Jake DiMare throws down harsh criticisms and strong recommendations to those Americans born between 1945 and 1964.
It seems like it started shortly after I left high school, though it may have been going on long before. I’ll be the first to admit my self-centered perspective on the world is completely skewed. Nevertheless, there are public records of the heated political battle ground my hometown turned into in the 90′s. The party lines were all blurred…This was a battle of the generations–not political ideology. Older people refused to pay higher taxes even though schools for younger people needed more funding. The retirees won and my high school lost its art and music programs, sports funding and scholastic accreditation.
Since then, this battle has repeated itself again and again, in cities and towns across the country. Now it has risen to the state and federal levels. Our infrastructure is crumbling, our energy situation is a disaster, education is a joke, there are no jobs and it’s never been more difficult to start a business. Still, older folks don’t want to pay more taxes. Wealthy CEO’s and shareholders would rather manufacture things in foreign lands where laborers will work their fingers to the bone for $0.20 a day and no bathroom breaks, and then rape the environment shipping products around the globe.
To sum this up in a sentiment which might be pulled directly from your grandfather’s hand book, if this generation of grandfathers wasn’t too busy popping Viagra, driving sports cars and finding more, maddening ways to extend the careers of geriatric rock stars like Steve Tyler and Madonna: Our world is going straight to hell in a hand-basket. This is one fact few people will dispute.
The decline of America definitely didn’t happen on the the younger generation’s watch. Those kids down on Wall Street, currently drawing so much ire from the Tea Party…They are not to blame for the situation that has driven them to abandon their parents’ dim, quiet basements, X-Boxes and Playstations so they can risk exposure to sickness and injury in the face of the elements, hateful 1%’s and over-zealous, under-professional officers of the law. They are there because our country is a disaster. They are there because there are no jobs and opportunity for upward mobility is at an all time low. For the first time in the history of history, a generation is not expected to do better than the one that came before.
Naturally, people want answers…They want to know who to blame. Not so we can stick our tongue out at them and make them cry. We want to know who is to blame for the current situation so we can ask them to change course. Politely. With the utmost respect and consideration. Change course…Because the path we are on doesn’t end well, if history is any indication.
Unfortunately, looking for someone, or even a group of people, to blame–is pretty complex. Bush Jr? Sure. He started an unjustified war and then broke with tradition by lowering taxes instead of raising them to cover the cost. Obama? Absolutely. Our current president can’t hide behind the sins of his predecessor any longer. The ‘do nothing’ Congress? Yes. The ‘activist’ Supreme Court? Yes, again. Greedy corporate CEO’s and shareholders? Yes! Yes! Yes! The problem can be easily summed up as a lack of good leadership.
Lately I’ve found myself thinking more and more about the older folks who tanked the High School in my home town. Considering the average age of leaders in the American government and corporations, one thought keeps coming to mind. Just how do Baby Boomers want to be remembered when they perish en masse? Never before has there been a generation blessed with such abundant opportunity, who demanded so much more, and been seemingly more unwilling to share with future generations.
The world these people entered was so ripe with opportunity they almost couldn’t fail (back when grown-ups raised taxes on top earners to >75% to pay for justified wars and invested in research, education and infrastructure). The generation before the Boomers went down in history as ‘The Greatest Generation’, for their sacrifice and the opportunities they laid at their children’s feet.
What will the Boomers be known as in twenty years?
Photo by: david_shankbone
About Jake DiMare
As if on queue: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/05/an-inconvenient-lawsuit-teenagers-take-global-warming-to-the-courts/256903/
They’ll be known as the generation that destroyed things for the rest of us. A generation of parents who left a smoldering husk for their children.
Amen.
Unfortunately, I get the feeling that Boomers take an ‘After me, the deluge!’ view of the world. Half are too busy looking for anyone else to blame for their own failings to care, and the other half is just praying that they die before the crap hits the fan.
God save us. It’s pretty clear nobody else is going to.
The Selfish Generation.
