This video nails it. Everything especially for those of us who were children of narcissistic parents was about appearances. I've written on this here before.
I agree with absolutely everything he's saying. The one exception is that baby boomers are responsible for it. I think it's multi-generational. The silent Generation who thoroughly believed in the "Children should be seen and not heard" meme were better parents than boomers? Not a bit. You could barely talk to them. What they thought and believed came first, even if the generation gap was only 10 years. The Silent Generation were better parents with their belief that corporal punishment works in disciplining young children? That has been refuted over and over again by psychologists, and for too many parents the corporal punishment was about bruises, and being whipped with a tree branch or belt, getting broken bones - it was abuse. I'm not saying that boomers didn't have their problems too. So many of them were rebellious (from corporal punishment, abuse, and silent treatment type parenting, feeling unseen and unheard, and being sent to the Vietnam War with flimsy excuses). And their style of rebellion was hedonistic, about taking different drugs than the alcohol their parents consumed, and they ignored the advice of their parents (advice like: "marijuana leads to heroin addiction", "marijuana leads to mental illness", "commune living is thumbing your nose at how you were raised", "long hair will give you lice", and so on). They were also tired of helping their parents "keep up appearances" and went more off the deep end with it than Generation X. The issue that is probably more forefront is that making money was much easier for Baby Boomers than Gen X. In general terms, once they realized that Mom or Dad weren't listening, and wouldn't understand, they defaulted to: "My old man and my old lady don't understand, and I don't try to make them understand any more. They never will understand. It's a systemic generation gap, probably the biggest one in American history. I accept the gap and focus on my own life, and my peers, and surviving in the American capitalistic system our parents and their parents created." Boomers became the most educated generation in American history. And even the uneducated of that generation had good paying union jobs that rivalled what the educated Americans made. The generation flourished financially, the highest paid generation in American history, and more social programs in American history too in case they fell on hard times (due to the New Deal).
I think it is multigenerational, today in a new article, I did mention the economics causing a huge split between boomers and gen X/below. Lives have been economically devastated and most of the boomers aren't getting it. Some do, but too few. What is odd, is I got along great with Silent generation. Some of us autistics befriend people older or younger than us, for me it was older and so in my 30s I had multiple elderly friends who were all silents. These friends didn't do the corporal punishment thing but they seemed different, they were more traditional, I got along with them well. I have some boomer friends even close ones but see them more as the exception to their generation. LOL I try to criticize my own generation remember. Gen X checked out and is way too apathetic and even now seems missing off the ranch. I do think some of the war trauma on the Silents especially Soldier Dad coming home from WW2 screwed up some the boomers. Back then, silents were more silent about the troubles of life, you simply didn't share troubles, and boomers did change that and started talking like in therapy culture. I follow all those alternative comics people who are boomers and all of them repeat that theme, we talked about what was going down, our parents wouldn't.
I think many do see Boomers [not all of course] as the generation that went degenerate. Well society was undoing some of the Victorianism, but I am traditional enough to think the Counter culture was a mistake, and I think more Gen X and some younger people are coming to this conclusion, some stuff with women's lib helped like abuse shelters, and women holding their own accounts but when women were forced into the work-world and the corporations got their 2 for one deal I think it ruined society on some levels people don't even get today.
The silents definitely made mistakes to affect the Boomers, all that war trauma brought home. A lot of the boomers talked about abuse as children and being beaten and lots of family secrets and surely it messed them up. I wonder if this is one reason the rebellion really took off and "don't trust anyone over 30". I question how this was the generation that seemed later like they wanted to take autonomy away from the young. Is this how all the helicopter parenting came in?
There was a lot of degeneracy introduced into society. Some of the conspiracy people believe Tavistock and other agencies from above were part of this, but rock no roll, free love, etc. I think there is a little bit of a movement to roll some of this stuff back. I used to see these people on X claiming religion was coming back and all the millennials were becoming monks and joining the Orthodox church. I know I am probably of that persuasion in some of my religious pursuits but I lived more traditionally than most of my peers. continuing...
