I won’t be posting a Quinn-like masterpiece with lots of graphs and statistics. First, I don’t have that ability. Second, I am not a statistic. I am a person … so this will be a personal story with anecdotes about my achy-breaky Boomer life. Mostly, I just want to address the following question;
“ARE BOOMERS RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERYTHING WRONG IN AMERICA TODAY?”
First, let me whine a little. A number of folks here (you know who you are, lol) answer that question with an emphatic “YES!!”. I find it incredulous that otherwise very smart folks can say such things. I don’t know if it’s said just for effect to “piss off” Boomers such as myself, or if you can really attribute this country’s Great Malaise to such a simple theory. It is also rather dismaying that whenever ANYTHING positive is said about the Boomer generation, then that person is accused of being in “denial” or an “apologist”. It’s almost as if the quest for knowledge ceases when it comes to Boomers … a really surprising turn of events considering the large number of INTJs here.
Others will say we Boomers shouldn’t take it “personally” — which, really, is like calling a black person “nigger”, and then exclaiming, “Oh! Please don’t take that personally”. Tough to do! Accuse me of whatever you wish. I simply cannot wrap my tiny mind around the Broad Brush Approach — lumping an entire generation of 76 million people as the cause of Everything Evil is not wise, helpful, applicable, or even possible, imho. You might as well say, “Humans caused all our evils” … which would also be equally correct, and equally useless since the classification is too enormous. But if one is looking for an Easy Unified Theory of Everything Wrong With America … “Boomers Did It” … well, have at it.
I cannot identify with the rich Boomers, because I am not rich. I cannot identify with the rich Greatest Generation , because I am not rich. I cannot identify with the rich of any generation, because I am not rich. Without advocating a class-warfare approach, I must maintain that a far greater divide in America is along Class — not, age. The mega-rich, the mega-powerful, the ultra-elite — yeah, the 1% — as George Carlin says, THEY are your owners! Redirect your anger accordingly.
I am NOT against the younger generation. I love ‘em. I feel I have more in common with my emotionally troubled son than with most Boomers in my life. Unlike what happens to many old farts, he at least he still questions everything, still wonders what this crazy life is all about, still wonders how he “fits in”. Just like I did when I was his age, and actually, still do to some extent. \\end:whining//
STUCKY CONSIDERS HIS PAST WHILE AT A CHRISTMAS CONCERT
A couple Sundays ago I went to my Dad’s Christmas concert. He sings for The Plainfield Gesang & Turn Verein, a German-American heritage club that was founded in 1886. There were about 200 people in attendance. I would say that 90% of demographics were Boomers such as myself and our parents, The Greatest Generation.
I not only listened to the music, but as I watched my dad singing so proudly, and as I glanced at my mom who always gets weepy at this event, my mind also grew nostalgic, as it is prone to do at such holiday occasions.
It is only in the past few years that I have seen my parents as “whole” persons. What I mean by that is that their whole existence on this planet, as far as I was concerned for most of my life, only started around when I was 5 years old … my earliest memories of them. That means about 30 years of their lives — while they did start to tell me bits and pieces once I turned 17 and thereafter — well, for all intents and purposes it simply didn’t exist. What a damn shame, to my own detriment, that I didn’t even care about the great fountain of experience and knowledge I so easily dismissed. The major event that shaped my parent’s lives was WWII. With apologies to all those here who know this story, I shall very briefly summarize it for those who don’t, for context.
My dad was a German living in Romania. One day, when dad was a teenager, the German Army came sweeping into his village, yanked him from his home, told him he was in the German Army, sent him to the Russian front, where he was captured, spent time in a Russian prison camp, and upon release was not allowed to return to Romania and never saw his family again, but was instead sent to England to work in the coal mines for several years – a form of ‘reparation’, before he made his way to a refugee camp in Austria.
My mother was a German living in Yugoslavia. One day, when she was a teenager, the Russian Army came sweeping into her village. They shot a lot of older German men – the young ones were all off to war — on the spot. Virtually all the women in the village were promptly sent to a Russian gulag, where she was raped, saw her mom raped and then murdered in front of her eyes. After the war ended only she and her brother remained alive, they were not allowed to return to their village, and they walked to a refugee camp in Austria.
I don’t relay these events for pity. Screw that. They are just one of millions of German families who suffered in WWII … just as millions of Americans have suffered in WWII, with only the details changing. I just have a story to tell, and my parent’s story is a huge part of my story. Of course I can’t speak for 76 million of us except in a general sense. For example, I graduated from a high school of about 2,000 and I feel comfortable in saying we all share the Same Boomer Story, generally speaking.
THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING BOOMERISM
The point is these are the people who raised my fat Boomer ass … which they did not do in a vacuum, independent of things that shaped their lives. The picture in your mind’s eye of a “Boomer” is quite incomplete if you forget, or misunderstand, our Greatest Generation parents.
So, I’m watching my mother as she watches the concert, I put my hand around her shoulder as I see her eyes well up with tears. What is she thinking? What pains are still so real to her today .. that I can’t help her with? I start thinking about my own 59 years of living … how crystal clear certain events of my own teenage years still are … as if they happened yesterday. And then a feel a certain shame that it took me so long to see my parents as whole persons. I suddenly feel despondent that I so despised several aspects of my upbringing that I couldn’t wait to join the military, even in the midst of the Vietnam war, just to get the fuck out from under my parent’s thumb. Before taking a look at how the Greatest Generation raised us, let’s quickly take a look at another key to understanding Boomers; the world in which we lived
HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY ??
The Gay 20’s really weren’t all that gay, just as the world Boomers inherited wasn’t only the fun, Hippie, pot-smokin’, LSD trippin’, rock’n-roll groovin’, free love image that is remembered today. Two big events and a ton of smaller ones helped turn our once pure souls to the Dark Side.
First Big Event: Da Bomb. Russia. Nukes. Commie bastards. Ka-BAM! All gone. Nuclear winter. Dead. Why??? Nuke drills!! Little Boomer children hiding under desks for protection. Little Boomer children watching gub’mint movies showing homes blasted to smithereens. Little desk hiding Boomers not stupid, “We gonna die under this desk!!” Was I forever traumatized – some prepubescent PTSD – by these drills? No. Did it affect my perception of what the world was about and that just maybe it made no sense at all and that the grownups were idiots and that since tomorrow may never come so I might as well live just for today … even though I was just a kid at the time? You better believe it.