Ironically, they yell at us for being entitled. Because god forbid we’d like a career. I don’t want to be a multi-millionaire. I want the ability to buy a house! I’m thankful that I have a job… as a freaking waitress! I went to a community college because I couldn’t afford the massive debt going to the state school would have costed. My opportunity is so very limited. I want to work in media, and by no means do I expect to get a huge salary for it. I just want a livable wage, one that allows me to pay off my debt and have the ability to buy a home. I have no idea if I’ll ever be able to buy one myself. Our generation’s wages will be permanently depressed.
The selfish generation marched at Selma for civil rights, marched on Washington for peace, was shot down at Kent State for speaking up,and then after launching 2nd Wave Feminism and bringing women into the workforce in unparalleled numbers, went home and plotted ways to screw over their own children by giving them trips to Europe, their own cars, and coercing them into signing loans that forced them to spend at least 4 years in colleges with better facilities than most cruise liners.
Have I got those facts right?
No, you’ve got it all wrong. They:
Refused to invest money in national infrastructure leaving us with crumbling roads, bridges, sewer systems, and a decaying electrical grid. Neglected public transportation, slashed spending on public education and reduced the amount of lending students could expect to get in relation to the cost of education. They insisted that taxes must continually be cut for those making the most money while simultaneously gutting funding for welfare, food stamps, healthcare, and other priorities that actually help people. They insisted that health care is NOT a universal right but something that only the privileged few are allowed to receive. They value profit and personal comfort over the well being of the future of the planet in completely ignoring global warming. They insist that their taxes must not be raised, their social security and medicare funding be 100% in place (But screw the people who are paying for their retirement… my generation, which will never receive ours) and the like.
Oh. I also forgot to mention. You got us into multiple wars that cost billions of dollars and have left us with a pillaged, crumbling, polluted, broken, and corrupt nation with the largest accumulation of debt in the history of humanity.
Collin’s correct. The selfish generation claimed to have values in the 60s, and then abandoned them to become yuppies in the 80s, eagerly signing on to the Reagan-era “greed is good” model and screwing all generations yet to come. Thanks for nothing, Boomers.
Jake, How old are you anyway? You cannot be that old if you think things are going to hell and a handbasket. I’m old enough to remember pollution so bad that you couldn’t hang your laundry outside. I’m old enough to remember educated white people who actually didn’t know better using the N-word at my parent’s cocktail parties, because that was the word you used. I remember when a woman being beaten by her husband was “nobody’s business”. I remember middle class people flipping over police cars because they were mad about school bussing. I remember watching a city on fire after MLK was killed. I remember when the word “cancer” was never even spoken because it was a death sentence. I remember when New York City was a totally dangerous shit hole. I remember kids getting beaten by adults and COPS simply because they had long hair. I remember when poor people were actually POOR, and their worst health problem wasn’t obesity. I remember when the best most women could aspire to was being a teacher, a nurse, or a housewife. Period. I remember when their were a grand total of four stations on television, and two newspapers per city where you had to get ALL of your information. I remember young guys getting a letter in the mail that was a non-voluntary, one way ticket to Vietnam. I remember lying awake at night wondering whether or not the city I lived in was about to be hit by a nuclear weapon, because it was a very real possibility. Dude, what made you write this? Did you go to the Whole Foods and they didn’t have your brand of organic yogurt? You live in a paradise with the highest standard of living in history! What history books are you reading that make you think that things are worse now than in the past, or that it is all going to fall apart for that matter. There have always been problems. Your generation needs to stop whining and get to work on some of them. We havealready solved plenty. I don’t claim Madonna though. I much prefer GaGa.
JP, I am 37. And I have to be honest, what motivated me to write this piece is not my life. To be frank, my life is incredible. However, I was born and raised very poor so my expectations are pretty low.
I’m not going to spend a lot of energy debating you on the conditions many, many people still endure on a daily basis in this country. If you disagree there are segments of the population who have not seen the same progress you and I have, it would be a waste of time. I will merely recommend you take a look around the country and see what people outside your sphere are dealing with.
I wonder if there’s an assumption here that the Baby Boom generation was exceptionally bad compared to previous generations. Are you all suggesting that their parents, the “Greatest Generation,” did things the right way? If the boomers are so awful, we should be able to lay that at the feet of their parents, who had so many of them. But then we could just blame the grandparents of the boomers, who could then blame the great-grandparents, on and on back a million years or so.
