I needed to read this post to recognize how narcissistic and selfish Boomers tend to be. Now I can identify it, and of course, it's true! Thanks for this info brother
I was born at the tail end of 1964; so technically considered a Boomer, but I sure don't feel like one. Revulsion with Boomers started earlier than you think.
My recent experiences with talking about boomers has taught me that they are equal parts incapable of separating groups and individuals and nakedly tribal.
They cannot understand that a criticism of their generation is not an attack on themselves, nor do they understand that an attack on my generation is irrelevant to me.
I ban them out of charity - if you allow them they will comment on a piece of content every day for a month, no matter how gentle you are. Not allowing them such distress is a kindness!
What do you expect from Boomers: every single one of them went to Woodstock (except me) and rolled in the mud; and they have left their muddy foot prints all over the next genarations' carpets.
Another thing about Boomer responses to criticism is that the insult only stings to the degree that its TRUE. Certainly, generational lines are blurry. For convenience, we draw hard lines at 1946 and 1964, but that doesn't mean everyone born in that period read the book and bought the T-shirt. Sure. There are plenty of late Boomers who more align with the Xer cohort and plenty early ones who align with the Silent Generation. But those individuals are likely NOT the ones who get all huffy and puffy and feel compelled to correct the record about "muh generation."
My in laws are those kind of Boomers--late and more Xer aligned, they both quit their jobs to move across the country so that they could be near their grandkids. They don't get all butthurt when the Boomer topic comes up--it just rolls off their back, doesn't even land. If anything, they actually pile on with the "our worthless generation...", so on and so forth. On the other hand, the Boomers from my own line Boom extremely hard. My mom got really sick during COVID, almost died. We moved Heaven and Earth and spent a fortune getting her out of hospice and moved her 2k miles across the country where she is now living comfortably 15 minutes away from us. She has literally nothing going on and yet it takes an act of congress to get her to show up for anything, even birthdays. Booster-maxed and terrified that our healthy kids will get her sick.
The big rub is that Baby Boomers knew what they were doing. The Baby Boomer understanding of morality is incredibly vast: All their unsolicited advice, the philosophical activities of their youth, the endless lecturing. Don't forget that they are the among the oldest humans on earth right now along with four score years of experience - that comes with an understanding of life and wisdom unmatched by mere book knowledge. And they still did and conitune in doing the wrong thing. The evil thing.
The evidence is how quickly they flinch and contest any statement about their crimes. They don't bat an eye if you say something truly unrelated to them like pdf files or electric cars but when you touch upon their moral actions they come to life like an inferno. It's one thing to have a mindless senseless evil like a pitbull or a maniac but the baby boomer's actions were done with full knowledge and understanding that surpasses many of ours. Just ask them, no boomer will admit any lessor mastery of those spiritual concepts and they are right. Their spiritual revolution has only been to their condemnation.
Excuse my self indulgence but a phrase from a video game sums up my feeling on the matter:
"And as the spectres were destroying the world for him that he had himself created, he sought refuge at the summit of his most wonderful creation, the great library of Bismark...
There remained nought but to await the purifier, the man who would rise up to destroy him. For at the bottom of his soul, he knew: What he had done was evil."
The example of blaring music is so on point. They won't let "the good music" die. It's not uncommon to hear Aerosmith or The Eagles at events supposedly planned for Gen Z by boomers. Pointing out the Spice Girls wannabe is 30 years old doesn't even register. Let the kids have their music and their turn. It's a little worrisome to see millennial peers start to post about "not aging" and comparing fashion trends to Gen Z. We should know better.
I’m a millennial. The needless absurdities of my own formative years were authored by an entire constellation of Boomer choices, which, when examined individually, exhibit the characteristic hubris of the Boomer, and when taken in aggregate, display the unmistakable wireframe of the Boomer: a rutting, slopping, squealing, nearsighted, fat old yard Hog. The “Hog constellation.” You know the shape of it.
