...played significant roles in the rise of the civil rights movement, the feminist movement, the environmental movement, the sexual revolution, and the antiwar movement. Those are all good things, right?

great answer!! i feel we were invaded slowly and deliberately(over the years) with all the shit happening today. We can and will clean it up

(And before I was born). I wasn't born until the 80s so please correct me if I'm wrong. But judging on how my own generation is not seeing political impact into their 30s, the stuff that happened in our youth could be attributed to older generations. My teen years (90s) were not defined by political activism so I really can't relate the way my younger cousins (16,17) can with all of the activism today.

Boomers have been 3 or 4 of the last presidents depending on if you classify Obama as a Boomer or Gen X (he's on the cusp). I can tell you (and this forum would agree regardless of age) that the 2 Boomer presidents playing for Team Red have been an absolute disaster for this country.

(I was 12 when Clinton was elected and have very little memory of his predecessors).

Al Gore received a majority of the vote and cheating in Florida cost him the presidency

John Kerry was an outstanding candidate who was massacred by dirty tricks.

Boomers were in their 20s in the 1960s and the 1970s. They contributed to the Civil Rights movement and defined the AntiWar, environmental and feminist movements, and began the movement for LGBT rights at this time as well.

The fact that you are not being drafted to fight in the middle east is because many boomers fought the Vietnam War, making mass conscription politically impossible for generations following

Sexual harassment would not have resulted in ending the careers of so many powerful men if it had not been for feminist principles fought by boomers and becoming part of our accepted culture.

The LGBT community would still be living in a shadowy almost-illegal status if not for boomers fighting for gay rights in the 70's and 80's

Modern environmental activism started with Earth Day in 1970:

In the winter of 1969–1970, a group of students met at Columbia University to hear Denis Hayes talk about his plans for Earth Day. Among the group were Fred Kent, Pete Grannis, and Kristin and William Hubbard. This group agreed to head up the New York City activities within the national movement.

private schools all over my old home town due to desegregation. God forbid THEIR children go to school with the same people who were liberated in the south by the civil rights movement a few of them supported.

corresponding perfectly with deseg in my old home city. Prior to that, the only private schools in town were those attended by children of the wealthy, since they were the only people who could afford the tuition. Middle income privates in the south started as a result of deseg, plain and simple.

would mean that very young baby boomers were in a position to start private schools. The 1980's makes more sense to me in this context, but of course I defer to your expertise on your home town.

I never heard about "Segregation Academies" before today. It's a disgusting tactic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segregation_academy#cite_note-us751215-3

but logically, since this is supposed to be the post wwII generation, the offspring of service men who served in the war, how the hell did they not start to school until the 80s? Boomers at least should have been born in the mid 40s to mid 50s.

has existed in that generation since the '60s — the activists v the young repugs.

It has always been so and still is. Half that generation fought against the war, marched and fought for civil rights, the environment, the women's movement and gay rights.

We've always wondered why the generations that followed were so apolitical and satisfied to watch Reagan and the repugs destroy unions, institute trickle down and cheap Gore and Kerry out of the WH.

The Greatest Generation raced from cities to lily white suburbia. In the South, the race was to start whites only private schools. Once the bought and paid for tv evangelists kicked in on the side of Republican Christian fundamentalism in the 80's, there was a second boom of private religious school building. I think that's the boom you're thinking of.

We raised our kids to be good people, compassionate to all people of all religions, races, nationalities. We made the world better. Not perfect, not enpugh, but we started breaking down myths and barriers

Then, along came Trump, nationalist movements, Nazis, and America fissures became mammoth breaks. Those who were left behind were thrown completely overboard.

There is the perception of “selling out” and becoming the establishment during the 1980s. The “me” decade.

The question is will our fall be peaceable or will there be world war?

I'm 60-some years old, and if the truth be told, I just got here myself. The planet seemed unbelievably screwed up when I arrived -- dead Hitlers and Stalins littered the Earth, McCarthy wouldn't be censured for another month or more, Rachel Carson was only beginning her career -- it couldn't be more surreal if Kafka himself were orchestrating it.

I spent my childhood beneath a school desk hiding from nuclear destruction. As a teenager, I won my only lottery prize -- early induction to fight an asinine war no one believed in anymore. And despite all my best efforts -- and the best efforts of some of the best minds of my generation (those not destroyed by madness, who could do more than Howl) -- it just seems to be getting worse.

