The End of Boomer Weirdness?

American Thinker ^ | September 06, 2008 | James Lewis

[neverdem]

At Wichita State recently, a college debate coach dropped his trousers after a foul-mouthed argument with the opposing coach in a debating tournament. YouTube shows it for the world to see. 

Coach William Shanahan, who sports a caveman beard reaching below his belt, said later that, yes, his reasoning might seem "convoluted," but his trouser-dropping act was intended a sign of respect for the opposing coach. 

""Obviously it got out of control, but to be honest I thought I was in a safe house," Shanahan said. "I thought I was part of a community that handled its problems internally and that recognized the dangers of exposing ourselves -- no pun intended -- to the rest of the country." 

Suppose these fine teachers were working for Governor Sarah Palin. How long would they stay in their jobs?

Right.

Believe it or not, this used to be a normal country. Maybe John McCain and Sarah Palin are a sign of a return to normal -- assuming the voters elect them instead of the comedy team on the other side.

"Boomer Weirdness" is the great eruption of irrationality that seized the West three decades ago, when the Boomer Left rose to positions of power.  I don't think the Boom Generation as a whole is any madder than other generations; but the Boomer Left ---  ah, now we're talkin' several curlicues short of a plumbline.

When the Boomer Left "Marched Through the Institutions" (as they called it) in the 1970s and 80s, you could actually see a sudden wild swerve in our news media, our universities and politics. The Democratic Party was seized by the Far Left after the 1968 Chicago convention. The New York Times went PC in the 70s, and you could actually see the new, Far Left orthodoxy lock down in a matter of months.  It hasn't recovered yet.

But it wasn't just the US. Today the old, high-brow Times of London reads like a tabloid, with girlie pics and all. Britain is now a shadow of its former self; nobody knows if it will ever recover.  Europe has become a defense parasite on the United States, and we tolerate it.    The Western world went from rational thinking to the Planet of the Weird. It's been slip-slidin' away ever since. Normal people watch it happening everywhere, and they feel utterly helpless to stem this epidemic weirdness, often rising to the level of criminality.

Our Leftist politicians are all kind of weird.   From Howard Dean's Scream to Obama's uncontrollable God Complex, from Hillary Who Must be Queen to Bill's sly seductions, all the way to John Kerry's delusions of Swiftboat heroics, and Algore's weird idea that NASA should launch a hundred-million dollar satellite specifically to beam TV pictures of a rotating Planet Earth back to all of us -- these people are not planted on terra firma.  They have little planetoids going around their heads.

Nancy Pelosi's bubblehead response to questions about oil drilling is "I'm trying to Save the Planet." Don't tell me that's normal. It's not even normal in the hare-brained precincts of San Francisco. This is the woman who took it upon herself to negotiate with Bashir Assad as soon as she was elected Speaker, while her sidekick Steney Hoyer went to the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo, to the distress of the Egyptian government.    Barack Obama even sent Zbig Brzezinski over to Damascus -- to do what? Negotiate with Bashir Assad? Tell him that help was on the way?

This is madness. But running a separate foreign policy has been a Democrat routine ever since Ted Kennedy tried to undermine Reagan and House Democrats tried to aid the burgeoning Communist Sandinistas. But Cold War liberals like Jack and Bobby Kennedy would have called it treason.

The Boomer Left even gave its weirdness a pretentious name: Post-Modernism. Old-fashioned Modernism, according to this tale, is the height of rationality. The ideal of Modernism is good sense, objectivity, reason, logic, and tolerance for competing ideas.  Its symbol is the Empire State Building, square, tall, and built to minimize real estate costs on Manhattan. 

The US Constitution was built as a bulwark against untrammeled lust for power. The Founders didn't know Nancy and Harry in person, but they were pretty sure that power-mad demagogues would show up some time. They had studied history and understood human nature. As we can plainly see, they were right.

Post-Modernism leaves all that rational thinking far behind, like Alice tumbling through the looking-glass. The weirdness of the Left is not an accident; our hebephrenic media folk were taught flashy Po-Mo nonsense in their Ivy League classrooms, and they were dumb enough to fall for it. That is why they deliberately abandoned all those old-fashioned newspaper ideals of  truth, objectivity and fairness. (And that's why the Old Media are finally going bankrupt today. Hooray!)