Notably, the “me” generation espoused the mantra “don’t trust anybody over 30.” From the beginning, therefore, the Boomer adopted *generational antipathy* as a virtue, cursing its own ancestors in the opening act, and then in the closing scene, attempting to devour its own young, like Saturn. More than anything else, hatred for all other generations is THE defining characteristic of the Boomer(which tangentially, is quite remarkable, given how simultaneously solipsistic the Boomer is.)
“Honor thy father and mother” is the commandment. Perhaps, by hating the Boomer, we millennials abide that commandment. However, I think we also hazard the risk that by hating them, we indulge ourselves in the selfsame generational antipathy that defines the Boomer. I’ve been round and round on this topic with a lot of thoughtful people and still, certainty of conviction eludes me. “Hate the sin, love the sinner?” Well…that’s REALLY fucking difficult when the sinner adopts its own sin as an identity—a virtue even(!), a decision which really amounts to the one unforgivable sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit, when you get right down to it. It’s basically what the Alphabet Gang is up to with their aptly-named “pride” parades—self-identifying with sin, separating oneself from truth.
I dunno. Perhaps the proper definition of anti-Boomerism is “hating the Boomer more than is absolutely necessary”, to borrow a famous line. End unsolicited ramble.
I struggle with the 4th commandment as well. Perhaps this rendition will help as it's helped me because I agree with your points - "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thou mayest be long-lived upon the land which the Lord Thy God will give thee."
I don't think the Boomers honored this commandment as a generation and we've seen our lands suffer. I think you are right, we are not called to conceal or aid another's sin and it may be the only way to honor boomers is to condemn their wickedness. Not with malice, but of necessity. And be grateful for those who did not go along with it all.
At the same time we have to try. As much as we are allowed to react, especially if asked to sin or presented with sin. Right and wrong don't change because we feel more or less one way.
God didn't stutter and so we should try earnestly to find that wedge for our emotions if it's blocking us from doing good. It's us and God at the end of the day.
I'm not going to pretend that I'm not a hypocrite here. But every time I'm going through it. When I think about that it calms me down a lot.
I always took that commandment to mean in practice: as much as possible, live righteously. By doing so, you honor the gift of life given to you by your parents and ultimately by God's grace, regardless of how good they actually are or were as parents. When possible, maintain good relationships with them, but if one can do nothing else, live rightly in spite of them, not because of them.
It's a little like praying for your enemies. You don't pray for the success of their endeavors, you pray for their conversion if possible or barring that, pray that every wicked thing they do will fail utterly, and that more people will turn to God as a result.
It's never fun to have a boomer throw "Honor thy father and mother" in your face. Particularly when you reply that the very next line is, "And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord."
Try to bring that up and they'll give you the most boomer, doe eyed, failed spark jump look in the world. It becomes apparent that the bible was just a weapon to cudgel their child with and not the witness of God. They never cared about the instructions in that book, only how they could get people to do what they wanted.
The Baby boomers have stored up wrath surpassed only by the original Pharisees and the Nephilm generation. It is no crime at all to call out wickedness, never let the Boomer gaslight you into thinking it's somehow wrong. Especially when it's so obviously self serving.
That’s a damned good point, although my debate is not with any scripture-invoking Boomer in particular, but rather the little Boomer devil on my shoulder, I suppose. I just mainly don’t want to fall into the trap that they fell into: generational hatred.(They actually fell for EVERY trap, but this is the one we’re talking about.) upon reflection though, I don’t think I could fall into Boomer generational antipathy trap, because I don’t hate ALL other generations, just ONE, and it’s good to hate evil...
But you’re absolutely right. THEY actively and knowingly squandered the greatest inheritance in world history, and left us to deal with what’s coming—see: the final 50 verses of Deuteronomy 28 for reference, 15-64.
I dare say we are on the cusp of extinction. As a young boy in the 60s I had the traumatizing misfortune of observing the Boomers firsthand and it was absolutely terrifying. They shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the levers of power.
The world may not survive the Boomers. I'm dead serious bros. They've ascended to power and it is not beyond the realm of possibility they destroy the planet. This is a fear I've had since childhood. God have mercy on us all. "The Day of the Pillow" can't come soon enough. The very survival of humanity may depend upon it.
