The Baby Boomers are to Blame !!!!! (generations, racism, 18 year old, solution)
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Are the "Baby Boomers" with all of our entitled "Me First " attitudes to blame for the impending economic doom( sky high taxes to pay for our luxury among other things) predicted by certain factions? Will our noble efforts of civil rights, tolerance, advances in medicine and science ect. be overshadowed by our tendency to be self centered, greedy, and entitled? How will we be judged ? Will our grandchildren resent us ? I want to hear from Baby Boomers and all other generations. This is an issue that won't go away..............We all need to begin a serious dialogue now. Your help is vital. It could spare much pain in the long run.
Spiritwalker ( no trademark cool, wink or smile on this one)
I do not blame the baby boomers for everything. I partially blame the business school professors for teaching that business is only about profit and that financial manipulation is preferred to actually producing any real product.
I also blame the manipulators that have burdened us with militarism, empire and the endless deficits that support them. These are the certain ways to cultural and economic bankruptcy.
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.
The Boomer's greatest accomplishments, IMO, were the peaceful resolution of the Cold War and the improvements in Civil Rights. They averted a catastrophic nuclear war, maintained relative peace in the world for their entire generation, and reversed generations of racism.
The Boomer's greatest shortfalls, IMO, are the doctrine of consumerism and the emphasis of individual freedom over social responsiblity. They severely damaged the environment, oversped the economy, and created the "me first!" culture. Now it's up to us to clean up their mess and turn these problems around.
Again, to their credit, the Boomer's were left with the ENORMOUS problem of racism, post-colonialism, and the totalitarian communism by the preceeding "greatest generation" and they did a lot to solve it.
The "greatest generation" was left with the ENORMOUS problem of Nazism and a fractured and unstable Europe by the generation who fought the WWI.
And the list goes on. It just goes to show you that each generation has successes as well as problems that they leave to their children to solve. The Boomers have left us a mess to clean up, and we probably won't be able to live the decadant lifestyle they did later in life (2 SUV's to every middle-class family, McMansions, etc...) but they did make positive contributions as well. They could've done better, but they also could've done a lot worse.
I have to adm it that the boomers did start this downward spiral that the country is into at this time. I am a Boomer but never got into any of the crap that so many did. But hey, when wants to see "Me First" all one has to do is look at the youn gest generation out there. I would like to see all cell phones taken away from all children until they hit at least 17 years of age, There is no damn reason to have any cell phone in a school, except to cheat of course, which by the way is a big deal these days. The average person out there cheats and hustles their way through school and college and are as stupid as the day is long. Each generation seems to get worse too. But not to worry at all since soon enough, we will be completely run by Mexico.
I agree with what y'all have said about the various generations. Some interesting perspectives I haven't thought about. Every generation likes to dwell on what they did right, but people rarely discuss what they may have done wrong, or what new problems they've created.
I like to think that my generation will be the one to solve the problem of environmental unsustainability. Maybe that's too big of a task, but who knows.
Last edited by anonymous; 07-27-2007 at 12:45 PM..
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.
The Boomer's greatest accomplishments, IMO, were the peaceful resolution of the Cold War and the improvements in Civil Rights. They averted a catastrophic nuclear war, maintained relative peace in the world for their entire generation, and reversed generations of racism.
The Boomer's greatest shortfalls, IMO, are the doctrine of consumerism and the emphasis of individual freedom over social responsiblity. They severely damaged the environment, oversped the economy, and created the "me first!" culture. Now it's up to us to clean up their mess and turn these problems around.
Again, to their credit, the Boomer's were left with the ENORMOUS problem of racism, post-colonialism, and the totalitarian communism by the preceeding "greatest generation" and they did a lot to solve it.
The "greatest generation" was left with the ENORMOUS problem of Nazism and a fractured and unstable Europe by the generation who fought the WWI.
And the list goes on. It just goes to show you that each generation has successes as well as problems that they leave to their children to solve. The Boomers have left us a mess to clean up, and we probably won't be able to live the decadant lifestyle they did later in life (2 SUV's to every middle-class family, McMansions, etc...) but they did make positive contributions as well. They could've done better, but they also could've done a lot worse.
I have to adm it that the boomers did start this downward spiral that the country is into at this time. I am a Boomer but never got into any of the crap that so many did. But hey, when wants to see "Me First" all one has to do is look at the youn gest generation out there. I would like to see all cell phones taken away from all children until they hit at least 17 years of age, There is no damn reason to have any cell phone in a school, except to cheat of course, which by the way is a big deal these days. The average person out there cheats and hustles their way through school and college and are as stupid as the day is long. Each generation seems to get worse too. But not to worry at all since soon enough, we will be completely run by Mexico.
Yeah Baby.....Too many cellphones...it's epidemic and it is causing major fatalities on the road too.....Texting while driving.....
What Sponger says is pretty much the way I see it.
You can't buy a lifestyle. But spoiled brats that we were, we sure tried, didn't we?
Many of us ultimately embraced the very corporate-funded suburban splendor we had rejected as 18 year olds.
However, I'll disagree a bit when it comes to the environment.
When Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring launched the new ecology consciousness, Earth Day began in 1970, and the Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act in '73, it was the surging youth movement that brought this about. We read and contributed to the Whole Earth Catalog, began the organic farms, sang along with Randy Newman's Burn On, Big River. (His ode to the burning Cuyahoga River.)
Of course there has been much waste, and the exploration of renewable energy has ebbed and flowed depending on what administration is in power and what the oil prices are. There are villains among the heroes.
But overall, I think we have done more good than bad with the environment.
(Oh, and we don't have a McMansion or two SUVs. )
I blame not just the boomers - but general world populance ignorance in general. The boomer general definitely has its share of self-centric people who don't think very hard about the future but enjoy the fruits of their labor - but I know that many of the 20-something generation and younger are the same way despite better educational opportunities and exposure to the information age.
I guess, what I'm trying to say is that boomers made it acceptable or desirable to try to get a Mcmansion and 2 SUV's, when the reality is that it is socially irresponsible to take that much more than you need.
And I don't blame individuals. Most boomers you meet are good people with good intentions. It's just that society overall turned toward overconsumption when people forgot (or set aside) about personal sacrifice, econ/enviro responsibility, in the interest of personal material gain.
Yes, some boomers did start the enviro movement, to their credit. Oh, one more thing;
Boomers went to the moon, but then gave up and forgot about space. That was such a huge accomplishment, followed by a massive disappointment. Think of the resources we would have if we were mining asteroids and had built frontier domed cities on the moon or mars!
It's going to be up to X/Y to get back out there and expand. Earth is filling up and the resources are being tapped out, even with conservationism. There are no real frontiers any more except upward. We need to look outward and start exploring again!
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Away with the Cellphones in School !!!!
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