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.
What you aren't getting is that in terms of Political Power--which unfortunately governs almost everything about economics, culture is comparatively irrelevant--Boomers held practically no political decision-making power in the US until quite recently.
Age demographics are really nothing to politicize, especially with ideological shoehorning. There's no authentic insight to be had there--only stereotype caricatures, especially in terms of framing the generations as political monoliths. Doing that is provably wrong. And acting as if the Boomers are some ancient obsolete group that's left you stranded is ridiculous--if you want anything to change in terms of political power, the Boomers and Gen X are where the action is. Right now.
This isn't about Guessing. It's what Keyword Searches are for.
In four years, the first members of Gen X will turn 65. As of 2025:
Gen X Senators - 28/100 15 R, 13 D.
Gen X House Reps - 180/435 94 R, 86 D.
combined total: 88/100 Senators, 350/435 House Representatives.
Congress has more of a long-lasting influence over American politics than any President. Trump is trying to concentrate more power--but without Republican majorities in both the House and Senate, he would be forced to compromise with the Democrats, and those majorities are both very slim in both Houses of Congress. Both Houses of Congress are run with seniority on the basis of tenure, and there are no term limits. That means power gets concentrated in the hands of the older members--the heads of Committees, the Speaker of the House, and the Senate Majority Leader are almost always older.
So, chart your political course accordingly. Maybe by forgetting all that bogus generational bullshit? Because the numbers say it's a loser. It's a big miscalculation to speak of Boomers in the past tense. Many of us are going to be actively on the scene for at least another decade. Some things, you just have to get used to them. Wild In The Streets is just a movie, not reality. (From1968. Free on YouTube. The Youther fantasy isn't even new, much less original.)
[* Of the 4 Boomer Presidents, the only one who wasn't born in 1946 was Obama (b.1961.) #46 Joe Biden is not a Boomer, he's Silent Generation. ]
I disagree that culture is comparatively irrelevant. Culture very much drives politics. But that is a point of disagreement that doesn't usually get bridged in this format. It's one of those things where both parties acknowledge that they view certain foundational points differently.
I think you are wrong that Boomers held no political decision making power until recently. They have been working in politics and culture since the 70s. It's Gen X and Millenials who are, obviously, newer on the scene and testing their clout.
I hope Boomers stay actively on the scene in many different areas of culture and politics. As the essay pointed out, y'all got some things right. And younger generations do need older ones to learn from. But Boomers do need to stop being so defensive and show a bit of the ownership, self-possession, and dignity of the generations previous to then.
Your comment misleadingly implies that Boomers are a political monolith. They are not, and never were. The Youth Vote was majority Nixon in1972, the first year that 18 year olds became eligible to vote for national political candidates. It's been closely divided ever since--more often than not, favoring Republicans. Granted, I don't think that the political leanings of Boomers can be reduced to "Republicans or Democrats"; many of them are alienated from both parties, and only vote for one or the other because they're cornered into doing it. (I support two-ranked-choice voting.) https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/09/age-generational-cohorts-and-party-identification/pp_2024-4-9_partisan-coalitions_4-05-png/
Nearly all of the Boomers "working in politics since the 70s" who went on to successful careers in politics, statecraft, and the national media began as what I refer to as members of the Protege class--apprenticing for their elders. In grad school, in their earliest work in political campaigns as field workers and spokespeople, as staffers and clerks, from the time of their own first runs for office all the way through to getting elected President.
Barack Obama was still a Protege when he got elected President in 2008, and the course he followed as President didn't differ at all from the one favored by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. Both Obama (b.1946) and Bill Clinton (b.1946) followed a classic Democratic Party Establishment career track from their teenage years. Roger Stone (b.1952)--gray eminence of 1980s-90s GOP lobbying, and perhaps the earliest booster of Donald Trump-- got his start as an advance man for Richard Nixon. Former VP Mike Pence (b.1959) was a DEA agent. Both former VP Dan Quayle (b.1947) and former VP Al Gore (b.1948) were wealthy heirs to political dynasties. As was former President George W. Bush (b.1946.)