That explains why we see so many octogenarians clinging on to power with all of the tenacity their grasping, arthritic, greedy hands can muster. What mystifies me is how millenials, GenX and now GenZ continue to re-elect them. See: Schumer, Pelosi, McConnell, McCain, Feinstein, Trump, Lewis, etc. They don't step down till they die.
Someone below said the Boomers share a lot of the same characteristics of the Gamma Man, and I think that's on point. Between the delusions, the abusive behaviors, the hair-trigger rage spirals, and outright narcissism, they could be accurately termed the "Gamma Generation."
And I won't "excuse" some of this behavior. I was born somewhere between 1979-1984, so the adult generations were largely Boomer. This behavior was fairly prevalent among that cohort. Of course there were exceptions (country gals, good ole' boys), but the Boomers' parents largely raised them to be hard working, considerate, frugal, temperate, and so on.
And yeah, they "grew up in unprecedented TV time" with "parents who were traumatized by the Depression and WW2." Okay, sure. But they still had a choice to learn and grow, and decided otherwise.
I think Vox's term wicked generation describes Boomers very well. The Boomer Gammas are the most delusional people I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with. Some of them believe they are big sharks because they were bestowed with and spent a large inheritance while literally never working a day, or accomplishing anything else productive for that matter. The Boomer generation seems to asses their self-worth based on how many vacation trips they were on in the last three months.
For any other generation such Gammas would be having their Secret King delusions in a ditch.
You make Good points. Did the Sputnik panic drive boomers to the gamma quadrant? It appears that millions that should have been solid deltas failed to mature and the big acceleration of the public schools after Sputnik caused arrested delta development. My man is a delta and I can attest to the lack of respect that a boomer gamma shows to a delta, even though a delta makes more money and has a much better life. The boomer sold all the heavy industry to China because of hatred for the delta. Boomers are just so gamma. The sold us out because of delta envy.
I think the sell out was love of money. I watched the post WW2 patriotic American managers replaced by the worldly financial MBA who only worshipped money and didn’t give a damn about the country or their fellow citizens.
Who knows. There have been many theories from being overspoiled by parents from a generation that knew privation and loss, as well as one that faced a minor version of the previous war within the Korean conflict. Maybe because they were loaded up on TV, radio, movies, and other entertainments unlike any previous generation. Maybe cosmic ray bombardment or Van Allen Belt denial. But, all of that is outside the "WHAT" that can be gathered as evidence.
The matter of it is that the early Boomers chose to reject the mores and traditions of their parents, the Greatest, and the later Boomers (aka cultural Gen Jones) sired by the Silents became bitter over the success of their older siblings. The generational Boomers for whatever reasons chose to become grasping materialists, despite their youthful claims to the contrary, and wrapped themselves in the platitudes of their parents, consciously or no, yet without understanding what those cliched phrases were meant to convey.
I struggle with staying in the “what” lane and must fight the urge to shift over to the “why” lane. Thank you for reminding me. But it is so difficult some times.
Most never had to dodge it. Draft was deferred for college students, then married college students, then married college students with kids, then graduate students. During most of the era (until 1970 or so) there were very few protests against Vietnam. When Nixon decided he needed to properly staff the military, college students started receiving draft notices, getting shipped overseas and coming. back with blank stares or in body bags. That kicked off massive protests and led to the end of the war.
Draft resistance --especially of the violent sort-- was mainly under Johnson. That resistance basically went away after Kent State on May 4, 1970 -- whiff of grapeshot worked, as it typically does. Peak draft numbers also hit under Johnson, as were most Vietnam casualties. The Watergate scandal was likely more of a factor in resolving the Vietnam War in 1973 than student protests were.
The draft as it was being used from the mid-50s through 1972 --bringing in green troops for only 12 to 24 months-- soured the Military on its value versus going with an all-volunteer force. The drafted troops did not perform as well as longer-serving volunteers using that short-term model, as the one-year-and-done rotations vs staying for the duration of a conflict with periodic furloughs did more damage physically and mentally to those draftees, and was not generating enough good will to back continuing draft policies. Somewhat similar to what we are seeing with Ukrainian troops in the current conflict. Meat grinder fodder.
