What Baby Boomers Didn't Mess Up
Their legacy, their saving grace, their gift.
I wrote this article a few weeks ago and things got a little crazy. It has been one of my most popular articles to date, and the most contentious, despite the trigger warning.
Boomers were insulted and offended. Gen X told me to chill out. Gen Z were sympathetic.
Many boomers read into the article in a very personal way, and let me know how wrong I was about their generation’s emotional deficits— by calling me a psycho.
But thankfully, I am not psychotic most of the time. So I lucidly bring you this next edition with more sweeping generalizations about the boomers.
For the decent individual boomers who understood my article, and who can examine a broad critique of their generation without taking it personally, there’s something good about you guys in here, so hang tight.
Are Boomers* Tone Deaf?
I saw this comment on X recently:
“There are two Canadas. The Canada of the largely property owning 50+ year olds who have gotten rich off of the inflation of the last 10 years and live in nice neighbourhoods insulated from the consequences of the policies they support, and the Canada of everyone else.” - Anthony Koch
Someone, *a boomer*, responded with the following:
“I am a 64 year old boomer who worked his ass off for 43 years (most of it on shift work) to earn what I have. If you are not willing to do the same then that is on you. I will not take responsibility for the poor decisions you make nor will I apologize for making better decisions than you. If you have been voting for the Liberals your whole life then you only have you to blame for the position you are in. Voting has consequences.” - Bill Soucoup
The saga continued:
Bill, Bill, Bill, this is exactly the tone deaf narcissistic response that the millennials ABHOR! This is why we make generalizations about your generation!
We get it Bill, we get that you worked your way to the top and that you are not responsible for the bad economic lot of those university types.
Or are you?
The Boomer Mind Virus:
Bill, I wish you would look at this graph. Put your glasses on.
Wtf happened Bill?
What happened between 1980 and 2020 in Canada?
Well, a lot happened, but 41 years ago when you bought your first home on 3 acres, it was 1984. Even if you bought your home during that little spike, the salary you were making with your undoubtably hard labour gave you the ability to buy a home you could afford.
Please kindly compare it to the differential between household income and housing prices in 2020.
Please stop suggesting that the coming-of-age generations are lazier than you, and that’s why they are having such a hard time buying a home at all, never mind on three acres.
This is not a competition, it an assessment of what went wrong so we don’t mess it up even more for our children.
So what went wrong?
PRESS PLAY:
“I’d like to buy the world a home
And furnish it with love
Grow apple trees and honey bees
And snow white turtle doves
I’d like to teach the world to sing
Sing with me
In perfect harmony
I’d like to buy the world a Coke
And keep it company”
“What do you think the song means?” I asked my husband, showing him the tweet.
“They’re communists.” he said.
The Great Society
The Great Society was a program put into place by the government of President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s. The boomer generation wanted to buy the world a home, promote social justice, give oodles of money to public education and housing projects, banish discrimination, end poverty, and provide cheap healthcare to all. They wanted pensions for their old age (a novel concept). They wanted to take care of the world! A lofty goal. They were high on idealism and other drugs and thought that the government could bring forth an egalitarian utopia.
As I said, they were high.
And the devouring maternalistic nanny state they birthed grew, and grew, and grew until it became obese. It cracked under the weight of its lofty vision. It has been supported with central banking, unsound and untethered currency, engulfing taxation, money printing, corruption, cronyism, playing with interest rates and toying with the levers and pulleys of the economic machine to suit its own existence.
But the economy is not a machine. Left to its own devices, it’s a spontaneous order, a free market, which is not designed but arises from the infinite interactions of individuals making free decisions.
"Much of the opposition to a system of freedom under general laws arises from the inability to conceive of an effective co-ordination of human activities without deliberate organization by a commanding intelligence". - F.A. Hayek
But you can’t build a home for the world and give them a Coke without a commanding “intelligence”. So the well-intentioned ideals of the hippie baby boomers necessitated varying degrees of socialism to live in so-called harmony. And that brings us to where we are now.
So yes, Bill, we can blame you. Not you*, of course, but the boomers. And we are entitled to talk about it now, regardless of your conniption fit.
The Boomer Bend
But of course, the boomers did do something right. In the midst of their utopian reverie, at the zenith of their psychedelic euphoria, they imagined and manifested a unique sonic universe that captured not only their generation, but every generation since.
The boomers gifted us with one thing. Their legacy, their redemption, their saving grace.
The gift of… the boomer bend.
From the era of their youth poured the most incredible, virtuosic music.
Classic rock, jazz, funk, soul, disco, pop, and folk. Led Zeppelin, Queen, Pink Floyd, Cream, Prince, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Prince, Bowie, The Doors, Fleetwood Mac, Jimi Hendrix, Van Morrison, Simon & Garfunkel…
They redefined techniques and genres and created some new ones.
