tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-650289478442133391.post4473760298302191284..comments2024-03-24T16:53:02.846-07:00Comments on Five Hundred Pound Peep: Materialism, Crushed by Bills and Baby BoomersFive Hundred Pound Peephttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05862707335431442713noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-650289478442133391.post-15533162076607283892014-09-12T15:39:13.229-07:002014-09-12T15:39:13.229-07:00Hi Gladys
Thanks for your post.
LOL I asked some...Hi Gladys<br /><br />Thanks for your post.<br /><br />LOL I asked some friends as a joke once, "Where is my flying car?"<br /><br />You are right the narcissistic entitlement was helped along with the false dreams they were given. Funny how in the 50s, the future was this bright Utopia, and now the future looks like dystopian hell on earth. Being a Christian, I take the book of Revelation pretty serious, but I find this of sociological interest how things appeared so "bright" or were made to be after the horrors of WWII. <br /><br />I still think too many of the Baby Boomers think they are going to live forever and ACT like it too. You got that right with the health care obsessions, new knees, etc, and even Viagra. Be sexy and young to the day you die. Society became even more appearances oriented. <br /><br />I agree the so called SILENT or "greatest" generation helped set some of this problem up. Was it the combined neurosis of returning soldiers fathering children returning from WWII? I'm not sure but you are right about the consumerism really going whole hog and this is when the Keeping up with the Jones stuff really got going. <br /><br />We have some of the old hippies even in my narc family. Aunt Scapegoat is essentially one. I realized with horror before going NC with her, she was completely self-centered but in a different way. The woman doesn't even have one close friend and has lived in the same area her entire life. You are probably right many had to fend for themselves and it took them into selfishness.<br /><br />I think the break down of society and social connections and toxins are increasing the depression. Also all the focus on consumerism--buy your way into happiness. The increased expectations. Of course the powers that be pushed more medicines, more perfection, more depression. The 1950s is when the psychology culture got going too, before it was just a few rich people being analyzed by Freud, it went mainstream. Some probably figured out the profits that could be made via human suffering and desire for relief. <br /><br />I told one friend regarding the poverty, its been 20 years of never getting anywhere. I know disability checks are shrinking, bad bodies don't mean much money is being made but that was a hit enough, watching husband lose his career was a double trouble whammy as well. The poor even move like us, and it seems there is a limitless supply of "I love to fire people on a whim" bosses to destroy my life. My husband got to the point where he sees another move as perhaps another useless gamble. I want roots and got tired of having no friends from my end. One can only start over so many times and even as they age it gets more impossible. I wish I could tell the man who fired my husband here what he did to our life. <br /><br />Food costs are hard. This time of year I can eat well, because there are veggie stands galore and even a friend who lives on a farm who shares some bounty with me, but coming by food that is good, it does cost more in the store. This means constant cooking too and higher prices. I was rolling down the aisle in the scooter at our local grocery store, pointing out to husband all the cheap frozen food that makes me sick and how much more the stuff that is good, is in cost. <br /><br />The boomers need to realize they one day will be very old. Do they want nothing but bitter and pissed off younger people around them or ones so poor all they can offer them is a newspaper to lie on in the corner of a dirt hut? I'm surprised more of the young haven't protested the lack of jobs. Still so many lining up to become debt slaves for a university education. Just wait until people stop believing in that and then that will be a big bubble to burst. I read an interesting article where Zero Hedge predicted property values and others will eventually have to plummet [well they may just sell the country off to rich foreigners] because Gen X and Gen Y has no where near the assets and wealth of the Baby Boomers. Five Hundred Pound Peephttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05862707335431442713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-650289478442133391.post-47715137067300205722014-09-12T09:36:54.265-07:002014-09-12T09:36:54.265-07:00I'm technically a baby boomer too - born in 19...I'm technically a baby boomer too - born in 1960. And I (mostly) agree with both you and Ollie.<br /><br />This generation is a huge bunch of entitled assholes - we want it, whatever IT is, and we want it now. I think for a lot of them/us - shit, we were promised things like space cars and rocket packs and now that reality has set in, that we aren't going to live forever, that cars are still shiny metal boxes on rubber wheels - well, they're pissed.<br /><br />I tell every college age kid everywhere, to get into something that has to do with healthcare. Whatever it is - pharm work or advertising or sales or whatever - because us boomers, man we want new knees, new hips, erections until death, thick hair, ALL OF IT. The health care industry, even the vanity side, should be fat with money until all of us (finally) die off.