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 could influence those in power 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!
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.
Yea Dave you were having a good time along the way as I recall fondly those days. I Like your comments on the baby boomers. Where has it all ended up? All that peace and love was great. I still see people doing that around me here in my little valley.
ReplyDeleteI was never the deep thinker you were Dave, at that point I was just getting through the day.
When I look at whats important now, I've found a couple of things that help. One, relationships with friends and family. Sometimes we take them for granted but I have found a greater sense of fulfillment in them. Second, do something that's good for other people, get out of that narrow sense of self. I was very lucky in this regard, working with children was incredibly rewarding and the sense of community it gave me cant be measured.
I ve enjoyed your blogs, keep em up
Thanks Mark - I was and maybe still in some ways a dreamer - I guess I knew even back then that the "peace and love" crowd was a minority - Still I saw so much potential in our generation and yet here we are - I'm hoping the millennials save us and yes I think the key to life is to be in service to others as best you can...
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