The baby boomers did it

Everything good and sad about our American society today can be linked to this bubble of people in our land.

How the baby boom generation started is pretty simple. It was the birth numbers after World War Two that were way above the average. It resulted in a group of our national population way out of proportion to other groups before and after. This group was so large that it got the name “baby boomers”.

Back in the 1960’s many forces converged on the baby boomers. The rebellious stage of life was entered. Civil rights and the Vietnam war dominated politics, but this time it was not just talked about but applied as in living by example, a very noble course of action it seemed if anti-establishment in perception. Culture was dominated by youth, television and music, prosperity, and security. Individual rights over group rights were celebrated. The birth control pill was invented and used. A soft revolution was underway, and the heady could do their own thing in how they stormed their Bastille, knowing no one would shoot back. The times they were a changing! “If it feels good, do it”; “if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with” were repeated or sung over and over, often with a wink and a nod.

There was a resistance to all this. “My country right or wrong” and “love it or leave it” gained immense popularity as expressions. “Okie from Muscogee” became a cultural response song. Defamation of the American flag prompted many harsh responses, especially when worn as clothing. Long haired, dope smokin’, and hippy because derisive words at a national level.

Sadly assassinations, and many shootings only added to the turmoil of the times. During this turmoil the ideas of anti-establishment somehow became anti-government.

How the baby boomers sorted all this out took decades. Going to work as in a career, marrying, and having children changed most. And our Country is incredibly large. The academic and religious leaders went off on their own liberal courses inspired by the past soft revolution. Individual rights flourished as the idea of group rights faded in the culture. Intrinsic distrust of government also flourished as if the government was manned by non-Americans. The on-going Cold War seemed to tamper things down on the foreign front, and the draft went away. The rises in crime, out-of-wedlock births, expanded drug use, and sexually transmitted diseases nastier than those in the past were becoming more than hints on the horizon. The declines of educational scores began to appear across the country. The one constant was high school sports which remained as popular and supported as ever.

And now as in the Frank Sinatra song “It Was a Very Good Year” the baby boomers are in the autumn and winter of their lives. The descendents of the baby boomers are beginning to take over.

The idea of group rights, often expressed in National Interests, is coming back. Patriotism is no longer a derisive term. Living and doing by example has an expanded meaning over that introduced by the baby boomers counter culture. Volunteerism and faith-based initiatives are popular for the descendents of the baby boomers. Balancing idealism with practicality in deciding how to vote about solving our problems today is becoming prevalent. The present and future dominate the past. Social engineering must be purposeful, with desired results. The foreign front seems more threatening to most than in the past. The main stream religions are fading as the more independent protestant denominations are rising. The overall trend is that people are going to church in greater numbers than decades ago. The population is more acceptable to change for both foreign and domestic reasons, as long as the government is just, responsible, and listens.

There is an ageless assertion of group think and political correctness that is becoming quasi-religious dogma. Anti-government anything is still alive and well. Political discourse and mutual respect seem like old fashioned terms not useful today. Double standards are justifiable if for the right cause of the deciders. A large portion of the baby boomers still avoid war as in being anti-war. Diplomacy without the threat of war is doable, and the only course of action. The political and financial security of the past is part of their rights as a human. Social engineering is still a noble idea and intent, even if the result is a failure. The rights of humans are much expanded. Even the idea of an airline passenger bill of rights now makes sense. If we can’t change things constitutionally, then we can use the power of the people to make the changes deemed fit by the baby boomers.

So here we are today. What started out so well intended has turned out so terribly wrong in too many ways. When a noble intent applied over decades consumes itself in the end then it is a failed idea. Another course would have been wiser, in hindsight.