Is it Really Boomers vs. Millenials?

Millennials need to remember how fast us old
Baby Boomers can get organized.

 

There's been a spate of articles lately about the apparent friction between the Boomer generation and the so-called Millennials. Apparently, our precious snowflake grandchildren can't understand why us old geezers don't shuffle off to Buffalo now that we're old and useless. It's our fault their taxes are too high and that we're taking 14% out of their paychecks just to keep us on life support. Why can't we just die with dignity and get out of the way of the truly important people - the 20 to 45 year old demographic.

We boomers do have a lot to answer for. Our parents spoiled us more than a little bit after they survived World War II and who could blame them? We were just so darned cute and the war against the Axis was truly horrific! Who could blame them for showering us with affection and gifts?

When the sex, drugs and rock n' roll culture we embraced caught up with us and we started having kids, it was confusing. So many of us were so tied to the "don't trust anyone over 30" thing that we sort of missed the significance of that philosophy when we hit our third decade. Like our parents, we did some spoiling our own babies and in the process we raised up a generation that saw us role model that disdain for older people and couldn't miss the hypocrisy when we tried to pretend we weren't our parents after all.

Boomers inevitably got older and we were self-centered enough to figure out the realities of life weren't exactly what we thought they were. Then, sometime in the early 80s, we treated the nation to the sight of a bunch of aging hippies like me voting Republican and listening to Rush Limbaugh while nodding our heads vigorously.

Unfortunately, while boomers were taking an extended voyage of self-discovery, we missed the part where we were supposed to teach our own young-uns some values. The next-generation wound up becoming barely competent parents as so many of us Boomers were so busy rejecting out parents values that we didn't do very well at teaching our kids some values for them to reject when they became young adults. Because we were so torn between reality and what we learned in the 60s and 70s our kids had to have been confused.  Then they raised up this latest bunch of seriously self-absorbed and entitled precious snowflakes.

By then our own parents were aging and our parents did teach us some values, so we boomers not only wound up raising our own kids, but then we felt duty bound to take care of our parents. Then a lot of us got stuck with our grandkids because their parents were too busy feeling good and doing it to raise their kids.

And then joy of joy, when we started declining into our supposedly "golden" years, we find we're living in the mythical land of Tir Na Og, the land of youth, where youth is everything (especially to advertisers who cancel all my favorite shows because they skew to an older audience like me). Youth is all that's important and we buy hair dye, viagra, plastic surgery and artificial boobs in an attempt to pretend it's not happening. When finally we look in the mirror and discover we are well and truly old people, we are expected to voluntarily shuffle off into oblivion before we cost the kids any serious inconvenience. 

What the snowflake generation doesn't realize is that we boomers actually control about 75% of spendable cash in this country and make at least that percentage of the financial decisions that get made in the USA. Also us boomers are experienced revolutionaries. We did the Civil Rights thing and protested war and stuff. We could make some serious trouble if we wanted to. And we're just crazy enough to do it and there's not enough medication in the world to prevent it. Remember, we lived through the 60s and still had brain cells left. So as the mighty He-Man, Master of the Universe, would say, "We have the Power!"

And we are seriously thinking about cutting those little snowflake buggers off if they keep it up!

© 2018 by Tom King