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Having been born in 1959, I have always thought of myself as a Baby Boomer.
Though I rarely seem to identify much with the stereotypes of Boomers. I grew up on a farm, I was never allowed to listen to Rock music until after I had turned 18 and had moved out, so I was not exposed to much Rock or Pop until the 80's.
My career had me out of country or else simply underwater for much of my career so a lot of the things that effected our culture, I only got brief glimpses of from time-to-time.
Then I was booted out from my career and forced onto pension over 10 years ago.
Now as a pensioner and still a Baby Boomer, in many ways I still do not feel like I fit into any of the Boomer stereotypes.
I do suppose being underwater would keep a lot of the culture at bay! Thank you for your service.
Of the 76 million-some baby boomers by any definition, I don't think any one characteristic would work to identify such a large group, and such disparate backgrounds. Working class or not. College or not. Military or not. Early marriage, living in a rural or small town environment, or a poor city environment or a post-war suburb.
I'd wager that the only commonality is remembering when JFK was shot, regardless of your age. What do you think? Any other generalities that can actually hold water?
I'm lost! I hear the term "baby boomer" or talk about the "baby boomer generation" every so often. But I haven't paid much attention to it or the other generational categories...I've seen a few posts where younger people seem to blame "baby boomers" for the state of the country today...I can't imagine blaming my grandparents or other "elders" in this fashion when I was younger!...Anyway how would you define and describe a typical "baby boomer?" Just curious...Thanks!
I am a "baby boomer"..born in 1947. What this term means is that when the second world war was over and the men came home to their wives, there was alot of intimate activity and wallah...we were all born. If you figure even if calculating one pregnancy for each serviceman who came home was figured in this baby boomer count heck there are a lot of us!! Yes we get blamed for the state of the country which is in reality a joke..afterall, we retire and the next generation gets our jobs, no?? What everyone is so concerned about is that we are all now getting Social Security and will there be any left for future generations? Think of this aspect of it all. After the Baby Boomer generation there will be the babies who were born after the Viet Nam war..yet another group who will drain social security if there is any left. My solution to this dilemma?? Stop the wars and stop our soldiers from having to be away from their families for so long.
Of the 76 million-some baby boomers by any definition, I don't think any one characteristic would work to identify such a large group, and such disparate backgrounds. Working class or not. College or not. Military or not. Early marriage, living in a rural or small town environment, or a poor city environment or a post-war suburb.
I'd wager that the only commonality is remembering when JFK was shot, regardless of your age. What do you think? Any other generalities thatcan actually hold water?
I agree with you and others that there is no way to generalize about millions and millions of people. Our values, our personalities, our talents differ so much. However, there are certain commonalities about the way the world changed radically which affect the whole American population and which we Boomers were the first to experience. I would say those are:
1. We were the first generation to know from early childhood that a nuclear holocaust could destroy civilization as we know it on a global scale. That may or may not have had a large psychological effect on a given individual, of course.
2. We were the first generation to experience personally such widespread prosperity. For the first time in human history, the average worker, even unskilled workers such as those on an auto assembly line, was able to afford the "good life".
3. We were the first generation to come of age when there was such a thing as the birth control pill. This was not a negligible development, and I believe it changed certain attitudes and practices forever.
4. Human space travel passed from science fiction to reality, which was a tremendous conceptual leap. I remember our third grade teacher telling us that man would reach the moon in 20 years, and I remember my reaction being "what has she been smoking?" (Actually we didn't say that in those days, but my point is I just couldn't believe such a thing). It turned out she was about right.
Officially, baby boomers include anyone born between 1946 and 1964. There's no typical, with any generation.
If you read Charles Murray's recent book Coming Apart, he makes a pretty compelling case that boomers are indeed responsible for 'the state of the country.' Charles Murray was born before 1946, so he's not younger people. And it's hard to say the country isn't far worse off now than it was 50 years ago, sort of implicates boomers no? And I'm a boomer myself. FWIW...
He's entitled to his opinion but that's just what it is; an opinion.
You're free to disagree of course, but the book is very data rich, it's not the authors simple narrative POV. I'm curious what makes you think the boomers haven't contributed to the decline of the US in the past 50 years having been "in charge" during the same period, but somehow I suspect I'll get no response. And that's fine...
So you read it and came away with a different opinion? Or you have another view/source?
Haven't read the book, but the reviews indicate it is more about class divergence than the boomer generation. Doesn't sound like an indictment of the boomer generation as you indicated.
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