One of Jesus' famous parables was of the Prodigal Son. In it, a wealthy father has two sons. The one son, despite his cushy life, decides he knows better than his generous father what life is all about and how to live it. He demands his inheritance, abandons his loving father and the life and home that was provided to him, journeys to a far country and parties hard until his entire inheritance is squandered and he is reduced to eating pig food.
(Just in case you haven't heard this parable: the son then returns home and is welcomed with open arms by his father, the way sinners who repent are welcomed by God into salvation and the Kingdom. The older brother has done what he was expected to do the entire time the Prodigal was off on a self-indulgent spree, and rankles at how the irresponsible narcissist is the one who gets rewarded and celebrated. The brother is much like the Custodian archetype)
I think the generation who followed Joshua into the Holy Land was like the Barn-Raisers, and the first judges were like the Custodians. The children who grew up in the fulfillment of the Promise, then turned their back on God to worship idols was Prodigal. Before the Holy Land campaign it's very difficult to correlate Biblical figures to the American generational archetypes. For one: they weren't Americans. For two: their life spans were much longer than what Strauss and Howe's generational theory is built around. However, I look at most of the tribal patriarchs as mostly Prodigals (one exception being Joseph, who strikes me as a Nomad type). Abraham, who did everything he could to set up Isaac for success (including finding him a wife), strikes me as a Barn-Raiser. Isaac, who was born within a year of a significant crisis (the judgment on the cities of the plain) and went through a personal crisis of his own (almost sacrificed), nevertheless entered adulthood with a life of peace and wealth, but raised his own children without the same level of wisdom or provision...and therefore seems like a Custodian. Jacob got the short end of the stick, but was "streetwise" and clawed his way into the inheritance and the blessing via crafty deceit. Even so, he was left on his own to find a home and a wife, and floundered with a lack of paternal guidance. He resembles a Nomad, or perhaps a Prodigal.
Strauss and Howe named this American generational archetype the "Idealist" or "Prophet." The most recent such generation certainly see themselves that way, but I prefer to call this archetype the "Prodigal" for a reason that should be obvious soon.
The Prodigal generation from the 1800s is labeled the "Missionaries." As I've warned previously, generalizations are necessary when referencing generations and their peer personalities. Neither Strauss, Howe, nor I believe every member of a generation conforms exactly to the profile. There are many differences and varieties within generations; the members don't agree on everything, and certainly are not carbon copies of each other. Likewise, names for generations aren't to be applied literally. The "Republican" Generation (born 1742-1766) played out most of their lives before the political party of the same name ever came into being. They are labeled "Republican" because they built the republic in North America after prevailing through their existential crisis. Certainly there were many missionaries among the Missionary Generation, but not all of their peers shared the same faith or ideology. Probably the best known Missionary in history was FDR, for instance.
Prodigals grow up after the resolution of an existential crisis, in times of stability and prosperity. They come of age during a "spiritual awakening" in which they question the institutions their Barn-Raiser fathers built (or their Custodian fathers maintained). In adulthood, they take over and transform those institutions, and in elderhood, they appoint themselves as a sort of "moral police" who are compelled to tell everyone else how to think, believe, speak, and behave.
The latest Prodigal generation is, of course, the Baby Boomers (so-named because of the explosion in childbirths experienced during and after WWII). They inherited the most peaceful, prosperous society in recorded history. Their indulgent parents pampered them beyond any known precedence. The Bible warns parents what happens when a father spares the rod--and that happened generation-wide. These entitled children grew up with a contempt for their inheritance, for their fathers' values, institutions, and the fathers themselves. (The "generation gap" is most prominent between GI fathers and their Boomer children.) Through their cultural influence, their political tenure, and/or their vote, they have squandered all that peace and prosperity--and not just for themselves. It was the next generation these Prodigals reduced to eating pig slop, while they pursued immediate gratification for themselves and lectured their juniors about "social justice."