Mandatory national service is yet another instance of a detached, hostile elite robbing from the younger generations. None of us will get social security or even our 401k's by the time this all plays out and now thw want our youths labor too? Boomers don't see conflict bc they stubbornly believe the government is the old red white and blue America they grew up in and we just need to vote harder.
Why go fight in someone else's war? Why work and sacrifice limb and psyche for another man's wallet? Rhett Butler is the only cause I know.
School was pointless, as it was about compliance and obedience. To the state, to the slow, socialistic teacher's union, and other interest groups. Yes, if you eat their bread, then you sing their songs. An education makes you free. Not indebted and philosophically bound.
Why work more, if you don't get more? Gratitude and love to friends and fellows, that's optional from a place of freedom and strength. Gratitude to genuine elders, that's when you let them be grandparents, when you want them to be by your children, when you help them live a longer life.
The draft dodgers sure want the young to die for wars that do not even have anything to do with them. I wonder how hard the young will fight for their own serfdom, perhaps there is something different to die for.
Approximately 30-40 percent of one's income is taken by Boomer pensions and old age services, but it is effectively much more since Boomers are at the same time pushing to inflate all asset prices so that they can reverse mortgage their heritage, making it impossible to afford a house. And for that all we get is the endless bragging about insane lavish vacation trips that no one else could afford or even asks for. I do not see how what the Boomers are doing is much different from slavery, especially now that in addition they are celebrating forced work.
The last two presidential elections with R in office had prior major economic events caused or allowed by administrative interests within the central government and its various related supranational and "advisory" multilateral organs. Hmm.
During your lifetime, and mine, the first modern fake pandemic attempt, that for most of us not then vaccine injured was a whiff, was swine flu in 2009, in which Barry Otero issued the first ever in US history health emergency order under some newfangled new authorization given to the president for this purpose after there were a few 10s of reported cases before the CDC pretty much just started winging it. What good's a tool in the box if you ain't using it after all? There was another in 2003 or so SARS that was mostly focused on Hongkong and Vancouver IIRC that they said was from civet cats. Not the bat soup that time but the civet cat soup down at civet catdonalds. I was in the Hongkong airport during that and it was nearly empty though usually bustling, and big, in Asia. Freaky; not as fake looking as SARS II Covid 19 but I'd probably look at it in a different light. But what do you know, Chloroquine gets a mention without prejudice. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16115318/
I needed to read this post to recognize how narcissistic and selfish Boomers tend to be. Now I can identify it, and of course, it's true! Thanks for this info brother
I was born at the tail end of 1964; so technically considered a Boomer, but I sure don't feel like one. Revulsion with Boomers started earlier than you think.
My recent experiences with talking about boomers has taught me that they are equal parts incapable of separating groups and individuals and nakedly tribal.
They cannot understand that a criticism of their generation is not an attack on themselves, nor do they understand that an attack on my generation is irrelevant to me.
I ban them out of charity - if you allow them they will comment on a piece of content every day for a month, no matter how gentle you are. Not allowing them such distress is a kindness!
Arrogance and ignorance marks this generation... oh ... and false pride.
No, not the rainbow!!! LOL
They will go down in history for that.
What do you expect from Boomers: every single one of them went to Woodstock (except me) and rolled in the mud; and they have left their muddy foot prints all over the next genarations' carpets.
“Booming”
Hilarious!
Another thing about Boomer responses to criticism is that the insult only stings to the degree that its TRUE. Certainly, generational lines are blurry. For convenience, we draw hard lines at 1946 and 1964, but that doesn't mean everyone born in that period read the book and bought the T-shirt. Sure. There are plenty of late Boomers who more align with the Xer cohort and plenty early ones who align with the Silent Generation. But those individuals are likely NOT the ones who get all huffy and puffy and feel compelled to correct the record about "muh generation."