Despite the canard about Baby Boomers being renegades and outlaws, the only Boomer outsider I can think of with any political success is Donald Trump, born 1946, a billionaire who leveraged his wealth and prominent national media profile and name recognition into an inside takeover of the Republican Party and two terms as President. Everyone else with a successful career in a powerful national elected office--whether as President, Speaker of the House, or Senate leader-- is about as much of an Establishment insider careerist ladder climber as it gets. In fact, the Democratic Establishment has a track record of being more inclined than the Republicans to police their ranks and cull anyone who might chart their own course. The outliers cut out of the game by the Dem Establishment over the past 50 years: Jimmy Carter, 1924. Gary Hart and Jerry Brown, both born in the 1930s. Bernie Sanders, 1941. Never mind rogue Baby Boomers who didn't follow the prescribed path of their Democratic Party Establishment elders--there weren't any!
So much for the Extreme Left Radical Liberal Baby Boomer Hippie takeover of the Democratic Party.
Pat Caddell (1950-2019), a top campaign adviser for McGovern in 1972 and Jerry Brown in the 1990s, became so disgusted with the Ds that he ended up working for Trump in 2016. There are no Democratic Party equivalents to Steve Bannon (b.1953) or Roger Stone (b.1952). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IPyv4KgTAA
So when it comes to Boomer Politics, there's the Myth, and there are the Facts. The Facts are more complicated than the Myth.
No, I never implied Boomers were a political monolith. I attempted to steer clear of speaking much about politics at all. I think politics are a piece of culture but my interest is the culture overall. You believe differently (that politics is separate and is the driving force behind culture) and that difference isn't one that can be bridged in a conversation or two. It's just a difference to accept.
Boomers are an entire generation, and it is the responsibility of younger generations to learn from both the examples and mistakes of their elders. Gen X, Millennials, etc. will all face their own reckoning. But right now it is the Boomers who are up for discussion, analyses, and judgemental. And also some praise- as Kate pointed out in her essay.
Boomers aren't a cultural monolith any more than they're a political monolith. There is more of a shared experience of popular culture than there is for their political leanings, but Americans are pluralistic by nature, not uniform. Idiosyncratic, even.
I don't view politics as separate from culture. But culture is much less of an influence on economics than politics, and in the 20th century the Boomers did not possess the political power to craft the policies that influenced the American economy between the 1950s and the mid-1990s. In that era, they were primarily Voters and Consumers. Some Boomers were in the wave of Wall Street financialization that began transforming the American economy in the Reagan era (see The Politics of Rich and Poor by Kevin Phillips, and America: What Went Wrong, by Barlett and Steele.) Boomers built the original economic boom and technological breakthroughs of Silicon Valley that began another set of transformations in the Clinton years. But as I've shown in the previous post, the Boomers certainly haven't been running the country all this time. In terms of putting a political stamp on the times, they're still punching below their weight, and at this point their demographic influence is beginning to wane. So I don't buy the line that the current Gilded Age resulted from some post-1960s wave of liberal social values that's only now being overturned. Disco Donald Trump, Baby Boomer, was even less of a part of the Woodstock Generation than careerist politico striver Bill Clinton was. I'm aware that anti-hippie ressentiment is part of what fuels the Boomer-bashing Neo-reactionary narrative, and Trump is definitely no hippie. But anyone who thinks Trump's election heralds a return of the US to pro-social conservative values and populist dismantling of our 21st Century Gilded Age needs their head examined.
As for making judgements about the negative influence of the Boomers on culture, if you're intent on examining the Shadow of American culture, you need to begin much earlier than the 1960s. I'm presently about to finish watching the documentary Prohibition. If you don't know that history, you really lack the perspective to know what you're talking about. The Baby Boom generation was not some radical departure from everything that happened prior to the 1960s. Anyone who watches that documentary should be able to realize how much of a continuum the dominant themes in American culture have been, from the founding of the country. I've specialized in studying the history of alcohol and drugs use in the US. I own an entire bookshelf on those subjects. So I know what I'm talking about when I say that documentary is an extraordinarily insightful and accurate introduction to the subject. I recommend that everyone watch it, it's a 3-part series, about 6 hours. A real-eye-opener. https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition
It’s awful the way some boomers criticise young people for being lazy - but that’s some boomers. Not all boomers are ignorant, and many of them constantly dig into their retirement savings to help their kids. Some of the kids, by the way, are unappreciative, and wouldn’t dare drive a used car or not go on an expensive holiday after having been helped financially (with boomer baby sitting time as well) - but that’s some young people.
Boomers are just older versions of Millennials and vice versa. The economy of the time is where the fault lies. Blame the banks perhaps and their opportunistic young executives and the system at large, not us average baby boomers.
