The Baby Boomers. What did they give us? Free love? Bullshit, the sexual revolution was old news 30 years before they took center stage. Rock and Roll? Bullshit again. I'll take Bill Haley over Elvis 10 days out of seven, and that dude was born in the twenties. The Peace Movement? Shit, all they did for that was make it garish and fashionable. There were Zazous in occupied France getting rounded up and beaten for their opt-out stance during WWII, and arguably in Los Angeles the Zoot-suiters were beaten as much for their refusal to embrace the dominant pro-military culture as for the more usually-cited racist reasons. To say nothing of the well-organized, high-profile peace movements that followed in the wake of the Great War (later renamed World War Episode I in a move that would inspire George Lucas).
So what? What did the Baby Boomers - the rank and file members of that generation - what did they actually contribute? Apart from an insufferably chummy back-slapping sense of group entitlement? Apart from the way that almost all of them can summon up a righteous sense of self-identification with the accomplishments of "their generation"? Even if their specific contribution amounted to approximately jack shit?
Well, I guess they were an enthusiastic audience. Many skilled purveyors of pop rebellion either emerged from or were sustained by that demographic - some truly great entertainers, who were nurtured by those swollen masses of ticket- and album-buyers. It's good to support what's good, even if you personally had zilch to do with it. There are worse legacies than to have been avid and enthusiastic consumers of pop rebellion. That's a pretty important (if ultimately passive) role. Because the thing about pop rebellion is, if no one buys it - the rebellion fails. So bully for them, for that.
It seems to me that the main contribution of the Baby Boomer generation was Youth Culture. Youth Culture means that whatever the immediately preceding generation had established as good is bad. Throw it out! We need to come up with our Own Thing. Change is Good. Change is All. Youth Culture means that the coolest thing in the world is whatever a 14-year old thinks. And if you even try to deny that, then you're so far past it you might as well not bother trying to flip a U-turn. Just look for the next exit to Squaresville and start pricing starter mortgages. The only way to be cool and keep cool is to pander to the tastes of the youngest demographic currently making purchasing decisions.
Probably the most annoying part of being a Baby Boomer is that any time you try to pull rank or defend your legacy from some snotnose twit, all the twit has to do is play the Youth Card - the card that Boomers are wholly responsible for enshrining as the dominant pop cultural paradigm - and the twit wins on principle. Because, pops: you old. Don't blame me, you invented that shit. Before you came along, it was "respect your elders."
Well, if it's any consolation to their parents (wherever they may now be), the Boomer generation is aging far more pathetically than any other generation has or likely ever will. The youth-faking industry has never seen such boom times! Clutching their faded relevance, having left everything they used to use to justify it irretrievably behind, they chug forward to face their own old age. I say: in recognition of their achievements, we should keep humoring their Youth Culture paradigm until all of them are finished dying off, or at least until they've become too senile to appreciate the irony any more.
But after that, let's bury it with them. Because...honestly. What a stupid idea in the first place.
So what? What did the Baby Boomers - the rank and file members of that generation - what did they actually contribute? Apart from an insufferably chummy back-slapping sense of group entitlement? Apart from the way that almost all of them can summon up a righteous sense of self-identification with the accomplishments of "their generation"? Even if their specific contribution amounted to approximately jack shit?
Well, I guess they were an enthusiastic audience. Many skilled purveyors of pop rebellion either emerged from or were sustained by that demographic - some truly great entertainers, who were nurtured by those swollen masses of ticket- and album-buyers. It's good to support what's good, even if you personally had zilch to do with it. There are worse legacies than to have been avid and enthusiastic consumers of pop rebellion. That's a pretty important (if ultimately passive) role. Because the thing about pop rebellion is, if no one buys it - the rebellion fails. So bully for them, for that.
It seems to me that the main contribution of the Baby Boomer generation was Youth Culture. Youth Culture means that whatever the immediately preceding generation had established as good is bad. Throw it out! We need to come up with our Own Thing. Change is Good. Change is All. Youth Culture means that the coolest thing in the world is whatever a 14-year old thinks. And if you even try to deny that, then you're so far past it you might as well not bother trying to flip a U-turn. Just look for the next exit to Squaresville and start pricing starter mortgages. The only way to be cool and keep cool is to pander to the tastes of the youngest demographic currently making purchasing decisions.
Probably the most annoying part of being a Baby Boomer is that any time you try to pull rank or defend your legacy from some snotnose twit, all the twit has to do is play the Youth Card - the card that Boomers are wholly responsible for enshrining as the dominant pop cultural paradigm - and the twit wins on principle. Because, pops: you old. Don't blame me, you invented that shit. Before you came along, it was "respect your elders."
Well, if it's any consolation to their parents (wherever they may now be), the Boomer generation is aging far more pathetically than any other generation has or likely ever will. The youth-faking industry has never seen such boom times! Clutching their faded relevance, having left everything they used to use to justify it irretrievably behind, they chug forward to face their own old age. I say: in recognition of their achievements, we should keep humoring their Youth Culture paradigm until all of them are finished dying off, or at least until they've become too senile to appreciate the irony any more.
But after that, let's bury it with them. Because...honestly. What a stupid idea in the first place.
Comments
Pathetic.
Questions re: your handle. If you're a boomer, wouldn't you have been in your 30s when Battlestar Galactica first came out? And, isn't it spelled "Tigh"?
Thank you for your comment!
I schooled that uptight, self-righteous dipshit. Makes me think I should be indignant more often.
Ok, more indignant more often.
I did.