Second Big Event. Vietnam. Dirty, nasty, disgusting, vile war that killed 60,000 of us and maimed hundreds of thousands more. What was it good for? Absolutely nothing. Did it affect my perception of what the world was about and that just maybe it made no sense at all and that the grownups were idiots and that since tomorrow may never come so I might as well live just for today? You better believe it.
Not to mention in no particular order; civil rights ….. riots …. . corrupt government openly lying ….. a disgraced president ….. dead soldiers faces broadcast on TV every night ….. Kent State ….. double-digit unemployment ……. Midnight Cowboy ….. 25% interest rate for a home loan ….. gas lines ….. shitty cars that exploded ….. S&L crisis ….. Bay of Pigs ….. nukes in Cuba!! …. Abortion …. JFK ….. and, MLK …. Jimmie Hendrix and Janis Joplin …. Gloria Steinem and woman’s rights ….. no more prayer in school ….. the Ayatollah ….. Supreme Court turns activist all over the place …… Korea ….. school integration ……………….
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Did we shape the times, or did the times shape us? I think it’s the latter. Simple math.
The first Boomers were born in 1946. How old are the people-in-charge, the leaders, the CEOs, the 535 politicians that rule our lives … i.e., the people who actually make things happen? Let’s be conservative and say that it’s 30 years old. So, the first Boomers with power to affect the status quo arrive on the scene only in 1975. I would say Boomers took the helms of power around daddy Bush’s presidency in 1989 – when the first Boomers were 43 years old.
The “ME Generation” —- A MISNOMER
We are … and you may add the adjective “most” to many of these descriptions; selfish, self-indulgent, unwilling to sacrifice, politically correct, drug addicted, material minded, entitled, liberal or commie shits, bad parents, lazy, humans to ever walk the earth. And to top it all off we invented Afro’s and disco (actually, two legitimate reasons to hate us). Amazingly, we accomplished all this because of the year in which we were born. And because of our sin of ‘The Year Of Our Birth’, you can go to literally hundreds of blogs other than here and find the admonishment that Boomers should “just die already”. The implication being, that once this happens, pretty much everything will return to bliss, prosperity, and overall happiness. I read that we Boomers only cared about only three things; 1) Me, 2) Me, and 3) Me. Just like the “love of money” is the root of evil, our preoccupation with “Me” is the root cause underlying our evilness.
BUT — the ME-Generation was raised by the Greatest Generation.
How would YOU like to be born following that moniker? Imagine you have just one older sibling, and your parents referred to him/her as “The Greatest Kid”. It just might fuck you up! Lol Boomer babies didn’t drop out the shoot and at the moment of birth become The Most Selfish Bastards ever. We did not raise ourselves. Somewhere along the line, some person(s) and some event(s) helped us along into becoming selfish pricks. Cause leads to effect, nature abhors a vacuum.
What do you THINK you know about The Greatest Generation?
Unless you’re a Boomer, what you think you know about the Greatest Generation is likely inaccurate. The people you know as grandparents are NOT the same people who raised us. Some kind of Weird Assed Transformation took place from the time we were born to the people you know. Maybe it has to do with the aging process – whereby one becomes more introspective, soft hearted, and most importantly – accepting of Things As They Are … not, What They Should Be, a mantra us Boomer kids heard a million times if we heard it once. Maybe it was the realization that their own Materialism was a big mistake … and trust me on this, in many ways they were much more materialistic than their boomer children. Maybe they didn’t ‘change’, maybe they just ‘adapted’ – but, the Metamorphosis into A New Life Form –one that is NOW loved and revered — is and was spectacular.
Let’s take a look at what Boomer kids heard growing up
“ I’m not buying you a new pair of Converse sneakers. You think money grows on trees?”
“You’re not going out dressed like that, are you? What will the neighbors think?”
“I slave all day to put food on the table, so you damn well better eat all of it!”
“You don’t know what hardship is all about. WE had it rough.”
“Kids in China are starving. Learn some gratitude, dammit.”
“You see all the stuff we have?. We did all this for you.”
“Turn off the damn lights. You think electricity is free?”
“You don’t know the meaning of sacrifice.”
“Cut your hair! At least look respectable.”
“You don’t know how lucky you are.”
“At least you could show some respect.”
“You don’t know the value of things.”
“Why don’t you appreciate anything?”
“Quit acting like a bum!” KaPow!! (We boomer kids got wacked …. A LOT)
If you don’t see a significant amount of materialism in those statements then, I’m sorry, you’re just not being perceptive enough. Materialism is largely a state of mind. Bertrand Russel said, ——- “It is the preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else that prevents us from living freely and nobly.”
HANGING ONTO WHAT YOU GOT LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT
It’s not about how much stuff you own. It’s about the stuff you own that eventually owns you. A middle aged man attempts to reclaim his youth and buys a vintage Harley, just like the one in Easy Rider. He owns the bike. Before you know it he’s spending all weekend polishing every nut and bolt. Then he decides it needs some restoration, and he spends a few grand doing that. Then he spends more and more time away from his family and with his fellow enthusiasts, riding around town, showing off like a peacock. Then one day his teenage son accidently puts a small scratch on the fender. He hurls a string of expletives at his son for committing this unforgiveable sin. The bike now owns HIM.
Although I lacked nothing growing up, my pre-boomer angst was fueled by the ever present possibility that all the blessings bestowed on me could be lost at any time. From scarcity we came, and to scarcity we could return. This pretty much fulfills Bertrand Russels’s materialism “preoccupation” criteria. Our stuff, meager as it might be, owned us. The resultant activity of the scarcity meme, in terms of materialism, is that my Greatest Generation dad worked his ass off to make sure scarcity would never rear its ugly head. This is admirable and not to be condemned. Don’t you, and I, do the very same thing for our children?
But, it did have unintended consequences. Growing up I couldn’t help but feeling that material gain was more important than anything else. Our parents did work their fingers to the bone. But by the time they dragged their tired asses through the door, they were too tired to hug us. They were too tired to have any really meaningful conversations, especially about sex. “Children should be seen, and not heard.” , I swear was God’s eternal truth scripted somewhere in the Gospels. So, we spent a great deal of our time out of our parents’ sight. That was great for both of us … far less arguments.