The money gap between boomers and all younger generations is causing a serious gap and sadly boomers still control the politics and a lot else where the financial suffering and realities of younger generations are not being dealt with. The split from my own family was economic too, I had nothing in common with wealthy people and all those upper middle class and beyond attributes didn't serve me dealing with a whole other reality. You are right making money was far easier for them,, they had stability, nice homes, vacations. I look back with shock at the wasted money during my childhood, my parents had things I couldn't even imagine. Gen X is very checked out, I also think many have died young from poverty and lack of medical insurance, I know too many people who have died in their 40s and 50s. Even around here everytime I joined a club there never would be another Gen Xer there, even in my loved art club, Gen X is very few in number. Churches same thing. When I left the UU, the only other Gen Xer left with me. I think Gen X got burned out on being called losers or dealing with parents who were living large going on cruises owning multiple homes--mine still owns 2 even as I struggle and shopping until they dropped. This isn't every boomer but with many of them they blamed their kids and ignored the changes of the economy. Try going to family dinners when they have lavish lay outs and presents for 20 and you know you never could afford to reciprocate, your family status becomes zero over the years. My parents had no empathy but I think Gen X overall has been very harmed by the put downs, and being told they were worth less as human beings by parents who were far more prosperous. They started young with us in the beat downs calling us slackers by the 1990s as they destroyed stable careers with temp agencies back then. I know my poverty has colored things in a certain way, education doesn't pay off either like it did during the boomer generations, I read recently the young are now seeing college as "not worth it" and that's a bubble overdue to burst.
And a blue collar guy could support a family and have a house and dignity. They've taken dignity and meaning away from people's lives. I don't think we have even seen yet the extent of the anger among young people with all the expectations and now they are told live in a pod, work this job that isn't stable and now you can barely even feed and house yourself. I saw a video today of some guy claiming a revolution is on the way. I surely can't see the young remain wholly passive as the bottom falls out. Societies don't stay stable when you got millions living in the streets and millions of young men who can't even support themselves or a wife or family. I see all these people talk about improving society but no one ever address the broken beyond measure job system. All the social programs have disappeared. I don't know if you saw the article I wrote about there is far less help in the social work world then is expected.
Yeah it's not a good precedent, sadly many of the young do not feel listened to. I don't believe in this system anymore. My TV is full of products I never could afford even on the free Pluto system. The young definitely are going to be questioning it.
The generation gap of the boomers vs the silent generation folks is nothing compared to the generation gap between boomers vs Gen X and younger generations based on economics alone.
cont ... However, about half of Boomers felt that the New Deal created "welfare mothers" (welfare recipients using the system to avoid employment by having one baby after another and staying on welfare indefinitely), and then politicians on the right decided to make that "the issue of the day" with "trickle down economics" theories and "government is the problem" strategies. The result was that the wealthy got more wealthy and the poor got poorer, and I think at heart, this is what made for a generation gap between Boomers (the more right wing ones) and Gen X. Gen X was never privy to conditions where it was easy to make money, easy to get a good paying job even without an education. Gen X never saw a situation where the rich paid their fair share in taxes, but Boomers saw it. Gen X never really saw the big corporations proudly put "American made" on all of their products for sale and treated their workers with respect, and paid for "full coverage health insurance". Boomers grew up in cities where every store was in business, and also was the business hub (not the mall). Had Gen X had the same kind of privileged adult life that the Boomers had, there might not have been a generation gap. As professional studies show, wealthy people usually have less empathy than people who struggle financially, so that contribues to a generation gap. Saying to Gen X: "Just find a job like I did, and you'll have so much money!" is just not economic reality any more. Boomers are out of touch in this way. So that contributes to the generation gap too.
cont ... The hedonistic rebellious part of boomers who put peers and comrades from the Vietnam War first before family is also helping to create a generation gap with Gen X I feel. It may have something to do with "keeping up appearances with the neighbors" (peers) instead of paying attention to the kids. I see both sides of this issue because I'm on the cusp (right smack in the middle between Gen X and the Boomers - with an astrology chart to match: half on the Boomer side, half on the Gen X side, if you believe in pseudo sciences) - even if not, I'm both Gen X and Boomer, or neither generation. The hedonistic rebellious part of boomers who put peers and comrades from the Vietnam War first before family is also helping to create a generation gap with Gen X I feel. It may have something to do with "keeping up appearances with the neighbors" (peers) instead of paying attention to the kids. I see both sides of this issue because I'm on the cusp (right smack in the middle between Gen X and the Boomers - with an astrology chart to match: half on the Boomer side, half on the Gen X side, if you believe in pseudo sciences) - even if not, I'm both Gen X and Boomer, or neither generation. However, about half of Boomers felt that the New Deal created "welfare mothers" (welfare recipients using the system to avoid employment by having one baby after another and staying on welfare indefinitely), and then politicians on the right decided to make that "the issue of the day" with "trickle down economics" theories and "government is the problem" strategies. The result was that the wealthy got more wealthy and the poor got poorer, and I think at heart, this is what made for a generation gap between Boomers (the more right wing ones) and Gen X. Gen X was never privy to conditions where it was easy to make money, easy to get a good paying job even without an education. Gen X never saw a situation where the rich paid their fair share in taxes, but Boomers saw it. Gen X never really saw the big corporations proudly put "American made" on all of their products for sale and treated their workers with respect, and paid for "full coverage health insurance". Boomers grew up in cities where every store was in business, and also was the business hub (not the mall). Had Gen X had the same kind of privileged adult life that the Boomers had, there might not have been a generation gap. As professional studies show, wealthy people usually have less empathy than people who struggle financially, so that contributes to a generation gap. Saying to Gen X: "Just find a job like I did, and you'll have so much money!" is just not economic reality any more. Boomers are out of touch in this way. So that contributes to the generation gap too. The hedonistic rebellious part of boomers who put peers and comrades fromthe Vietnam War first before family is also helping to create a generation gap with Gen X I feel. It may have something to do with "keeping up appearances with the neighbors" (peers) instead of paying attention to the kids. I see both sides of this issue because I'm on the cusp (right smack in the middle between Gen X and the Boomers - with an astrology chart to match: half on the Boomer side, half on the Gen X side, if you believe in pseudo sciences) - even if not, I'm both Gen X and Boomer, or neither generation. I feel like I'm caught in a fight between them both, actually ...
