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I'm a baby-boomer and I blame my parents (the greatest generation, barf) for having seven children! It's not like we lived on a farm or something, where 'many hands make light work'.
I think we're a little skewed with years here...the civil rights movement gained momentum when most boomers were in high school---same with the space race. I'd say that the baby boomers first showed themselves as a political force when the Vietnam draft affected them.
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
68,287 posts, read 54,100,737 times
Reputation: 40586
Quote:
Originally Posted by sponger42
Being near the intersection of "Gen X/Y" I do look down on the baby boomers a bit, and I hear the same opinions voiced by my peers. The way I see it, the boomers did make some major contributions to civil rights in their early years, but then sank into self-centered decadance later in life.
What is it that makes you believe Gen X/Y is in a position to be looking down at boomers?
I think that the Boomers (and I'm one of them) have made a complete mess. As a person concerned with the environment, I'm especially appalled by their self-indulgent insistence on leveling habitat to build themselves huge homes, drive gas-guzzling uber-mobiles, say nothing when agribusiness slowly and inexorably pushed the American farmer off the land in order to brutalize animals--i.e. maximize efficiency and profit--on factory "farms," do nothing to stop the outsourcing of American jobs, etc. The list goes on. I respectfully disagree, therefore, with sponger42: in my opinion, we need to look inward, not outward, because if we don't, wherever we "explore" is doomed to the same destruction.
What is it that makes you believe Gen X/Y is in a position to be looking down at boomers?
Because the boomers are now retiring. Now is the perfect time to examine their accomplishments and failings in retrospective and compare them to previous generations.
Gen X/Y will assume the reins in the next few decades while the boomers retire and become a massive burden on the social systems. One of the challenges that X/Y will face is to care for the horde of older people without hobbling the economy.
In my opinion, the boomers were inferior to the generation prior to them, thus I look down on them for not doing as well as the previous generation. If, in 40-50 years, X/Y proves itself inferior to the boomers, I'll agree with the next (and previous) generations should they choose to disparage mine. Or maybe I'll just be a grumpy old man who can no longer accept criticism.
As for looking inward, that is the fastest route to destruction. If we could harness our population growth and live sustainably, this would not be the case. However, it is the nature of every living thing--in the absence of predators and disease--to expand in population until it exhausts it's resources. Despite lip-service from "environmentalists" who eat meat from Brazil and drive cars from Korea on gas from Saudi Arabia, I see no indications that it will be any different for Humans--except for small pockets of aboriginies and Buddhist monks. If we do not wish to suffer a collapse that snuffs out billions of sentient beings prematurely, we need to expand to give ourselves time and resources to learn to master our instincts.
But sponger, expand to where? And it is not the nature of every living thing to expand in population until it exhausts its resources. A natural ecosystem is a highly developed and complex interdependent and BALANCED association of organisms: if it is undisturbed, no resources are depleted. Only when humans enter the picture, and think that they have a right to use up all resources as they please, the consquences for nature and future human generations be damned, does resource depletion become an issue. In fact, if we do not wish to suffer a collapse that snuffs out billions of sentient beings prematurely, we would do well NOT to "expand." Overpopulation and resource depletion will be the reasons for collapse, nothing else. As one writer notes: "Nature bats last." Too many numbers, too much imbalance and, frankly, it's no longer up to us.
P.S. I'm an environmentalist and I neither eat meat from Brazil (no meat, actually) nor drive a car from Korea. Where the gas comes from I can't do anything about, but I drive my car only when necessary (about 3 days/week).
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
68,287 posts, read 54,100,737 times
Reputation: 40586
Quote:
Originally Posted by sponger42
In my opinion, the boomers were inferior to the generation prior to them, thus I look down on them for not doing as well as the previous generation. If, in 40-50 years, X/Y proves itself inferior to the boomers, I'll agree with the next (and previous) generations should they choose to disparage mine. Or maybe I'll just be a grumpy old man who can no longer accept criticism.
.
That would only allow the previous generation to look down on boomers if the previous generation is proven superior. It still doesn't answer what puts Gen X/Y in a position to look down on anyone. What has Gen X/Y done to elevate itself?
I read here in another thread someone who was most definitely not a boomer talk about getting up whenever they wanted and eating whatever they wanted and doing whatever they wanted which then lead to them saying "I don't mind the war" It was one of the most self absorbed, smug statements I've read here so I'll ask again---What has Gen X/Y done to elevate itself above any other generation?