We even had our own special place to play in the house. The basement. We sure as hell never romped around the main level, especially the living room; “Don’t sit there! That’s GOOD furniture!!”. Our little boomer minds duly noted; ‘furniture more important than us’. Watch reruns of ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ and Marie’s living room to see the hilarious abortions our parents resorted in order to “save” the good furniture; they covered everything in plastic! Lol All of us immediately identified with the advice Dustin Hoffman received in The Graduate; “Plastics, my boy. Plastics.” Eventually we got the last laugh when all that plastic shit turned a putrid shade of yellow, and the cushions smelled like skunk ass when the plastic was removed. Meanwhile, we were banished to the basement where we could destroy nothing of real value.
FROM DEPRIVATION TO EXCESS TO REBELLION
One of the most common reactions to deprivation is excess. For example, people who have faced starvation will often, once circumstances have changed, become gluttons. This was our parents’ response.
Then, as time passes, a typical reaction to excess is rebellion. This was our response. For example, on a grand scale a Colonist eventually rebels against the excesses of his British masters, and dumps tea in the bay. On an individual scale, children (of any era) eventually rebel against their parents’ excessive rules by doing the exact opposite. The goal of the Rebel, whether a nation or a child, is always to starve the master of their power.
This dynamic plays out predictably well in the Greatest Generation / Boomer relationship. The Greatest Generation faced deprivations in spades; from the Great Depression to Dust Bowls to World War II. The end of the Big War ushers in the greatest economic boom in American history, or something like that. Remembering their deprivations the Greatest Generation becomes as materialistic as any in recent memory. Some of you folks err when you compare that materialism back then with what we have today. You look at countless graphs, data, GDPs, debt, one financial ratio after another … compare the two eras … and somehow conclude that the Greatest Generation were ‘savers’. The “numbers” don’t look so bad back then only because the whole shebang was just getting started. Some shit just takes time to get stinky.
What was this great economic post-war boom about? Was it not the beginning of Consumerism? What do you think this is all about; … getting that little starter house, then upgrading to the bigger house with the nice white picket fence, movin’ on up to a good neighborhood, getting that fifty cent promotion, replacing a literal ice-BOX with a real refrigerator, getting a nice big Dee-troit car or two, the explosion of corporate TV shows like the Colgate Comedy Hour … if not consumer fueled materialism? Excess folks, excess.
“Oh Yeah? Well …. fuck you!!”
The Boomer children, mostly neglected as daddy –and soon, mommy – pursued the Good Life (FOR us, naturally) reacted in a way that shouldn’t be a surprise …. we rebelled against our oppressor for their real or imagined sins. Only we did with much greater aplomb than ever before ; we didn’t fuck around, we were all in.
They had short-haired geeky musicians, we had long-haired hip rockers. They had booze, we had drugs. They had rules – lots of them —, we had none. Free Love, baby! If it feels good, do it. Love the one you’re with. They worked hard, we went to Woodstock. They had a lifeless church, we had the Jesus Movement. They followed the call of Madison Avenue, our hearts hung out at Haight and Ashbury. They liked Ike, we preferred Dylan. They wore penny loafers, we had sandals and a bandana (and other ridicules articles of clothing). And so it went at every turn; right or wrong, a repudiation of ALL that came before. So people look back on this crazy-assed behavior and label us the “ME” generation. I’ll grant you that there is some truth to that. But, it falls far short of what was really going on. It wasn’t “me, me, me” as much as it was; “fuck you, fuck you, and fuck you”.
BTW, isn’t that EXACTLY what the younger generations are saying about us Boomers; “Fuck You!”? History rhyming yet again. Solomon correctly wrote; “Vanity of vanities, there is nothing new under the sun.” I don’t know what dumbass mistakes this younger generation will make — I sometimes feel they think they’ll make none, the first Perfect Generation — but trust me on this one thing oh Young Ones, you too will blow it … and your offspring will mock you as well.
BOOMERS NEVER EARNED ANYTHING — EVERYTHING WAS HANDED TO THEM
Nothing quite baffles me like this accusation. I shake my head wondering exactly what was given to me. I started out getting a fifty-cent allowance, back when fifty cents could still get me into the movies (double feature plus cartoons, a soda, and a popcorn and get a nickel back). It wasn’t “free” either … it came attached to doing chores. Mow the lawn, take out the garbage, do the dishes when asked, and keep my room clean. This our parents called “learning responsibility”. All for 2 bits … good thing we weren’t Unionized.
But for real money to get real stuff — like those Converse sneakers — we had to work. So, I got my first job at around 13 selling subscriptions of the town newspaper door to door on Saturdays. I got a dollar per new subscription. Some Saturdays I’d rack up 20 plus bucks and back then that was living large. My first real job was in high school. I worked in a lasagna factory, stirring lasagna in a huge vat of boiling water … for $1.35 an hour. And I never stopped working since. We worked hard all our lives. My friends all did likewise. So. Pardon me if I am offended at being called “selfish, greedy, and entitled” as I refuse to accept that label.
Speaking of “entitled”, perhaps this is what people mean; all those juicy gub’mint entitlement programs, especially SS and Medicare. First of all, social security was NOT created by the Boomer generation. So, solly. Try the generation before us. Medicare was NOT created by Boomers either. Sure it was enacted in 1965. The oldest of the Boomer generation would have been born in 1943 … making that Boomer just 22 years old in 1965. The voting age was still 21. Please don’t tell me Medicare was voted into being because of then 22 year old Boomers!
I know people just hate it when us old farts “expect” to collect on SS. Can you walk in my shoes for a moment? Let’s say you paid $50,000 into some account set up by the gub’ment. It is money you earned by the sweat of your brow. You didn’t ask the gob’ment to do this for you. They took it by force and promised to give it back to you later. Much later. That “much later” is now here, and some people want to tell us, “Hey, you can’t have the money. The gub’ment spent it and you can’t have it.” We used to have a word for this: Theft. Look, I can understand that I may not be able to collect SS forever until I die. But, can I at least get MY $50,000 dollars back?? You don’t even have to pay any interest, if that makes it better.