I think peers mattered more to the boomers too because of the Vietnam war and most boomers were the ones who moved away from home and town and Gen X suffered because of that, we didn't have the stability of home [refer back to my Economic Nomads article] My mother grew up among 100 relatives feeling safe and secure, I was moved all over the place where there never was a home, and I wonder how much Gen X suffering is rooted in this and the feelings of being lost seem worse in younger generations, well with all the divorces etc, most didn't even have intact nuclear families. I think many put neighbors and peers first and became very competitive instead of cooperative in life, because career and money came first instead of community life and extended family. For younger generations who are failing at the competition thing due to the bottoming out of the economy, we are lost, all the foundations were wiped away and we are realizing the careers don't give a crap about us either. That's interesting you are right smack dab in the middle. I am considered an OLDER Gen Xer. Mr. Peep is in the middle between both but considers himself an Xer. Very few of the boomer attributes apply to him. I agree things would be different if Gen X had been able to build stable economic lives, their own children, some of the millennials--other millennials are older boomer children and Gen Z have suffered lack first hand from this, seeing parents struggle with paying rent and having to keep multiple jobs which left less time for them. Yeah being in the middle of two generations would be hard. What do you think when they say Ok Boomer. I have seen angry millennials and gen Zs now putting Gen X and Boomer together but many Gen Xers are far poorer than Boomers. I am frustrated with my own generation for being so checked out, I mean I couldn't ever meet anyone my own age anywhere it got weird. Like there was almost none of us around anywhere. It is still like that, maybe no Gen Xers can afford to live where I do, my rural town many had left for work elsewhere but this place seems big enough for a few to be around somewhere. It's so strange. I'm glad to see some online though because I never see any in real life. Even my art classes are all boomers and millennials. LOL
Sadly too many boomers came against New Deal and 1980s really affected things, with yes the "welfare mother" talk and the trickle down economics. The whole "greed is good" era I think ruined things in this country and lead to some of the destruction of the poor and working class. You really saw things change then when all the money started going to those on top and that has only culminated in the extremes we have today. You're right the rich got richer and the poor poorer, and now the middle class is disappearing. I expect the streets to fill with the homeless. I noticed right wing Boomers did the whole Tea Party thing 10 years ago and yes this made the gap worse between them and Gen X. Even in my family I put up with that, as they were all hardcore Republicans who hated everyone on welfare, and disability. Gen X is far poorer. Many have died a lot younger. What is sad as poor as Gen X is, millennials and Gen Z are even poorer, this is a bad precedent for society. My life was destroyed economically, well I've written a lot about it. Yes Gen X lost out on all those things. I had janitor and farmer grandfathers with houses and families and people with those same jobs today would be barely able to afford a studio apartment and forget any family.
I remember some of the old world as a child, full stores, mother doing endless shopping, even my working class relatives on the farm would go to this one huge department store, and other mall and buy all these fancy cheeses and meats from this one country grocery store that was very large. The quality of life was very different. Young people don't remember how we had decorations all over, people could afford leisure times, and to go places and on vacations and now that's all gone.