For every step forward we stumble three back. Again I face nuclear annihilation, though this time without the comfort of a protective desktop. Now it's my children who may face the horror of death by lottery. McCarthyism (or its equivalent) runs rampant in the halls again, the ecological disaster we face is far beyond anything Carson envisioned, and the ghosts of totalitarianism seem to stir yet again.

Point a finger of blame at another generation? Why, because they arrived a day or more before or after me? No. It's no one's fault and it's everyone's fault. . . take your fair share of blame. There's enough for all.

I don't think inter-generational blame is useful, or that the problems that confront us are generational. Greed, stupidity, and hate are trans-generational.

Fix the system. I mean that in a positive way. Of course there are plenty of people that see the system as something they can take advantage of (fix) and that seems to predominantly include politicians. Altho bankers, other shysters, religious preverts and others should be included. Actually a lot of overlap in these groups. Probably ne'er a true liberal, skeptic, altruist present.

The greed of power transcends generations. Just look at the Rockerfellers, the Drumpfs, the Mellons. They've shown the ability to pillage economies over several decades/centuries. It's not the "naughties" or the "x'ers". It's human-kind.

our fucked up society. And I shared your childhood, teen years, and saw everything turn to shit with Nixon and Ray-ray-ray-gun.

I believe it is deliberate misdirection

their autocratic positions. They still are.

Good luck, as we keep fighting among ourselves while they steal all that the prior generations did to preserve it for their future generations.
Its fked up & those blaming prior generations can't seem to get their shit together to even get to the voting booth.
Guess they will NOT be the gen that saves the world.
Maybe the one after that.

Movers and shakers, mayne, not the average person.

and the millennials will blame people who have yet to be born for ruining everything. It's all their fault!

who started the borrowing and living on credit and crass consumerism that Boomers get blamed for. I used to read old Life Magazines, and I was able to start with the very first issue in November, 1936, and made my way through March of 1945. Among the many things I learned was that the Depression and then the war years resulted in pent-up need and desire to buy things, and as soon as they could do so, they bought. And bought. If I recall correctly, by the end of 1944 not only were articles being written about what to do about the soldiers who would soon be returning, but by then War Bonds were being cashed in.

As soon as production of things like cars resumed, people were eager, even desperate to buy them, although a quick google search says that 1941 levels of car production were not reached again until 1949. I didn't realize it had taken that long.

I was born during Roosevelt's second term. So I've lived a tiny bit of history. I don't know exactly the point you're trying to make here. I will say, though, that it seems to me you haven't thought that period of history through.

But reading Life Magazines sequentially, from 1936 to 1945, it's as if I lived through that era. Some of the memories fade, of course.

I will say that I learned at least as much from the ads as I did from the articles.

Anyway, my point is that ever since Tom Brokaw decided to call them The Greatest Generation, they've gotten a pass. Like any generation there were good guys and bad guys. And gals, of course. But they weren't uniformly great, and they did do a lot of things, like massive spending on consumer goods, that Boomers get blamed for, as if their parents didn't also spend, spend, spend.

to society. As a Boomer, I was inclined to blame my parents' generation for many things, but as I get older, I think I can understand them more. They were better in many ways than their parents, who were better than theirs. When I started doing genealogy, I was able to see a bigger picture and appreciate those who came before me in a different light.

In many respects, I am biased as I witnessed so many positive and transformative changes in the late 1960s and 1970s. I was disappointed when my children's generation seemed so disinterested in the same social and economic issues that defined mine, but they have been catching up.

We have a tendency to put tags on people and generations, when life is far more complex than that. I understand now how the Great Depression and World War II shaped my parents and their friends in the 1950s. What we viewed as superficial materialism and shallow lifestyles was in stark contrast to the hard times they endured for the previous two decades. I took "peace and prosperity" for granted then, but to them it was gift paid for with hardship and loss.

So it is probably healthier not to look to place blame on some other generation, but appreciate what they gave us, while always trying to move society forward.

in sharp contrast to the Original Post in this thread.

It took many years to come to this point. I am hopeful that my children and grandchildren will make their own unique contribution to the world and hopefully appreciate those who came before them.

and RAN Vietnam. Notice how different the two came out. The 'Greatest Generation' invented computer warfare where if you built the right number of 'strategic hamlets', dropped the right tonnage of bombs and told the right number of lies, everything would come out right.


Wolf

Our PARENTS!

Younger generations are more liberal because they tend to be more diverse.

Old black people vote more liberal than young white people.

Always have been.