I’d like to declare at some point a statute of limitations on blaming boomers for the state of society. Let’s say if you’re 35 years old right now that you have to take some responsibility for the way that society is right now. No more blaming your parents for everything wrong.
I also wonder if there is anything in society that you think is positive that has happened in the past 40 years. If so, does the BB generation get any credit for that, or is it only the bad stuff?
But, alright, if you want to turn the clock back to 1945 before the baby boom started, I’d like to see that, but I promise a LOT of you won’t like it very much….
Save this article. It’s a very good, useful template for generational anxiety. In about 20 years, if not sooner, we will be able to dust it off, change a few complaints, and replace “Baby Boomers” with “Generation X.”
Jake…as a member of the Millennial Generation, I want to thank you for pointing out that the legacy Boomers will leave is in serious jeopardy of being a very bad one. Not that Boomers are to blame for starting most of these problems. The large majority of these problems already existed, but Boomers certainly haven’t done anything to solve them. Instead they have sat on their hands and let our country–and the world–head down a very dangerous and destructive path. And even though they know that they are screwing over their children’s generation, they don’t seem to care enough to do anything about it.
But Boomers have done some good things. They are extremely hard working, and they were actually the ones who brought us the tech revolution of the 1990′s (with titans like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates at the helm), even though it is my generation who gets all the credit for being tech-savvy. However, it cannot be ignored that their legacy, if things remain the same, will not be a good one.
It is for this reason that I have started a website for my generation, called The Millennial Legacy. I want to inspire and empower my fellow Millennials to fight for a better future, so we can build a strong and enduring legacy to pass onto our children. The thing is, there is still time for us. Boomers have the option of passing all of these problems onto their children because we still have time–although not much at all–to fix these problems ourselves (and it certainly seems like Boomers are going to take advantage of this). But my generation doesn’t have that option. We have to solve these problems because if we don’t, it will be too late for the generations who have the misfortune to come after us.
If you aren’t at all familiar with generational theory, google search Neil Howe and William Strauss. They wrote several books on generations and their research is fascinating. And please visit my website. I talk a lot about Howe-Strauss generational theory. The URL is http://www.themillenniallegacy.com.
Thanks for sharing this. I checked out your site and you’ve got really thoughtful, intelligent content.
PS- Agree, the boomers did a lot of good. But, it seems, then they stopped. At least, it would seem, those within the boomers who were doing good lost all influence. Since the 80′s it seems like they’ve been working hard to roll back all the changes they made as teenagers in the 60′s. Now with congress voting for the Paul Ryan budget and evangelical Christians running amok against human rights, dignity and equality…
Jake, “evangelical Christians running amok”? You have got to check your hyperbole. It’s what got me worked up with your article in the first place. You may not agree with Evangelical Christians. I DON’T agree with Evangelical Christian views, but they are not “running amok” which would imply that they are rolling around in their SUVs doing drive-bys on gay weddings, and blowing up medical marijuana dispensaries. They’re not. They are just trying to pass legislation that conforms to their world view. That’s how a democracy works. You don’t like Paul Ryan’s budget? Welcome to the club. But it is hardly the end of the world. It has to be approved by both houses and the president can veto it, and then next year they do it all again. Ultimately it is still just zeroes and ones representing pieces of paper in a computer. And to address your other comment, I do not live on the golf course of the country club. I have literally dug ditches in the oilfields, washed dishes, done factory and landscaping work as an adult. On my fortieth birthday, I ran a jack hammer as a day laborer. Most of my life I have worked with at risk kids, most of whom were officially poor. They have a LOT more opportunity than similar kids had when I was young. I don’t regret a bit of any of it. I am happy to see the sun come up every day. I don’t like the fact that you are blaming a generation of people whose good greatly outnumbered any bad they did. And incidentally, the reason why there are some issues with the infrastructure is that my generation quadrupled the size of it. Here is a little observation from a favorite writer, Henry Miller; “A lot of people feel that they have to go around and save the world, because they can’t deal with their own problems.” I look forward to seeing more of your writing. Just take it easy my friend.