I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SINS OF MY BRETHREN
I won’t cover any of the other Entitlements / Social Programs. All I can tell you I voted Republican most of my life, and I cannot ever recall voting based on getting free shit. Foreign policy, wars, and character where my usual hot buttons. I don’t know how other Boomers voted. I don’t care.
I don’t care because I don’t believe in the idea of Collective Guilt. Google that term and the first page will show articles on “German collective guilt over Nazis”, so this is a topic I personally know something about. It is a heinous principle first found in the Old Testament that — “The sin of the fathers He punishes on the children to the third and fourth generation.” A monstrous mockery of justice!! Collective guilt refuses to acknowledge the INDIVIDUAL. Evil regimes and their dictators (Stalin, Mao, Marx, etc.) love collective guilt as they collectivize individuals as “the populace” or “the masses” or “the workers” and then enslave or execute them as it suits their purposes. That’s why I have often said here that the demonization of Boomers may one day logically lead to Death Chambers for us old farts.
You, dear reader, don’t believe in collective guilt either. Do you find yourself guilty of the crime of slavery? No. Do you find yourself guilty for the genocide of Native Americans ? No. Do you find yourself guilty for Mai Lai? No. Do you find me guilty for Buchenwald? No. So why do you throw all Boomers in the Collective guilty pot? It is said ‘people get the government they deserve’. If that’s true then I should find YOU guilty for the current mess we’re in. But, don’t worry, I won’t because that entire argument is specious. Here’s one way we should follow in the footsteps of the Greatest Generation; they didn’t blame their own parents for their youthful excesses of the ’20’s which then led to the financial ruin of the Great Depression . They just pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and made the best of a bad situation. So should we.
“YOU MADE PROMISES TO US ………. AND YOU LIED!!”
Another common theme amongst disgruntled Utes are the broken promises we Boomers made. When I went to the Occupy Wall Street demonstration in NYC I saw more than a few Utes displaying posters about Education … “$60,000 in Student Loans and No Job”, and several variations thereof, including demands to forgive the debt. For change of pace I will number my responses.
1)— Guess what kids? Your generation isn’t the only one that was lied too. We were lied too, also. So, welcome to the real world.
2)— Guess who told us that education was the path to a better life? That’s right, our Greatest Generation parents. We just passed what we learned in OUR youth, onto you. By and large that’s how parenting works. Again, welcome to the real world.
3)— Our parents valued education because they were mostly blue-collar workers toiling away in factories (remember those?). They saw first-hand that the “higher-ups”, the folks in the office, the guys in white-collars made significantly more loot than they did. So, putting two and two together they came up with the brilliant conclusion that education pays. And that’s why I got my ass kicked whenever I brought home a bad Report Card. The first question at the dinner table was, “Did you wash your hands?”. The second and usually last question was “Did you do your homework?” Study, study, study was drilled into our mush brains until the cows came home. It is really no more complicated than that.
4)— What’s wrong with furthering your education anyway? Did we commit some Mortal Sin in telling you to study? Don’t you know that we “pushed” this Horrible Thought on you for a reason? Don’t you know that with knowledge you’ll learn how to think and analyze. Don’t you know the value of using logic and rational thought, and how that will benefit you throughout your life? Don’t you know we wanted to give you a foundation that would allow you to filter through all the bullshit the world tries to feed you? Apparently, not.
5)— Regarding not paying back your loan. Where did you learn that from? Certainly not from us Boomers when you were young! Again, we taught you what was taught to us. And here’s one thing I can guaran-damn-tee you our parents showed us; paying one’s bills was a Badge of Honor. It wasn’t God, country, and apple pie. It was Pay Your Bills, God, country, and apple pie. My parents would sacrifice a meal in order to pay a bill. We taught you to do the same when you were little.
Here’s what Boomers and the Greatest Generation did wrong.
6) We monetized “value” when talking about “the value of an education”. Did the Greek philosophers value education to make more money? No. Did the great men of the Renaissance era value education to make more money? No. Did our Founding Fathers value education to make more money? No. The “value” of an education is more than exploiting it for financial gain (see #4 above). But, clearly, modern America is all about the Almighty Dollar. So, I went to college pretty much in order to make better money. And I told my kids to go to college to make better money. Guilty as charged. Money, it’s a gas. I suppose what pisses off Utes is that Boomers were actually able to get jobs when they graduated, while they can’t. Which leads me to my final point.
7) Tough shit!! And please don’t tell me us Boomers “guaranteed” you a good job upon getting an education. First of all if you actually believed such a statement you need to recalibrate your Bullshit Detector. They never has been and never will be any guarantees in life, except death, taxes, and obese fat women pictures from our own beloved AWD. Secondly, it’s a lie from hell. Our Greatest Generation parents were keenly aware of the possibility of losing it all … again.
They even coined a unique phrase to drill home the concept of no guarantees; –“you never know”. For example, “Put down that stick! You could poke your sister’s eye out, YOU NEVER KNOW!” (In my childhood there were apparently about 845 ways to poke out my sister’s eye.) Or, “Put on clean underwear before we drive to church. We might have an accident, YOU NEVER KNOW!”. Or, “No, we’re not joining the community swimming pool. We need to save every penny, YOU NEVER KNOW when we’ll need it.”.
Lastly, Utes also blame Boomers that they can’t get married, they have to live with their parents, will never be able to start a family, buy a house, etc. etc. It all boils down to “life isn’t fair”. Well! 1) we Boomers used that phrase on our own parents a million times. Please come up with something new. 2) In what fairy-tale are you living where ‘fairness’ is the rule of the land? 3) Stop emulating Gordon Gecko. Try, Tim the Toolman. 4) My parents taught me this and I pass it along to you. Perhaps the Ten Best Words Of Advice you will ever hear; “Life isn’t fair. Get over it. DO something about it.”
FINAL THOUGHTS
In closing, let me say that I’m not trying to change the real Boomer Haters. It was downright depressing doing some research for this article. I don’t know exactly how widespread this hatred is, but what is out there is savage, vicious, and said with such ferocity that I wonder when, not if, the loathing for my generation turns into violence against us. Every revolution has at least one scapegoat. The “Boomers Suck” meme is paving the way towards acceptance of our destruction, should it go that far. How does one change such a person’s opinion?? But, there are folks out there who have yet to decide if they shout hate/blame Boomers for everything. I hope this article reaches those.