I'm old enough to remember when Republicans only "leaned" right; when many of them were good, honest public servants. I've been a Roosevelt Democrat all my life and will be to my dying day. Things went screwy with McCarthy, got worse with Nixon, then went off the rails with Reagan, evolved to full shithouse crazy with Trump. The pendulum swings both ways. Its next backswing will bring severe harshness to the wingers.

Two things that we should do:

Vote in EVERY election

And don't give one shit about what republicans want when we are making policy. McConnell and his goons should have taught us a lesson about how to wield "fuck them" power.

I have alot of disappointment...

We had the strength of numbers
We were "THE AGE OF AQUARIUS"
I wore flowers in my hair

We sold out, myself included, although I believe many of us are in recovery....






George Harrison expressed these feelings best in:

I ME MINE[Verse 1]
All through the day, I me mine
I me mine, I me mine
All through the night, I me mine
I me mine, I me mine
Now they're frightened of leaving it
Everyone's weaving it
Coming on strong all the time
All through the day I me mine

[Chorus]
I-I-me-me-mine, I-I-me-me-mine
I-I-me-me-mine, I-I-me-me-mine

[Verse 2]
All I can hear, I me mine
I me mine, I me mine
Even those tears, I me mine
I me mine, I me mine
No-one's frightened of playing it
Everyone's saying it
Flowing more freely than wine
All through the day I me mine

[Chorus]
I-I-me-me-mine, I-I-me-me-mine
I-I-me-me-mine, I-I-me-me-mine


[Verse 2]
All I can hear, I me mine
I me mine, I me mine
Even those tears, I me mine
I me mine, I me mine
No-one's frightened of playing it
Everyone's saying it
Flowing more freely than wine
All through the day I me mine

The Reagan Revolution's most vociferous supporters were the same boomers who benefited from the social movements of the 60's. Trust me. I was there. I'm in the gap, neither boomer or gen X'er and the youngest sibling in my family. My parents were greatest generation, and life long FDR / JFK Dems. I remember very well in the 80's my older, boomer siblings trying to convince my dad, a 30+ year union man, to switch to the Rethugs. They railed against the social compact my father and mother worked for, loved and supported. On and on they went about busing, integration and that the Dems had turned into the party of useless eaters. Needless to say, it was futile on their part and I trace my progressive politics back to good ole Dad.

Anecdotal? Yes, but the generation of Gordon Gecko IS the boomers. They are the generation that destroyed defined benefit pensions and unionized workplaces. Who sullied the social compact FDR created. The generation that reveres Ayn Rand, while my parents thought she was a fucking kook. I've always considered many of them, if not most, to be nothing but spoiled brats who benefited from a growing, stable economy many of us later didn't get to enjoy. Jobs were few and precious in the early 80's and we had to scrap and scrape to do as well as our parents, thus I feel an economic kinship to the millennials. They had it handed to them on a damn silver platter. They never learned the lessons of hard work and hardship their parents tried to impart to them. WE sure as hell did, because we had to live it.

And now, they voted overwhelmingly for shitgibbon. Need I say more?

Strike the "anecdotal?" in your second paragraph. Nothing anecdotal about your take on what happened. Very well said.

I appreciate you speaking truth even with an unpopular opinion. The last two decades of disaster is their's to own: declining lifespans and disintegrating country. And just like 45 its never their responsibility and someone else is always to blame, hence OP.

Last edited Sun Dec 31, 2017, 02:25 AM - Edit history (3)

and many young repugs, like your older siblings.

Who do you think fought for civil rights, road freedom buses, fought racist, brutal cops, protested the war, fought for womens' rights, gay rights?

It was the activist half of the boomer generation.

The other half joined with Nixon and Reagan and destroyed unions and the economy every time they got in power.

Track all the depressions and recessions, they happened during repug admins.

And the activist, socially conscious half of us boomers, when we got older and had to go to work to make a living wondered what happened with the younger generations who didn't follow in our activist footsteps. Where were the protests during Reagan and HW Bush's admins, and when Gore was cheated?

Protests didn't start again until the Iraq war, led mostly by boomers who had done it before.

Blaming some group for society's ills is a classic right-wing tactic that we should rise above.

Pitting one generation against another is no different than pitting one race against another. It's just a distraction to keep the 99% fractured and fighting over crumbs while the 1% get the bulk of the pie.

Just ask which party has either cheated or committed treason in every election they have won in the blast half century. Then look at what their "winners" achieved. Then ask yourself if the problem was a generation of voters or a party of depraved vipers...

