Baby-Boomers – What Happened?

Baby-Boomers – What Happened?

Baby Boomers back in the 60's

Since being discharged from the Air Force I'd been in “hurry-up” mode trying to somehow recapture the time I felt I'd lost. Prior to the military I had been focused on the big political issues of the day, Civil Rights, the draft, and the Vietnam War. While I was in the service I spent all my energy just trying to get through my commitment and I largely did this by withdrawing and forcing myself not to do too much thinking. I just went through the motions just for the day I would get my life back. By now I'd been out of the service for almost 4 years and I had slowed down and stopped chasing lost time. I began to realize that it wasn't just three years I'd lost but I'd also lost a part of myself. I sort of lost my sense of direction, sense of purpose. I no longer had a cause to help define me. The draft was done. The War was over. Civil Rights was complicated. Racism was so embedded in our society and it wasn't going to be solved just by some movement. It was a huge complex societal systemic problem. Sure, the government can and should do things to help but the problems are multi faceted and really a part of each of us who grew up and live in America. Thanks to my time in the Air Force and my experience hanging out with the black community I now had a little better understanding of the depth of racism and that no one was immune. I was finding it more important to start listening and learning rather than complaining to the government. I will never know what it's like to be a black person in America; my experience in the Air Force had helped to further open my eyes.

So here I was, living and attending college in Eugene which was a great fit for me as while it retained that counter-culture atmosphere it had a more fresh-air/outdoor focus, but like in Dylan's song “Like a Rolling Stone” I seemed to have “no direction home”.

The events of the late 60's and early 70's, and the Vietnam War in particular, brought about a loss of innocence. I feel this happened to the entire country, not just me and my generation. The belief that our government had our best interest at heart was shattered. They hadn't been honest with us nor had they lived up to all those ideals that we'd been fed. The “Emperor's new clothes” were exposed, the trust I had put in our government was shaken to where I would never completely trust it in the same way again.

It was no longer clear to me where or what I should be doing. Watergate was over. The pending Presidential election between Gerald Ford and a relatively unknown Jimmy Carter, at least for me, inspired little interest. I had pretty much checked out of national politics, becoming largely apolitical. I retained a small interest in local politics only. The aftermath of the 60's and early 70's  along with Kent State had deflated me. Kent State and then Jackson State were over five years ago now but they had been the proverbial final nail in the coffin. Up until that time I, and I think a good number of my contemporaries, thought the government was misguided and somehow thought we influence those in power could to change things. We were naive. Kent State brought home that those in charge knew exactly what they were doing and they were going to keep doing it their way even if that meant they had to shoot us in the process. This was a shocking revelation. We now understood that we had little if any say in what our leaders did or didn't do and our realistic choice of leaders seemed rather narrow. We looked elsewhere and as a result many of us tended to turn inward. We became Thomas Wolfe's “Me generation”. We explored new and different ways to see the world. At this point many of us became interested in stuff like health, exercise, New Age spirituality, eastern religions, getting back to earth, saving the planet, and Native American culture.  Some clung to those 60's “hippie” ideals joining groups like the “Rainbows” (Rainbow Family of the Living Light) or joining communes.

The focus for many of us was more of the “Tune-out, Turn-on” variety and I was no exception. The folly of influencing the government without “a seat at the table” or “being in the room when it happens” became painfully clear. Politics and fighting the (white) men in charge was a frustrating and joyless endeavor. We were baby-boomers. We were spoiled and used to getting our own way. It was time to pursue a more pleasant and peaceful path and it was time to think about us. So, the “me generation” was born. Baby Boomers – we started off so idealistic with high hopes and wanting to make the world a better place, make a real difference. We settled for focusing on making our own lives better. We became born-again capitalist's, making everything about us. How did that happen? I don't know but it didn't help that we have pretty much been at the top of the bell curve our entire lives and as such the world has catered to us. We have dominated the culture as we've traveled through the phases of our life. From kids to teens to young adults to career and family and now to seniors it was always about us. Unlike our parents and our parents' parents we seem to have left things less good for the next generation. Our past generations worked hard to make their kids' lives better than theirs. Our kids in many cases are not getting that bump. What happened to us? Out of our generation came presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump.  Really? Is that the best we could do? Of course there was Barack Obama too but he's on the late side of the baby-boomer curve so I don't see him as a true baby-boomer. So what have the baby-boomer presidents accomplished? A diminished middle class, lower wages for what's left of the working class, greatly reduced taxes for the upper class, less affordable housing, and mass incarceration.  We didn't stop there, during our watch the power of the President has increased, the Supreme Court has become highly partisan, and  Congress is extremely divided and ineffective with most the work being done by lobbyists bought and paid for by those with all the money. Heck we ourselves are so divided that we can't even have a civil conversation about our political differences. Beam me up Scottie!

Back to Eugene - I felt like I had spent so much focus on the negative aspects of our society that it took the joy out of living. I wanted to be more focused on something that was a little more positive, something actually achievable, not to mention something more fun. So I asked the question “How do I make the world a better place?” For a variety of reasons I was never going to be rich so I came to the conclusion that the most positive thing I could do in this world was work on making me the best possible me. That was something I had some control over and maybe if I did that I would in some small way make a positive difference and maybe that is really all I could do anyway. OK, maybe that sounds a little altruistic not to mention a little full of myself but that was how I was thinking I could focus my energy. How was I going to go about this? Introspection, personal growth, healthy physical activity, spirituality, and being good to Mother Nature all seemed to be a mentally healthier direction for me. In other words I joined the “Me Generation”. I ate all organic food. I recycled, both of which I still do today. I read up on eastern thought and religions. I used a bicycle as my main mode of transportation. I joined a co-op.  I considered moving to the country and growing my own food. I took Yoga. I got interested in things like geodesic domes. I looked into and attended self and group awareness seminars like “est” (Werner Erhart) and Life Spring. I read people like Alan Watts, Carlos Castaneda (“Don Juan” books), Ken Kesey, Neal Cassady, and Hunter S. Thompson (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). I read books on Nostradamus, and books like “Be Here Now”, “Bhagavad Gita”, as well as “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” and “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”. Oh, and I returned to playing sports after a 6 year layoff.

However, as a good self indulgent baby-boomer, I was also putting a solid amount of energy and effort into having a good time. That meant a lot of hanging out with friends, listening to music, smoking lots of pot (and a few other things), riding my bike, hiking and backpacking. I was still trying to figure out my place in the world but I was also making sure I had a good time along the way.