Yes it is the boomers who are poor themselves or have been poor at one time who do seem to have more empathy for Gen X and younger poor people. They are out there, and care as much as anyone but sadly there is that contingent of wealthy boomers who don't have much empathy, who say youth today are just losers or don't want to work. You've seen the tales of how my family treated my own economic failures. I'm disabled pretty severely even the deafness alone is a giant strike, but that brought no understanding. I know I grew weary of the "JUST GET A JOB" bunch. In my family I realized how many did that via connections and nepotism they denied my household. Like you could pick one off a tree. Many don't feel listened to. I know I was not. When you have all these young suffering people and I am not just talking those in Gen X, and their own parents and grandparents don't even try to understand their reality or don't even care to look, that's creating giant havoc. When you set people up with false expectations that sets up for major disappointment and depression too.
I remember growing up (I was a child) of men coming back fromthe Vietnam War and their horrific descriptions of what they lived through there. I remember one guy who said he no longer wanted to live because of an experience he couldn't get out of his head. And he also said his parents kept asking him: "Why can't you get over this! Just get over this already and toughen up! Cut your hair, get a friggin' job and leave the past behind!" - the guy found he had PTSD (not an easy thing to get over by any stretch), and often people with PTSD grow their hair long (not sure why, but it is definitely a phenomenon), but his silent generation parents never understood. A gap in understanding can contribute to a generation gap. When I graduated highschool, finding jobs was not easy, downtowns had lost their stores and were already "dead zones", and the parental trend towards my own age group was "sink or swim". Parents did not help children at all, for the most part, except some helped with college tuition. Some did not (but interest rates on college loans were 1 - 2%, not the high percentages of today). However, I also knew some classmates who were homeless. That is where I had something in common with Gen X. On my comments above: I don't know how they got so scrambled and repeated. I had written a long reply and the box said it was too long to publish, so I attempted to cut and paste it into 3 sections. I guess the copy and paste part "went wrong" and part 3 never got published, just a repeat of part 2. It's all been erased now, but I think I covered it in what I've written here.
Sorry your comments got scrambled up, there's quirks on blogspot that are kind of weird. Many of the soldiers returning from Vietnam, remember being abused, spit on. I was very young when they returned but remember some of the rhetoric, they lost, they shamed America, etc. It was the first guerilla like warfare, and then some of the atrocities came out like May Lay, [can't remember the spelling] They were tortured, put in those tunnels, and then you have the Phoenix Program stuff that Doug Valentine wrote about, I read his books on Vietnam and was horrified. BTW he believes the Phoenix Program is being unleashed on American citizens, if you get a chance read his books, it really explained how and why things have gotten so bad politically and otherwise. While there was trauma in WW2 warfronts especially in the Pacific, [Doug Valentine wrote about his father's experience in a prison of war camp during WW2 and I read that too], the trauma of Vietnam was extreme where many soldiers talked about PTSD and getting ambushed, and the horrors they saw.
As I wrote about above, WW2 trauma from silent aloof Dads was never dealt with by them, but came out and affected the Babyboom generation. In the old days, you sucked it up and didn't talk about things. Yeah I remember all that "cut your hair" stuff, and well we still hear the "shut up and get a job" stuff even as jobs now are very hard to get. I read longer hair gives more sensitivity, maybe warning, it's one reason some Native tribes have their warriors grow their hair long.
The silent generation Dad in WW2 was of the "suck it up and shut up" school. The guy in Vietnam coming back, didn't get the hero accolades or GI bill like Dad to take some of the pain way, they were seen as failures. The whole war was pointless, I guess all wars are to a point but WW2 they at least had the thing of saving the world from Hitler to build some esteem on. Yeah jobs were disappearing and store fronts closing by the time the Vietnam vets were coming home, oil crisis back then? It was "sink or swim". I was raised being told I'd be thrown out at 18 and I remain in shock how little preparation I was given, my high school failed too. I do think one could get job easier in the 70s but things definitely declined from the 60s and there were various recessions. That's sad you had classmates who ended up homeless. Many Vietnam vets did end up homeless, I remember the whole homeless crisis with Vietnam vets got rolling in the mid 70s. The PTSD didn't help them find jobs. They were spit on by those of the liberal set who say them as atrocity participants, but then consider "losers" by the conservative set, you LOST the war and you are to blame, was the message given to them.
A lot of Gen X was poor, back then you did the roommate thing and lived out of apartments with the milk crates but now they've even made that unaffordable. One problem in the past, young poor people could hope for better economic futures, but that's not true now. I don't think the system realizes what it means when people stop believing in a system and lose motivation for it. That's happening. I stopped believing years ago, too beaten down and ill, and even I got a few semi-decent "working class years" like a few of the 2010s and the 2000s. Today young people are realizing their very lives have been taken away. Even going back to that estranged parents thing, I see anger that they were even brought into such a horrible world to begin with. Vietnam was the start of too the endless war mongering by the American empire that still continues to this day.