We were encouraged to study science and engineering and we did. We were the pioneers in the area of bio technology that moved medicine from an art to a science. We developed treatments to many diseases, including cancer, that, until then, were a death verdict.

confused, bewildered, angered and outraged by the hatin' on the Boomers that so often comes from Gen Xers. Brrrrrr

Generation x y z w g I n...whatever. They are all Americans and no single generation destroyed anything. It’s been a team effort.

outside of the last of the greatest generation, which also votes big for republicans. Maybe the boomers did not start the problems, but they are making it difficult for saner people to fix the problems.

A generic statement that has no basis

While a lot of our parents did and a few still do vote Republican, we are the cosseted, clueless idiots with no idea of what life was like before the safety net who watch Faux and vote Republican.

The GG’s before us slowed down the Republican right takeover because they knew better than to believe the anti-welfare state BS the far right was pushing.

Bunch of punks sitting around listening to Benny Goodman records and disrespecting their elders.

That’d think out their ranks!

It was the children of that generation

The Greatest Generation (Born ~1901-1924) elected FDR and created "The New Deal". They fought Fascism in WW-2and won.

The generation that gave us Reagan and Gingrich were children during the Great Depression and WW-2.

The generation that you are referring to is known as "The Silent Generation" (1925-1945)

solid FDR, JFK, LBJ Democrats. Same for us Boomer children, all Dems. NO Nixon- Reagan voters here.

they watched the movie WALL STREET in '87 and took the moral warning "Greed is good" as a lifestyle rally cry.
They knew about the energy crisis and the ozone layer and environment and said :"Nah."

But there were enough to elect Reagan and help make greed a cultural value and disregard the future. I remember talk of environmental conservation in the 70s after Nixon had created the EPA. Why would they lose interest? War maybe? In their defense, after living through the Vietnam era and celebrating it's end, the cold war gathered steam and our dependence on middle eastern countries for oil exposed a vulnerability ready to be exploited.
The instability and renewed sense of doom may have contributed to the I - me - mine mind set. It makes some sense that living in the moment, and enjoying whatever satisfaction greed brings drove an obsession with materialism and status based on wealth, might have been driven by a sense of fatalism. Global warming - why worry? We're all going to get nuked or war will be endless anyway. "Just yesterday morning I saw a dead head sticker on a Cadillac."
We must not forget the contribution of Boomer's kids. In the mid 80s a generation raised on those values started college. There are a lot of Paul Ryans and Rand Pauls, and they didn't come out of nowhere. Many gen Xers embraced individualism, have shown little regard for the common good, and seem to not worry much about future generations.
If anyone is going to put us on a better path, it is the rare civic minded gen xers and the millennials. I am seeing a number of them who have become politically active and committed to making a contribution to a future that is sustainable.
They give me hope.

You want the world... your world to be different then get up and do something about it! blaming and pointing fingers never helped anyone.

so no age group can be to blame. We should worry about how to fix problems, not to tear down our fellow citizens.
Blaming others does not solve problems, it just divides us.

Not even close, honestly. I’m not a big believer in monolithic generations but if we’re going to look at it that way then much of the criticism boomers get is justified.

Millennials I will say every generation has it's flaws but the Boomer's flaws override the positives of their generation. Boomers can claim they fought for Civil rights during the 60's but this is also the same generation that sold out to greed during the 80's and elected Reagan. They have elected republican presidents on a regular basis. The only Dem president I can think of that has won the majority of Boomers is Bill Clinton. The majority of Boomers did not even vote for Obama. If it wasn't for the millennials showing up in '08 and '12 then Obama does not win the presidency. I'm only pointing that out to show you how Boomers have been obsessed with electing right wingers since the 80's . Boomers have brought us two of the worst presidents of all time in only a span of 16 years in Bush and Trump.

The Boomers own the last 30 years for electing these corrupt republican politicians.

Were missing good middle class jobs, textile factories around here are make 100 times more product with 1/10 the workforce it needed 30 years ago

Born in 1935. I think he and some others like him baited some of the boomers who were starting to come of age and realized that living on a hippie commune wasn't exactly what they wanted out of life. Welch and his ilk didn't feel the same obligations toward the WWII vets who risked their lives and made all the sacrifices because it wasn't their generation; they just inherited the engines of profit and exploited them without moral restraint, the "young guns" pushing Reagan toward neoliberalism. IMO

Jack Welch's Barge