Boomer Bashing: Gen X Gen Y Stop Resenting Boomers! Get Over Yourselves and Invent A New Economy and Society

Is there really such a difference in BB's and Millennials Gen X and Gen Yers? Politics aside--is it point of view about life--with leading edge boomers optimistic and trailing edge  and younger ones cynical? Are Boomers boomer centric, as Junkdrawer67 charges? Are Gen Yers all about ME? Is there really a confict between these so-called generations as is suggested: Read more   

Are Gen X brazen careerists as twentysomething  claims? Do Gen Y and Gen X really rebel against Booomer norms? What are Boomer norms?

http://www.boomerwatch.ca/?p=109 in a post reflecting on boomer norms summed it up as a generation--20+ years--who were freer from previous generations restrictions about where to live and what to do for work, when and how to have sex and marry, greater educational opportunities.

Boomers in my opinion have always looked ahead and seen an open field that they can shape to some degree. So they feel they have some social and personal power.

Younger folks look ahead and see a huge block of Boomers who seem to have invented most things we use today and whose ideas shape our lives even to the presidential elections. I don't think it is about idealism or cynicism really. I think it is about a gut felt sense about the personal and social room to spread your wings and do things.

I think Younger people would do better for themselves and all of us if they just got over themselves and stopped blaming their parents/boomers.

The center of the economic world has shifted largely to China and to a lesser degree to India. So Gen Y, Gen X and whoever you are even younger--take all that energy you are expending on blaming us for your problems and invent a new economy and social organizational pattern that will support the new green economy. Get off your duffs and start doing what has been the hallmark of Americans--making up new stuff.

Current postings on topic:

Taint of '68

Gen Xers Unhappy at Work 

Comments

[David Wielder]

Great article!! Well said. It is up to us to create a better world and a better America. I couldn't agree with you more. I will start following your blog now.. I like it very much.

Side note... thanks for posting the fwicki button. I had not heard of that application and I went over there and joined up. I created a very cool rss feed mashup with my favorite feeds. I wouldn't have ever known about fwicki if I hadn't stumbled upon your blog!

Your blog is sweet!

[Virginia]

David thanks for signing up and glad that you learned something. I am learning more everyday about the internet and its coolness. I truely believe that we are in a moment of crisis/opportunity that offers us a remarkable entry point to reFIRING as a nation. You get it and that is really wonderful. Connecting us one by one is part of what will help us turn from the climate of fear and regression to drawing on the best that is in us and envisioning what we can be. What are your ideas about how the nation should remake itself? We can never be how we were before. The world has changed too much, but we have energy and people resources that can be brought to bear for a new reFIRING of America. Share www.vaboomer.com with all your lists and let's start rethinking and renewing.

[Thomas Paine]

OK, we'll re-define the world in the way you suggest, I'm ready for that challenge and will take it on at a moment's notice.

But here's the thing: boomers and their greedy me attitude just need to get out of the way. You've had your turn at re-shaping the world, and even though some of you did interesting things, across the board the horizon got a lot worse under your watch.
As a species, our descendants will look back at the excesses left behind by the people who lead at the end of the 20th Century with disdain: you left poverty, disease, war, broken social support structures, and above all an environment where nature is on life support and because of the underlying systemic issues that you failed to properly address due to your short-term profit mentality, a world that is designed to play chicken with pollution regulation all the while disregarding the ultimate impact those actions may have on all of us. That is a legacy that ought to shame you!

So as you age and slow down, realize that there are plenty of us coming down the pike who will indeed re-shape the world to make it a better place, but the boomer generation's possibilities for redemption greatly diminish if they do not recognize the ills they have left behind in their wake.

[spongefile]

Er--we have been doing the things you think we don't. Maybe you haven't noticed, because we're not doing it the way you did.

Consider the following sites:
New economy: sites listed on mashable.com, kiva.org
Social organization: thepoint.com, mysociety.co.uk, avaaz.org, pledgebank.com
Greener future plans: carbon trackers, hugg.com, treehugger

Sadly, most of these and other startups don't get the press they should in expensive established Boomer media, because they don't advertise there. Or maybe they're dismissed because they and their potential power aren't understood by those who didn't grow up with the foundation that these tools are built on.

Which makes Xers grouchy with you. "Why don't you do anything but sit on the couch all day with your laptop? When I was your age, I was out protesting, trying to change the world!" I am changing the world. Take a look at my screen sometimes and you'll see.

I have seen this similar misunderstanding undermine Gen Xers' efforts in the workplace. Boomer boss insists on spending thousands on pointless traditional marketing, when Xer tries to save the company money and be more effective via something like GoogleAdwords. Xer is dismissed and sent to do pointless filing, which again could be done more effectively if Boomer hadn't bought that ridiculous buggy company-wide software the Xers begged him not to take. Boomer complains Xer doesn't file as effectively as Boomer did when he was young, what's wrong with this new generation? It's hard to spread your wings when someone ties your leg to a post.