But sponger, expand to where? And it is not the nature of every living thing to expand in population until it exhausts its resources. A natural ecosystem is a highly developed and complex interdependent and BALANCED association of organisms: if it is undisturbed, no resources are depleted. Only when humans enter the picture, and think that they have a right to use up all resources as they please, the consquences for nature and future human generations be damned, does resource depletion become an issue. In fact, if we do not wish to suffer a collapse that snuffs out billions of sentient beings prematurely, we would do well NOT to "expand." Overpopulation and resource depletion will be the reasons for collapse, nothing else. As one writer notes: "Nature bats last." Too many numbers, too much imbalance and, frankly, it's no longer up to us.
It is far too late for any of that. We are currently living in an unsustainable world. Billions will have to die for us to achieve the BALANCE most people speak of. It is not possible for the Earth's ecosystem to be "balanced" with 6 billion members of a single 130lb omnivorous species roaming it's surface. It will not happen without mass death.
Expand our reach upwards. There are dead worlds like the Moon, asteroids, and possibly Mars which we can exploit without damaging the environment of other living creatures. We could move our heavy industry and energy production off-planet over the next few centuries and allow the Earth's ecosystem to recover. We could ship pollutants off-planet and bring in resources, opening the feedback loops on the ecosystem to allow Earth to support more Humans and more animals without competition for the limited resources. Just our local solar system is VAST and rife with untapped resources. Getting out of the Earth's gravity well is hard, but there are technologies in the development phase that would let us migrate at least our most environmentally damaging industry off-planet within our lifetime. Space MUST play a part in our future planning, including Environmental stewardship.
Quote:
P.S. I'm an environmentalist and I neither eat meat from Brazil (no meat, actually) nor drive a car from Korea. Where the gas comes from I can't do anything about, but I drive my car only when necessary (about 3 days/week).
I'm not an environmentalist but I do ride public transportation and my bicycle to work and as often as I can otherwise. I rarely drive anywhere more than twice a week. However, I don't kid myself that:
1. Everyone can live like me.
or
2. It would do more than temporarily push back the day the Biosphere catastrophically collapses even if everyone did.
Because the boomers are now retiring. Now is the perfect time to examine their accomplishments and failings in retrospective and compare them to previous generations.
Gen X/Y will assume the reins in the next few decades while the boomers retire and become a massive burden on the social systems. One of the challenges that X/Y will face is to care for the horde of older people without hobbling the economy.
In my opinion, the boomers were inferior to the generation prior to them, thus I look down on them for not doing as well as the previous generation. If, in 40-50 years, X/Y proves itself inferior to the boomers, I'll agree with the next (and previous) generations should they choose to disparage mine. Or maybe I'll just be a grumpy old man who can no longer accept criticism.
As for looking inward, that is the fastest route to destruction. If we could harness our population growth and live sustainably, this would not be the case. However, it is the nature of every living thing--in the absence of predators and disease--to expand in population until it exhausts it's resources. Despite lip-service from "environmentalists" who eat meat from Brazil and drive cars from Korea on gas from Saudi Arabia, I see no indications that it will be any different for Humans--except for small pockets of aboriginies and Buddhist monks. If we do not wish to suffer a collapse that snuffs out billions of sentient beings prematurely, we need to expand to give ourselves time and resources to learn to master our instincts.
As a "Baby Boomer" about to retire in two years I can say that I spend quite bit of time reflecting on the "Legacy" my generation will leave.( The jury is still out!!!) I also agree that my generation is inferior to the previous generation with regard to character. The generation of my parents was just plain tough. Hard nosed they were. Maybe too much so their health suffered greatly. We "Boomers" were allowed much more leisure/luxury generally speaking than our predecessors. Overall our lives were much easier.
I alone cannot change perceptions about my generation. What I will do is to continue to contribute to the world in which I live. I will be mindful to share my blessings as long as I am physically able. I keep myself strong in all manners and will continue until I can't. Each generation can help the previous and the next. hey I want to be a part of the solution. We live in this world together.
Perhaps GenX and those who follow will devise a means to control the population expansion and bring the Hummer driving,Petroluem stock owning,
Carnivores all of them, money grabbing to a place where all cars are "SMART"
There is no stock market and no "Flesh" is consumed. If you can make some suggestions that aren't too weird I'm in !!!!!
Spiritwalker
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