I agree with absolutely everything he's saying. The one exception is that baby boomers are responsible for it. I think it's multi-generational. The silent Generation who thoroughly believed in the "Children should be seen and not heard" meme were better parents than boomers? Not a bit. You could barely talk to them. What they thought and believed came first, even if the generation gap was only 10 years. The Silent Generation were better parents with their belief that corporal punishment works in disciplining young children? That has been refuted over and over again by psychologists, and for too many parents the corporal punishment was about bruises, and being whipped with a tree branch or belt, getting broken bones - it was abuse.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying that boomers didn't have their problems too. So many of them were rebellious (from corporal punishment, abuse, and silent treatment type parenting, feeling unseen and unheard, and being sent to the Vietnam War with flimsy excuses). And their style of rebellion was hedonistic, about taking different drugs than the alcohol their parents consumed, and they ignored the advice of their parents (advice like: "marijuana leads to heroin addiction", "marijuana leads to mental illness", "commune living is thumbing your nose at how you were raised", "long hair will give you lice", and so on). They were also tired of helping their parents "keep up appearances" and went more off the deep end with it than Generation X.
The issue that is probably more forefront is that making money was much easier for Baby Boomers than Gen X. In general terms, once they realized that Mom or Dad weren't listening, and wouldn't understand, they defaulted to: "My old man and my old lady don't understand, and I don't try to make them understand any more. They never will understand. It's a systemic generation gap, probably the biggest one in American history. I accept the gap and focus on my own life, and my peers, and surviving in the American capitalistic system our parents and their parents created." Boomers became the most educated generation in American history. And even the uneducated of that generation had good paying union jobs that rivalled what the educated Americans made. The generation flourished financially, the highest paid generation in American history, and more social programs in American history too in case they fell on hard times (due to the New Deal).
cont ...
I think it is multigenerational, today in a new article, I did mention the economics causing a huge split between boomers and gen X/below. Lives have been economically devastated and most of the boomers aren't getting it. Some do, but too few. What is odd, is I got along great with Silent generation. Some of us autistics befriend people older or younger than us, for me it was older and so in my 30s I had multiple elderly friends who were all silents. These friends didn't do the corporal punishment thing but they seemed different, they were more traditional, I got along with them well. I have some boomer friends even close ones but see them more as the exception to their generation. LOL I try to criticize my own generation remember. Gen X checked out and is way too apathetic and even now seems missing off the ranch. I do think some of the war trauma on the Silents especially Soldier Dad coming home from WW2 screwed up some the boomers. Back then, silents were more silent about the troubles of life, you simply didn't share troubles, and boomers did change that and started talking like in therapy culture. I follow all those alternative comics people who are boomers and all of them repeat that theme, we talked about what was going down, our parents wouldn't.
DeleteI think many do see Boomers [not all of course] as the generation that went degenerate. Well society was undoing some of the Victorianism, but I am traditional enough to think the Counter culture was a mistake, and I think more Gen X and some younger people are coming to this conclusion, some stuff with women's lib helped like abuse shelters, and women holding their own accounts but when women were forced into the work-world and the corporations got their 2 for one deal I think it ruined society on some levels people don't even get today.
The silents definitely made mistakes to affect the Boomers, all that war trauma brought home. A lot of the boomers talked about abuse as children and being beaten and lots of family secrets and surely it messed them up. I wonder if this is one reason the rebellion really took off and "don't trust anyone over 30". I question how this was the generation that seemed later like they wanted to take autonomy away from the young. Is this how all the helicopter parenting came in?
There was a lot of degeneracy introduced into society. Some of the conspiracy people believe Tavistock and other agencies from above were part of this, but rock no roll, free love, etc. I think there is a little bit of a movement to roll some of this stuff back. I used to see these people on X claiming religion was coming back and all the millennials were becoming monks and joining the Orthodox church. I know I am probably of that persuasion in some of my religious pursuits but I lived more traditionally than most of my peers.
continuing...
The money gap between boomers and all younger generations is causing a serious gap and sadly boomers still control the politics and a lot else where the financial suffering and realities of younger generations are not being dealt with. The split from my own family was economic too, I had nothing in common with wealthy people and all those upper middle class and beyond attributes didn't serve me dealing with a whole other reality. You are right making money was far easier for them,, they had stability, nice homes, vacations. I look back with shock at the wasted money during my childhood, my parents had things I couldn't even imagine. Gen X is very checked out, I also think many have died young from poverty and lack of medical insurance, I know too many people who have died in their 40s and 50s. Even around here everytime I joined a club there never would be another Gen Xer there, even in my loved art club, Gen X is very few in number. Churches same thing. When I left the UU, the only other Gen Xer left with me. I think Gen X got burned out on being called losers or dealing with parents who were living large going on cruises owning multiple homes--mine still owns 2 even as I struggle and shopping until they dropped. This isn't every boomer but with many of them they blamed their kids and ignored the changes of the economy. Try going to family dinners when they have lavish lay outs and presents for 20 and you know you never could afford to reciprocate, your family status becomes zero over the years. My parents had no empathy but I think Gen X overall has been very harmed by the put downs, and being told they were worth less as human beings by parents who were far more prosperous. They started young with us in the beat downs calling us slackers by the 1990s as they destroyed stable careers with temp agencies back then.
