Free Republic

It wouldn’t shock anyone who knows me to hear that I’m not favorably disposed to the Occupy Wall Street crowd. But my opinion was reinforced while reading the latest novel by my favorite author, Philip Roth. Anyone who reads Nemesis would quickly conclude that the entire Occupy generation is a bunch of soft, overindulged whiners. Although fictional, Nemesis accurately describes conditions in Newark, New Jersey, toward the end of World War II. While many brave Americans were overseas risking their lives to fight fascism, the home front was battling the scourge of polio that was devastating the nation’s youth. The...

Mammoth video game publisher Electronic Arts has a brilliant ad campaign going for their new survival horror title Dead Space 2. It is built around the generational divide between parents and children, and sons and mothers in particular. A mom’s disapproval has always been an accurate barometer of what is cool. So Dead Space 2 was put to the test. At an undisclosed focus group facility in the heart of conservative America, over 200 moms were recruited to participate in market research. Only, this wasn’t market research. The facility was rigged with hidden cameras, microphones, and a crew sitting behind...

WASHINGTON – There is a growing “religion gap” between older Americans and those under 30, according to a new Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends survey. The study released June 29 found that one-fourth of Americans ages 18-29 said they were atheists, agnostics or had no religion, while only 7 percent of those 65 and over described themselves that way. Eighteen percent of those ages 30-49 and 13 percent of those 50-64 fell into the no religion/atheist/agnostic category. At 7 percent, the under-30s also were more than twice as likely as those 65 and over (3 percent) to say...

WASHINGTON - From cell phones and texting to religion and manners, younger and older Americans see the world differently, creating the largest generation gap since the tumultuous years of the 1960s and the culture clashes over Vietnam, civil rights and women's liberation. A new study released Monday by the Pew Research Center found Americans of different ages increasingly at odds over a range of social and technological issues. It also highlights a widening age divide after last November's election, when 18- to 29-year-olds voted for Democrat Barack Obama by a 2-to-1 ratio. Almost eight in 10 people believe there is...

This post is slightly OT, as I am discussing print cartoons, not animated cartoons. I received several old issues of Cracked Magazine over the holidays and I couldn’t help noticing how one humor piece, predicting life in the 21st Century, was surprisingly accurate. “Today’s Swinger is Tomorrow’s Square”, illustrated by John Severin, appeared in the 1974 annual Super Cracked (It was most likely a reprint from a 1970 issue). In it, the writer predicts that young people will embrace the “skinhead” look, home computers (”Electronic Home Teacher”) and even the ipod: as “electronic brain stimulators” and a “musical computers” that...

Dude. I'm totally having a flashback. And it is not particularly groovy. Boasting a new head honcho and a new economic message, John McCain today "reintroduced" himself to the American electorate with one-minute commercial set to air on national cable and in key swing states. Called "Summer of Love," the spot opens with stock late-Sixties footage of goateed protesters, flamboyant queens and nearly naked longhairs making out in a muddy field.

The phrase “generation gap” came into vogue in the 1960s as a way of describing the wide gulf in values, beliefs and lifestyles that emerged between baby boomers and their parents and grandparents. Indeed, this difference between younger and older people played out sometimes turbulently in the ’60s in virtually all aspects of life, including the ballot box. Unlike in previous elections, from 1968 to 1980 young voters gave much stronger support to Democratic presidential candidates than did their elders. But by 1984 those baby boomers were not so young and their ideas were not so different. And until very...

The exit polls have shown, the Democratic primary is turning into a battle between the people that pay for Social Security and those that collect it.

The generation gap at Harvard-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: March 23, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com There is a generation gap at Harvard University. The students are far more conservative than the faculty. The aging radical professors haven't enough to do, so they nitpicked their president's words and pressured his resignation. The students are dismayed. President Larry Summers' resignation last month followed a "lack of confidence" vote by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. In a poll released March 13 by the Harvard Crimson, 66 percent of surveyed Harvard students claimed to "disapprove of the way that members of the Faculty...

With the number of whites shrinking as immigrant populations soar, a "racial generation gap" is opening in Los Angeles and cities nationwide, a study released today says. The report by The Brookings Institution said Los Angeles led all metropolitan areas and Riverside-San Bernardino ranked second in population gains by Latinos, Asians and blacks - increases attributed to higher birth rates among immigrants. In addition, 30 percent of Latinos nationwide live in Los Angeles and New York, the study said. And metropolitan Los Angeles, which includes Long Beach and Santa Ana, has 5.6 million Latinos, about 43 percent of its total...

America should prepare for a big fat war between the generations. It’s going to be ugly. On one side is the baby boom generation, which retires and claims a ton of government benefits. On the other are younger workers, forced to fund those benefits plus pay the bills their elders left them. When the war comes, the Federal Reserve chairman will have to be a general. That person will likely be Bush nominee Ben Bernanke. The question is, for which side will he fight? Outgoing Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan tried to represent both sides. He supported the Bush tax cuts....

