Trying to Make Sense of a Post Baby Boom World

Forget creating the atom bomb. Forget the Y2K hype. And forget, if possible, line dancing. The worst epidemic that has struck America has been the Baby Boom. Baby Boomers have taken possession of this country like parasitic zebra mussels choking the life out of the Great Lakes. For as much good as the Builder Generation (ie WW2) did for this country, for all of their courage and perseverance, for their moxie and faith, man oh man, did they run it off into the ditch when it came time to raise children. No generation has ever been in more dire need of birth control options and family planning than my grandparents' generation. I think the old adage 'were you raised by wolves?' is the go-to insult regarding child rearing but quite frankly, wolves (with their real woods smarts) probably would have raised more intelligent individuals. I'm critical of my grandparents' generation despite my adoration of my grandparents. It's unfortunate, and almost a crime, that their good qualities skipped a generation and weren't imparted on their offspring. As a product of a Baby Boomer household, I can say with conviction that there is no other generation who is more self centered, selfish and prone to adult temper tantrums than the Baby Boomers. And they need both of their arms to simultaneously point at the two groups of people who, in their eyes, are responsible for all of their foibles and failures of characters. Those two groups are their parents and their children. They blame their parents for their terrible childhoods (although there was no better time to be a kid than post WW2 with the evolution of suburbia and nuclear families full of grateful and globally mindful adults) and their kids for tying them down and becoming a generation of indecisiveness. My generation (sitting on the edges of Generation X & Y) has had to look to our grandparents for role models because we have become dissatisfied and (to use a classic Baby Boomer phrase) disillusioned with the example of our own parents. Baby Boomers live in a suspended animation kind of world where if they cannot bring a topic back to their own 60s & 70s "awakenings", they discredit and dismiss it. They refuse to evolve, they refuse to mature. If they cannot relive their Vietnam peace marches and Watergate hearings, Woodstock and John Lennon's death over and over again, if they cannot connect those, and other obscenely pointless parts of their memories, to present day topics and issues, their lives lose all meaning. They cannot let go of their hippie flashbacks hearkening back to the simple times of yesteryear. The times were simpler only due to the large portions that were blissfully blotted out thanks to the effects of drugs.
Why am I so harsh on Baby Boomers? Because I do not appreciate the way that BB politicians spin their responsibility for the social repercussions of their generation's ignorance. They scratch their heads and appear befuddled at why drugs are so rampant, why suburban kids are so vulnerable to them and why many view drug abuse with a relaxed attitude. Perhaps because they are aware of your own stash growing in the basement? BBs become as helpless as marionette puppets when it comes to explaining school violence--they cannot decipher the obvious recipes for disasters such as VT and Columbine. Could it be that your own children have no moral compass thanks to you laissez faire, if it feels good do it, parenting? Could it be that they have become hopeless in the face of absent family relationships and have to turned to materialism to bridge the gap?
BBs have spent most of their lives thinking of themselves as the original anti-establishment (hello to all you history students out there: they were called flappers) generation. They thought they discovered enlightenment, that they were the Chosen Ones. And ever since then, they have preached from the good book of Meaning. Trouble is, meaning has evaded them like the cable guy. They've been waiting around expectantly but meaning eludes them.
I believe that if only the WW2 generation had ladled out some tough love on their children, my generation might be better for it. That was one type of post WW2 fallout that wasn't planned for. An unfaltering desire for a better world for their children. The WW2 spoiled BBs and oddly enough, the BBs imparted on my generation the most anti anti-establishment characteristic of all: social economic hypocrisy and snobbery. They taught us that capitalism is the root of all evil unless your last name is Buffett. That exploitation of the poor for personal (monetary) gain is a crime against humanity unless you're Madonna or Angelina Jolie. That disturbing nature (goodbye Alaska pipeline, domestic oil and jobs) is inhumane unless you're Harrison Ford building a mansion smack in the middle of pristine Idaho. That smoking is abhorrent and should be wiped off the face of the earth except in Hollywood movies. That blue collar working class Joes & Janes are too ignorant and too base to reason, it's better to do their thinking for them which is why John Kerry stooped down to their level by throwing on a Carhartt for that all important NASCAR dad vote. BBs are the ultimate chameleons because they pledge no allegiance to anything other than themselves. To do otherwise would mean they would have to subscribe to a yes or no, black or white line of reasoning. Without a gray area to obscure their actions in, they'd have to take accountability for their deeds and misdeeds. They would have to omit words like misled, not to my knowledge and unaware from their vocabulary.

You've Come A Long Way Baby?

I was being trained as a peer mediator the day that changed a town called Littleton and a school which has tragically taken on a tragic persona, a school that has become a noun, a verb, an adjective all at the same time. Columbine. In retrospect, being trained to mediate disputes between students on the day that defined school violence seems like a feeble attempt to fight an unknown, undefined enemy. We were way out of our league. High school dynamics had degenerated far beyond the power of speech, the power of words. We were grossly ill equipped to deal with this. The day after, my sister and I began discussing quick exits out of our high school, if it ever became necessary. We spoke of places we would hide if we couldn't get out. How we would find each other---this was before text messaging and cell phones became common place gear for high school. It is morbid to think that we were discussing how to escape the possibility of being mowed down by a potential classmate. I will always remember the brother of one of the Columbine students who were killed, I think her name was Rachel, and his TV interviews about his experience afterward. It became my greatest fear and I promised myself that neither me or my sister would have to reprise his role.
The following year, I was in a senior writing workshop where my English teacher began to create excuses for the two individuals (addressing them by name will only give them notoriety that they do not deserve) who spewed so much evil and hate that day in 1999. He began to lament about the horrors of being bullied. Anger mixed with disbelief bubbled up inside of me and I began to argue with him. I told him what I thought was obvious to anyone. I had been bullied on a nearly constant basis through school, as were most of my fellow students, but I grew up well adjusted, mature and far from vengeful. Being bullied is never a reason to exact violence on the innocent and those around me.
I feel this needs repeating in light of Virginia Tech. Because it seems like no matter how unexplainable the violence, no matter how random, no matter how evil, the justifiers---those people who defend the actions of those soulless individuals, spring up immediately. It happened after 9/11---people sprang up saying that America was to blame for the bloodshed and that the victims, by simple being Americans, asked for it. The media is perpetually looking for the formulas for violence---in essence, they are looking for the formulas to evil. That there must be a scientific procession of events or variables that cause such an outcome as evil. They believe that by identifying such a formula, they can erase the possibility---like genetically engineering corn, and taking out the evil gene. Evil in the world will exist no matter what. Without rhyme or reason, evil will continue to outlive empires and administrations. People often ask why is there evil in the world when they should be asking why not. With all of the criminal actions in the world, the violent behaviors and beliefs, with all of the anger and disillusionment, why shouldn't there be evil in the world?
Especially on college campuses, which foster and praise violent means to an end. The moody, melancholy, anti social, violent behaviors of the VT gunman are the same anti establishment, fight the machine attitudes and characteristics that professors nurture in students. Against the grain rage is encouraged on college campuses. Violent protests, rallies and picketing are the very tools they employ. Rage at a democratic, capitalistic society is what professors see as independent thinking. Subscribing to any kind of belief system that clearly defines morality and evil is viewed as ignorant, archaic and based in folklore and superstition. The Abercrombie & Fitch frat guy or sorority girl with their devotion to consumerism and shallow politics may be a university's most non violent students.