Posted on 10/15/2007 2:18:55 PM PDT by trumandogz
Here’s the problem. Most Freeper Boomers who argue on these threads are one of the following:
1) People who the freaks labeled as “squares” back in the day (a good thing!)
2) Reformed freaks
3) Immigrants or minorities, who were too busy fighting their way between home, school and work to care about flag burning and being Communists
The truth is, the Boomer Generation has the highest percentage of freaks. They don’t participate here (or when they do, they are trolls). Xers here and most Boomers here are more alike than different. Scope out DU and you’ll see the real freaks. Same deal for other Lefty forums.
Kudos to you for not giving up.
Yeah, but they sure are willing to defend their freak cohorts and crap on "Gen-X" around here....
I've found that around here they think any dopey kid with a lip piercing is "Gen-X", when in reality we are hitting our late thirties/early 40s now.
I also had an epiphany that America is right now divided between left and right by the baby-boomers--I'm sick of defending Bush and the stupid boomer republicans!
The truth of it is that neither the rightwing boomers nor the leftwing boomers have any of my interests in mind--we are in completely different places in our lives:
I'm not a child, I have a child. I don't need viagra. I'm not retiring--I'm hitting my peak earning years. I'm not flipping houses, I'm building a house. I'm not a flower child; I'm not a wine drinker; I don't worship at the alter of the '60s. I'm not a fan of the Beatles. I'm not in the market for a luxury car....
The boomers, their policies and politics have nothing to offer me, but it's their world and I live in it.
I'm sick of living in some kinda weird geriatric circus!
Read the comment I was replying to that implied I and everyone else who disagreed with him was somehow spoiled. I’ve done my best to avoid saying any PARTICULAR member of the boomer generation was anything other that what they demonstrated themselves to be. There are fine people who grew up in that era and I believe a disproportionate number of them are Freepers.
However in aggregate and through the causes and trends and ideas they have championed, the Boomer generation has squandered the cultural, political and financial heritage of this country. Though not universal, the Boomer generation is dominated by wastrels. Using Vietnam as an example as another poster did- many brave young men from that generation went there and fought well but they were undone by the agitation and cowardice of their peers back home.
What I don’t get is why you are blowing one offhanded comment about my father into the reason I view the Boomers impact on the history of this country as negative. Despite what he did to my mother and I, I have a more open and communicative relationship with him than most would believe, but don’t owe him a thing either. I happen to think that is a very healthy, non-neurotic stance. Maybe it just makes you feel better to not think that the history will judge this era harshly, only the ‘neurotic’ younger generation.
Yeah, perfect. Actually, I think Carter was THE worst president; for sure in my lifetime (so far). Time will tell if he’ll keep his spot at #1. I’ve actually had people ask me why I think this. Ugh. And he keeps running his BIG mouth.
I don’t think Kennedy was bad, but admittedly I don’t know a lot about his accomplishments or things he did. I was just 6 at the time when he died. There is so much more to all this stuff than I think. I do believe God, however, is sovereign in all, allowing us to even choose evil men so that ultimately God’s will is done (even though a lot of bad stuff can happen in the meantime - think Holocaust).
Before we can do our part fix a problem, we have to acknowledge our contribution to the problem. What annoys me is that even at Free Republic, where I would most expect people to appreciate the damage done to our society, there is a deep denial by the members of the Boomer generation about their generation’s role.
Frankly I believe it is a deep seated idealism, even among those who should know better, that their generation was going to be the champions’ that changed the world, perfecting it like their predecessors never could. They can’t face up to the fact that the changes made things worse now than they were before.
Your example of despots like Castro and Kim Jong Il are cold war relics but what has emboldened the Islamists is the perception of American lack of resolve through the example of Viet Nam and the Clinton administration’s response to their provocations. This perception is proven by the domestic politicization of the Iraq conflict/WOT (similar to Viet Nam) and political correctness and a collective desire to find the easy way out by appeasement. The current eruption of Islamic violence and our ineffective efforts to deal with them are a direct results of cultural and political policies pushed through by the boomer generation. These internal conflicts exposed are being exploited by the likes of Chavez and Putin.
But international politics isn’t the whole story. Turn your TV on to almost any network station for 5 minutes and you will see something so course or vulgar that would have scandalized polite society 50 year ago and we don’t even think about it. Turn your radio to any pop station and get graphic songs of sex or violence or sex and violence broken only by songs of remorse and despair. Same sex attraction used to be treated as a psychological disorder and it’s participants regarded as perverts by society, now schools teach little children it is ‘normal’ and SSADs try to give their relationships the legal dressings of marriage. Schools handout contraceptives to prepubescent children and teach them about safe sex. Most of these things would have been unthinkable fifty or even thirty years ago before the Boomers took power.
