Conventional Baby Boomer Wisdom....
On the front page of TPM at this hour (6 pm on the 3rd of June, you can no longer put a permalink to front page articles (thanks to comment, here is permalink) there is a comment from a reader (these comments are selected by the editors, they do not post every one they get....) which ends with... "if all we wanted was recycled, conventional baby boomers wisdom devoid of any observation or original thought?"
I was actually somewhat sympathetic with the earlier part of the message, but I have noticed a growing tendency to attack members of my generation. I am offended. Has TPM selected the boomers as their target for discrimination?
I was actually somewhat sympathetic with the earlier part of the message, but I have noticed a growing tendency to attack members of my generation. I am offended. Has TPM selected the boomers as their target for discrimination?
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More recycled, conventional boomer wisdom: "Never trust anyone over thirty."
June 3, 2009 7:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
lolKarma
June 4, 2009 9:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
The permalink is embedded in the title on the front page, without underlining or highlighting until you "mouseover" it:
06.03.09 -- 5:27PM
A Narrative Frozen in Amber
June 3, 2009 7:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nah! It's just our time Marq. And look at the face of those who've 'succeeded from our generation. Do the rest of us offset the impact of the Dobbs/Thains/Lays/bushes? Let's face it, we're a big, slow moving target as we approach retirement age. Easy marks, (or Marqs if you prefer). Duck! ;)
June 4, 2009 3:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Please, oh the shock of it:
You have had the entire world directed to your problems, your issues, etc.
You have been the center of your world for so long, you don't even know what it's like to have to deal with reality.
The sheer number of you has clogged up job pipelines, promotion pipelines...
Don't trust anyone over 30... until you guys hit 30.
Everything in terms of the "lessons of Vietnam"... etc. etc. etc.
Individually, I'm sure you are fine. But you can trace the general narcissism in America as following your bubble.
"Me Decade"
"Decade of Greed"
And on and on. The general trends you wanted, you got.
Bill Clinton and George W Bush are the reps of your generation. And it's fitting.
And so you now wonder why we can't wait for the group to finally be pushed off the stage?
How about remembering your own distrust of your elders?
How about realizing that much of the country was built around you and for you and your families... and now you will expect excessive public money on nursing homes?
Don't be so shocked. You are about to get caught up in the realities the rest of us have had to deal with for so long.
Anyone under the age of 40 knew long ago that Social Security was never going to be there for us.
Welcome to the new reality... it's finally hit your generation.
June 4, 2009 3:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Are you trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most overstated, old, stale, lame, and mendacious assertions in one blog comment?
And you are from what: The Whiner Generation? That seems likely when you claim Boomers are self-centered, yet blame them for your inability to get promoted on the job.
The Boomer Generation is usually described as persons born between 1946-1964, which means along with Clinton and the Son of Bush, Obama is also a GenBoomer President, and a fourth is very possible.
The "Decade of Greed" was the Eighties, or The Reagancomedy, and Reagan was from the DarkAges Generation. In the 80's, the age of Boomers ranged on the high-side, from 34-44, and the low-side from 16-26. It seems irrational to blame Boomers for the evil wrought by the aged Reagancomics and their new-righty enablers.
Your assessment of Social Security's unavoidable demise, self-evident for many a year, utterly fails to note that Clinton's Economic Plan, properly funded Social Security out past the time when the vast majority of Boomers would be deceased, and this plan was immediately trashed by the GW Bush Administration, with its typically Contemporary Conservative Fiscal Irresponsibility of slash taxes, then spend without end.
As for Boomer Rep, I'll take:
The Arkansas Hillbilly
with his never-closed fly,
standing up erectly,
while forcibly facing down
The Family Devaluators' Effetist Repression,
fearlessly challenging the Starr Chamber's
absurdly flailing immaterial limp-wristed queries,
probing for consensual sexual activities from the near past,
claiming the line of tawdry inquiry was relevant,
as an indicator of sexual harassment from the distant past,
with an even more semantic absurdity:
an interrogative response, positing a testimonial need
for a descriptive contextual definition of 'IS'.
Now that would be talking about my generation!
June 4, 2009 10:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
More offensive narcissism?
June 4, 2009 12:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
You know, I found this comment a bit irritating up until the penultimate paragraph. At that point it became farcical. I remember when I was a student we all believed that Social Security was going to go broke long before we retired - and that was nearly 40 years ago. So don’t think this is a thought new to your generation.
When it comes to presidents - if you think you want the Boomers to get off the stage and make room, think of all the years we Boomers AND those pre-Boomers who were too young for WWII service watched while the Greatest Generation kept holding on and holding on and holding on... The first post-WWII non-WWII-veteran was elected 47 years after the war (unless you count LBJ, who I think was in the Reserves while also in Congress). I for one found the last two of the Greatest Generation awfully discouraging (Reagan/Bush). And Clinton's opponents both times were still Greatest Generation vets... Nothing against the Greatest Generation, just pointing out that they had a very long run.
June 4, 2009 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Marq:
The times of our power are long gone. Get a twitter thingy and relax.
The torch has been passed to ....I do not know. But it has been passed. We used to pass 'fatties' and stuff in our parents' basements. Listening to FM radio and the other communist networks and stuff.
And then half of us began to worry about investments and stuff and voted for reagan.
THE END
June 4, 2009 5:53 PM | Reply | Permalink