I also hope this does not come across as either making excuses or rationalization. It’s just my story, and I assume it’s similar to millions of others in my age group unfortunate enough to be labeled a Boomer. All I tried to do is tell it as it is … yes, as I see it with my Boomer-tainted goggles … and in the telling I know I barely scratched the surface.
One thing I know is they we are ALL in this together. When I see a homeless man in NYC, he may be a Boomer … or, very well be a more recent generation. I often drop a few dollar bills, but I don’t first verify his age, because I don’t see a GenX or Boomer … I see only a homeless person, a human being who is worthy of compassion because I realize “there but for the grace of God go I”.
I think it’s a fact that most of us Boomers have seen our savings, our assets, our net worth dwindle before our eyes and most of us are not well off. I think it’s a fact that most Boomers still work, and probably will need to work —- either until we die or the ravages of age incapacitate us. And if we are incapacitated … and if the timing is such that all the Free Shit is no longer available … then don’t worry about killing us, as I believe many will commit suicide.
Lastly, I am fully aware I have my own biases, and as we discussed in another thread from last week, “total honesty” in the trillion plus connections organized by our highly fallible brains may not even be possible . Not only might I “not know” the truth, it is conceivable “I don’t even know that I don’t know”. In other words, yeah, I could be full of shit. (If so, I’m sure you will inform me thereof. Lol ) But, I doubt it.
Peace
Herr StuchenBoomer
Coma, the question was serious.Are the minnies/heroes so great that they rear another generation of selfish and irresponsible boomers or better?
Are humans mere components in a perpetual cosmic boom and bust cycle?
I await judgement from your superior intellect .
Sah turns into Mr Hyde whenever abortion or boomers are mentioned. Obviously bitter about something.
Colma chooses sah’s side in this fight. Go figure. Come on Colma, BES is not a real argument. I have explained in depth that the younger generation is full of knuckleheads, too. Are you listening?
Fact is, people in general are idiots – boomers, millenials,Xs, Ys, etc etc etc.
Given the chance they will all fuck up, live for today, borrow into oblivion. Notice who voted for Obama by age group? Seriously, that tells you all you need to know about the younger generations.
Boomers may have baked the cake, but the youngsters sure as hell are icing it with their great decision making – Obama, arts degrees, credit card debt, igizmos, etc.
Yep – olenty oif blame to go around. And lots of stupid folk to make mistakes.
Colma Rising says: LOL I’ll be black.
me too!…got this in vinyl.
Admin.
I’m sorry but I didn’t notice any kick in the balls. Your posts today make it very clear
who has the thin skin and who is an intolerant egomaniac.
Olga set you straight on the student loan deal.
Fuck You, you moron. There -can I stay around and play now?
Only two Boomers could conclude that they set me straight on when restrictions on discharging student loans in bankruptcy began.
I guess all those facts and a detailed timeline of the restrictions was too much for your Boomer pea brain.
That is one thing you can say about dumbass Boomers like yourself – they are always sure and always wrong.
You can stay around as long as you like. I like having a retard to kick around.
Actual picture of Baby Boomer Zack demanding his fair share.
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benefits may be terminated if you leave the United States for more than six months. i didn’t know that, thanks stucky. nice to get useable info here along with the great testimonies such as yours and indentured.
mr colma – it seems to me that stucky has way too many friends here and your efforts to turn the tide of public opinion are like fighting the sea, but carry on, it makes the party that much more interesting
Zack has spunk. Hope he has cast iron nuts, too, as he will need them with posts like that.
Zack – if you really want to get back in Admin’s favor, heap praise on Krugman and deride Ron Paul. He will thank you for it, and you will be welcomed here always.
Juan – nice post.
Stucky:
I don’t stop by here much anymore. But, luckily, I did for your fine effort. Thanks. And best of the season to you and yours.
Screech
Stucky,
I wasn’t limiting the power of the boomer voting bloc to just the main election. I was more talking about the primaries. I registered republican this year the first time, donated campaign money for the first time, and was VERY involved for the first time for RON PAUL. The old guy who wasn’t too tired who still gives a shit about where the country is going. But we all know how that turned out and how many boomers went out to the polls for anybody other then Ron Paul. Not to mention the millionaire/billionaire donors who gave money to every campaign other then Ron Paul.
The leadership I was talking about isn’t just limited to politics. Yes, the old geezers do lead the revolutions. I won’t get into the American, French, Russian revolutions as an examples because of how long ago they did happen. Just look at the recent Egypt revolution. It didn’t start to really get going until older people got involved. Mubarak lost all his power when the leaders of the military and police spoke out and refuse to carry out his orders.
I don’t view boomers to be the they broke it so fix way. We saw how that worked for our banking and monetary system. But seeing as boomers are not getting out of the way, retiring, and handing the reins over to the next generation; so they better start leading. Otherwise they are going to get thrown under the bus when the old civic order gets swept away. If they stand in the way much longer, everybody that wants the country to sway a different way, won’t care what happens to them.
“Pandora’s Box is an artifact in Greek mythology, taken from the myth of Pandora’s creation in Hesiod’s Works and Days. The “box” was actually a large jar] given to Pandora, which contained all the evils of the world.”
And if only she hadn’t opened the box, but she did. What better analogy of boomers is there? Many stable decades, stable morals, values, ethics, and spirituality had to be done away with. The anti-establishment clarion call of boomers wiped away the social fiber of our nation, allowing for recklessness and the destruction of the family, and indulgence in anything and everything.
Once the social fiber is gone, once it’s okay to do anything your want, without regard for the consequences or who will have to pay, it’s the beginning of the end. Greed, sloth, gluttony, pride, wrath, envy, all on display. Once that social fiber, the one that holds a society together, is destroyed, it’s just a matter of time until everything degenerates into chaos. What better word to describe what is happening to this country.
It’s okay to lie, cheat, steal. Morals and values are gone. It’s okay turn responsibility for your life over to someone else. Personal independence and freedom are so overrated. Nothing matters anymore, and anything goes. Eat, drink, take drugs, spend and borrow as much as you can. Support the immoral, the evil, the blood sucking parasites.
