As we enter a new decade (or already have, I don’t know but I think Jesus was less than a year old when he was born), I am contemplating the inevitable retirement and mortality of the baby boom generation. Much has been said about them and none of it is ever anything good. I guess the best way you could describe the baby boom generation is that they grew up with a massive collective inferiority complex.
I say this because they grew up in the shadow of the so-called “greatest” generation or the World War II generation. This generation grew up too fast, having to become responsible adult when they are were in their late teens and early twenties. There were no parties for them, just war, destruction, and death. But they did something big. They won a great war and triumphed over an oppressive tyranny on a foreign soil.
So then everyone left after that terrible war got a little busy and we ended up with the baby boom generation. I was during this generation that many things changed, some for the better, some for the worst, but massive changes occurred. I can’t help but wonder if this many things would have occurred if the baby boom generation didn’t come about in the wake of World War II. I mean, many of them probably looked up to their parents, who defeated a Statist power and went on to live humble lives. They became mostly blue collar workers, building this country to be even greater than it was in after a massive economic contraction and a devastating war.
You combine this with the climate of fear surrounding a nuclear Soviet Union and it’s no wonder that the baby boom generation was a little messed up. I have to hand it to the various Leftist groups out there, they sure did manage to capitalize on this fear and self-loathing that this new generation had. They ultimately replaced the workers as their call to arms with the intellectuals. I guess they had enough of the workers, who had constantly rejected Socialism and communism for more moderate reforms in the workplace.
Now that this generation is about to fade into retirement and the next one is about to take the reigns, so to speak, I wonder if they are feeling a little guilty over whether they’ve managed to accomplish anything. After all, what did they promise to change back in the 1960s and what did they actually do? They promised less wars, more liberties, and prosperity for all.
We have more wars, without any declaration of war, less liberties than they did, as we can’t even get decent recreational drugs without risking 10 years in federal prison, and the economy’s foundation right now is based on debt, rather than hard work and savings. I have a feeling that these last few pieces of legislation being pushed through by Congress, both Obamacare and Cap and Trade, are the result of a bunch of aging hippies trying one last desperate attempt as doing something meaningful. Can anyone honestly tell us what Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi have contributed to society?
Despite my rather sympathetic tone with the baby boom generation, in reality I wish they would just fade into obscurity and not accept Medicare or Social Security. In my view, that would be the most lasting legacy they could provide as a whole. But I fully expect many of them to not go gently into that night. While the “greatest” generation may have done something great, the baby boom generation has, like the prodigal son, destroyed their own inheritance through their completely self-centered approach to compassion.
I can’t do anything about the train wreck that this country is facing because of them. All I can do is try and become as independent from the government as I can, which means I will have to live a scaled down lifestyle and save everything I can. I suggest that my fellow generation X, Y, Z, and whatever else follows do the same. Look to the past with pity and understand that a self-serving form of compassion will always lead to ruin.