DeleteI know my poverty has colored things in a certain way, education doesn't pay off either like it did during the boomer generations, I read recently the young are now seeing college as "not worth it" and that's a bubble overdue to burst.
And a blue collar guy could support a family and have a house and dignity. They've taken dignity and meaning away from people's lives. I don't think we have even seen yet the extent of the anger among young people with all the expectations and now they are told live in a pod, work this job that isn't stable and now you can barely even feed and house yourself. I saw a video today of some guy claiming a revolution is on the way. I surely can't see the young remain wholly passive as the bottom falls out. Societies don't stay stable when you got millions living in the streets and millions of young men who can't even support themselves or a wife or family. I see all these people talk about improving society but no one ever address the broken beyond measure job system.
All the social programs have disappeared. I don't know if you saw the article I wrote about there is far less help in the social work world then is expected.
Yeah it's not a good precedent, sadly many of the young do not feel listened to. I don't believe in this system anymore. My TV is full of products I never could afford even on the free Pluto system. The young definitely are going to be questioning it.
The generation gap of the boomers vs the silent generation folks is nothing compared to the generation gap between boomers vs Gen X and younger generations based on economics alone.
cont ...
ReplyDeleteHowever, about half of Boomers felt that the New Deal created "welfare mothers" (welfare recipients using the system to avoid employment by having one baby after another and staying on welfare indefinitely), and then politicians on the right decided to make that "the issue of the day" with "trickle down economics" theories and "government is the problem" strategies.
The result was that the wealthy got more wealthy and the poor got poorer, and I think at heart, this is what made for a generation gap between Boomers (the more right wing ones) and Gen X.
Gen X was never privy to conditions where it was easy to make money, easy to get a good paying job even without an education. Gen X never saw a situation where the rich paid their fair share in taxes, but Boomers saw it. Gen X never really saw the big corporations proudly put "American made" on all of their products for sale and treated their workers with respect, and paid for "full coverage health insurance". Boomers grew up in cities where every store was in business, and also was the business hub (not the mall).
Had Gen X had the same kind of privileged adult life that the Boomers had, there might not have been a generation gap.
As professional studies show, wealthy people usually have less empathy than people who struggle financially, so that contribues to a generation gap. Saying to Gen X: "Just find a job like I did, and you'll have so much money!" is just not economic reality any more. Boomers are out of touch in this way. So that contributes to the generation gap too.
cont ...
ReplyDeleteThe hedonistic rebellious part of boomers who put peers and comrades from the Vietnam War first before family is also helping to create a generation gap with Gen X I feel. It may have something to do with "keeping up appearances with the neighbors" (peers) instead of paying attention to the kids.
I see both sides of this issue because I'm on the cusp (right smack in the middle between Gen X and the Boomers - with an astrology chart to match: half on the Boomer side, half on the Gen X side, if you believe in pseudo sciences) - even if not, I'm both Gen X and Boomer, or neither generation.
The hedonistic rebellious part of boomers who put peers and comrades from the Vietnam War first before family is also helping to create a generation gap with Gen X I feel. It may have something to do with "keeping up appearances with the neighbors" (peers) instead of paying attention to the kids.
I see both sides of this issue because I'm on the cusp (right smack in the middle between Gen X and the Boomers - with an astrology chart to match: half on the Boomer side, half on the Gen X side, if you believe in pseudo sciences) - even if not, I'm both Gen X and Boomer, or neither generation.
However, about half of Boomers felt that the New Deal created "welfare mothers" (welfare recipients using the system to avoid employment by having one baby after another and staying on welfare indefinitely), and then politicians on the right decided to make that "the issue of the day" with "trickle down economics" theories and "government is the problem" strategies.
The result was that the wealthy got more wealthy and the poor got poorer, and I think at heart, this is what made for a generation gap between Boomers (the more right wing ones) and Gen X.