It’s all been allowed, the genie is out of the bottle, Pandora’s box has been opened. Every single civilization in the history of mankind, no matter how great, rich or virtuous, has dissolved. Every civilization had their equivalent of boomers, and the result has always been the same. We are watching our civilization dissolve, from within, there are no moral, ethical, or values to anchor us anymore. Soon the social contract itself (go to work, not kill each other) will dissolve, and our civilization will dissolve, like every one before it. It’s not the economy or the government that matters, it’s what’s inside the mind and heart of each American. And there is nothing left, nothing sacred anymore, nothing’s shocking, the end is truly near.
Moral relativism, making excuses and rationalizations for their behavior, and the destruction it’s caused, physically, mentally and spiritually. They opened Pandora’s box, and let out all the evils of the world. No going back now. The end is truly near.
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“Fact is, people in general are idiots – boomers, millenials,Xs, Ys, etc etc etc.” —- llpoh
NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!
ONLY Boomers are idiots. We say so, goddammit!! ONLY Boomers are fuckups. EVERY other generation is flawless. Fuck you,llpoh, you nincompoop captitalist Boomer Pig. Once Boomers die off everthing will be A-OK. Your factory will run at full capacity. Your dog will stop pissing on your leg. Please, what must we do to convince you?? Repeat after us; BBES, BBES, BBES. They really do, dammit!!
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My Boomer Life and the Greatest Generation Parents Who Raised Me by Stucky now UP on the Diner Blog!
http://www.doomsteaddiner.org/blog/2012/12/20/my-boomer-life-and-the-greatest-generation-parents-who-raised-me/
The article has been “Dinerized” to include Videos and Graphics to illustrate Stucky’s awesome prose. 😀
RE
AWD, bummers opened Pandora’s box?
Thanks for reminding me what a worthless POS you are and again why I never trust any asshole in the medical profession.
It’s no wonder women puke on your pillow,
Grow a dick and get a life you silly, spineless wannabee man
AWD…you’re a punk albeit an educated one , but still a balless punk..look in the mirror..learn to be man or STFU.
ThePessimisticChemist says:
My fucking god. My boomer father in law is drunk of his ass (par for the course, this is a 5 day a week thing)”
“Cries and whines all the fucking time about his hard knock life. LIterally, its a daily occurrence.”
“Fuck I need this house buying process to finish. I hate having to put up with this shit on a daily basis.”
You live with your father in law?
No wonder he’s drunk all the time and crying about his hard knock life. I would be too.
RE
Holy crap!! NICE JOB on the graphics !!!
I lost my password. When I get it I’ll stop by tomorrow and say “Hello”.
@flash – Compared to you, my 2 year old dog is educated.
@underfire – You’d be blessed to be in my august presence darlin’. As is everyone else on TBP.
underfire trying to troll on TBP
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@ThePessimisticChemist …..SHIT, how did you get a picture of my GEN X next door neighbor??
@underfire – You must have schizophrenia, because that is quite clearly YOU my friend. Probably a result of your drug fueled orgies during the 60s.
…boomers are not getting out of the way, retiring, and handing the reins over to the next generation.
you’ll get your turn soon enough. by the time your generation takes over, we should all be keeled over. then you shall have to answer for all the troubles of the world and no one will accept your excuse that ‘we didn’t start the fire’.
the suggestion that boomers opened a pandora’s box is a canard. boomers did not invent sex, drugs and rock and roll. that has been going on since the beginning of civilization. human misbehavior provoked the great flood. shall we call those ante-deluvians, boomers?
i find it hard to defend a group i do not know but from anecdotal evidence, boomers are saints, yes, but there are also boomers who are sinners.
i read a wonderful proustian-like article on the properties of water (i wish stucky would find it), it said that standing water can have molecules that are near the freezing point while other molecules are near the boiling point. i imagine the boomer society to be the same way. if you insist on lumping boomers into one monolithic mass, i’d say there is no science to your method. so you can either reject my argument theologically or scientifically or what?
RE
Great job.
Stucky
Read your entire article, great job of summarizing who we and the parents that raised us are all about. One question: How the fuck did you rate $1.35 an hour? I started out making pizzas at $1.00 an hour when I was 12. lol
Shame on you Stucky…. Mr “I’m crying my eyes out with empathy over the children at Sandy Hook elementary” – children who were murdered. A few days later you are casually calling me an “Adam Lanza” for criticizing your generation? How dare you trivialize the pain and suffering of the children who lost their lives and the parents who lost children with an outrageous false comparison like that? Oh wait, I forgot, you are part of the most selfish, narcissistic generation to ever walk the planet – and your crocodile tears for the children of Sandy Hook were just solipsistic acting to draw attention to yourself, and now you name drop referring to dead children to draw attention to your pain at having your generation criticized – because obviously to a soulless narcissistic Boomer like you being criticized is a crime on par with child murder. You are pathetic, and disingenuous, and I will never again be fooled into thinking you possess anything that even simulated human emotion.
Also, Re: us ‘getting along’ didn’t you post a giant, disgusting transsexual Boomer and say it was ‘SAH’ long before I commented on your little article? What a piece of shit. You and flash started with personal, disgusting insults before I made a single comment. My single comment was directed at your generation, and not at anyone on TBP personally. You and flash don’t even wait for me to say a word before I’m attacked personally. Who is really vile and hateful here?
@Llpoh – your first comment was the only intelligent and self aware one made by a Boomer… Then you went into mindless ‘dog pile’ mode and cast your lot with the idiocy of flash and Stucky. Don’t you know that the ‘dog pile’ with those 2 just means you’re diving into shit? You constantly disappoint me with the fleeting and inconsistent nature of your intelligence. You shouldn’t let inferior brains represent you for some false form of Boomer popularity. You are better than that, and you know it, but obviously don’t care.
Honestly, this entire thread with the exception of Colma, Admin, AWD and Micro-be bores me to tears. I guess Stucky wrote this thinking that younger people who don’t like the BB generation just lack hearing about them enough and understanding them, their lives, times, feelings, experiences etc… That maybe if we just focus on BB ad infinitum that we will no longer be ‘ignorant’ and will finally come to appreciate the wonders of BB. It’s quite the contrary, Stucky, we’ve heard nothing but BB-this and BB-that our whole lives. We had you as parents, teachers, professors, bosses. We’ve heard all about your childhoods, adolescence, adulthood and now AARP, to the point that our whole lives and the whole goddamn world have revolved around you BB for as long as we’ve been on Earth. It’s fucking boring. Familiarity breeds contempt.
