Calling the hippie generation on the carpet

[unixronin]

Chez Pazienza writes trenchantly in the Huffington Post about the baby-boomer Me Generation and their 40 years of complete self-absorbtion:

Such is the real legacy of the 60s, as filtered through the haze of bong smoke still looked back on with fondness by many of those who were there:  It introduced the most narcissistic, self-congratulatory, self-indulgent generation this country has ever seen.  A group of people political satirist Christopher Buckley jokingly calls "The Un-greatest Generation."

As far as they're concerned, they own the world -- and to some extent they do, and have since they first went from being counter-culture warriors to being shallow, shameless Wall Street capitalists in the 1980s.  When Wavy Gravy gave way to Gordon Gekko.  When the Baby Boomers ascended to a position of real power in America, it was almost a certainty that they would do what they'd done since the 60s: shove their values (which always came down to one thing: them), their culture, and their nostalgia for their own childhood down our collective throats, allowing the rest of us the opportunity to fully grasp and revel right along with them in what they already knew so well -- their lives ruled.  It was this gargantuanly egocentric attitude that gave us the "Me Generation" during the 70s and went on to bankrupt parts of this country, both financially and morally, in the 80s and beyond.  No wonder "my generation" (no pun intended), the so-called Gen-X, eventually decided that the only way to fight back was to abandon all that phony, ultimately self-serving conscientiousness and just not give a shit about anything.

(via fruitylips, OOB)

Comments

[rob-thompson.livejournal.com]

Nice excerpt. Good article. As a Boomer myself, I can't say I disagree with any of it. If you can stand it, I would suggest a read through of Todd Gitlin's The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage. It outlines, in the most self-serving way possible, why Pazienza hit the nail on the head. For a couple of better demographic outlines - I suggest "Boom, Bust and Echo" by David Foote as well as "Great Expectations" by Landon Jones. Pazienza didn't go far enough, actually in his article. He didn't note, as an example, of how the Boomers, having benefited from many institutions and traditions; turned around and systematically destroyed those same institutions and traditions. We're supposed to be thankful to them for having "lead the way" when in fact what they did was to destroy, or a least maim, the future. Yep - I'm grateful and I'm sure my grandkids will be too...when they graduate from school unable to read and write because the Boomers wanted them to explore their emotions and their potential and ignore achievement. Emotion replaced rationality and today, we reap that whirlwind. Bitter? Me...oh just a tad...see, I was the tail end of that eighteen year boom....and like a couple of generations prior, we ended up lost in the shuffle. So - like I said, the article was a breath of fresh air and kudos to you for making it known.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I don't really know whether I'd be considered a boomer myself. What I can tell you is that I don't really identify with any particular "generation"; I've always considered myself an outcast, outside of human society.