Gen X was never privy to conditions where it was easy to make money, easy to get a good paying job even without an education. Gen X never saw a situation where the rich paid their fair share in taxes, but Boomers saw it. Gen X never really saw the big corporations proudly put "American made" on all of their products for sale and treated their workers with respect, and paid for "full coverage health insurance". Boomers grew up in cities where every store was in business, and also was the business hub (not the mall).
Had Gen X had the same kind of privileged adult life that the Boomers had, there might not have been a generation gap.
As professional studies show, wealthy people usually have less empathy than people who struggle financially, so that contributes to a generation gap. Saying to Gen X: "Just find a job like I did, and you'll have so much money!" is just not economic reality any more. Boomers are out of touch in this way. So that contributes to the generation gap too.
The hedonistic rebellious part of boomers who put peers and comrades fromthe Vietnam War first before family is also helping to create a generation gap with Gen X I feel. It may have something to do with "keeping up appearances with the neighbors" (peers) instead of paying attention to the kids.
I see both sides of this issue because I'm on the cusp (right smack in the middle between Gen X and the Boomers - with an astrology chart to match: half on the Boomer side, half on the Gen X side, if you believe in pseudo sciences) - even if not, I'm both Gen X and Boomer, or neither generation.
I feel like I'm caught in a fight between them both, actually ...
I think peers mattered more to the boomers too because of the Vietnam war and most boomers were the ones who moved away from home and town and Gen X suffered because of that, we didn't have the stability of home [refer back to my Economic Nomads article] My mother grew up among 100 relatives feeling safe and secure, I was moved all over the place where there never was a home, and I wonder how much Gen X suffering is rooted in this and the feelings of being lost seem worse in younger generations, well with all the divorces etc, most didn't even have intact nuclear families.
DeleteI think many put neighbors and peers first and became very competitive instead of cooperative in life, because career and money came first instead of community life and extended family. For younger generations who are failing at the competition thing due to the bottoming out of the economy, we are lost, all the foundations were wiped away and we are realizing the careers don't give a crap about us either. That's interesting you are right smack dab in the middle. I am considered an OLDER Gen Xer. Mr. Peep is in the middle between both but considers himself an Xer. Very few of the boomer attributes apply to him. I agree things would be different if Gen X had been able to build stable economic lives, their own children, some of the millennials--other millennials are older boomer children and Gen Z have suffered lack first hand from this, seeing parents struggle with paying rent and having to keep multiple jobs which left less time for them. Yeah being in the middle of two generations would be hard. What do you think when they say Ok Boomer. I have seen angry millennials and gen Zs now putting Gen X and Boomer together but many Gen Xers are far poorer than Boomers. I am frustrated with my own generation for being so checked out, I mean I couldn't ever meet anyone my own age anywhere it got weird. Like there was almost none of us around anywhere. It is still like that, maybe no Gen Xers can afford to live where I do, my rural town many had left for work elsewhere but this place seems big enough for a few to be around somewhere. It's so strange. I'm glad to see some online though because I never see any in real life. Even my art classes are all boomers and millennials. LOL
Sadly too many boomers came against New Deal and 1980s really affected things, with yes the "welfare mother" talk and the trickle down economics. The whole "greed is good" era I think ruined things in this country and lead to some of the destruction of the poor and working class. You really saw things change then when all the money started going to those on top and that has only culminated in the extremes we have today. You're right the rich got richer and the poor poorer, and now the middle class is disappearing. I expect the streets to fill with the homeless. I noticed right wing Boomers did the whole Tea Party thing 10 years ago and yes this made the gap worse between them and Gen X. Even in my family I put up with that, as they were all hardcore Republicans who hated everyone on welfare, and disability. Gen X is far poorer. Many have died a lot younger. What is sad as poor as Gen X is, millennials and Gen Z are even poorer, this is a bad precedent for society. My life was destroyed economically, well I've written a lot about it.
ReplyDeleteYes Gen X lost out on all those things. I had janitor and farmer grandfathers with houses and families and people with those same jobs today would be barely able to afford a studio apartment and forget any family.
I remember some of the old world as a child, full stores, mother doing endless shopping, even my working class relatives on the farm would go to this one huge department store, and other mall and buy all these fancy cheeses and meats from this one country grocery store that was very large. The quality of life was very different. Young people don't remember how we had decorations all over, people could afford leisure times, and to go places and on vacations and now that's all gone.