Count Alfred Korzybski is not a household name, but he is relevant here. Korzybski was one of those eccentric Polish geniuses who come along every now and then. His useful contribution to this topic is one word: Unsanity. For Korzybski a society could be unsane without being insane. He wrote about that in his book Science and Sanity, which came out in 1933, just in time to watch the world go mad. His timing was impeccable.

We don't have to consult a psychiatrist to see that our culture today is at the very least unsane.  Just one little example:

We have more college-educated adults today than ever before. But our college grads are so superstitiously afraid of the little word "nuclear" that we have surrendered part of the very oxygen of our national life -- our energy supplies -- to the likes of King Abdullah, Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chavez El Loco de Caracas, and Putin the Poisoner.

That is unsane.

That's only one little example. There are hundreds, constantly infecting our national discourse, to the point that we take it for granted. It's just the way it is. Our national conversation has become polluted, sabotaged by media weirdness.

This is where the McCain/Palin ticket may be of historic importance, because both the Senator and the Governor are quite sane folks. You can't survive five years in the Hanoi Hilton if you don't have a pretty firm handle on concrete reality. You don't grow up hunting moose in Alaska if you confuse polar bears with teddy bears, as our eco-freaks seem to. Alaska is the polar opposite (so to speak) of Marin County.

If McCain and Palin win this election, we may be able to push the culture back to a level of sanity we haven't seen for thirty years. Our colleges could start teaching reason and logic again. That would be wonderful.

That is not to say that John McCain doesn't have his faults; he does. We can all give a list of serious mistakes, like the  campaign finance law, which has now whip-lashed McCain's own campaign. But McCain is solid on energy and national security, on the economy and taxation. He may turn out to be exceptionally good on fiscal responsibility. John McCain takes abortion seriously, unlike our Left, which has trivialized fetal extermination so completely that we aren't even allowed to talk about it any more

On the great issues of the day McCain and Palin just seem a lot more rational than the opposition. They can think straight. After almost two years of national exposure, Barack Obama is a bigger blank slate than ever; if anything he has deliberately confused Americans even more.  Nobody knows what he would do if elected, and his potential appointees are freakier than Clinton's. As for Joe Biden, over 35 years in the US Senate he solidified his rep at the biggest loose cannon on that wildly careening deck. Between Robert Byrd and Joe Biden, the Senate has become as weird as the Oprah Show.

Our choice in the fall will come down to two pretty normal people who seem to think straight, versus two Lefty oddballs.

Weirdness has its entertainment value, of course, and public comedy may be the biggest contribution politics ever makes.

But when it comes to steering the ship of state, I'd rather go for steady character and strong values than for the wildly gyrating compass of Barack O'Biden.

They will call me weird, of course.

James Lewis blogs at dangeroustimes.wordpress.com

[skr]

The coach obviously hasn’t a clue as to what a sign of respect is.

[counterpunch]

This is the Left’s idea of a good argument. I bet he thought he won after using more expletives than his opponent and then baring his ass in a coup de grâce.

[singfreedom]

Great article! I'm tired of the “unsanity”, too.

[21twelve]

“I thought I was part of a community that handled its problems internally....”

After exposing his rear-end? I think I know what “community” this is.

[PLMerite]

You would think that somewhere in all those links would be one to the actual VIDEO.

[BookmanTheJanitor]

The coach might want to get himself checked out. I'm serious. One of my best friend's developed Pick's disease. It a variation of Alzheimer's and usually hits younger people (40-65). Some of the symptoms/behavioral changes are rudeness or impatience leading to aggression, poor judgment, & sexual exhibitionism among others.

Then again, he could just be a real doofus.

[spodefly]

In an insane world, the sane man must appear insane. — Spock, Stardate 20345

[BookmanTheJanitor]

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/debate-coach-drops-his-pants/63396388/?icid=VIDURVNWS01

[FredZarguna]

The female debating coach is accusing the flasher of "racsim." Talk about unsane.

[Trajan88]

WSU Shockers make an appearance... I took 3 hrs (Anthropolgy) at WSU while on summer break from Texas A&M University... I’m still stumped over their baseball diamond infield of artificial turf and outfield of grass. It worked apparently ... they won a NCAA baseball championship with Eric Wedge if memory serves.

[Alkhin]

Generation X Ping!

[skr]

I hadn’t heard of Pick’s Disease; it certainly sounds plausible and far preferable to your other alternative, Frat Boy Syndrome, aka doofusness. The “internal” comment makes me suspect the latter; he seemed to think the audience was going to keep his juvenile antics secret.