Stucky
When I read your original post, I said to myself, “Well, this is going to cause a shitstorm.”
Maybe it’s time to call a truce, agree to disagree, get ready for the end of the world tomorrow, and if we survive, turn our focus towards Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men and all that for the next few days.
@Spaceman – I made significantly less money as a farm kid than $1 an hour. I worked 5 hours a day M-F, and 8 hours on Saturday, and 5 hours on Sunday.
Thats 33 hours a week during the school year, it increased dramatically during the summer when I helped local farmers pitch hay in exchange for them giving us “free” bales for our cattle.
I had a $20 a month allowance. When I turned 14 it increased to $50 a month, but I also had to haul grain and buy my own gas with that money, so it wasn’t really an increase at all.
This isn’t an “oh woe is me” post. Without my background I wouldn’t be who I am today, so in a way I’m very thankful for my upbringing. I guess I just wanted you guys to realize where I’m coming from. Not all of us sat around watching Saturday morning cartoons and playing video games in our spare time.
I wore my BBES shirt to school. I was asked what it means.
Definitely lots of folks who agree.
Kids these days: Inspiring
Sah – my 2 posts were consistent. Lots of boomer mistakes. Lots of mistakes by older and younger gens. Boomers will get the benefits, the younger the bills. Sucks but that is luck of the draw.
That the younger gens are buying into Obama’s promise that the welfare bennies will and can continue is proof positive the younger gens are just as stupid as the older.
Everyone needs to wise up, but it will not happen.
Gayle – bah, humbug.
Zack old thing …
I guess you never read the 1936 original Social Security pamphlet. I was luck enough to retrieve it and put it as a section of the book I wrote, along with other clues. Stucky had one. Oh yes, I also posted that section of the book here.
An addition factoid:
“In 1940, then, about 42 workers began paying for every one retiree. Yes, of course! how can you be saving for yourself when the scheme started and began to cover those who came before you???
The first SS retiree:
The first monthly payment was issued on January 31, 1940 to Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont. In 1937, 1938 and 1939 she paid a total of $24.75 into the Social Security System. Her first check was for $22.54. After her second check, Fuller already had received more than she contributed over the three-year period. She lived to be 100 and collected a total of $22,888.92.
By 1950, the ratio of workers to retirees was 16 to one. Today there are less than three.”
And then there was this in addition to Stucko’s …
“In a U.S. Supreme Court case, Helvering v. Davis (1937), the court held that Social Security is not an insurance program, saying:
“The proceeds of both (employee and employer) taxes are to be paid into the Treasury like internal revenue taxes generally, and are not earmarked in any way.”
On the Flemming v. Nestor decision:
“Health, Education and Welfare Secretary (Arthur Sherwood) Flemming stated in his brief:
“The contribution exacted under the Social Security plan is a true tax. It is not comparable to a premium promising the payment of an annuity commencing at a designated age.”
And this:
In 1997, Paul Krugman wrote for the Boston Review:
“Social Security is structured from the point of view of the recipients as if it were an ordinary retirement plan: what you get out depends on what you put in. So it does not look like a redistributionist scheme.
“In practice it has turned out to be strongly redistributionist, but only because of its Ponzi game aspect, in which each generation takes more out than it put in.
“Well, the Ponzi game will soon be over, thanks to changing demographics, so that the typical recipient henceforth will get only about as much as he or she put in (and today’s young may well get less than they put in).”
And from Walter E. Williams:
“a man reaching age 65 in the year 2000 could expect to receive $71,000 more in government transfer payments (of which the largest amount is Social Security) than he paid in taxes. But a 20-year-old man who entered the workforce in the year 2000 can expect to pay $312,000 more in taxes than he will ever receive in benefits.”
=Your- money back?
SAH
It’s late. I’m going to bed. Tomorrow …. well, read above. So I have not and will not read your latest post (it seems long). We almost kept this from becoming a shitfest. But then you and Colma showed up. Oh, well. I’ll bet it was a doozy though.
Happy Mayan End Of The World Day
PS … you should really click on RE’s link … he did a GREAT job with the graphics.
I_S … “not teaching me more about money. ” LOL.
As I was born in 1936, I got the regular lecture often from mom: “Ya gots to know the value of a dollah.” I think that echoes right back to age four or so …
Not quite sure when I started to notice things didn’t add up, like “Inflation is just high prices caused by profit-gouging.” Well, when I knew better and tried explain it to her, it didn’t take. Her second aria often was “we worked for a dollah a day in the great depression.” (So what would you know?) Heh.
When I was writing the Money series, I could imagine her looking down, or up … or anyway over my shoulder and she probably still doesn’t get it.
Adam Lanza has shown the world what being a millennial means.
I dont care about anyone but me and I hate me
but for the intentional destruction of its funding base with the payroll tax cut…social security could work for a while longer. unfortunately, it looks like the effort is to kill it by underfunding it, same as has been stated as a goal for shrinking the government. empty the coffers, pass the loot out to the managers of this country and when it comes time to pay out benefits to the last boomer and the first millenial, the story will be that the system is now totally broke, so sorry.
you watch these things play out and you shake your head, thinking, just how gullible do they think we are? extremely. i watched the fed manipulate rates down to the point where it became a free for all as the maestro urged consumers to take out varible rate mortgages. i watched boomers and millenials go on a spending spree. i got caught up in it myself but owing to my age, my testosterone levels were fluctuating and my estrogen levels might have been rising, something in the back of my head tried to tell me, you’ve seen their game plan, don’t fall for it.
if you have figured out the game plan here, i can understand your fears, fears which translate into loathing. 1946, huh? the first boomers ought to be coming of full retirement age, will the levees hold or will the tsunami of applicants flood the highlands and wash the remaining funds out to sea? hate me all you want but i have a few more years to wait to find out if there’s any money left, boomer or not.
I wont answer for stucky because I can not.
As I am part of the boomer generation, and wildly blamed for being part of it, then, by the ridiculous theory of boomerism, you, are part of the Lanza culture… like it or not. Perhaps you will see things in a different way having been pigeon-holed as you do others, though you will deny this.
