You know, I was in a bookstore recently and saw a book entitled The Greater Generation. The title is a parody of the title of Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation, the book about the generation that lived through the Great Depression and won World War II. The blurb on the jacket said it was time that the Baby Boom generation received credit for creating a "more open, more tolerant" society. I could have barfed.
You know, for ever taboo shattered by the Boomers they invented a new one to take its place. For ever obscenity de-criminalized an ethnic slur has been criminalized. The "open society" these people wanted to give the world is alive and well on totalitarian university campuses with speech codes and people even afraid to think incorrectly. But never mind . . . the old taboos are gone, and that's apparently all that matters. It seems the new boss is considered very different from the old boss.
I'm a Boomer myself and I'm ashamed of my generation. I grew up watching Captain Kangaroo and Mighty Mouse. Whatever my fellow generationists were picking up from these programs was missed by me.
But if the ultimate evolution of Western liberal democracy requires the removal of all taboos, the destruction of family life and religion, Greer's sanctioned pedophilia, sexualised children, and padded bras for eight-year-olds, then who wants it?
I would rather wear a burqa than have my eight-year-old child become a sex object.
I'm glad somebody finally said this! Unfortunately, the conflict with radical islam is turning even Fundamentalist chr*stians into acolytes of the "enlightenment," just as two thousand years of oppression by chr*stianity eventually turned most Jews, the people of religion par excellence, into the same thing. I hold no brief for islam or any other false religion, but not every attitude they have is wrong. In fact, on some things they're closer to the truth than "enlightened" westerners are!
I know Im babbling here...but I think I wanted to say: having chatted with Boomers here on FR, I no longer paint the entire generation with a broad brush. I have a Boomer uncle who I used to think was quite the typical Leftist...turns out hes as hard core a conservative as I am, and he rocks! I rather like that Boomers and GenXers are rediscovering themselves and becoming allies. I think its because we both recognize who the Real Enemy is, and its Socialism/Communism. I think people like Greer can sense that and are railing against it.
If I have any scorn left, its more towards the fact that people like Greer continue to insult us all with the notion that times are different, people more informed, and the REAL rebellion has only just begun.
I should say (editing and preview are my friends!! argh!!) - Greer continues to insult us with the notion that times have NOT changed, that people are NOT more informed, and hers was the only rebellion worth counting...when we are now rebelling against her. I think she is having a hard time facing up to that fact...we're only doing what she has called the rest of us to do!!
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You might want to find a better example.
"Unfortunately, the conflict with radical islam is turning even Fundamentalist chr*stians into acolytes of the "enlightenment," just as two thousand years of oppression by chr*stianity eventually turned most Jews,"
The key factor most people seem to miss, or ignore, with the boomer generation is NOT that the boomers were any better or worse than previous generations, just that there were so MANY of them.
Thus, the percentage of those who rebelled was far greater and its subsequent impact felt more strongly (and is still reverberating today).
But... don't forget. In the 20's, there was the whole Fitzgerald thing going on - I've read a lot about the wild parties and drunken orgies Fitzgerald, Hemingway and so many others got involved in - oh, and don't forget the flappers and bootleggers and all that jazz. Each generation has its own form of rebeliousness. To single out one is just wrong. Again, if there had been such a huge number of children born and coming of age in the 20's, THAT would've been the roaring 20's like nobody has ever seen and would've had far more dire consequences than probably even the 60's did. Don't forget, this is when the automobile popped on the scene and people could have illicit and premarital sex so much more easily than ever before. Booze was illegal which made it more attractive.
Even before that, you had the many bohemians of other ages - I think of Shelly, Byron and their comrades doing opium and writing their tales. Even, Poe. Yes, we can single out each generation, but unlike the boomer generation, there has never been such a huge mass of people all coming into the years when one sows his oats and questions things at the same time.
Just some food for thought from a fellow boomer.
Furthermore, you had the beatniks of the 50's and they were smoking pot and engaging in free love and all that stuff that many people think just began in the 60's - wrong!
The lefties have been trying to take over since before I was ever born. They've made inroads and will continue to do so. I am a proud boomer and glad to say that though I got sucked into a few of the nutty ideas of the 70's, I have come through the fire and am the better for it. I give that glory to God, however.