Yes it is the boomers who are poor themselves or have been poor at one time who do seem to have more empathy for Gen X and younger poor people. They are out there, and care as much as anyone but sadly there is that contingent of wealthy boomers who don't have much empathy, who say youth today are just losers or don't want to work. You've seen the tales of how my family treated my own economic failures. I'm disabled pretty severely even the deafness alone is a giant strike, but that brought no understanding. I know I grew weary of the "JUST GET A JOB" bunch. In my family I realized how many did that via connections and nepotism they denied my household. Like you could pick one off a tree. Many don't feel listened to. I know I was not. When you have all these young suffering people and I am not just talking those in Gen X, and their own parents and grandparents don't even try to understand their reality or don't even care to look, that's creating giant havoc. When you set people up with false expectations that sets up for major disappointment and depression too.
continuing...
I remember growing up (I was a child) of men coming back fromthe Vietnam War and their horrific descriptions of what they lived through there. I remember one guy who said he no longer wanted to live because of an experience he couldn't get out of his head. And he also said his parents kept asking him: "Why can't you get over this! Just get over this already and toughen up! Cut your hair, get a friggin' job and leave the past behind!" - the guy found he had PTSD (not an easy thing to get over by any stretch), and often people with PTSD grow their hair long (not sure why, but it is definitely a phenomenon), but his silent generation parents never understood.
ReplyDeleteA gap in understanding can contribute to a generation gap.
When I graduated highschool, finding jobs was not easy, downtowns had lost their stores and were already "dead zones", and the parental trend towards my own age group was "sink or swim". Parents did not help children at all, for the most part, except some helped with college tuition. Some did not (but interest rates on college loans were 1 - 2%, not the high percentages of today). However, I also knew some classmates who were homeless. That is where I had something in common with Gen X.
On my comments above: I don't know how they got so scrambled and repeated. I had written a long reply and the box said it was too long to publish, so I attempted to cut and paste it into 3 sections.
I guess the copy and paste part "went wrong" and part 3 never got published, just a repeat of part 2. It's all been erased now, but I think I covered it in what I've written here.
Sorry your comments got scrambled up, there's quirks on blogspot that are kind of weird.
DeleteMany of the soldiers returning from Vietnam, remember being abused, spit on. I was very young when they returned but remember some of the rhetoric, they lost, they shamed America, etc. It was the first guerilla like warfare, and then some of the atrocities came out like May Lay, [can't remember the spelling] They were tortured, put in those tunnels, and then you have the Phoenix Program stuff that Doug Valentine wrote about, I read his books on Vietnam and was horrified. BTW he believes the Phoenix Program is being unleashed on American citizens, if you get a chance read his books, it really explained how and why things have gotten so bad politically and otherwise.
While there was trauma in WW2 warfronts especially in the Pacific, [Doug Valentine wrote about his father's experience in a prison of war camp during WW2 and I read that too], the trauma of Vietnam was extreme where many soldiers talked about PTSD and getting ambushed, and the horrors they saw.
As I wrote about above, WW2 trauma from silent aloof Dads was never dealt with by them, but came out and affected the Babyboom generation. In the old days, you sucked it up and didn't talk about things. Yeah I remember all that "cut your hair" stuff, and well we still hear the "shut up and get a job" stuff even as jobs now are very hard to get. I read longer hair gives more sensitivity, maybe warning, it's one reason some Native tribes have their warriors grow their hair long.
The silent generation Dad in WW2 was of the "suck it up and shut up" school. The guy in Vietnam coming back, didn't get the hero accolades or GI bill like Dad to take some of the pain way, they were seen as failures. The whole war was pointless, I guess all wars are to a point but WW2 they at least had the thing of saving the world from Hitler to build some esteem on. Yeah jobs were disappearing and store fronts closing by the time the Vietnam vets were coming home, oil crisis back then?
It was "sink or swim". I was raised being told I'd be thrown out at 18 and I remain in shock how little preparation I was given, my high school failed too. I do think one could get job easier in the 70s but things definitely declined from the 60s and there were various recessions. That's sad you had classmates who ended up homeless. Many Vietnam vets did end up homeless, I remember the whole homeless crisis with Vietnam vets got rolling in the mid 70s. The PTSD didn't help them find jobs. They were spit on by those of the liberal set who say them as atrocity participants, but then consider "losers" by the conservative set, you LOST the war and you are to blame, was the message given to them.
A lot of Gen X was poor, back then you did the roommate thing and lived out of apartments with the milk crates but now they've even made that unaffordable. One problem in the past, young poor people could hope for better economic futures, but that's not true now. I don't think the system realizes what it means when people stop believing in a system and lose motivation for it. That's happening. I stopped believing years ago, too beaten down and ill, and even I got a few semi-decent "working class years" like a few of the 2010s and the 2000s. Today young people are realizing their very lives have been taken away. Even going back to that estranged parents thing, I see anger that they were even brought into such a horrible world to begin with. Vietnam was the start of too the endless war mongering by the American empire that still continues to this day.