My in laws are those kind of Boomers--late and more Xer aligned, they both quit their jobs to move across the country so that they could be near their grandkids. They don't get all butthurt when the Boomer topic comes up--it just rolls off their back, doesn't even land. If anything, they actually pile on with the "our worthless generation...", so on and so forth. On the other hand, the Boomers from my own line Boom extremely hard. My mom got really sick during COVID, almost died. We moved Heaven and Earth and spent a fortune getting her out of hospice and moved her 2k miles across the country where she is now living comfortably 15 minutes away from us. She has literally nothing going on and yet it takes an act of congress to get her to show up for anything, even birthdays. Booster-maxed and terrified that our healthy kids will get her sick.
Boomers are utilitarian. They think that any means justifies the ends that they desire.
They believe in the end result of an act, not the qualities of the actor.
The big rub is that Baby Boomers knew what they were doing. The Baby Boomer understanding of morality is incredibly vast: All their unsolicited advice, the philosophical activities of their youth, the endless lecturing. Don't forget that they are the among the oldest humans on earth right now along with four score years of experience - that comes with an understanding of life and wisdom unmatched by mere book knowledge. And they still did and conitune in doing the wrong thing. The evil thing.
The evidence is how quickly they flinch and contest any statement about their crimes. They don't bat an eye if you say something truly unrelated to them like pdf files or electric cars but when you touch upon their moral actions they come to life like an inferno. It's one thing to have a mindless senseless evil like a pitbull or a maniac but the baby boomer's actions were done with full knowledge and understanding that surpasses many of ours. Just ask them, no boomer will admit any lessor mastery of those spiritual concepts and they are right. Their spiritual revolution has only been to their condemnation.
Excuse my self indulgence but a phrase from a video game sums up my feeling on the matter:
"And as the spectres were destroying the world for him that he had himself created, he sought refuge at the summit of his most wonderful creation, the great library of Bismark...
There remained nought but to await the purifier, the man who would rise up to destroy him. For at the bottom of his soul, he knew: What he had done was evil."
The example of blaring music is so on point. They won't let "the good music" die. It's not uncommon to hear Aerosmith or The Eagles at events supposedly planned for Gen Z by boomers. Pointing out the Spice Girls wannabe is 30 years old doesn't even register. Let the kids have their music and their turn. It's a little worrisome to see millennial peers start to post about "not aging" and comparing fashion trends to Gen Z. We should know better.
More boomer cluelessness:
https://www.federaltimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2024/05/23/lawmakers-move-to-automate-selective-service-registration-for-all-men/
TL:DR
Registration rate dropping, especially since student loan sanctions for non-compliance were dropped.
Such sanctions as there are don’t hurt if the victim is laying flat.
So automate enrollment based on government records with or without an opt-out, ostensibly to save money.
The cluelessness here is astounding.
There’s not enough resources to impose compliance in peacetime let alone in war.
Only Societal approbation will work.
Is shaming from Draft dodging boomers really going to have an effect?
But this is only the prequel
Can’t wait for the first time a strong independent woman tries to give a refusenik a white feather.
We’re seeing it a little on YouTube already.
The shameless shaming the strong
Should be entertaining.
I’m a millennial. The needless absurdities of my own formative years were authored by an entire constellation of Boomer choices, which, when examined individually, exhibit the characteristic hubris of the Boomer, and when taken in aggregate, display the unmistakable wireframe of the Boomer: a rutting, slopping, squealing, nearsighted, fat old yard Hog. The “Hog constellation.” You know the shape of it.
Notably, the “me” generation espoused the mantra “don’t trust anybody over 30.” From the beginning, therefore, the Boomer adopted *generational antipathy* as a virtue, cursing its own ancestors in the opening act, and then in the closing scene, attempting to devour its own young, like Saturn. More than anything else, hatred for all other generations is THE defining characteristic of the Boomer(which tangentially, is quite remarkable, given how simultaneously solipsistic the Boomer is.)