In the video above, guitarist Tim Henson describes the “boomer bend”:
“It describes a very specific guitar bending lick commonly used in music from the 60s and 70s, the age of the baby boomer.”
(He plays an example, and it sounds wicked.)
What a great compliment, dear boomers! This is something you could get behind, right?
“The more twang you give it and the more old guy sound, the more boomery it is, I suppose.”
(Henson giggles. Oh no.)
“But we didn’t make that term in an offensive way. It was more so just, it starts with a B, and Bend starts with a B. So it became a catchy phrase and I think a lot of baby boomers got upset with the term…”
(Cue Henson subtly trying to take care of the boomers feelings, which I offensively described in my essay at the top.)
“But that’s okay because it’s just, you know, a way to describe a sound.”
(Shakes his head in disbelief.)
We forgive you.
Thanks for trying to build us a home guys, but because you tried to build a home for the whole world and fill it with love and Coke, we ran out of money. We are broke. We can’t build a home, or buy a home.
We know that you worked hard so you can live on your 50 acre farm and type angry shit at us in the middle of the afternoon because you’re retired, but we just wanted to let you know, we forgive you. You may have not gifted us with an example of emotional maturity, generational wealth, economic growth, compassion or a functioning society. But, you did gift us with the boomer bend, and music we can attune our emotions to, vibe with, and master. We are resilient, creative, innovative, and we are figuring it out. We hustle, we adapt, we understand how to make money online, and we are cleaning up the mess for future generations. We might not own a home, but we own bitcoin. Our anthem is not peace and love, but libertad carajo.
Rock and roll, baby boomers. We know all your tunes by heart, and we’ve added some licks and bends of our own. Peace out.
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*I add this little star here to let you know that unless you think this song is about you, this song isn’t about you, as an individual. If you are triggered, this song may be about you.
I knew I was going to love this as soon as I saw the Zeppelin picture.
Do you think some Boomers are so aggressive towards younger generations is because deep down they feel deeply self-conscious (maybe even humiliated) about how little they accomplished on their own, and how much damage they did to the economic and psychological health of the country?
They do not give credit to the generations before them for making it possible for them to be in a stable position at a young age to begin adult life. They discount the fathers and grandfathers and grandmothers that taught them mechanics, farming, building, sewing, etc. Then, when Boomers paired that knowledge with increased academic and financial opportunities (also established by the Greatest Generation) they could buy used cars and fix them and keep them attractive and serviceable. They could buy small houses and add on or update them. They could alter and tailor clothes. They could successfully supplement grocery bills with gardening. They could save cash money because the currency held its value over longer periods of time. They didn't have to have a minor in investment banking just to save enough to buy a 2 bedroom house in a non-crime riddled area. They could approach money and life with a simple and efficient tool box and things worked out for them because of an economy and life education built by the generation before them.
As a generation, Boomers did not pass any of this on to their children. They treated us as if we were just more people to take care of them- whether as surrogate parents, spouses, "co-parents" to younger siblings, etc. Any practical skills we learned came from our grandparents. Now they look around and see how much they drained out of society without putting very much back. They have no real advice for struggling young people because they know the society which benefitted them so much was built by their parents- not them. So they can't take credit for it and they definitely can't transmit much knowledge about how to bring some of it back.
I had a pretty intense argument with my dad before he died and it circled around some of the jealousy he felt for my attachment to my grandparents instead of to him and my mom. I finally had to tell him that the Baby Boomers are experiencing such existential misery sandwiched between their parents' generation and all the subsequent generations because, in addition to everything I mentioned above, they were the first generation in American history (possibly the world) that tried to make murdering its own children a cornerstone of financial and psychological success. Building on that foundation of murder, Baby Boomers were the first generation to raise children that, while still children, began to voluntarily engage in the mass murder of adults and fellow children. They didn't take responsibility when it began, and have still never taken responsibility for being the generational originators of this evil and the bloodthirsty horror that has continued down through subsequent generations. Almost as a biblical punishment for these sins, Baby Boomers are being forced to watch their world crumble around them and are dying young while wondering if we can come back from the brink. Many of them are dying realizing their lives amounted to almost nothing with no reassurances that the future is going to be better. And it is in large part their fault. They rail against "lazy" youngsters because they have little of value to offer, will not share credit with previous generations for their success, and don't want anyone to look to closely at the wickedness they brought down on everyone. We are arguably better off not looking to them for advice but as a frightening cautionary tale of how far into the future our damage can reverberate if we don't force ourselves to change course.
I apologize for adding an essay to your essay but what you wrote unlocked all sorts of thoughts. The music they gave us (and so much of our beloved popular culture really) was a tremendous gift and one for which I will forever be grateful. It's the one foundation stone that we should take from the Boomers and be willing to keep for the restoration of our culture.
Reading this made my day. So much awesomesauce I can’t even.