Blasting the Boomers

reprinted from 6/24/94, in response to the
first boomer applying for Social Security

If you're a Baby Boomer, you're not going to like this. Let me admit some bias right up front. I was born before WWII, part of the last generation without a name. It's not that people around my age didn't deserve a public identity, like all previous generations. The Fifties and Sixties were ours, including the rise of Rock and Roll, and the remarkable birth of the electronic age. I could make similar claims for previous generations and their accomplishments.

The return of hundreds of thousands of WWII servicemen and women to civilian life, along with the generous veterans benefits laid on them, was a terribly significant event in U.S. history. Those returning military personnel created the massive Baby Boomer generation, and as they grew up, they exercised profound effects on our society. At one time, I thought my own generation deserved to be thought of as spoiled. We grew into adulthood in an exciting time, when technology seemed to have no limit, and life was downright fun. We reaped the benefits of all previous generations and added our own spin to it. But... once the boomers came of age, I realized that all previous generations were anything but spoiled by comparison.

Despite having the youthful exuberance to both fight in and participate in protesting the Viet Nam conflict, the Boomers then quickly proceeded to "normalize" with a vengeance, becoming more oppressive and maternalistic than the generation they fought in their youth.

I think it has probably been the ego-boost of becoming the new majority in the U.S... and that boost has led them to turn into the most intrusive, self-righteous and power-mad generation in our history. The Boomers were handed a potential future no previous children ever had, and what has occurred "on their watch" as the reigning adults is decidedly shameful. Never have so many caused so much destruction while paying so little attention.

Look around us. Boomers are wealthy by comparison with all previous generations. What have they done with that wealth... with that easy prosperity? They've largely spent it on the accumulation of material goods, one of the characteristics they railed against in their youth.

Despite having been involved in political action during their early years, they went on to abandon ever-increasing power to government they once mistrusted. Those boomers who did retain some political interest fell into sounds-good, feels-good socialism, the very system their parents fought to overcome. As if believing that their own generation could do no wrong, they abdicated on their responsibilities as citizens.

Need I recount the disastrous results during the boomer's reign?

While they may take some credit for helping to end official racial discrimination, they have created a de facto welfare-addicted underclass firmly mired in near-poverty, and much of that underclass is black. Seems that equality of opportunity on paper is close enough.

After proclaiming peace and "doin' your own thing" while young, they have forced their own adult society into an aggressive empire, unforgiving toward those who differ from their chosen lifestyle. In place of the freedom they demanded and enjoyed in their youth, they grew up and substituted political correctness and a nanny's we-know-what's-best-for-you attitude.

After protesting, rioting, and priding themselves on fighting their own government, the military-industrial complex, and almost everything else that was part of their parent's era, that same generation has promoted massive increases in government, making the same military-industrial complex Eisenhower warned about into an obvious reality.

After becoming the generation that "adopted" marijuana and other drugs, they turned with a vengeance, allowing the disastrous War on Drugs that has skyrocketed our prison populations.

The Boomer generation has had their way with our nation. Their size and the financial advantages bequeathed to them by their parents, the so-called "Greatest Generation", gave them the opportunity to do what they wanted. In retrospect, never has a generation shown so much promise and instead wrought so much destruction, and mostly from neglect.

Unfortunately, the Boomers are not going to just fade into oblivion... their destructive impact will follow them like a deposited plague. They will soon become our senior citizens, demanding, as usual, that they be treated like the chosen ones they've become accustomed to. Ballooning taxes for Social Security and Medicare will be their final heritage to their children and grandchildren.

As I wrote in Government and the godawful greatest generation: Why wouldn't the baby-boomers believe in government programs? It created the good life for them, and they naturally wanted to "spread the wealth".

Yes, the boomers were warped by the privilege bestowed by their "greatest generation" parents, and they rebelled against it when they were young, but when they began to have influence of their own, they copped out to a shameful extent, quickly becoming the new establishment and violating all they once believed in. As they became adults, they became responsible for what they did, and can no longer blame their parents.

Yes, I'm bitter. The post-war generation had clear advantages those of us born to non-WWII veterans didn't have, and they had more clout because of their numbers. They've had a privileged life, and they've selfishly sucked up all the additional privilege and control they could get their hands on... to the disadvantage of all others.

I see signs that the boomers' children are wiser... that they've watched their parent's generation with some disgust, but I am an incurable optimist and may just be seeing what I hope for. Only time will tell, but for the next 40 years or so, our nation is going to remain under the dead weight of the post-war baby boomers. So much opportunity, and so much promise, resulting in so much destruction.

To the boomers themselves: It may not be too late to try to rescue future generations from the destruction caused on your watch, but time is running very short. The first, and perhaps least likely, step is for you to at least temporarily divert your attention from accumulating "stuff" and begin paying attention to what kind of nation you're leaving to your own children and grandchildren. You're still, to a large extent, running this nation. Do you really want to leave them with a socialistic, bankrupt, war-mongering police state? Or could you, before you retire, begin to HELP return our nation to the freedoms and opportunities you once believed in?