“Honor thy father and mother” is the commandment. Perhaps, by hating the Boomer, we millennials abide that commandment. However, I think we also hazard the risk that by hating them, we indulge ourselves in the selfsame generational antipathy that defines the Boomer. I’ve been round and round on this topic with a lot of thoughtful people and still, certainty of conviction eludes me. “Hate the sin, love the sinner?” Well…that’s REALLY fucking difficult when the sinner adopts its own sin as an identity—a virtue even(!), a decision which really amounts to the one unforgivable sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit, when you get right down to it. It’s basically what the Alphabet Gang is up to with their aptly-named “pride” parades—self-identifying with sin, separating oneself from truth.
I dunno. Perhaps the proper definition of anti-Boomerism is “hating the Boomer more than is absolutely necessary”, to borrow a famous line. End unsolicited ramble.
I struggle with the 4th commandment as well. Perhaps this rendition will help as it's helped me because I agree with your points - "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thou mayest be long-lived upon the land which the Lord Thy God will give thee."
I don't think the Boomers honored this commandment as a generation and we've seen our lands suffer. I think you are right, we are not called to conceal or aid another's sin and it may be the only way to honor boomers is to condemn their wickedness. Not with malice, but of necessity. And be grateful for those who did not go along with it all.
At the same time we have to try. As much as we are allowed to react, especially if asked to sin or presented with sin. Right and wrong don't change because we feel more or less one way.
God didn't stutter and so we should try earnestly to find that wedge for our emotions if it's blocking us from doing good. It's us and God at the end of the day.
I'm not going to pretend that I'm not a hypocrite here. But every time I'm going through it. When I think about that it calms me down a lot.
I always took that commandment to mean in practice: as much as possible, live righteously. By doing so, you honor the gift of life given to you by your parents and ultimately by God's grace, regardless of how good they actually are or were as parents. When possible, maintain good relationships with them, but if one can do nothing else, live rightly in spite of them, not because of them.
It's a little like praying for your enemies. You don't pray for the success of their endeavors, you pray for their conversion if possible or barring that, pray that every wicked thing they do will fail utterly, and that more people will turn to God as a result.
I think that's a good application. It certainly aligns with everything I can think of. I like that.
It's never fun to have a boomer throw "Honor thy father and mother" in your face. Particularly when you reply that the very next line is, "And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord."
Try to bring that up and they'll give you the most boomer, doe eyed, failed spark jump look in the world. It becomes apparent that the bible was just a weapon to cudgel their child with and not the witness of God. They never cared about the instructions in that book, only how they could get people to do what they wanted.
The Baby boomers have stored up wrath surpassed only by the original Pharisees and the Nephilm generation. It is no crime at all to call out wickedness, never let the Boomer gaslight you into thinking it's somehow wrong. Especially when it's so obviously self serving.
That’s a damned good point, although my debate is not with any scripture-invoking Boomer in particular, but rather the little Boomer devil on my shoulder, I suppose. I just mainly don’t want to fall into the trap that they fell into: generational hatred.(They actually fell for EVERY trap, but this is the one we’re talking about.) upon reflection though, I don’t think I could fall into Boomer generational antipathy trap, because I don’t hate ALL other generations, just ONE, and it’s good to hate evil...
But you’re absolutely right. THEY actively and knowingly squandered the greatest inheritance in world history, and left us to deal with what’s coming—see: the final 50 verses of Deuteronomy 28 for reference, 15-64.
We are guardians of the aftermath.
"Act justly and love mercy" will guide you through that struggle.
Vengeance belongs to God. Ours is to firewall, repair, and rebuild.
I dare say we are on the cusp of extinction. As a young boy in the 60s I had the traumatizing misfortune of observing the Boomers firsthand and it was absolutely terrifying. They shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the levers of power.
The world may not survive the Boomers. I'm dead serious bros. They've ascended to power and it is not beyond the realm of possibility they destroy the planet. This is a fear I've had since childhood. God have mercy on us all. "The Day of the Pillow" can't come soon enough. The very survival of humanity may depend upon it.