I think this is an example of having to supply your own "not alls". I am speaking of generational problems- not specific people.
For example, my parents taught us that abortion is a form of murder. With all the things they got wrong, they did understand that an unborn baby is absolutely and unquestionably innocent of whatever circumstances surrounded their life and conception. And they effectively transmitted that belief to me and my siblings. My best friend from childhood's mother was the best of wives, women, and mothers. I could write a book about what a wonderful woman she is. It remains one of the great privileges of my life that I had her in my life in childhood because her example has helped me so much now that I am a mother. But these specifics do not undo the generational wrongdoings of The Boomers.
As far as the spoiled children of Boomers- Boomers raised them. They have no one to blame for their entitled offspring except themselves.
None of this exempts future generations from putting on our grown up britches (or work overalls) and doing what we have to do to try and reverse the bloodlust and entitlement bequeathed to us.
Evolution is a slow process; human nature doesn’t change in one generation. Social determinants are largely economic, and the overwhelming majority of working baby boomers in their time did not shape them. The baby boomers you see in the Australian website I posted above are doing what they can for their kids. Their kids will do the same for theirs, where they can, if they can.
We should not be divided here. Our foes are not generation-dependent. Look at the last five years for example, which have been devastating for millions of people around the world (Oxfam International) where greedy tyrants enacted the biggest wealth transfer in history - a process which was held together by trickle-down corruption and conflicts of interest. The care not shills, both young and old, will always run off with their pot of gold.
I think a foundational point of disagreement is that I do not believe social determinants are largely economic. I think it is too close to a Marxist framing and encourages too many people to abrogate responsibility. I think the economy is an incredibly important part of society and no study of any period in history is complete without understanding the economic factors acting on the people of whatever time. But it's not the only determinant.
Boomers shaped all parts of society when they were younger, and they still do along with Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, and so on. Boomers taught school, taught Sunday School, owned businesses, made movies, wrote books, made investment decisions, bought homes, voted, joined the military, supported charities, etc. They absolutely have responsibility for how all these things have turned out. It won't always be that way- the rest of us are going to bear some generational responsibility too. But for this point in history, Boomers carry a large responsibility for where we are.
The example families are individual examples and fortunately a lot of people do have thus in their lives. But plenty of people can also tell stories of Xers and Millennials of having to support their Boomer parents in some shape for form for their whole lives.
The average Boomer was never responsible for the structure of society, and most boomers are average. They voted, and conformed like every other average worker. They were born into a society without choice, received an average income, provided for their families and drove second hand cars to save money. Today, it’s much harder for most young people, but such a situation is not the fault of the average Boomer. All that young people can do now is to try to resist the current dystopian agenda of the globalists. Some awake Boomers are lending a hand there where they can.
In respect to generational differences when it comes to ‘empathy’, I’m currently doing research on the degree that it is expressed towards the Covid vaccine injured and bereaved. Thus far, I’m finding, irrespective of vaccination status, the differences between the generations have been more or less identical. The majority of people, it seems, regardless of age, prefer to look the other way.
I am amazed to watch programs where young home buyers have to have EVERYTHING in their first home and turn up their noses if it is "dated". (and they have an enormous budget that will keep them in debt for decades!)
It’s the Liberal Boomers who messed up Canada. Huge government, massive overreach, drowning in regulation… they won’t rock the boat. Carney is their opiate to live out their years and die having screwed the following generations with massive government debt. As a boomer I apologize for the self centred, narrow minded, judgemental Liberal boomers. Canada First. Canadians First. All Canadians.
Wow. I guess us boomers in Britain didn't have the same breaks as the ones you describe in the US and Canada.. University wasn't an option for me or anyone I know as we needed to....well......go to work as soon as possible and pay "board" money to parents until we could get a council house or save enough for a deposit on a small 2-bedroom terrace house.
I understand all the stuff about property prices going crazy and that has happened here as well, certainly in the south of England and bigger cities. But I don't really see how anything I have chosen to do has made that happen. If the financial players who created the 2008 crash - whose impacts are still being felt and are probably linked to the asset bubble, along with the covid money-printing wealth transfer - are in some cases "boomers", does that make a whole generation (which is a somewhat specious concept in any case and just an easy term of reference) somehow guilty by association?
