Boomers, Millennials, and other friends

Millennials, Are All Boomers Bad? Do We Deserve the Anger Being Directed at Us?

Taking another look . . .

A year ago, I wrote an article about Boomers.

OK Boomer! was making the rounds, online and off, and the closer Boomers got to retirement, the louder the farewells became — good riddance.

But with all Boomers being the parents of 72 million Millennials, it was hard for me to grapple with this belief that for all bad things happening in the world then and now — one could find Boomers lurking somewhere behind them.

It’s easy to get angry and move into defense mode, especially when the actions and decisions surrounding my life, certainly didn’t take into account, how I might screw up someone else’s.

That article went out. Got the best results I’ve attained on Medium through it, and though I felt a little vindicated with the feedback, I never reached a point of understanding the anger that was directed at me, or the Boomers as a whole.

So, I started looking further.

Not like I had looked in the past, because I had to step outside of myself and my prevailing point of view and look at the world, Millennials, and the status quo differently.

This resulted in more reads (books), more views (YouTube videos), and more self-reflection — but not too much.

It’s easy to get lost in the slipstream of modern cancel culture and disappear altogether.

I like myself. I trust who I am and how I view things. I have spent a lifetime being the rebel, but without the motorcycle or cigarette dangling from my mouth.

Outwardly quiet and calm to others, I’ve managed to slip under their radar and selectively made my points, drew my lines, and pushed back whenever opportunities arose, that didn’t immediately cost me a job or an invitation to leave a country.

But it cost me big time nonetheless.

Hard lessons. Countless aches and moments of doubt but with the occasional victory that kept the fires burning and the belief that I could still make a difference.

Did I?

I like to think so and in the immediate orbit surrounding my life, I believe I did.

I trained and mentored a lot of people.

Helped many more stay employed.

Raised a family, loved a wife for 43 years, and yet . . .

. . . I’m still part of a class that has been assigned a level of complicity and moral ineptitude that staggers me at times and unhinges all the little certainties I’ve used over the years as milestones — directing me to my own version of the promised land.

Boomer Did It

I was listening to a fascinating talk by Peter Zeihan, the other day that pretty much covered the world and his predictions for most of it.

Eye opening.

Pupil dilating actually.

But there was one moment as he was strolling back and forth across the stage, flashing different graphics onto the screen, when he mentioned both Millennials and Boomers in one neat complex sentence.

This is when I thought he would turn to one side and spit.

The distaste he manifested as a Millennial was remarkable. Boomers did it.

Managed to get both parents into the workplace, creating a labor glut of sorts. Kept wages down.

Were at the wheel when home prices rose exponentially while wages remained flat decade after decade.

There was more, a lot more, but I tuned some of that out. Got my hair up again, and felt under siege once more, after having felt that discomfort fade for almost a year.

But my reaction this time was different.

I asked myself different questions.

• Did Boomers, do it?
• Were they culpable in home prices rising out of reach for most Americans?
• Did they somehow keep wages down?
• Were they only in it for themselves?

Boomer Takes Another Look

If I focused only on the bad moments in the last 40+ years, there’s a good argument that the Boomers weren’t to blame - well, at least not for all of it.

Vietnam — the Boomers were the ones sent there, rifles in hand with only weeks of training. Eight weeks for most. It takes about 6 weeks to teach someone to drive properly!

Nixon and Watergate, followed by the Pentagon Papers, et al — again Boomers were being whipsawed throughout. It was their asses getting kicked, mostly by those from the Silent Generation.

Not dodging blame or responsibility here, just stating the facts — Boomers were not in charge. But keep reading, I’m not done.

The Crash of the Savings and Loan Industry — 1986 through 1995. Average boomers in their late 20s to early 40s. Middle management for sure. C-Suite guys — not too much. Silent Generation?

Iraq and Afghanistan Wars -2003 to 2021. George W Bush was 55 when elected; Dick Cheney was 61. One Boomer, one almost. The average age of the Senate in 2003, was about 54 years. Most also Boomers.

Assessment: Is screwed the pooch a technical term that covers the incompetence that surrounded our entry into these wars? If not, it’ll due until a better term is found.

Yeah, the Boomers were in the front row when this play lifted its curtain.

Stood there applauding after the first act and went particularly quiet when the WMDs vanished — probably some other goddamned Boomer taking them out of the country.

Seriously though, Boomers were complicit.

But let’s whittle this down a bit.

There are close to 70 million Boomers still roaming out there. Maybe 2/1000ths of 1 percent of them were in a position to directly screw things up.

About 1400 or so in Congress, on White House staff, and in the military. Throw in a few lobbyists and corporate interests and there’s your team.

What about the other 69,998,600?

They rallied around their children.

Donated money and time. Helped veterans returning home. Cried. Cursed. Pointed fingers and then voted him in for a second term.

Not all Boomers (not this one) but okay, quite a few. Along with Gen X’s help and some Millennials — but probably not many.

