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August 11, 2005
Mushrooming generation gap?
Via Daniel Rubin, I got quite a chuckle out of Instapunk's reappraisal of the 60th Hiroshima reappraisal by the new 60-something generation: The history may not be so important anymore, because nobody cares about history since the baby boomers reduced it to a pulpy list of crimes against political correctness. What is important is what happens now that the most narcissistic and self-indulgent generation in American history embarks on the great adventure of aging. It's not going to be pretty. The same folks who demanded that the world be remade in their image when they got to college in the '60s will insist -- just as they have in every other tedious phase and fad of the past 40 years -- that meeting their needs is all that matters. Look for the country to be transformed into some kind of senior citizen's amusement park, a 50-state implementation of St. Petersburg, Florida, with a wheelchair ramp at every strip club and free bus transportation to every reunion of septuagenarian Deadheads.Instapunk has more, and he predicts that this self-absorbed, heavily-medicated generation will be an expensive one: As for the rest of you, get ready to pay some real taxes in years to come. The baby boomers' appetite for drugs has always been legendary, and they're going to need pills for blood pressure, and body aches, and the pain of post-cosmetic surgery, and erections, and depression, and all the new syndromes that will be invented by a population of sissies who are growing old without ever having grown up. And they're going to want it all for free.If I could add anything, it would be that my parents were proud members of the World War II generation. They didn't complain much, and they didn't grow old without growing up. I can easily understand the rage that anyone might feel at having to pay for parents who never did much for them and who now demand everything in return, but none of it applies in my case, as both of my parents are dead. I feel even less responsibility to subsidize that portion of the 1960s generation Instapunk describes -- people I remember mostly for having a holier than thou attitude, and an ability to deliver endless moralistic scoldings because they were "at the front lines" in the demonstrations against the Vietnam War. But whether I want to pay anything doesn't change the fact that there's this ugly thing called an entitlement. And they're more entitled than their kids, simply because they're hitting that phony "age of retirement." No wonder so many of them like socialism. Look what's in it for them. As I say this, I realize that I am guilty of bashing an entire generation for the mindset not exhibited by all. The people who bragged of being on the front lines against the war, for example, often overlook the fact that others in their generation not only supported the war, but were in the actual front lines of that war. This latter group was not treated as well by their fellow Americans who brag they "ended" the war. Yet all share the same public entitlement. Neither group is more "deserving" -- even if the ones who fought against the war are more prone to brag about their self sacrificing behavior (despite evidence that their behavior prolonged the war) than the ones who fought in it. Who ever said socialism was fair? posted by Eric on 08.11.05 at 08:02 AM
Comments
Catzmeow: Good! Welcome to Classical Values! Eric Scheie is a hero to me, my favorite blogger. As to the beat generation, Mary at Exist Zero wrote this: Boy, the way Bob Dylan played. Kickbacks from the welfare state. You could spit at soldiers then! Kickbacks from the welfare state. Steven Malcolm Anderson the Lesbian-worshipping man's-man-admiring myth-based egoist · August 11, 2005 04:26 PM Exit Zero. Steven Malcolm Anderson the Lesbian-worshipping man's-man-admiring myth-based egoist · August 11, 2005 04:28 PM |
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Damn your blog is just outstanding. I remember when Calixto first referred me to it a couple of years ago. I'm going to be visiting alot more frequently. Good stuff!