Enough, Already!!
I'm a boomer. An early boomer. I came of age during the Age of Aquarius and I was as hippy-dippy as all the cool kids, even if I didn't carry placards and protest against Vietnam, or whatever cause celebre of the day I happened to bump into along the way. But I categorically reject this notion that boomers are responsible for all the troubles we have today.
Cripes! Every generation leaves in its wake a mess for the next one. The world is a messy place. We may clean up a little bit here, but our rags and wash water get dumped over there. And there will be some messes that we don't even see. Think of your teenagers and their bedrooms.
We can look back in anger, but we can never really see the future. Mark my words, all you gen-Xers or Nexters or whatever you latest incarnation are calling yourselves. Your constant harping about boomers is proof of that. You're looking back in anger. You aren't looking forward and probably won't start to just because, I, one of your elders, am telling what you might expect in the future. But I'll do it anyway.
To be sure, there will be surprises ahead for you. There will be disappointments. There will be problems and opportunities to which you will be totally blind. There will be plenty of what you regard as triumphs that will later be vilified by your children and grandchildren. And they may be wrong or they may be right.
Bottom line, you won't do a heck of a lot better than any of us in the boomer generation did. Nor will your children. Life just isn't like that. Just do the best you can. Have respect for those who went before you and love your children but leave their future up to them.
I'm not finished my rant yet. I want to make a few excuses and tell you what it was like as a boomer coming of age in the late 60s.
It's very fashionable today to hear Pierre Trudeau vilified. He became Prime Minister in the first election in which I was eligible to vote. We didn't know, nor did he, what would be the long-term consequences of his policies. No. Politicians don't have crystal balls. They're human. Like you and me.
So you don't like things like multi-culturalism or bi-lingualism. So what? When these were introduced they were seen as innovative and good. We didn't have crystal balls, either. Nor do you. And besides, much of what we conservatives whine about today and which we naively - and wrongly - lay at Trudeau's feet really got started in the 1930s, or earlier. Think FDR. Or, for a Canadian example, think of the CCF. This was the hay-day of social engineering. Socialism was the flavour of the times when Trudeau came of age and it was still there, enjoying a resurgence, perhaps, when boomers came of age.
We all come of age in a social and political context that could well be fleeting. Do the best you can with yours, but don't fall for the myth that you are unique or that you will do a better job than that done by previous generations. 'Cause history tells us, you won't. The past is there to learn from, not to fixate upon or vilify. Use your life to do your best to solve the problems you see around you and leave the rest up to whatever god you may think exists, even if you may think it's only fate. And forgive us our idealism for a world without idealism is a world without hope and no one can rob you of hope except yourself.
"Things to be Desired" or "Desiderata"
Betcha didn't know Trudeau recorded this poem, too.
Cripes! Every generation leaves in its wake a mess for the next one. The world is a messy place. We may clean up a little bit here, but our rags and wash water get dumped over there. And there will be some messes that we don't even see. Think of your teenagers and their bedrooms.
We can look back in anger, but we can never really see the future. Mark my words, all you gen-Xers or Nexters or whatever you latest incarnation are calling yourselves. Your constant harping about boomers is proof of that. You're looking back in anger. You aren't looking forward and probably won't start to just because, I, one of your elders, am telling what you might expect in the future. But I'll do it anyway.
To be sure, there will be surprises ahead for you. There will be disappointments. There will be problems and opportunities to which you will be totally blind. There will be plenty of what you regard as triumphs that will later be vilified by your children and grandchildren. And they may be wrong or they may be right.
Bottom line, you won't do a heck of a lot better than any of us in the boomer generation did. Nor will your children. Life just isn't like that. Just do the best you can. Have respect for those who went before you and love your children but leave their future up to them.
I'm not finished my rant yet. I want to make a few excuses and tell you what it was like as a boomer coming of age in the late 60s.
It's very fashionable today to hear Pierre Trudeau vilified. He became Prime Minister in the first election in which I was eligible to vote. We didn't know, nor did he, what would be the long-term consequences of his policies. No. Politicians don't have crystal balls. They're human. Like you and me.
So you don't like things like multi-culturalism or bi-lingualism. So what? When these were introduced they were seen as innovative and good. We didn't have crystal balls, either. Nor do you. And besides, much of what we conservatives whine about today and which we naively - and wrongly - lay at Trudeau's feet really got started in the 1930s, or earlier. Think FDR. Or, for a Canadian example, think of the CCF. This was the hay-day of social engineering. Socialism was the flavour of the times when Trudeau came of age and it was still there, enjoying a resurgence, perhaps, when boomers came of age.
We all come of age in a social and political context that could well be fleeting. Do the best you can with yours, but don't fall for the myth that you are unique or that you will do a better job than that done by previous generations. 'Cause history tells us, you won't. The past is there to learn from, not to fixate upon or vilify. Use your life to do your best to solve the problems you see around you and leave the rest up to whatever god you may think exists, even if you may think it's only fate. And forgive us our idealism for a world without idealism is a world without hope and no one can rob you of hope except yourself.
"Things to be Desired" or "Desiderata"
Betcha didn't know Trudeau recorded this poem, too.
Labels: 1960s, Canadian politics, history, personal, Trudeaus, with conservatives like these...
posted by Louise at 12:44 pm
2 Comments:
I think this is one of your best, most thoughtful posts yet, Louise.
If I could just add one thing: our generation was extraordinarily fortunate to leave school and enter a robust and expanding economy. Our parents' generation had to scrounge/settle for whatever they could find because the economy was anything but. These things move in cycles, the causes of which are not ascribable to any one thing or group. Those who aren't ahistorical would know this.
Why thank you! I tend to write barn-burners when I'm mad.
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