I don't blame younger people for the circumstances a lot find themselves in, especially the simple inability to buy a first home, or rent at a reasonable rate. I would see a property crash as beneficial to everyone who deserved it, even though my home "value" would go down substantially. I don't think in those terms. It's a roof over my head and it's got a price tag which will vary over time, so what? Meaningless unless I need to sell for whatever reason. Maybe I am odd that way, I don't know.
The fact is the 2008 crash was never allowed to fully take place, because a huge amount of ordinary people would have lost their savings and probably a lot more after multiple TBTF bank collapses. The travails of today's generation in that way are very unfair, but blaming "the boomers" just seems a bit silly.
And yes, we had the best music by miles, but that is a whole other story, and as someone else pointed out correctly, the likes of The Beatles and Stones were pre-boomers (for what it's worth), so fair enough. But most of us thought Buying The World a Coke was hippy claptrap as well...:)
Hahahaha. Excellent. Although I must say I don't really like the 60s/70s music (the Coke video you showed I saw for the first time, because it encapsulates everything I hate about boomerism), and prefer the electronic dance Stuff (Kraftwerk, anyone?) from the 90s onwards. But, not to forget, I do endorse what you said in the first piece you wrote.
Much as it pains me to admit this, we Boomers were not the brilliant musicians of the 1960s and 1970s. We were merely the audience. For some mysterious reason, an uncanny number of 1960s-70s Music Legends were born in the years 1940-1945*. After that, the roster thins out considerably, and turns distinctly 2nd tier.
* The uh Boom begins in 1946, the year after WW2 ended, when the males serving in the militaries returned home
You got a lot of other stuff wrong about the era too, imo--culturally, politically, economically. "Disposable income" is not what people buy houses with, for example. But I'll spare you a detailed critique ;-p
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.
Incredibly insightful, thank you for sharing.
What you aren't getting is that in terms of Political Power--which unfortunately governs almost everything about economics, culture is comparatively irrelevant--Boomers held practically no political decision-making power in the US until quite recently.
Age demographics are really nothing to politicize, especially with ideological shoehorning. There's no authentic insight to be had there--only stereotype caricatures, especially in terms of framing the generations as political monoliths. Doing that is provably wrong. And acting as if the Boomers are some ancient obsolete group that's left you stranded is ridiculous--if you want anything to change in terms of political power, the Boomers and Gen X are where the action is. Right now.
This isn't about Guessing. It's what Keyword Searches are for.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/01/16/age-and-generation-in-the-119th-congress-somewhat-younger-with-fewer-boomers-and-more-gen-xers/
the 2025 Presidency and Congressional age range:
Donald Trump - b.1946. First year of the Baby Boom (1946-1964).*
Baby Boomer Senators - 60/100. 31 Republican, 29 Democrat.
Baby Boomer House Reps - 170/435. 89 R, 81 D.
In four years, the first members of Gen X will turn 65. As of 2025:
Gen X Senators - 28/100 15 R, 13 D.
Gen X House Reps - 180/435 94 R, 86 D.
combined total: 88/100 Senators, 350/435 House Representatives.
Congress has more of a long-lasting influence over American politics than any President. Trump is trying to concentrate more power--but without Republican majorities in both the House and Senate, he would be forced to compromise with the Democrats, and those majorities are both very slim in both Houses of Congress. Both Houses of Congress are run with seniority on the basis of tenure, and there are no term limits. That means power gets concentrated in the hands of the older members--the heads of Committees, the Speaker of the House, and the Senate Majority Leader are almost always older.
So, chart your political course accordingly. Maybe by forgetting all that bogus generational bullshit? Because the numbers say it's a loser. It's a big miscalculation to speak of Boomers in the past tense. Many of us are going to be actively on the scene for at least another decade. Some things, you just have to get used to them. Wild In The Streets is just a movie, not reality. (From1968. Free on YouTube. The Youther fantasy isn't even new, much less original.)
[* Of the 4 Boomer Presidents, the only one who wasn't born in 1946 was Obama (b.1961.) #46 Joe Biden is not a Boomer, he's Silent Generation. ]
I disagree that culture is comparatively irrelevant. Culture very much drives politics. But that is a point of disagreement that doesn't usually get bridged in this format. It's one of those things where both parties acknowledge that they view certain foundational points differently.
I think you are wrong that Boomers held no political decision making power until recently. They have been working in politics and culture since the 70s. It's Gen X and Millenials who are, obviously, newer on the scene and testing their clout.