[PLMerite]

Thank you!

[Joe 6-pack]

“I thought I was part of a community that handled its problems internally....”

Sounds like they could use a community organizer.

[BookmanTheJanitor]

you’re welcome :o)

[infowarrior]

Sounds like they could use a community organizer.

If they're able to wait a eight weeks or so, I know where they can pick one up, on the cheap...

the infowarrior

[R. Scott]

Coach William Shanahan, who sports a caveman beard reaching below his belt

Say what? Most "cavemen" in movies, art and TV have little beards only a couple inches long!

I do agree about academia. The radical hippies knew that demonstrations and songs wouldn’t change a thing - change had to come from within the institutions. They buckled down and studied, going on to careers in academia, journalism and politics in the Democratic Party. Too bad more didn’t drop out.

[mabelkitty]

A ‘safe house’? What he really means is cradle-to-grave union protected job in academia.

[Incorrigible]

The Autumn of Boomer Madness!

[qam1]

Xer Ping

Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations 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 and previous articles.  

[rabscuttle385]

We can all give a list of serious mistakes, like the campaign finance law, which has now whip-lashed McCain's own campaign. But McCain is solid on energy and national security, on the economy and taxation.

If McCain is so strong on national security, why is he a leading proponent of amnesty for illegals and "guest worker" programs (comprehensive immigration "reform")? If McCain is so strong on energy, the economy, and taxation, then why is he a leading proponent of carbon cap-and-trade (he sponsored the Climate Security Act three times in the Senate)? And why exactly does he support bailing out Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae with taxpayer money? And why did he consider doing the same for General Motors?

Saying that McCain is good on all these things is as good as saying he's a conservative: both are bold-faced lies...or, perhaps, delusions caused by drinking too much liberal Kool-Aid.

McCain is at best a corrupt (let's not forget the infamous Keating Five S&L scandal before the last big bailout) opportunistic career politician who confuses serving Mexico with serving the United States and who has listened to Teddy Kennedy and other liberals so much that he now believes their lies.

[rabscuttle385]

Sorry for spoiling the thread at post 22 but, since folks in my generation (Gen Y) will be left with the messes of the Boomers (and those before) (e.g., the enormous debt footprint of Big Government), I think it’s relevant to point out that McCain is part of the problem.

[neverdem]

McCain Haters For McCain

Obama: ‘I’m Not Going to Take Your Guns Away’

Stay home or vote third party. Don't be surprised with what you get.

http://gunbanobama.com/

[TigerLikesRooster]

Hippie New Left: the scourge of Western civilization.

[rabscuttle385]

Stay home or vote third party. Don't be surprised with what you get.

Enable the Democrat with an (R) after his name.

But I won't be surprised when "conservatives" here either nod approvingly or roll over and play dead as McCain and the Democrat Congress pass Big Government program after Big Government program, and conservatives get stuck holding the sign "It's our fault!" when things go wrong.

[Cicero]

You would think that somewhere in all those links would be one to the actual VIDEO.

Here it is. Warning: Bad language and vulgarity. http://news.aol.com/article/debate-coach-screams-moons-audience/132022

[roamer_1]

Stay home or vote third party. Don't be surprised with what you get.

I certainly won't be surprised by what I get from McCain't and 0bama. Sorry. I don't vote for socialism.

[Fawnn]

The 9-minute video on You Tube:
The Angry Professors, College Debate: Dr. Shanara Reid Brinkley versus Dr. William (Bill) Shanahan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXwy2VuA2V4&feature=related

For comic relief (as if that room of Ph.D.s isn’t comic relief enough), watch the 1:09 remix version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WEGZa9YBQ8&feature=related

Evidently those in the video were representatives from Emory, Vanderbilt, etc. gathered together for CODA 2008.

CODA = Cross Examination Debate Association
http://cedadebate.org/
An academic organization “dedicated to promoting critical thinking,...”

According to an August 22, 2008 statement from the association [http://cedadebate.org/?q=node/174], Fort Hays State University and their President Dr. Edward H. Hammond chose to “dismiss” Dr. Bill Shanahan.

I guess that translates to they decided to fire his over-exposed butt. Evidently there isn’t a penalty for using profanity as there is no mention of Dr. Shanara Reid Brinkley suffering any consequences (other than believing she was subjected to a racist attack).

