Dear Baby Boomers, Let a Millennial Tell You How It Is

After suffering through the horrors of war and the great depression, your parents sought nothing more for their children than peace and plenty. We certainly cannot fault them for that. However, in valuing the material prosperity that so often eluded them in their time as well as believing in the American exceptionalism that developed after most other westernized countries were decimated, they left their children with dated values.

You have raised us with a flawed ideology that values hard work with no regard as to what is actually produced or the consequences of its production. You encourage divisive politics by pursuing political philosophies of which you neither fully comprehend nor recognize the inevitable outcomes. You neglect the greater part of mankind and exalt the utility of man over his faculties of reason and the beauty of his art. Were you to posses a meaningful philosophy that made an attempt at justifying these pursuits, they would be quickly excused. Unfortunately, as philosophy goes, I suspect most boomers are more likely to mistake Spinoza for a flavor of ice cream and identify Voltaire as one of the Transformers rather than posses any familiarity with their writings. You are a philosophically deficient generation who is happy to shell out $20 for a book on politics written by entertainers posing as freedom fighters and advocates for the poor while the best works are free and collect dust.

Being a product of the Cronkite and Brokaw era, you have developed a dangerous expectation that quality information will be delivered to you. This is a quaint notion and in the internet age an expectation that is laughable at first glance and pitiable after contemplation. Perhaps in your time the media aspired to, and achieved, a certain level of journalistic integrity. This is not your time. Journalism is just not profitable anymore. Few truly useful things are.

Believing in American exceptionalism and accepting shallow narratives concerning those opposed to us, you have allowed us to enter into wars of false pretense, high cost, and highly doubtful efficacy. In so doing, we waste not just the life of our own men and women, but the soldiers and civilians of our targets. So often we mourn and despair over the loss of American lives, and so we should, but neglect the loss of life we inflict on those we engage. Your xenophobic disregard for the people of other nations is disappointing at best.

For the sake of brevity I will forgo our economy and environment, perhaps the worst offenses.

But all of this pales in comparison to the fact that the boomers have made possible the means by which we can criticize their flaws. Many of our generation achieved a college education via the financial assistance of the boomers as well as the value they placed on education even if it may have been targeted towards flawed goals. Still more are educated every day through the internet - a product of the boomers and an invention that history may show rivaled or surpassed the advancements of the industrial age. We should be so fortunate to wear a badge of such worth when our time is through and our children take to criticizing us for all our faults.

In the coming years I expect there to be much more friction between the boomers and Gen X / Millennials with harsh words being thrown both ways as financial concerns exasperate generational divides. For my generation to criticize the boomers in regards to their lack of depth and foresight while neglecting to appreciate the great contributions they have made to the world is a truly ungrateful act. I would liken it to an heir berating the inheritance of a house because the roof is in need of repair.

So, on behalf of my generation (though likely without their consent), I would like to thank you for contributions to humanity the scope of which may not fully be appreciated until after your time has passed. As demographics shift and the influence of my generation grows you will no doubt walk the gauntlet of ungracious criticism that accompanies every transition. Comfort yourself in the realization that the hyperbolic lashing you will receive, such as this one, have been made possible by the world you helped create.

Hate leads to anger...you know the rest.
Do not blame one age group for the problems of the world because every generation has cocked up in some way.
Also why tar every baby boomer with the same brush?

I understand the problems you have stated but it is up to you the new generation to sort them out or at least try to.
No point in blaming people for one thing when it is in the past and can not be changed, just do not make the same mistakes others have.
But I'm not going to go for a generation war because you young folk are falling for all the BS much more than older gens did.

BTW is a milennial born in the year 2000 or older/younger etc.

reply to post by boymonkey74


I believe the Millennial generation is generally the early 80's up to 2000.

As far as hate and anger, I certainly agree. The title is intended to be inflammatory (it's a rant after all), but the content is really just meant to highlight both the shortcomings and contributions of the baby boomer generation through a bit of hyperbole. And while I make generalizations concerning the baby boomers, I do not mean to paint individual boomers with the same brush. However, I think it is safe to assume that generations carry certain characteristics.

But I'm not going to go for a generation war because you young folk are falling for all the BS much more than older gens did.

I didn't mean to imply that we would do any better .

Originally posted by hezro
reply to post by boymonkey74

 

I believe the Millennial generation is generally the early 80's up to 2000.

As far as hate and anger, I certainly agree. The title is intended to be inflammatory (it's a rant after all), but the content is really just meant to highlight both the shortcomings and contributions of the baby boomer generation through a bit of hyperbole. And while I make generalizations concerning the baby boomers, I do not mean to paint individual boomers with the same brush. However, I think it is safe to assume that generations carry certain characteristics.

But I'm not going to go for a generation war because you young folk are falling for all the BS much more than older gens did.

I didn't mean to imply that we would do any better

.

edit on 5-12-2012 by hezro because: Added small response.

Well, if it's a rant, and it surely is, could your enlightened millennial mind not have conceived that you are in the wrong fecking forum. Cancel that, it seems it is after all.

Wow, it must be nice to see from such a higher perspective.

Here's another hyperbole for ya':
"Don't have too much fun dancing around on the backs of the bruised."

If you have seen further, it is only because you stand on the shoulders of giants.

reply to post by hezro


I was born in the 1950's and I can mirror your rant onto my parents.