I hope Boomers stay actively on the scene in many different areas of culture and politics. As the essay pointed out, y'all got some things right. And younger generations do need older ones to learn from. But Boomers do need to stop being so defensive and show a bit of the ownership, self-possession, and dignity of the generations previous to then.
Your comment misleadingly implies that Boomers are a political monolith. They are not, and never were. The Youth Vote was majority Nixon in1972, the first year that 18 year olds became eligible to vote for national political candidates. It's been closely divided ever since--more often than not, favoring Republicans. Granted, I don't think that the political leanings of Boomers can be reduced to "Republicans or Democrats"; many of them are alienated from both parties, and only vote for one or the other because they're cornered into doing it. (I support two-ranked-choice voting.) https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/09/age-generational-cohorts-and-party-identification/pp_2024-4-9_partisan-coalitions_4-05-png/
Nearly all of the Boomers "working in politics since the 70s" who went on to successful careers in politics, statecraft, and the national media began as what I refer to as members of the Protege class--apprenticing for their elders. In grad school, in their earliest work in political campaigns as field workers and spokespeople, as staffers and clerks, from the time of their own first runs for office all the way through to getting elected President.
Barack Obama was still a Protege when he got elected President in 2008, and the course he followed as President didn't differ at all from the one favored by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. Both Obama (b.1946) and Bill Clinton (b.1946) followed a classic Democratic Party Establishment career track from their teenage years. Roger Stone (b.1952)--gray eminence of 1980s-90s GOP lobbying, and perhaps the earliest booster of Donald Trump-- got his start as an advance man for Richard Nixon. Former VP Mike Pence (b.1959) was a DEA agent. Both former VP Dan Quayle (b.1947) and former VP Al Gore (b.1948) were wealthy heirs to political dynasties. As was former President George W. Bush (b.1946.)
Despite the canard about Baby Boomers being renegades and outlaws, the only Boomer outsider I can think of with any political success is Donald Trump, born 1946, a billionaire who leveraged his wealth and prominent national media profile and name recognition into an inside takeover of the Republican Party and two terms as President. Everyone else with a successful career in a powerful national elected office--whether as President, Speaker of the House, or Senate leader-- is about as much of an Establishment insider careerist ladder climber as it gets. In fact, the Democratic Establishment has a track record of being more inclined than the Republicans to police their ranks and cull anyone who might chart their own course. The outliers cut out of the game by the Dem Establishment over the past 50 years: Jimmy Carter, 1924. Gary Hart and Jerry Brown, both born in the 1930s. Bernie Sanders, 1941. Never mind rogue Baby Boomers who didn't follow the prescribed path of their Democratic Party Establishment elders--there weren't any!
So much for the Extreme Left Radical Liberal Baby Boomer Hippie takeover of the Democratic Party.
Pat Caddell (1950-2019), a top campaign adviser for McGovern in 1972 and Jerry Brown in the 1990s, became so disgusted with the Ds that he ended up working for Trump in 2016. There are no Democratic Party equivalents to Steve Bannon (b.1953) or Roger Stone (b.1952). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IPyv4KgTAA
So when it comes to Boomer Politics, there's the Myth, and there are the Facts. The Facts are more complicated than the Myth.
No, I never implied Boomers were a political monolith. I attempted to steer clear of speaking much about politics at all. I think politics are a piece of culture but my interest is the culture overall. You believe differently (that politics is separate and is the driving force behind culture) and that difference isn't one that can be bridged in a conversation or two. It's just a difference to accept.
Boomers are an entire generation, and it is the responsibility of younger generations to learn from both the examples and mistakes of their elders. Gen X, Millennials, etc. will all face their own reckoning. But right now it is the Boomers who are up for discussion, analyses, and judgemental. And also some praise- as Kate pointed out in her essay.
Boomers aren't a cultural monolith any more than they're a political monolith. There is more of a shared experience of popular culture than there is for their political leanings, but Americans are pluralistic by nature, not uniform. Idiosyncratic, even.