<br /><br />I actually feel the way you do, but about my parent's generation. That bullshit 'greatest generation' stuff. If you watch movies from the 50's and 60's, it was all about martinis and new cars and business meetings and new washing machines and kids were told to just shut up and 'be good' and look nice and all that. My husband's parents would throw lavish cocktail parties while the kids fended for themselves, finally finding their tribe of surfers and stoners at 14, 15 years old. Roaming the canyons and beaches of San Diego with nothing but time and no supervision. They are horribly self-centered people still.<br /><br />Taking care of ourselves, I think that's what a lot of boomers did. It made a lot of us very selfish. And as TW said, a bigger demographic will have a bigger sampling of mental illness.<br /><br />I'm also amazed at how my generation suffers from mental illness more than the previous - or is it just more well researched? My conspiracy-theory-brain wonders if we were pushed into an expectation/depression cycle on purpose, to keep us medicated. Machined food, FDA involvement with food, Monsanto crap - all engineered to keep us sick, keep us imobile.<br /><br />And poverty - *whew* do I understand it. Poverty is almost impossible to get out of - like quick sand, there is almost no escape. And with poverty comes the inability to move (better jobs) or MOVE (health care issues). There is no way to afford to try the latest supplement, to eat organic meat and not eat processed foods because it is so damned expensive to buy anything other than what the government wants you to have.<br /><br />UGH I could go off on that subject forever, maybe I should cover it on my own blog, lol. I think this generation, the boomers, have isolated themselves into a bubble and (I hope) a revolution is coming.Gladyshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03379796403577898107noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-650289478442133391.post-65826814017181444722014-09-11T10:42:46.543-07:002014-09-11T10:42:46.543-07:00Hey typos are okay. I don't edit heavily just ...Hey typos are okay. I don't edit heavily just don't have time. I do read through articles one or twice. I had some people rip me a new one for an article I wrote in 2010, for it's bad grammar. Hey back then I was trying to just get things out and up. Five Hundred Pound Peephttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05862707335431442713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-650289478442133391.post-15618339007946679972014-09-11T10:41:39.179-07:002014-09-11T10:41:39.179-07:00I relate to you feeling like you were a sold a fal...I relate to you feeling like you were a sold a false bill of goods. I think that started early. Of course Gen X was too. I remember the lies they told us in school. Wonder if they still tell the young people these lies in high school, they probably fire anyone wanting to tell them the truth. My parents denied me access to the dream directly and I am sure yours did as well. Narc parents set up adult children for failure. With the destroyed confidence and other obstacles to overcome including how to relate to people in a healthy way it makes things very difficult. I want to barf seeing the media go on about how the economy is improving as I drive by even here in this wealthier area by endless empty store fronts and parking lots. Five Hundred Pound Peephttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05862707335431442713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-650289478442133391.post-91886607877354152442014-09-11T10:38:54.451-07:002014-09-11T10:38:54.451-07:00I have seen rural poverty too, so understand what ...I have seen rural poverty too, so understand what kind of place you live. Our park was full of homeless people and I was friends with homeless living in campers--one moved into a friend's house and one escaped to another city at my advice to be a caretaker at an apt building for free rent. I stay here, as a poor person surrounded by middle class and upper folks because there are far more services, so yes I have been there. No charity dentists, very little transportation--my old town at least had a bus service that went door to door, but have seen many with out this. People in 40s and 50s living at home with parents on the farm due to lost factory work. Employment is either fast food, Walmart and the temp agencies have infected rural places just as much as urban so even the factory jobs unless you know someone to get in permanently are fleeting and even then prone to lay-offs and closures. Just wait til the university bubble goes bust after enough young people figure out the huge loans can never be paid on McJobs, we had that too, a college propping up providing a few middle class jobs. I agree about the working class being destroyed by the likes of NAFTA and outsourcing and even Obama signed or is going to sign the TPP to destroy it further. They keep touting education as a pathway to jobs, but outside a few rarified tech fields and health care [which is in it's own crises] what does one tell a young person to do make guaranteed money? In my old town, the people didn't own anything either. The college had some assets, but many of the megacorporations owned the land or a few families in town owned all the stores. So I have seen this too. America is being sold off to the highest bidder. Yes rural areas are usually more impoverished. I think the USA of course is wholly in a hidden depression. When you have 100 million people unemployed, that says something. I have three cousins in their late 20s almost 30 years old who have never left home being unable to