That explains why we see so many octogenarians clinging on to power with all of the tenacity their grasping, arthritic, greedy hands can muster. What mystifies me is how millenials, GenX and now GenZ continue to re-elect them. See: Schumer, Pelosi, McConnell, McCain, Feinstein, Trump, Lewis, etc. They don't step down till they die.
Vote fraud.
Don't fear the Boomers Booming.
The belief that humans have the ability to destroy the planet is hubris.
“Day of the pillow” is an excellent title for a thriller.
Someone needs a pillow. Why are you even here?
Someone below said the Boomers share a lot of the same characteristics of the Gamma Man, and I think that's on point. Between the delusions, the abusive behaviors, the hair-trigger rage spirals, and outright narcissism, they could be accurately termed the "Gamma Generation."
And I won't "excuse" some of this behavior. I was born somewhere between 1979-1984, so the adult generations were largely Boomer. This behavior was fairly prevalent among that cohort. Of course there were exceptions (country gals, good ole' boys), but the Boomers' parents largely raised them to be hard working, considerate, frugal, temperate, and so on.
And yeah, they "grew up in unprecedented TV time" with "parents who were traumatized by the Depression and WW2." Okay, sure. But they still had a choice to learn and grow, and decided otherwise.
I think Vox's term wicked generation describes Boomers very well. The Boomer Gammas are the most delusional people I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with. Some of them believe they are big sharks because they were bestowed with and spent a large inheritance while literally never working a day, or accomplishing anything else productive for that matter. The Boomer generation seems to asses their self-worth based on how many vacation trips they were on in the last three months.
For any other generation such Gammas would be having their Secret King delusions in a ditch.
They chose to become the "Me Generation" that Advertising/Marketing told them they were.
Embraced it like a user manual.
They were ALREADY raging narcissists when author Tom Wolfe started referring to them as "The Me Generation" in 1970.
You make Good points. Did the Sputnik panic drive boomers to the gamma quadrant? It appears that millions that should have been solid deltas failed to mature and the big acceleration of the public schools after Sputnik caused arrested delta development. My man is a delta and I can attest to the lack of respect that a boomer gamma shows to a delta, even though a delta makes more money and has a much better life. The boomer sold all the heavy industry to China because of hatred for the delta. Boomers are just so gamma. The sold us out because of delta envy.
I think the sell out was love of money. I watched the post WW2 patriotic American managers replaced by the worldly financial MBA who only worshipped money and didn’t give a damn about the country or their fellow citizens.
Who knows. There have been many theories from being overspoiled by parents from a generation that knew privation and loss, as well as one that faced a minor version of the previous war within the Korean conflict. Maybe because they were loaded up on TV, radio, movies, and other entertainments unlike any previous generation. Maybe cosmic ray bombardment or Van Allen Belt denial. But, all of that is outside the "WHAT" that can be gathered as evidence.
The matter of it is that the early Boomers chose to reject the mores and traditions of their parents, the Greatest, and the later Boomers (aka cultural Gen Jones) sired by the Silents became bitter over the success of their older siblings. The generational Boomers for whatever reasons chose to become grasping materialists, despite their youthful claims to the contrary, and wrapped themselves in the platitudes of their parents, consciously or no, yet without understanding what those cliched phrases were meant to convey.
Agreed. We can discuss the "why" all day, but the "what" really matters. They were given choices, and chose to take the ticket.
I struggle with staying in the “what” lane and must fight the urge to shift over to the “why” lane. Thank you for reminding me. But it is so difficult some times.
Yes, it is. You aren't the only one struggling. I'm there as well.
Mandatory national service is a great example of the divide.
Boomers see it as character-building.
Gen Z, who reasonably see for themselves a much shorter life-span bereft of opportunities, don’t want to waste that time.
Plus, they don’t see a reason to sacrifice their youth for a system that offers them nothing but demonization and indebtedness.
Jefferson once questioned whether encumbering future citizens with laws to which they did not actively consent was any different than slavery.
I’m beginning to see his point.
Always a delightful take from the generation that invented modern "draft dodging".