I don't view politics as separate from culture. But culture is much less of an influence on economics than politics, and in the 20th century the Boomers did not possess the political power to craft the policies that influenced the American economy between the 1950s and the mid-1990s. In that era, they were primarily Voters and Consumers. Some Boomers were in the wave of Wall Street financialization that began transforming the American economy in the Reagan era (see The Politics of Rich and Poor by Kevin Phillips, and America: What Went Wrong, by Barlett and Steele.) Boomers built the original economic boom and technological breakthroughs of Silicon Valley that began another set of transformations in the Clinton years. But as I've shown in the previous post, the Boomers certainly haven't been running the country all this time. In terms of putting a political stamp on the times, they're still punching below their weight, and at this point their demographic influence is beginning to wane. So I don't buy the line that the current Gilded Age resulted from some post-1960s wave of liberal social values that's only now being overturned. Disco Donald Trump, Baby Boomer, was even less of a part of the Woodstock Generation than careerist politico striver Bill Clinton was. I'm aware that anti-hippie ressentiment is part of what fuels the Boomer-bashing Neo-reactionary narrative, and Trump is definitely no hippie. But anyone who thinks Trump's election heralds a return of the US to pro-social conservative values and populist dismantling of our 21st Century Gilded Age needs their head examined.
As for making judgements about the negative influence of the Boomers on culture, if you're intent on examining the Shadow of American culture, you need to begin much earlier than the 1960s. I'm presently about to finish watching the documentary Prohibition. If you don't know that history, you really lack the perspective to know what you're talking about. The Baby Boom generation was not some radical departure from everything that happened prior to the 1960s. Anyone who watches that documentary should be able to realize how much of a continuum the dominant themes in American culture have been, from the founding of the country. I've specialized in studying the history of alcohol and drugs use in the US. I own an entire bookshelf on those subjects. So I know what I'm talking about when I say that documentary is an extraordinarily insightful and accurate introduction to the subject. I recommend that everyone watch it, it's a 3-part series, about 6 hours. A real-eye-opener. https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition
It’s awful the way some boomers criticise young people for being lazy - but that’s some boomers. Not all boomers are ignorant, and many of them constantly dig into their retirement savings to help their kids. Some of the kids, by the way, are unappreciative, and wouldn’t dare drive a used car or not go on an expensive holiday after having been helped financially (with boomer baby sitting time as well) - but that’s some young people.
Boomers are just older versions of Millennials and vice versa. The economy of the time is where the fault lies. Blame the banks perhaps and their opportunistic young executives and the system at large, not us average baby boomers.
Here are some interesting findings, from Australia (6 February 2025): https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-06/cost-of-living-sting-lessened-by-bank-of-mum-and-dad/104882754
I think this is an example of having to supply your own "not alls". I am speaking of generational problems- not specific people.
For example, my parents taught us that abortion is a form of murder. With all the things they got wrong, they did understand that an unborn baby is absolutely and unquestionably innocent of whatever circumstances surrounded their life and conception. And they effectively transmitted that belief to me and my siblings. My best friend from childhood's mother was the best of wives, women, and mothers. I could write a book about what a wonderful woman she is. It remains one of the great privileges of my life that I had her in my life in childhood because her example has helped me so much now that I am a mother. But these specifics do not undo the generational wrongdoings of The Boomers.
As far as the spoiled children of Boomers- Boomers raised them. They have no one to blame for their entitled offspring except themselves.
None of this exempts future generations from putting on our grown up britches (or work overalls) and doing what we have to do to try and reverse the bloodlust and entitlement bequeathed to us.
Thank you for your reply
Evolution is a slow process; human nature doesn’t change in one generation. Social determinants are largely economic, and the overwhelming majority of working baby boomers in their time did not shape them. The baby boomers you see in the Australian website I posted above are doing what they can for their kids. Their kids will do the same for theirs, where they can, if they can.
We should not be divided here. Our foes are not generation-dependent. Look at the last five years for example, which have been devastating for millions of people around the world (Oxfam International) where greedy tyrants enacted the biggest wealth transfer in history - a process which was held together by trickle-down corruption and conflicts of interest. The care not shills, both young and old, will always run off with their pot of gold.
I think a foundational point of disagreement is that I do not believe social determinants are largely economic. I think it is too close to a Marxist framing and encourages too many people to abrogate responsibility. I think the economy is an incredibly important part of society and no study of any period in history is complete without understanding the economic factors acting on the people of whatever time. But it's not the only determinant.
Boomers shaped all parts of society when they were younger, and they still do along with Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, and so on. Boomers taught school, taught Sunday School, owned businesses, made movies, wrote books, made investment decisions, bought homes, voted, joined the military, supported charities, etc. They absolutely have responsibility for how all these things have turned out. It won't always be that way- the rest of us are going to bear some generational responsibility too. But for this point in history, Boomers carry a large responsibility for where we are.