Outcome — Boomers made a bad decision, based on bad data, and didn’t fix the system that rewarded this.

Boomers Did What?!

Fast forward to the years 2008–2009. The Great Financial Crisis.

The year Wall Street tanked.

Grabbed their golden parachutes and landed safely in Connecticut, while the rest of America, wandered aimlessly in foreclosed backyards wondering WTF just happened?

So, we bailed them out.

Boomers by the millions saw pensions and 401(k)s disappear in a puff of smoke.

Marriages went bust. Jobs and homes went with them. Egos took a hit that they still have not recovered from.

Hate for all things Wall Street and government rose to new heights.

Crazies found audiences on political campaign trails. Got elected.

Passed laws that made eyes water throughout the country.

Gathered around campfires listening to the tales of the Great White Hope, aka Trump, and voted him in.

Stood in line for toilet paper and disinfectant.

Stuck fingers in their ears, shouting Nani, Nani, Nah — while the rest of the world tried to convince us that we made a mistake.

Voted him out. With tens of millions still wanting a second chance at that brass ring, that was just an illusion to begin with.

Outcome — Boomers involved throughout. Boomers winning? Well, if there were 10 cars in a car race and all 10 cars crashed before the checkered flag — is the car that crashed last, the winner?!

Boomer’s Lesson

Winning is a subjective concept.

If Boomers by and large were in charge of those institutions that failed us over the last 30 years — some might say we were the winners, because somehow, some way, we came out on top.

But when viewing from the luxury seats where the 1% and their families hang out and after glimpsing their balance sheets and employment contracts, it would seem that the “winners” are a far more select few than the voices of dissent are willing to acknowledge.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a mea culpa in that I have learned a great deal in the 370 days since my last article — but in all honestly, not as much as one might think.

Boomers appear to have been large and in charge for the last several decades and masterminded a losing race for many citizens — especially the Millennials.

But the thing is because there are so many damn Boomers around, the vast majority of those who were royally shtupped by those self-same ones in-charge are, well, the rest of us Boomers.

So, is it right to place a tag on the entire class and say — you, did it?

Or just accept the fact that Boomers, like most of the Silent Generation, fell lock step into systems and practices that were long established before most of them were born?

Systems of a political and financial nature that somehow, some way manage to keep the wealth from spreading too far and wide.

Yes, there are far more billionaires on earth today than ever before.

But what are the current stats and ratios: that the top 1% of humanity owns more wealth than the lower 90%?

How do Boomers come out of this as winners?

So, Millennials if you want to blame the Boomers for housing shortfalls, rising student debt, and being perhaps the first generation in American history to not do better than the last — go right ahead.

And you’d be right.

Boomers failed to look far enough into their own futures.

Boomers failed to vote with their minds and let decisions drop down to their guts, where mistakes and indigestion are made.

Boomers failed to hold inept, hapless and at times corrupt politicians accountable, while allowing themselves to be employed by the lobbyists and vested interests who preyed upon them.

Boomers failed to fix a system, that rewards money and more money while allowing it to meander through our political system buying laws and votes and our own future — but not for us.

But you’d also be wrong.

The vast majority of Boomers acted in the belief that they were doing their best for their families, their country, and themselves.

Mistakes were made. But from the viewpoint of leaving the next generation bankrupt?

You can’t be born into a world, a few scant years removed from WW II and then Korea and then Vietnam and come to believe that our government and the systems that support it are actually trying to do the best for us.

You can’t grow up in a society where corporations become Gods and wield power that even the great Roman emperors would have been envious of, and think everything will be alright.

So, you rebel. You detach. You strike out on “your own” to challenge the status quo and hopefully make some positive changes.

And we did, dammit. Look at technology. Look at medicine. Look at productivity and the middle class overall. No doubt advances were made.

We weren’t all just hippies leaving for the country.

So, what’s the problem then?

Well. We are. All of us!

We elect officials to govern us with the same diligence and critical thinking that we apply when selecting a meal at Denny’s.

We praise the rich and famous and somehow forget that it’s our hard work and our money that makes its way into their pockets, while we wish we could be like them.

We buy into the constant dissonance in the media that there MUST be someone to blame and when lacking the time, energy, and mental wherewithal to make our own decisions, we blindly follow their accusations and end up blaming each other.

Take away the brilliant coders, the amazing middle managers, the people that can organize a picnic on Mt. Everest in 5 days or those that design incredible tools that help mankind and what you’ll end up with are a motley collection of college drop-outs. Stop idolizing them.

The truth is no one gets anything done without us. No one.

We’re the bridge that everyone crosses to get anywhere.

We need to stop fighting ourselves and direct the amazing potential we possess at the future we want to have.

Millennials — the Boomers fucked up.

But if it makes any difference — we’re all in good company.

Dr Mehmet Yildiz George J. Ziogas Jenine "Jeni" Bsharah Baines James Knight Rebecca Romanelli

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