X and the Millennials are not nearly as enamored with the Boomers as the Boomers are with themselves. In fact, our elders are finally facing somewhat of a backlash. Ignorant people on social media and blog comment threads routinely accuse each other of being Boomers (having no idea how old the other person actually is) for making comments they disagree with. "Boomer" is fast becoming a generic insult. On the one hand, it's as silly as judging an individual based on assumptions about their race or sex. OTOH, it's difficult to feel any sympathy for the Boom, collectively.
Thanks to the Boomers (and the spineless Silent Generation "leaders" who wound up emulating them), the most powerful, prosperous country on Earth, with liberty and justice for all, has been reduced to a hopelessly corrupt debtor nation teetering on the precipice of economic collapse, tyranny, and civil war. After bankrupting the country through crooked and frivolous spending, exporting all our manufacturing base (and jobs) overseas to our enemies, they now have crushed the service-oriented economy that remained through this Orwellian quarantine, keeping "essential" businesses like abortion clinics and liquor stores open, but strong-arming their arbitrary list of "non-essential" businesses (and churches, of course). Meanwhile, secure with their guaranteed incomes, they demonize people who have the audacity to protest because they need to feed their families.
But family wasn't an important consideration for Boomers, at least during their non-stop party prime years. They grew up with strong, functional families, so they didn't appreciate them. It was the Boomers who gave us "free love" and the Sexual Revolution. They took birth control to avoid having children, and aborted them when that didn't work. Those who did bother getting married and having children divorced in record numbers, pulling their wishy-washy Silent elders down with them, leaving the next generation (of unwanted children) to fend for themselves. They didn't just introduce widespread fornication and adultery, but a whole panoply of sexual immorality God warned us about. But it wasn't enough to inject it into our society--they had to glorify it in pop culture, too. It's hard to find even one movie or TV show without sodomy-acceptance messaging, and now, if you're paying attention, you can see them pushing pedophilia as the next perversion to be normalized.
The idyllic childhood of the typical Boomer was tainted by the JFK assassination. Simply by examining bygone pop culture (music, movies, art, etc.) you can easily detect whether something was produced before or after that national-attitude-changing event. The atmosphere in America was markedly different in 1964 and after, than in 1963 and before. That event set off a cultural chain reaction. The Boomers soon turned to lifestyles of drug abuse, paganism, sexual debauchery, and radical ideology. They hated their fathers, and that hate spilled over to what their fathers symbolized to them: the nuclear family; children; monogamy; traditional gender roles (masculinity in men, femininity in women); art that was beautiful and made sense; civic responsibilities; patriotism; Christianity; the draft; the military-industrial complex.
Much of this is ironic, because their GI/Greatest Generation parents were leftists, too. An overwhelming majority of the GIs were New Dealers, and reliably voted Democrat in most elections throughout their lives. But that wasn't left-wing enough for most of their kids, though. We can argue about whether the GIs were truly Christian or patriotic (they were neither, if you look beyond the superficial), but that's how the Boomers perceived them. So the Boomers rebelled against what they thought their fathers represented.
Of course, there were some Boomers who became "Jesus Freaks" instead of New Agers and dope fiends trying to "achieve a higher consciousness" via "mind expanding" substance. Also, there is a small minority of Boomers (in the later/younger cohorts) who fought in Vietnam rather than dodging the draft. Some Boomers today lean to the right, and many are saved. Again, when I talk of the generation and their peer personality, there are plenty of exceptions.
The Boomers were the first generation to receive, and accept, an official name. It was only afterwards that historians named older generations, retroactively. Certainly some people had referred to the WWI/Roaring '20s youth as "a lost generation;" but that didn't become their official name until later. The Boomers celebrated their own distinct identity, before other age groups began to think of themselves that way. (After control of the country transferred to the Boomers, the term "senior citizens" was coined to identify the aged GI/Greatest.) "Never trust anyone over 30!" Boomers declared...until, of course, they grew older than 30.
The Boom got their war memorial before the GIs or the Silent, which is very significant, considering the hubris of the GIs "who saved us from Hitler!" Everything has always worked out in the favor of the Boomers. When they were kids, the world catered to kids. When they were adults, the world catered to adults. Predictably, it looks like they will be the last generation to collect Social Security benefits. The 13ers/Xers, who have been paying into the government-sanctioned Ponzi scheme all their working lives to support their affluent elders, will be left holding the bag. Boomers had high-paying jobs, cheap college, cheap mortgages, cheap taxes, and lavish government handouts...and have ensured that the following generation, after paying for most of it (and GI/Silent/Boomer criminal government spending) by their unfair bulk of the tax burden, get none of it.
