boomer bashing

Gordon Fitch gcf at panix.com
Tue Aug 14 07:28:44 PDT 2001


Lawrence wrote:
> >I thought it was unfair that my generation was being blamed for America's
> >industrial decline. We had been too young to have any influence on any of
> >the important decisions. We had not chosen to run up 2 trillion in Federal
> >debt, we had not decided to build an economy that sucked too much oil, we
> >had not chosen to let the Savings and Loans industry speculate in real
> >estate. It was reactionary to blame the young for the nation's problems,
> >though I understood some of the psychology involved after I read Barbara
> >Ehrenreich's book Fear of Falling. Then it was clear: the worst fear of
> >middle class parents is that they or their children will end up poorer than
> >they themselves are now.
> >
> >In contrast, as we flirt with this next recession, boomer bashing seems
> >mildly progressive. At least the blame, if there is to be blame, is being
> >put in the right place: boomers were the generation in charge during the 199
> >0s, they had the Presidency and they had control of most of the financial
> >leavers. If someone screwed up, it was them.

Doug Henwood:
> How can bashing any age group be progressive - or reactionary, or
> anything else either? ...

The point of creating "generations" is to set people against one another and manipulate them, in the U.S. generally into buying crap. It's a weak form of racism or nationalism.



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