We were hippies, beatnics and represented all those who challenged the status quo. We were the ones that achieved civil rights and protested the Vietnam War. We were the ones who were the first to experience free love and legal birth control for unmarried women!

We invented Rock and Roll and produced some of the best music this planet will ever experience! We produced people like Alan Watts, Timothy Leary and the Monkeys!

Now, my daughter, on the other hand, with her yuppie PHD degree and university job........?

reply to post by boymonkey74


I can understand where you're coming from, but the fact of the matter is that we still face these problems because the boomers chose not to do anything about them, either through conscious decision or willful ignorance. These problems still exist because they handed them to us, and the same goes for the next generation (of which I pity more than any other generation) if we do not deal with it in our life-times.

reply to post by hezro


Anyway, what I was going to say, is that it is us baby boomers who 'are in the office' now. Many of us used to march and protest in the 60's over nuclear proliferation, over Vietnam on both sides of the pond. The 60's was a time of enormous change in Britain, and all over the world and even then there was not exactly heaps of money to go round, while other parts of western europe, including Germany were expanding rapidly, Britain was the poor relation, repaying war debts, while also trying to rebuild. America was not hit so hard. You have no clue as to what it was like then. I might agree with some your points, but others are just toxic rubbish.

Originally posted by stupid girl
If you have seen further, it is only because you stand on the shoulders of giants.

I thought the original post implied this.

reply to post by xXxinfidelxXx


It has been my experience that karma always skips a generation. I am much more like my grandmother that my mother.

In my opinion, more blame needs to be divided to the sheeple generation of the WWII generation. We are still paying for and figuring out how we were deceived into everything from the Federal Reserve, the "New Deal" to the new appropriation of nations and national interests.

reply to post by hezro


I am a baby boomer! I am not in the mood to respond properly
to this thread.The reason you are even here is because a baby
boomer had a baby!

Please read "The Fourth Turning" by Strauss and Howe. They posit the ideals that are adopted by each generation follows a cyclical pattern. The ideals engendered in the Millenial generation is a direct result of the very different ideals engendered in the Gen Xers, which is a result of being raised by Boomers. They demonstrate the generational cycles going back as far as the fifteenth century. It is a fascinating read, particularly since it was published in 1996.

I fear some responders have missed the point of the rant and in the hope of lowering the anger level, please let me explain. The first part of the post does contain actual criticisms, but they are exaggerated beyond truth to set up the second part of the post which is the criticism of those who would place undo blame on the Baby Boomers without appreciating their contributions. I suspect some may have been so infuriated with the first half that they neglected to read the rest. For this I apologize.

I believe we are a product of our circumstances and place no blame on any generation for the problems we face. My generation will make mistakes just as bad in our own manner.

reply to post by CaptHowdy


I keep meaning to. I've read portions here and there but never the entire book. Someone else also suggested this book, "Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069" though I haven't checked it out yet.

reply to post by windword


Both the Federal Reserve Act and the Emergency Banking Act (the two most disastrous pieces of legislation to ever come into being, short of the Patriot Act.) were signed into law years before WWII. If you think about it, though, you cannot blame the people of that era for falling for the whole Problem Reaction Solution schtick, as they did not have the internet and they had the Great Depression to deal with.

reply to post by xXxinfidelxXx


Then solve the problems that the older gen has ignored, do not waste your time blaming the older people, do something they did not....
Please make the world better...it is what every generation wants for the next one.

reply to post by boymonkey74


You expect me to do all that by myself? Nobody in my generation or the one coming up even really gives a rat's ass as long as they've got the newest gadget, and the ones that do give a #, for the most part, are too stupid to recognize what the real problems are. You may think I'm a coward, but all trying to change things got me was a severe case of depression and ostracized from most of my family and friends. The fact of the matter is, regardless of what generation you come from, nobody likes a do-gooder. I'm sick of beating my head against a brick wall.

Originally posted by hezro
I fear some responders have missed the point of the rant and in the hope of lowering the anger level, please let me explain. The first part of the post does contain actual criticisms, but they are exaggerated beyond truth to set up the second part of the post which is the criticism of those who would place undo blame on the Baby Boomers without appreciating their contributions. I suspect some may have been so infuriated with the first half that they neglected to read the rest. For this I apologize.

I believe we are a product of our circumstances and place no blame on any generation for the problems we face. My generation will make mistakes just as bad in our own manner.

What you did wrong in your eloquence was to assume that there were only Americans in the room, or even that the 'first part' served the 'second part' It is not like that, baby boomers are out of post WW2, the war that should never have happened. WW1 was the war to end all wars wasn't it? President Woodrow Wilson believed that, didn't he, and he coined the term? yet a mere 21 years or so later we had WW2, an even bigger war since the last biggest war. No, social consciousness was already creeping in long before the baby boomers, and elitism was among the suspects that caused all the mayhem. so your last paragraph above, WTF is that supposed to mean, everyone makes mistakes, but if you have any real savvy, you will not repeat the 'mistakes' of the past, all the really bad mistakes have been done. Don't try and reinvent them.

It's interesting to watch people advertise their reading/replying method.

This so called GenXer says genius post and thank you.

reply to post by xXxinfidelxXx


Yeah, you're right. But hey, my generation, we still had the best music, ever!