IMO, anyone who is thinking of copping out and not voting for McCain this election should watch the video to see an example of what will happen to this country if we allow more “intellectuals” to be in charge.

[SquirrelKing]

WOOO! YEAH!

:)

[wardaddy]

boomer weirdness?

give me a break....we never even dreamed of half the shite Ge X and Echo Boomers think is cool

[GOPJ]

Thanks for the ping.

[SunkenCiv]

"Boomer Weirdness" is the great eruption of irrationality that seized the West three decades ago, when the Boomer Left rose to positions of power. I don't think the Boom Generation as a whole is any madder than other generations; but the Boomer Left -- ah, now we're talkin' several curlicues short of a plumbline... On the great issues of the day McCain and Palin just seem a lot more rational than the opposition. They can think straight. After almost two years of national exposure, Barack Obama is a bigger blank slate than ever; if anything he has deliberately confused Americans even more. Nobody knows what he would do if elected, and his potential appointees are freakier than Clinton's. As for Joe Biden, over 35 years in the US Senate he solidified his rep at the biggest loose cannon on that wildly careening deck. Between Robert Byrd and Joe Biden, the Senate has become as weird as the Oprah Show.

Thanks neverdem.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[AndyJackson]

give me a break....we never even dreamed of half the shite Ge X and Echo Boomers think is cool

This article is spot on, and I don't know what your problem is. The boomers are supposed to be the adults now, and if followup generations are even more unsane than us, well whose fault is it - hint: look in the mirror.

The problem is that the media/wall street/dem political establishment/ivy league crowd have between them done nothing useful, learned, in Ronald Reagan's words, lots of things that just aren't so, but believe that they, the radicals of the 1960's who hung together, are entitled station and respect as if they were an hereditary, god-sanctioned, aristocracy.

[AndyJackson]

Tiger, I think you should ping this one. It is sort of the background for all the wall street/democratic party/ivy league/Alan Greenpan loving insanity we have been living with for two decades.

In some, I think this is one of the most important articles of our time.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[AndyJackson]

TNX

[wardaddy]

You’ve drank the koolaid if you believe that the faults of the under 45 crowd can be laid simply at the feet of those older than you. What a crybaby...blaming some 50 year old fatass like me for your problems. You sure you are on the right forum? This forum is about personal responsibility.

You and your generation have to exercise your own free will.

It may shock you but the 60s radicals you allude to were never more than a loud tiny tiny minority of youth then and most campuses did not riot either. Neither was everyone over 50 once a hippie or had orgies and did lots of drugs.

But if we are going to get all defensive about our eras I will tell you right now from oberving all the young parents at my children’s grade school that many men today are soft as hell.

Like girls, subservient to their wives and all act like Moby or Daghtry...and many are little lefty PC boys with highlights. I’m surrounded by them at PTO meetings. It sucks. This is Nashville home of yer namesake and the men are wussies...probably never busted a grape in their life....can’t hunt or fight...what the hell good are they?

Crazy....that or they are little irresponsible thug miscreants stuck in adolescence.

You want to pick fights with yer elders son maybe you ought step outta tha glass house. Aside from those srving, I am less than impressed with today’s young man.

Every generation has it’s faults....guess who ushered in the great society? why the Greatest Generation of course.

I don’t sit around whining about it and blaming them for I was left to deal with.

[AndyJackson]

He pops. You sure seem to be steamed up about something. When you sober up maybe we can have a rational conversation about it.

[wardaddy]

I’ve argued this before with you. You often latch onto the blame the boomer game.

You have a chip on your shoulders about folks your parents age.

I suppose it comes from a personal shortcoming. I hope you work it out.

Btw...I’m not your daddy, at least I don’t think I am.

Son?

[AndyJackson]

You often latch onto the blame the boomer game.

Because I am one and I find my fellow boomers to be, for the most part, the most pathetic crowd of incompetent do nothings I could ever imagine.

I am not one of that kind, and if you have any pride in yourself you won't stand up for the most destructive generation either. Sure we are all individuals, and deserve to be judged individually, but as a group, we are despicable leeches. Our financial geniuses just lost $1T being so brilliant playing an old old con game but claiming it was something new. The list goes on and on, and the chickens are finally coming home to roost.