None of this strikes the Boomers as unjust, though. Why would it? Everything should work to the benefit of a self-righteous narcissist, at the expense of the un-cool youngsters who just aren't as "conscious," "aware," or "groovy." And it never stops. The COVID-1984 lockdown highlights Boomer entitlement, too: Wal-Marts around the country set aside a specific time in the morning hours when only Boomers could shop. The almighty Boomers need first dibs on essential food and supplies. If the majority of passengers on the Titanic had been Boomers, you can bet children would not have gotten priority for the lifeboats.
I first learned of Facebook through a Millennial. (I got on it to see what all the hubbub was about, but quit cold-turkey after a couple years.) Now the younger Millennial cohorts inform me that Facebook is wall-to-wall Boomers. Maybe it was that way before (I didn't think in terms of generations, then, and so didn't really pay attention). With all the selfies, pictures of what people ate for lunch, and ignorant self-centered remarks about current events (and their oh-so-important feelings about them), it's the perfect hangout for aging Boomers.
Hollywood is controlled by the Boom, and has been for 40 years. It's a Boomer bully pulpit to promote their cultural Marxism and marginalize anybody/everybody who disagrees with it. But pop culture from a generational perspective deserves at least one post of its own, so I'll table that for now.
If you had to pick a "defining moment" for the GI Generation, you have several options. But if you wanted to have as many of them together in one place as possible, you'd probably choose D-Day (for combatants) or VJ Day in New York City (for military and civilians).
That moment for the Boom (at least the counterculture Boomers) is Woodstock.
If you ask a Boomer to explain how Woodstock defines their g-g-g-generation, they'll probably say something about a "collective conscience" experienced at the event. I would add to that definition some more tangible details.
Hundreds of thousands of Boomers trampled down the fencing and crashed the festival without paying to get in. After the concert started, it was officially announced that all the freeloaders were off the hook. So the epic three-day party was paid for them by the event organizers. The dairy farmer who let them destroy his land for the festival was somebody they said could never be trusted (he was GI generation and well over 30). Free food was provided the entire time. When it ran out, the local middle-class townspeople (the kind they called "fascist pigs" or "capitalist warmongers" with no conscience) donated food right out of their own fascist warmonger kitchens so the attendees wouldn't go hungry. The Red Cross also distributed donuts. The US Army (who they called "baby-killers") and others provided free medical care for those who overdosed and experienced "bad trips" on LSD.
Everything was handed to them on a silver platter, and the very same people the Boomers considered inferior are the ones who bent over backwards protecting Boomers from the consequences of their own stupidity. The hippie festival is basically a microcosm of the Boom's entire privileged life.
The 600 acres where the festival took place was a beautiful area before the armada of spoiled pothead and junkie brats descended on it like a locust storm. The muddy, stinking, garbage pit they left behind resembled a war zone--missing only shell craters. Kind of like what they've done to America.
Toward the end of the three-day orgy of drugs, fornication, and subversive music, the dairy farmer addressed the wasted multitude from the stage. By no stretch of the imagination can anyone make the case that the attendees exercised any modicum of self-control; nevertheless, Max Yasgur congratulated them for not killing each other. He said they "showed the world" what love and peace look like.
At every stage of their lives, the Boom has enjoyed privilege and entitlement. They assume it's deserved--and why wouldn't they? The presumption has been reinforced at every turn--by the parents and grandparents they maligned, and even sometimes by the children who survived Boomer's state-sanctioned abortion epidemic only to be neglected, insulted, and abandoned by their free-wheeling parents.
Just like the Missionaries before them imposed their values on everyone else in elderhood (the Missionaries were the driving force behind Prohibition); the Boomers now try to preach to the rest of us what morality and justice is.
The party never ends for the Prodigals. But it's always at the expense of others.
No comments:
Post a Comment