Lately I have been thinking about the phenomenon colloquially known as the generation gap. I have not been blessed with a time machine, so I have no knowledge of whether or not this phenomenon is more prevalent in ages past than in recent times. Therefore, all of the following must be considered merely as speculation. In Alvin Toffler's classic Future Shock, the point is made that a) change has run rampant in the 20th century; b) the rate of change has increased--there are more differences in, say, the make, model and color of automobile than there have ever been; c)...

The rapidly disappearing cohort of Americans that endured the Great Depression and then fought World War II is receiving quite a send-off from the leading lights of the so-called 60s generation. Tom Brokaw has published two oral histories of “The Greatest Generation” that feature ordinary people doing their duty and suggest that such conduct was historically unique. Chris Matthews of “Hardball” is fond of writing columns praising the Navy service of his father while castigating his own baby boomer generation for its alleged softness and lack of struggle. William Bennett gave a startling condescending speech at the Naval Academy a...

One of the generation gap angles seen in Iraq is the reaction to email and VOIP (phone calls via the Internet) availability. Older troops, who served overseas in the days before email and VOIP, find these connections to the folks back home a great improvement. But for the young troops, who grew up with email and cell phones, expectations are high. Internet access in Iraq is via satellite links, and that’s expensive. Internet access is a combination of links set up by units, for their own troops, or commercial Internet cafes, available for $2-5 an hour. Unit based access is...

Generational tensions have always existed in the workplace, just as they exist in every other facet of life. Yet many see a deepening of generational rifts arising from the different ways that different age groups of workers either adapt or fail to adapt, and either embrace or resist the technology now involved in nearly every form of commercial enterprise. Dr. Gloria Wren, an assistant professor of information systems and operational management at the Sellinger School of Business and Management at Loyola College, has spent a great deal of time studying these technology-related inter-generational tensions and the impact they have on...

Young reactionaries, aging radicals;the U.S. Catholic Church's unusual clerical divide  by Andrew Greeley   .....   ome forty years ago, as the dramatic events of the Second Vatican Council unfolded, a spotlight was trained on the Catholic Church. It was, commentators said, a revolutionary time. The Church fathers broadened the canons of scriptural interpretation, invited other churches and denominations to engage in friendly dialogue, and attempted to understand the strengths of the modern world. They defended religious freedom, condemned anti-Semitism, and recalled the traditional notion that the Church was made up not just of its clerical hierarchy but also of...

Meanwhile: War reaction reflects China in transition Jianying Zha NYT Thursday, April 10, 2003 BEIJING 'Tolstoy would have said that every democracy is different, but all totalitarian countries look the same," my cousin said, as images of Baghdad streets rolled by on television. The pictures reminded him of his visit to Pyongyang, but I could have easily suggested Stalin's Moscow or Mao's Beijing. He added, "The leader puts his statues everywhere and gets 100 percent of the vote - and you know life must be living hell in that country." This was the second day of the war, and we...

A New Generation Gap Chuck Colson As part of her coursework in persuasive speech, Afton Dahl had to make a presentation about a controversial issue. Dahl, a sixteen-year-old sophomore at Red Wing High School in Minnesota, chose abortion. "I think it would be better," she told her classmates, "to overturn Roe v. Wade." Dahl was not just repeating what she heard in her pro-life, Christian home. In fact, her remarks came as a shock to her thoroughly pro-choice mother. But they are a hopeful sign that pro-life arguments have not fallen on deaf ears. Dahl was not the only person...

March 2, 2003 Rallies in Seoul Differ on U.S., Highlighting a Generation GapBy KEITH BRADSHER EOUL, South Korea, March 1 ?South Koreans took to the streets today for two large demonstrations that underlined a deep generational divide here in attitudes toward North Korea and the United States, as tensions between those countries continued to rise. A rally at noon in front of Seoul's City Hall turned into the largest pro-American, anti-North Korean gathering in recent memory. Up to 100,000 people, most of whom appeared old enough to remember the Korean War, showed up to hear speeches by prominent conservatives...

Is it just me, or has the median age for post-postmodern rock stars been getting younger? How else to justify all those fawning profiles of suburban scofflaws Sum 41 making out like they invented disorderly conduct? Sure, it all comes down to what the marketing execs call "positioning," like how the Sums' video for the hooliganistic "Still Waiting" carves into the Strokes/Hives/Vines, while their concurrent spoofs of mid-'80s metallic bombast seem lost on the band members themselves, let alone their desired audience. If "rock" is indeed "back," who can tell the difference between the mooks and the mockers? Part of...