[dixiechick2000]

"media/wall street/dem political establishment/ivy league crowd"

You're right in describing the left from the '60s. Most of us weren't involved in drugs, protests, or anything of that nature. Now, however, the left is entrenched in everything from universities to the media to wall street.

However, most of us are living our lives, trying to keep our businesses going, and taking care of our families.

"...I find my fellow boomers to be, for the most part, the most pathetic crowd of incompetent do nothings I could ever imagine."

I guess that is why our country is in the tank. /s

I'm sorry your are such a negative person.

BTW, don't ever say this again..."the chickens are finally coming home to roost"...lest someone confuse you with Rev. Wright.

[ovrtaxt]

I hear you bud. I’m with you believe me.

I will be votong for Palin— McCain just happens to be on the ticket. He did choose her after all, that’s one big thing he’s done right.

I’m actually voting for a chance to support her again in four years. I just pray the vortex of stupidity, otherwise known as DC, doesn’t get to her.

[Gritty]

Good article!

[AndyJackson]

however, the left is entrenched in everything from universities to the media to wall street.... However, most of us are living our lives, trying to keep our businesses going, and taking care of our families.

While the entrenched 60's leftists and their running dogs run our principal institutions, which jobs they got by being the best group of sycophants and go along to get along kind of folks in the history of our fair republic.

While you think everything is rolling along just fine, I guess you didn't notice the news item today about the government taking over FNM and FMC. Guess who lead that mess and guess who just inflated the economy another few hundred billion to pay for it. Yet - you guess it - another bunch of ivy league boomers who were so smart they don't need to follow the same accounting rules about income exceeding expenses that you have to if you run a small business.

Your kind of accounting is for the little folk and has been out of fashion in circles of power for about 20 years.

[AndyJackson]

I'm sorry your are such a negative person.

I am actually a very positive person. I believe that if you take facts as they exist, apply reason, figure out what you need to do, and work hard to put the solutions into place you can accomplish great things.

For instance, I view Petraeus very positively. He is a breath of fresh air. I am also very aware that it was these same unaccomplished boomer elitists who created the misdirected mess in Iraq that Petraeus had to get us out of.

And I am awfully hard on idiots who bury their heads in the sand and don't look to see what is going on around them and then try to think hard about it.

In other words, God gave you eyes to see, ears to hear and a brain to think. Try using them for a change. I am a positive person, and I believe with a bit of self-motivation you can do these things too.

In brief, your Dr. Pangloss act is not an anti-dote to the NYT.

[wardaddy]

You’re pathetic. Your notion that you can blame all of culture’s ills on one group based on age is nonsensical and reeks of someone who has yet to fully mature.

Why don’t you fess up and tell us why you are so bitter?

I suspect something lacking at home.

BTW...pull yer britches up in public would ya?

It’s hard to explain to my two boys what’s wrong with boys like you when they see ya with yer pants around her knees and yer ass crack showing.

[AndyJackson]

Your notion that you can blame all of culture’s ills on one group based on age is nonsensical

Why do you argue like the leftist boomers this article complains of? In order to beat up on me, you put words in my mouth that I didn't utter, because I didn't blame "all of culture's ills" on us boomers.

What I do blame us boomers for is the really pathetic lack of leadership in all of our principal institutions. Few are running well, and the the overwhelming fraction of leadership positions in each of these is held by boomers.

The one exception that I know of is some parts of the US military. The military organization in Iraq is running pretty well right now, but we had to weed out a lot of bad leadership and came pretty close to a disaster before Bush tossed out his good ol boys and brought in Petraeus. And all of those guys in state and defense and the IPA, etc. etc., who damned near brought us to ruin are boomers.

It is boomers who just ran FNM and FMC into the ground and ran Bear Stearns into the ground. I mean you want to claim boomers are so great and they/we can't even count to the nearest $100B or so.

We have better in our generation, but they are not among the self-elect that is running the whole place right now.

And the other thing I want to know is why a name-calling weasel like you is trying to duck accountability - just like the leftists this article complains of - for what is going on. A real man bellies up to his responsibilities, stands up and marches forward showing folks how to do the right thing. It is weasels like you who go around blaming everyone else.

[AndyJackson]

BTW, what is really noticeable is your inability to discuss the issues raised in the article. Instead, you regard it as a personal insult and resort to another liberal tactic - lashing out at anyone who happens to be around.

Try reading the article, and then using your brains to evaluate the argument instead of bloviating out of all of your orifices at the same time.