Liberalism has always been strong in the colleges and universities, but now it’s stifling. Express a politically incorrect opinion and see what you free speech rights are. Make an off color joke at work and get hit with a lawsuit as you are escorted out of the building. Heaven help you if you mention God in any public forum unless you are Muslim or some kind of neopagan.
Boomers will of course hold out how their generation has tried to correct bigotry and discrimination for sex, race and religion, but the dates on the most historic events happen while they were children or teens. The heavy lifting was done before them and their additions were only to implement the biases in reverse and make excuses for those in the newly favored groups who failed to perform. Group identity politics, so loathsome to the founders of this country, is now fundamental to the strategies of both parties.
Your right that there is nothing new about the folly’s of the Boomer generation. Lust, pride, greed, denial of responsibility and denial of God are endemic to the human condition, but are the particular vices to those identified as Boomers. The greatest failing of the children of that era is to think that they are immune to those failings.
I was born in 1973, and I won’t make any claim to the greatness of my generation only that we not only have to pay for our ride, but for our parents too. None of my peers, even the most liberal and idealistic, have delusions that we will save the world. The best I can hope for is that we somehow protect our kids from society at large and don’t make them start out in the hole.
Alright, alright. I went too far calling therapy a boomer thing. There are plenty in my age and younger who get therapy. Anecdotally though, it seem that the likelihood of getting/needing therapy seems inversely related to the number of visible factors you would think required therapy. My guess is the more problems you face, the more you learn to let them roll off.
However, my little boys are the most precious thing in my life. May God please forbid anything happening to them because I don’t know what I would do. Going a little crazy would probably be part of it.
“However, my little boys are the most precious thing in my life. May God please forbid anything happening to them because I don’t know what I would do. Going a little crazy would probably be part of it.”
Yes, it would be part of it. I know.
I appreciate your well-thought-out reply.
Please allow me to make some follow-up comments.
Firstly, it is folly to believe that a group as large and diverse as those lumped into the “Baby Boomers” is somehow corporately responsible for all the wrongs you see in this world, and believe me, I am in total agreement about all the things you specifically posted about. I, too, am discouraged, disgusted - appalled even, at the many terrible things I see today. I could write a book about that, but a lot of smarter people than me already have. I know Laura Ingraham’s got a new one out that looks pretty dead-on (Power to the People).
I never had, nor now have, anything in common with the likes of Timothy Leary, Noam Chomsky, or the many losers that did make the 60’s somewhat of a genesis of what we see today. The fact that so many people dabbled in drugs really screwed up a lot of their thinking processes (IMHO).
However, I don’t think it’s productive to do ascribe blame (as I’ve said before). Honestly, I sometimes now think those who protested Elvis in their belief that showing him grinding his pelvis would lead to our downfall has, in fact, lead to... well, our downfall. Some may laugh at this, but who can really point out the exact moment we began our free fall into the filth that’s in the music these days.
As for the ideals of hoping to fix or change the world, while I personally believe there will never be true peace or perfection in this world until the Messiah returns again, I also believe that God wants us to work at what we can, so I do have the idealistic hope that if I can just calmly reason together with others that I might, just might, be able to bring others over to my side of thinking.
For whatever it’s worth, I did that just today. I had lunch with a gal who told me she and her whole family hate Bush, etc. etc. She thinks Hillary “makes sense.” I am not afraid to speak of God or Jesus and I am very open about my faith, though I don’t shove it down people’s throats and use cliches.
Lastly, I just want to say that it is extremely encouraging to see that someone born in 1973 would feel so strongly and passionately about all these issues. I hope you are doing something about it. Perhaps YOU should get into politics. Whatever you feel strongly about, get revved up. There is NOTHING wrong with the Boomers’ ideals for making the world a better place. Unfortunately, many Boomers (and Gen X’ers, and the Greatest Generation, and the Y’ers, and every other name they want to assign to people born within a certain range)have placed their faith and ideals in man and man is always, always going to fail because he is not perfect.
And remember, in the 20’s and 30’s, there was a lot of garbage going on in with all the artists, and even before that too with Poe, Shelly, and others. The artists and intellects are always messed up (ha ha).
Anyway, I’m starting to ramble - it’s late (for me) and I have to save all my energy for the championship game tomorrow. My beloved Indians have the chance to be in the World Series and I’ve been waiting my whole life for this.
Eloquently stated, Sir!
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