A recent comment on Reddit asked: How can boomers be mad at millennial’s, when they raised the kids who raised them?
My reply below, which is getting down voted by same Millennial’s, are just my thoughts and observations on why we are we are with so much discord between Boomers, Silly Millys, and Gen X and Zoomers.
But in essence my observation is, they(Millennial’s) weren’t raised the same way we were. As a Boomer our parents still invoked the “Do as I say, Not as I Do” and more often “Children should be seen and not heard.” We didn’t talk back (or get caught saying anything under our breath) as directives weren’t up for debate. We weren’t handed participation trophies, we learned how to lose. Dr. Spock was still regarded as the answer to parenting questions.
Somehow and somewhere along the way, that changed to the Boomer parents wanting to be their child’s friend. Once that boundary was crossed the parenting lines were blurred. Nothing was done with the long term thought or repercussions of how this changed the generation and the ones thereafter. But now, collectively Boomers are the enemy.
Generation gaps have always existed, but every generation has also stood up and rebelled and fought for our nation. As Boomers, we also protested the Vietnam war, died in multiple wars, Women in the 70s burned their bras and started the Women’s Movement, and also fought in wars, no longer content to stay at home when they could show they were all that they could be.
But the same Boomers that are held at fault for everything in the last 73 years, are also ignoring everything they have because of the Boomers. A short list, that affects their everyday life looks something like this:
1946:
Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with approximately 20 employees
ENIAC (for “Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer”), the first general-purpose electronic computer, is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania
AT&T announces their first car phones
1947:
The first practical electronic transistor is demonstrated
Edwin Land, founder of the Polaroid Corporation, makes first “instant camera”, the Polaroid Land Camera
1948:
The first tape recorder is sold
1950:
The first TV remote control, Zenith Radio’s Lazy Bones, is marketed
1951:
Direct dial coast-to-coast telephone service begins in the U.S.
1952:
A mechanical heart is used for first time in a human patient
Christine Jorgensen, a transsexual woman in Denmark, becomes the recipient of the first successful sexual reassignment operation
1956:
The first transatlantic telephone cable goes into operation
Videotape is used for the first time on television
And on and on and on it goes. Progress and enlightenment, the 60s we landed on the Moon, and now we have a Mars Rover. We have made progress in all areas that we take for granted, that our grandparents only dreamed of, and cartoonist drew from their imagination of wearing a telephone watch.
But now, two words set our back against the wall. “Ok Boomer.”
I take it for what it is, a lack of having any real response to the statement at hand, so they attempt to dismiss their elder with a snarky retort. We honestly have to see it and dismiss it for what it is, a childish response to the conversation at hand. We are at a monumental crux with our planet collapsing around us, politicians who refuse to stop destroying the Amazon, countries who continue to pollute the oceans, and it is beyond concerning the air pollution. Just take a look at this report from 2016. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/10/air-pollution-the-true-cost-in-numbers/
So all we can do now is the best we can be as individuals. I’m not sure anymore if we can put politics, religion, and there isn’t a GoFundMe page large enough to save our collective asses. So yes, I’m mad and it has nothing to do with being a Boomer, just a realist.
i was naked when i wrote this 