manage even a low income job. One even got a worthless college degree. Those cousins are being betrayed too by the connected narcs with good employment. Sorry you are facing this too TW. One thing I know has happened is the media is owned by certain types. People with our story have been ostracized to the max and have only alternative ways of getting the word out. I have noticed that some of the wealthy are overly offended by any truth being told what life is like for millions here. The narcs of course are offended and don't fail to let the rest of us know it!Five Hundred Pound Peephttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05862707335431442713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-650289478442133391.post-69733023574463268622014-09-11T10:38:10.046-07:002014-09-11T10:38:10.046-07:00Hi TW, I am glad you were not offended and not off...Hi TW, I am glad you were not offended and not offended by Ollie's posts too. I agree the truth hurts and many good willed people in baby boom generation suffered too. I agree with you the numbers and babyboomers being told you are the BIGGEST generation ever helped float some of the "we are the best" attitudes. Surely there are baby boomers who don't fit the sex-drugs-hippies-free sex-Woodstock nonsense who are disgusted by the lot of it too, and the manufactured steering via the powers that be. The 60s definitely had some of the first mega corruptions starting, so yes it was a dark decade in many ways. I see it almost as the time when a cloud came over the whole country and many things worsened. Kennedy definitely was turned into an idol.<br /><br />Yes they can pick on the poor because they don't vote, too many are burned out trying to survive. I have noticed even locally no one I vote for wins and every measure I am for or against, does the opposite. Agree old boss same as new boss. More of the poor see through the right and left sham job being done to the country too. <br /><br />Yes the stress of poverty never lets up. Thanks for understanding. What is scary is we tried to live a 'decent" honorable life and just slipped through the cracks. <br />I am sure this is happening to many others. The country is getting poorer as the greedy scoop out the tills. Many members of the middle class tell me they are so crushed by their bills and the increased cost of them all, they don't get to enjoy their better money on paper at all. Nope no one choose to be poor. The rampant consumerism on my TV set makes me laugh with the 40,000 dollar cars and other expensive products. I suppose this is why the poor are invisible on TV even the working class now as the corporations all compete for a thin sliver at the top. <br /><br />continuing...Five Hundred Pound Peephttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05862707335431442713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-650289478442133391.post-39987377187281842502014-09-10T21:22:15.776-07:002014-09-10T21:22:15.776-07:00I'll have to check this out, thanks. :) I saw ...I'll have to check this out, thanks. :) I saw U2 in concert in the early 90s. Bono gets a bit too friendly with the global elites for my tastes but they did have many good songs. Five Hundred Pound Peephttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05862707335431442713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-650289478442133391.post-15045473339169150792014-09-10T21:21:26.000-07:002014-09-10T21:21:26.000-07:00Thanks Joan, I know it is very hard to discover yo...Thanks Joan, I know it is very hard to discover you are an ACON, I know it helped me see many things and I am sorry about stumbling through my life and thinking things like if only I knew then what I know now. I know no one knows what an ACON is outside the internet. This experience is hard for normal people to understand it is so beyond the pale. Don't blame God, the wicked evildoers worked on behalf of the devil. The Bible says Satan is the prince of this earth. I know I struggle feeling like I climbed out of a hole from being bombed....that is the ACON experience. Five Hundred Pound Peephttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05862707335431442713noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-650289478442133391.post-81858379746069948002014-09-10T17:43:39.508-07:002014-09-10T17:43:39.508-07:00And I apologize for my typos. A couple of strokes ...And I apologize for my typos. A couple of strokes will do that. I can flummox spell check on my 'puter, but hopefully, you get my take: It's embarrassing in view of my history of people/family saying, "Hey TW? How do you spell (what ever.)"<br />Thanks.<br />TWTundra Womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12262066568878267648noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-650289478442133391.post-40359552863706269492014-09-10T14:22:39.723-07:002014-09-10T14:22:39.723-07:00Technically I am a baby boomer. But only by the da...Technically I am a baby boomer. But only by the date of my birth. I too feel like I was sold bill of false goods. It seems that as the media was telling us what a great generation we are, my parents were denying me access to the dream. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-650289478442133391.post-19162745889963164362014-09-10T09:51:42.519-07:002014-09-10T09:51:42.519-07:00Excellent Post! I'm a Baby Boomer and I haven&...Excellent Post! I'm a Baby Boomer and I haven't been at all offended by Ollie's youtubes. Sometimes, the TRUTH HURTS. And let's think about this fact alone, OK? The Boomers are a huge bulge in the demographics. It makes sense SIMPY FROM A MATHEMATICAL analysis there would be a corresponding INCREASE in the sheer NUMBERS (or percentage) of the population in that demographic that were/are Walking Cluster Bs. If you can get offended by numbers-so sorry for all the PC folks out there-that are not emotional measures, they just ARE, you're gonna get your lil' feebwings hwrt when non was either implied or indicated: It is what it is and it makes sense simply from the world of math. Unfortunately, there's so much emphasis on the "Sex-Drugs-Rock-n-Roll-Woodstock" aspect of the Boomer's experiences by the media, much has been left out, IMO. Let's face it, the more salicious, the more sales/reads generated. OTOH (if you can bear with me for one more reference/reality) when JFK said to us, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what YOU can do FOR your country," many of us took that call to heart. Whether it was the Peace Corp, VISTA, Teach for America, Voting Rights etc. we went. We had Vietnam tearing our generation apart on the daily, our role models being shot in front of our eyes-one after another, our cities burning down, our President(s) bold-faced lying to us and sending many off to be killed or maimed for life-it goes on and on. The '60's were NOT, by any means one big self-indulgent party for so very many of us. But hey, who wants to hear/read/see that?! And yeah, we've mythologized Kennedy ad nauseum.<br />Poverty: Why is it so easy to pick on the poor? IMO, in large part because the poor don't vote. And WHY don't they vote? Look, when each day is a struggle just to keep a roof over your head, some food on the table, the utilities on etc. you don't have time to be concerned about politics. It's meaningless to you: "Met the new Boss, Same as the old Boss" (The Who, "Won't Get Fooled Again".) The stress of living in poverty-THROUGH NO FAULT OF YOUR OWN-is indescribable and you did an *excellent* job in this Post explaining how it comes about, the daily very real fears, challenges etc. of just trying to survive and the cumulative effects of living under relentless uncontrollable stressors. NO ONE CHOOSES TO BE POOR. And every place you look, you're constantly bombarded with images of consumerism that might as well be from a different planet than the oblate spheroid where you're located. <br />I live in a very large, very remote, very impoverished area: Poverty is not just an urban phenomena, it's more likely to be a rural phenomena. There is no public transportation, very few services even "in town" and employment? P/T, minimum wage if you're lucky. We have 4 universities here (that own tons of property-ALL tax exempt, btw) and even when our local kids attend them, they have to leave the area after to find any kind of employment. We have decimated our blue collar working class by making it far more profitable for corporations to send their work off-shore than keeping those jobs here. When I first came here, I was just shocked by the poverty with all these natural resources-just the rivers, the timber etc., the very resourceful, hard working people. These people are no dummies at all and many WANT to work. Then I learned the local people own NONE OF THIS. All resources are effectively owned by mega-corporations, many not even US owned. My late DH grew up here and he told me decades ago, "It doesn't matter what the national economy is doing, we're *always* in a recession if not a depression here."<br />Thanks, Peep. I'm getting too wordy here because there's so much "good stuff" in this Post to address in one comment. FWIW, I just want you to know I hear you: I know WELL what it's like to be literally starving here "in the land of plenty."<br />TW Tundra Womanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12262066568878267648noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-650289478442133391.post-23534022698790708242014-09-10T08:04:05.450-07:002014-09-10T08:04:05.450-07:00Peep,
This morning I awoke to this song. My husba...Peep,<br /><br />This morning I awoke to this song. My husband purposely played it. It's on U2's new album just released yesterday, last track. Listen to the words. This is a song on NPD....called "The Troubles" who has NPD in Bono's life.<br /><br />http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RGNoUtFiOC4Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-650289478442133391.post-67933204426707975882014-09-09T20:58:13.070-07:002014-09-09T20:58:13.070-07:00I love your posts. They are so comforting that I ...I love your posts. They are so comforting that I find myself reading them with a tea. This one of course I'll have to read again. I'm sorry about the troubles and wish this can all be different.<br /><br />I'm sick of the nightmare I have to constantly deal with these days. Discovering I'm an ACON has plunged me into despair. I can't take it. I wonder what it is to be a normal person. To discover I've worked so hard all my life for it to amount to nothing is unbearable. It would have not become something either way, cause I was doomed from birth. I just realized I had no ability even to defend myself at the age of 3! I'm mad at God, but still I pray to him. <br /><br />I feel there is nothing worse than being an ACON. It's like being born blind and not knowing it and stumble through life to find out much later you were blind and could not see anything. That's why other's were well off and you weren't. And someone did this to me just to feel good.<br /><br />I'm scared to tell other ACON's that I hate being and ACON but I have no one else to tell. No one knows what an ACON is outside the internet.<br /><br />Thank you Peep for letting me rant. Joan Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07775873193806083833noreply@blogger.com