Most never had to dodge it. Draft was deferred for college students, then married college students, then married college students with kids, then graduate students. During most of the era (until 1970 or so) there were very few protests against Vietnam. When Nixon decided he needed to properly staff the military, college students started receiving draft notices, getting shipped overseas and coming. back with blank stares or in body bags. That kicked off massive protests and led to the end of the war.
Draft resistance --especially of the violent sort-- was mainly under Johnson. That resistance basically went away after Kent State on May 4, 1970 -- whiff of grapeshot worked, as it typically does. Peak draft numbers also hit under Johnson, as were most Vietnam casualties. The Watergate scandal was likely more of a factor in resolving the Vietnam War in 1973 than student protests were.
The draft as it was being used from the mid-50s through 1972 --bringing in green troops for only 12 to 24 months-- soured the Military on its value versus going with an all-volunteer force. The drafted troops did not perform as well as longer-serving volunteers using that short-term model, as the one-year-and-done rotations vs staying for the duration of a conflict with periodic furloughs did more damage physically and mentally to those draftees, and was not generating enough good will to back continuing draft policies. Somewhat similar to what we are seeing with Ukrainian troops in the current conflict. Meat grinder fodder.
Mandatory national service is yet another instance of a detached, hostile elite robbing from the younger generations. None of us will get social security or even our 401k's by the time this all plays out and now thw want our youths labor too? Boomers don't see conflict bc they stubbornly believe the government is the old red white and blue America they grew up in and we just need to vote harder.
Why go fight in someone else's war? Why work and sacrifice limb and psyche for another man's wallet? Rhett Butler is the only cause I know.
School was pointless, as it was about compliance and obedience. To the state, to the slow, socialistic teacher's union, and other interest groups. Yes, if you eat their bread, then you sing their songs. An education makes you free. Not indebted and philosophically bound.
Why work more, if you don't get more? Gratitude and love to friends and fellows, that's optional from a place of freedom and strength. Gratitude to genuine elders, that's when you let them be grandparents, when you want them to be by your children, when you help them live a longer life.
The draft dodgers sure want the young to die for wars that do not even have anything to do with them. I wonder how hard the young will fight for their own serfdom, perhaps there is something different to die for.
Approximately 30-40 percent of one's income is taken by Boomer pensions and old age services, but it is effectively much more since Boomers are at the same time pushing to inflate all asset prices so that they can reverse mortgage their heritage, making it impossible to afford a house. And for that all we get is the endless bragging about insane lavish vacation trips that no one else could afford or even asks for. I do not see how what the Boomers are doing is much different from slavery, especially now that in addition they are celebrating forced work.
I’m not looking for sympathy but just the obvious facts younger generation has gone through sense 2000.
2 financial crashes, 9/11 psyop, one pandemic and WW3.
And for me its even before turning 30..
I’m sure I’m misssing some important event that was just the top of my head
https://www.meme-arsenal.com/memes/b37b57b55f480c49d2237477897ecb5b.jpg
The ride never ends.
And it all began in ‘71
Bad money chases out good money; then everything else.
And all wars are bankers wars.
The last two presidential elections with R in office had prior major economic events caused or allowed by administrative interests within the central government and its various related supranational and "advisory" multilateral organs. Hmm.
During your lifetime, and mine, the first modern fake pandemic attempt, that for most of us not then vaccine injured was a whiff, was swine flu in 2009, in which Barry Otero issued the first ever in US history health emergency order under some newfangled new authorization given to the president for this purpose after there were a few 10s of reported cases before the CDC pretty much just started winging it. What good's a tool in the box if you ain't using it after all? There was another in 2003 or so SARS that was mostly focused on Hongkong and Vancouver IIRC that they said was from civet cats. Not the bat soup that time but the civet cat soup down at civet catdonalds. I was in the Hongkong airport during that and it was nearly empty though usually bustling, and big, in Asia. Freaky; not as fake looking as SARS II Covid 19 but I'd probably look at it in a different light. But what do you know, Chloroquine gets a mention without prejudice. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16115318/