I am not llpoh, but I have looked at this site often and the dog pile mode is made mostly by your age group and not by the ones your era castigates. As for the rest of your tirade….what do you hope do achieve by it?
.
The heavens do not revolve around me. That is well understood. State your desires without contempt for your offspring will also view you with contempt. And you would not want that, would you?
I wore my BBES shirt to school. I was asked what it means. -Colma
A You mean college
B You wonder why the majority of America, young and old, dont read Strauss and Howe or think millennials offer a cure even though they think we are on the wrong course.
You may as well be a MUFON Colma
You cant change the world in your lifetime, Many a nutjob has tried to do so by pointing a finger. None have ended well.
stucky – calling somebody lanza is currently tantamount to calling them hitler, until the next mass murderer. as a swift kick in the pants (see pic above) it works beautifully. however, you run the risk of getting your own holiday ornaments banged together
my impression is that you and colma are like the protagonists of the movie ‘life of pi’, you work together better to educate us readers when you respect each other’s point of view. believe me, i have been enlightened these past few days reading both your comments. pi’s dad said, do not make the mistake of seeing your emotions in his eyes, (he is instinctual).
You want to wreck America, fine, then the best way to do so is propaganda and make your fellow citizens the cause celebre for all the nations ills.
Who else has tried this? Hitler comes to mind. The only difference here being Hitler and crew demonized the Juden and the Strauss and Howed demonize the boomers.
So, go ahead, do this, and you will do more harm to America than any group before you.
calling somebody lanza is currently tantamount to calling them hitler, Juan
Wait, you cant lay blame on others?
Shocking news.
What will the straussians do?
@Novista, Point taken. I was thinking more along the lines of sitting your kids down with you when you pay your bills every week etc. Show them incomes and expenses. Explain how to plan and save for periodic expenses like insurance & taxes. Most importantly, teach them to save. Then teach them to do the same with their allowance that they EARN for working their little butts off doing chores. No worky? No money! Teach them about the need for privacy with financial matters.
Imagine if you had saved ten percent of every dollar that ever passed through your hands from age 5 on! Start ’em off that early and saving 10% will be as natural as brushing your teeth twice a day! Teach them about loans when they *need* money for something special or expensive.
I’ve mentioned before that while living in Spain, my family befriended a Spanish family in our neighborhood. We shared holidays, personal milestones and family milestones. We treated each other like real family. Try being an insolent little shit with what was effectively two moms….you get hit twice or maybe three times if grandma is close by! Anyway, I had an older Spanish sister named Trini. She was no supermodel but was still, so naturally beautiful and graceful that it was startling. She was engaged to be married and this was something to be celebrated and done properly. The whole family gave them support in many ways to give them the best start. They both lived with their parents while working to minimize their personal expenses. The majority of their income was saved to purchase AND fully furnish a house or apartment. Friends and family bought or made them household items they would need to furnish their house and gave them as birthday and Christmas gifts each year. Once this was done, the parents consented to the marriage and they could start their lives from a significantly improved financial position. A beautifully simple arrangement.
You don’t need to be a financial genius to get ahead in this world. Diligence will more than make up for genius over time.
If I had daughters I would teach them to ALWAYS have their own, private savings account in their name only, that would serve as a safety net to get away from an abusive relationship or to get back home if needed. I would hope that I would raise her in a way to preclude that necessity, but it can’t hurt to have a private little stash.
I_S
damn. it has gotten rough in here.
hope i can hang.
(translation–hope i don’t fuck too many of you up too badly, once i get rolling. llpoh, hey, what’s happening man!)
“RE
Holy crap!! NICE JOB on the graphics !!!
I lost my password. When I get it I’ll stop by tomorrow and say “Hello”.” -Stucky
Thanks Stuck. I was worried you would be ticked at me for adding to the article, but as I am an expert with long articles ; ) , I felt it would really benefit from the graphics and vids to break up the prose and illustrate a bit.
Looking forward to your visit to the Diner. The article already got its frist crtique from one of the regular Diners, I hadda hammer him for not reading for comprehension. LOL.
I also still salivate over the possibility you will take on our resident Fundy Christian Ashvin Pandurangi and give him a Biblical Spanking. LOL.
RE
Anonymous, you did some good work. Please provide a pen name so we can keep track of you.
Howard – as I said elsewhere, I have missed you. We minorities gotta stick together. I have been busy kcking paleface ass, but could have used your insight. Hope you have caught your share of nurses.
Yep – need you to kick some ass around here. Start with Colma – he is getting to big for his britches. Damn young whippersnapper.
I see the caps on your keyboard are still broken. Tradition is a great thing.
Stucky
“over the top by TPB standards ” ?! Chatham Police.
I_S
Good commentary. Thanks.
Why can’t we all get along?…jeeze Louise… you’se guys, it’s Christmas and you’re all at each other’s gizzards like a hook -nosed Geinther after a tax loophole….seriously though, Turbo-tax will mess you up.
That said. it warms the cockles of my grizzled old heart to see Pissy C asserting her manhood using her SAH account…what a show..
How about a little X-mas cheer from the family.My favorite Christmas carol.crank it..
Sadly, I had to read some of SAHs post because Anonymous quouted her.
I am so sad, She doesn’t like me anymore! Dammit, why don’t I just keep my mouf shut?
Me, today, the end of the world is upon me.
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if you are in your 60′s you will get every freaking dime that you paid in plus the money being paid in by the Millenials. how about the money my boss kicked in?
even if we do get any money, there is no guarantee that it will be worth the same as the money we paid, if it is worth anything at all. adjusted for inflation, we may be getting far less. it just seems to me that the group now in charge will find a way to dilute the payout so that it complies with the law but somehow isn’t worth anything, we’ll be getting funny money in return.
Seems to me the GREATEST GENERATION are the ones who set America up for failure. They destroyed our pensions and sic LBJ and his GREAT SOCIETY on us. Look at the result. Also it was NIXON who started the War on Drugs. How can anyone have the nerve to BLAME boomers for that? We were the one’s AFFECTED by it.
I would love to time travel BACK in about 100 years and see what all the yet to be born generations have to say about GEN X and GEN Y who voted for the RUINOUS obama?
Whoever wrote this thread is awesome!!