According to Michael Winerip in the NYTimes, those of us born between 1946 and 1964 should be walking around with paper bags over our heads. I mean, I can hardly bring myself to use the “B” word, because, according to the Times, “the term has become synonymous with greedy, spoiled, divorced, remarried mega-shopper.”
Since the 1960s, when many of us were teenagers, Madison Avenue along with the news media have been polling, interviewing, analyzing, poking and sniffing us, and that continues to this moment, even as nearly 10,000 boomers turn 60 every day…
And why should it not be so, since we’re such a bulge in the American demographical python? What could be more American that catering to the largest segment of the population? Entire industries and personal fortunes have been made by accurately predicting what I and my cohorts would do next. And now that those industries are shrinking and those personal portfolios are disappearing, it’s OUR fault?
“Boomer” has gotten such a bum rap that even our new president, who is a clear-cut boomer demographically (the boom years ran through 1964), has sought to link himself to a younger generation with a postboomer mentality, one that types with its thumbs to communicate and is not tainted by the cultural wars of the 1960s.
I had an uncomfortable sense during the campaign that, although I can thumb text pretty well and have an arsenal of technogadgets, I really wasn’t who BHO was wooing. Now I know. Winerip points out that, while “his biggest boost from the youngest voters — 66 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds supported Mr. Obama, according to national exit polls —… when it came time for him to pick a Cabinet, 10 of his 14 designees so far have been boomers and three are older.” HA! (At least we’re good for something…)
I might have taken all this fingerpointing seriously ten years ago, when I was more of a sponge for all the blame in the world, but no more, so BACK OFF. I have behaved responsibly. I pay taxes. I contribute to my local community. I vote. My sons are educated, contributing members of society. (“Congratulations,” I told each of them when they turned 18. “You can now be tried as an adult, and I am not responsible for your debts. Don’t forget it.”)
We live in a house that is appropriate to our income, and we pay our mortgage and our other bills on time. We keep our yard cleaned up. We recycle. We donate to the Salvation Army, the United Way, our church, the local food bank and our area thrift stores. I tell my neighbors if their kids are misbehaving, and expected them to do the same. We help(ed) take care of our aging parents. I have never knowingly cheated someone to make a buck. The dog got his shots, and he and his poop stayed in our yard. We have an offsetting thermostat in the hourse. We live in a state that enforces vehicle emissions standards, and our cars pass. No animals — or humans — were harmed in the making of this blogpost.
Instead of crying and wringing our liver-spotted, veiny, arthritic hands over our vanishing retirement portfolios, The Spouse and I are going on and glad to be going to work. We’ll figure it out, and we aren’t expecting anyone to come in and rescue us with any sort of bailout that will be have to be paid by a generation yet unborn.
I could go on, but I won’t. And I also won’t take the blame for our current woes. As Winerip points out, we are certainly not more or less selfish than other generations — how can we be “helicopter parents” and “the sandwich generation,” trying to meet the needs of both our offspring and our progenitors, and still be labeled self-absorbed? Do we need to be reminded how narcissistic Generation X and Y can be, thanks to all our well-meaning parental ministrations? We tried to empower them, and yet many of them became entitled. And now they’re leading the way in pointing the finger (read that any way you like) at us. We can’t win for losing, as my father used to say.
While I will do what I need to do and should do to help set things right, don’t for a minute think you can lay the blame at my feet and smugly walk away. After all, as Winerip points out, Bernie Madoff, who was born in 1938, is not our fault.
January 26, 2009 at 2:36 pm
You deserve a standing ovation for this one. Yes, ma’am.
I’m giving you one.
January 26, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Thank you, ma’am.
January 27, 2009 at 8:32 am
I admire your spunk – and agree with your perspective! In my book, “Amazing Grays” I continue to encourage boomer women to own our “bulge” (including the one permanently affixed around our middle) and show the generations coming up behind us what it means to age with gusto!
Please add me to your blogroll so I can continue to be part of this conversation.
Amazing Grays at http://www.maggiecrane.com. I’ll be checking back here often!
January 27, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Crumbs, I thought we were the good guys!
We crashed our way into male only universities, jobs and clubs. Celebrated sex and pregnancy and breastfed our babies when they were hungry. We raised our daughters to believe they could grow up to be whatever they wanted and raised our sons to be not just gentlemen but gentle men, and to understand that girls and women weren’t there to serve them.
Our black brothers and sisters bravely integrated schools and universities and their white counterparts helped enfranchise all Americans.
Our generaton (okay mostly the men, but not entirely without help) invented most of the cool stuff the young now play with.
Our parents endured depression and world war and we presided over a period of peace and unprecedented growth and prosperity, and it wasn’t all based on fluff and nonsense — not by a long shot — whatever is happening now.
We were thoughtful and we were worried. Our parents invented nuclear weapons. We invented Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Earth Day.
We didn’t invent shopping or Macy’s or the Dow Jones Industrial (tnough no doubt we made hefty use of both). We did invent Greenpeace and Medicins sans Frontiers and under our watch Amnesty International and Friends of the Earth became the force for good that they are.
Greed and pleasure came naturally to us –as they do to all humans at leisure and at peace. Why not? But we also embraced a social responsibility and a curiosity that was new.
We opened up the world. Think of your parents’ horizons and your childrens’.
Okay, we made some mistakes. There is fluff and nonsense (and we are the people who are going to pay — the young have time to rebuild). I don’t think it’s a good plan to raise children in institutions. I worry about women who think they can have it all without counting the cost. Free love was a sorry myth. Cleaving unto your wife or husband doesn’t turn out to be such a bad plan. Divorce often is a very bad plan.
All of us still staggering into late middle age, and others, have to get a grip on our waste and our energy consumption or we have to hope that the young are as clever as we were at coming up with solutions (admittedly of a different sort).
Actually I hate the word “boomer”, though I agree it is most certainly not a four letter word. I know there are some good boomer blogs, for example, but I squirm when I click on them, because I so hate the word, ugly and self conscious.
Though I was born in 1954 I cannot think of myself a a boomer. My concise OED — not that old, seventh impression 1979 — has three definitions for “boomer”; 1. A large male kangaroo. 2. A North American beaver. 3. A large wave.
No, no, no it ain’t me, Babe.
Duchess is ever so much nicer.
January 27, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Actually, there are mornings when I SERIOUSLY resemble a large male kangaroo, but I clean up nicely.
It ain’t me, either, Babe.
Thanks for responding.
msmeta
January 27, 2009 at 7:12 pm
“the term has become synonymous with greedy, spoiled, divorced, remarried mega-shopper.”
uhh…hello!! This same description fits so many of the young people today. Why pick on us? I’ve never taken, I’ve always given. I do my fair share for humanity and take care of me and mine, and by God I’m sick of all the whining from those who feel entitled to be taken care of. Grrrr………
Great post and I wish more could read it.
January 28, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Well-written piece. Relevantly, as many nationally influential voices have repeatedly noted, Obama is part of Generation Jones, born 1954-1965, between the Boomers and Generation X. Google Generation Jones, and you’ll see it’s gotten a lot of media attention, and many top commentators from many top publications and networks (Washington Post, Time magazine, NBC, Newsweek, ABC, etc.) are specifically referring to Obama, born in 1961, as part of Generation Jones.
Great op-ed on exactly this topic in yesterday’s USA TODAY:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20090127/column27_st.art.htm