children of the boomers (my own children included but not by my choice).
But then, that seems appropriate for the generation of "sexual liberation"!
***
Eww! Don't lump me in with that group.
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