The example families are individual examples and fortunately a lot of people do have thus in their lives. But plenty of people can also tell stories of Xers and Millennials of having to support their Boomer parents in some shape for form for their whole lives.
Reading this made my day. So much awesomesauce I can’t even.
😂 thank you!
The average Boomer was never responsible for the structure of society, and most boomers are average. They voted, and conformed like every other average worker. They were born into a society without choice, received an average income, provided for their families and drove second hand cars to save money. Today, it’s much harder for most young people, but such a situation is not the fault of the average Boomer. All that young people can do now is to try to resist the current dystopian agenda of the globalists. Some awake Boomers are lending a hand there where they can.
Thanks for your comment Dave! We all leave our legacy, millennials will have changed the world in our own way for better and worse. Time will tell :).
Thank you, Kate. I’m sure you’re right.
In respect to generational differences when it comes to ‘empathy’, I’m currently doing research on the degree that it is expressed towards the Covid vaccine injured and bereaved. Thus far, I’m finding, irrespective of vaccination status, the differences between the generations have been more or less identical. The majority of people, it seems, regardless of age, prefer to look the other way.
Boomers also do a lot of baby sitting through the week. 😏
I am amazed to watch programs where young home buyers have to have EVERYTHING in their first home and turn up their noses if it is "dated". (and they have an enormous budget that will keep them in debt for decades!)
It’s the Liberal Boomers who messed up Canada. Huge government, massive overreach, drowning in regulation… they won’t rock the boat. Carney is their opiate to live out their years and die having screwed the following generations with massive government debt. As a boomer I apologize for the self centred, narrow minded, judgemental Liberal boomers. Canada First. Canadians First. All Canadians.
Wow. I guess us boomers in Britain didn't have the same breaks as the ones you describe in the US and Canada.. University wasn't an option for me or anyone I know as we needed to....well......go to work as soon as possible and pay "board" money to parents until we could get a council house or save enough for a deposit on a small 2-bedroom terrace house.
I understand all the stuff about property prices going crazy and that has happened here as well, certainly in the south of England and bigger cities. But I don't really see how anything I have chosen to do has made that happen. If the financial players who created the 2008 crash - whose impacts are still being felt and are probably linked to the asset bubble, along with the covid money-printing wealth transfer - are in some cases "boomers", does that make a whole generation (which is a somewhat specious concept in any case and just an easy term of reference) somehow guilty by association?
I don't blame younger people for the circumstances a lot find themselves in, especially the simple inability to buy a first home, or rent at a reasonable rate. I would see a property crash as beneficial to everyone who deserved it, even though my home "value" would go down substantially. I don't think in those terms. It's a roof over my head and it's got a price tag which will vary over time, so what? Meaningless unless I need to sell for whatever reason. Maybe I am odd that way, I don't know.
The fact is the 2008 crash was never allowed to fully take place, because a huge amount of ordinary people would have lost their savings and probably a lot more after multiple TBTF bank collapses. The travails of today's generation in that way are very unfair, but blaming "the boomers" just seems a bit silly.
And yes, we had the best music by miles, but that is a whole other story, and as someone else pointed out correctly, the likes of The Beatles and Stones were pre-boomers (for what it's worth), so fair enough. But most of us thought Buying The World a Coke was hippy claptrap as well...:)
Hahahaha. Excellent. Although I must say I don't really like the 60s/70s music (the Coke video you showed I saw for the first time, because it encapsulates everything I hate about boomerism), and prefer the electronic dance Stuff (Kraftwerk, anyone?) from the 90s onwards. But, not to forget, I do endorse what you said in the first piece you wrote.
Much as it pains me to admit this, we Boomers were not the brilliant musicians of the 1960s and 1970s. We were merely the audience. For some mysterious reason, an uncanny number of 1960s-70s Music Legends were born in the years 1940-1945*. After that, the roster thins out considerably, and turns distinctly 2nd tier.
* The uh Boom begins in 1946, the year after WW2 ended, when the males serving in the militaries returned home
You got a lot of other stuff wrong about the era too, imo--culturally, politically, economically. "Disposable income" is not what people buy houses with, for example. But I'll spare you a detailed critique ;-p
Robert Plant in his sister’s jacket. Nice.
I hope the trigger warning is a joke. It’s time to grow up and get past that.