Hey X-Generation.....how POd are you at the boomers?

[Nazgul35]

For those of you who don't know,

the baby boomers were those fellow citizens born between 1945-1964...

the gen-Xers were those fellow citizens born between 1965-1984...

the next generation are those fellow citizens who were born from 1985 until this year...if your in this generation, go to be, you have school in the morning...

I don't know if it has something to do with getting older, but it seems that people are getting worse, not better...and it started with the boomers....

A whole generation (i.e. using the standard three standard deviations from the mean...there are always exception) spoiled by their parents, given no boundaries they spun outta control (no not fighting for civil rights or against the Vietnam war) but drugs and sex and mass consumption....and then they had kids....

Stuck right between these two generation is the group that's going to have to pay for it all!! Don't worry about social security, that'll run out just as the 65ers are ready to collect, but well after the boomers have sucked it dry, the same boomers who now control government and are using said government to roll back taxes so that they don't have to pay for anything while they work too....

And after the fall out, when the Xers are a minority, the yuppie larvae will spring into action, deciding that they need to save society by taxing the Xers so that they can retire in comfort....

:evilgrin:

damn baby boomers!!!!

Teach your frigging kids some manner for crying out loud!!!!

[Ellen Forradalom]

1. I fall exactly between the two groups

and find that X anger at boomers is overdone; it is not the boomers' fault there are so many of them and that they are moving through the economy like a chicken through a python. Blame 'The Greatest Generation' for breeding so wantonly.

[neebob]

2. I was born in 1960

and this is the first time I've seen that year included with the boomers. I certainly don't consider myself one. I've always thought I was part of an unindentified generation in between the boomers and the Xers.

[Nazgul35]

3. that the official definition...

from insurance groups and actuarians that I have seen....

sorry...you're one of those damned boomers!!!!!

:evilgrin:

[neebob]

4. Screw them! I don't wanna be a boomer.

I'm a nothing! An in-between! My team lost, and now I have to be a boomer?! I don't think so.

[SOteric]

93. Sorry, not correct.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomer

Personally, I've heard several different sets of dates, and frankly, if you do a Google search for the terms 'Baby Boom' and "Generation X," you'll find 15 - 20 different sets of dates posted in your first 30 hits, all of them claiming to be definitive.

I'm not sure why we should believe that actuarial tables have any more weight to offer than marketing firms, psychology departments, Sociological studies, census reports, schools or research medicine.

The dates are in dispute. I've seen it suggested that the Baby Boom ended in 1958, '59, '60, '61, '62, '63, '64 and '65. One site claims that from 1958 - 1968 is a generation they call the "Baby Busters."

I think it matters more who we identify with as individuals and I am totally underwhelmed at the whole "us vs. them" mentality your question seems to imply.

If it weren't for the Boomers, the rights of minorities would not have advanced even to the point they have, the rights of women would be nearly non-existent, the very protests we progressives have come to rely upon in making our civil disobedience would not have the freedom and acceptance that they do.

Whatever ill our previous generations have inflicted upon us, they've done some difficult and good work and left it to us as legacy. It behooves us to be at least respectful if we cannot be grateful. And frankly, if you're that put out, then please tell me what you think we're leaving behind for those that come after, - Reality Television, Doc Martens, indolence and car payments?

[Nazgul35]

112. too bad you posted this before

you read my post #68....

What started as tongue in cheek has become an intergenerational war....

One should question how eager everyone is to find blame for the ills of society....

It is also interesting that it seems that threads that produce this kind of conflict (even here in the Lounge) are well posted and continue to thrive while much more "gentle" topics fall quickly off the radar....

too sad...

[Pattib]

8. As one born in 1962 this has always been a point of dispute.

In the mid eighties Time magazine labeled generation X as those born between 1961-1981. Initially, the boomers were 1946-1958. I think the generation born from 1959-1965 are to young to be considered boomers. This generation has since been called "tweeners". To old for the X generation and to young for the boomers.

I have seen the tables updated too and they always seem to add a year or two. I remember when they were talking in the media about Bill Clinton being a Boomer and how he came of age during the sixties. Is it possible for someone born in 1965 to come of age during the Vietnam era? I don't even remember the Beatles. I thought people born in the same generation needed to share the same cultural experience? My generation was disco and polyester.

[devilgrrl]

11. I was born in '63 and like to think of us '61-'65ers as the...

Blank Generation.

We weren't Boomers or Xers... we were punkers! :silly:

[neebob]

I googled it

and saw a majority of 1945-1965, but it's still news to me. I don't identify with the boomers. I must process. I'm going to bed now. Hrmph.

[WoodrowFan]

28. We are boomers dude

Sorry man, we ARE Boomers (1959 here). We're old enough to remember Vietnam but too young to fight in it. There are early boomers (the immediate postwar babies who were in college in the 60s) and the late boomers, born at the end of the boom, who were in college in the 70s. (or of college age) There ARE differences between the two groups but we are part of the same population growth 'bulge' and share many-although not all-of the same cultural references.

[catzies]

81. Me too. Born in 62 but never felt like a boomer.

And my daughter was born in 1980, so could that mean we're both Gen-Xers? That's impossible I know but still... :shrug:

[Venomous_Rhetoric]

34. 1959

I don't think I was born at a very good time, raised poor as dirt. life didn't get good till the mid 70's. I think the "boomers" were my parents, not us. They sit on nice fat pensons, and had all the good things in life.
Now, it seems I'll never get to retire, things cost 50 times more and are regulated to death, cars are crappy, not like the good ones from the 70's, police state, etc.....

[beawr]

39. I'm with you

I figure if you were too young to go to Woodstock, too young to go to Viet Nam and too young to remember the JFK assassanation, you ain't a boomer.

We are another "generation perdue"......

not chicken.

[amazona]

84. agreed, born in 1958 and definitely not a boomer

Didn't have the experiences or the economic opportunities available to boomers and could in no sense be considered one.

And to say someone born in 1964 is part of that generation commonly known as boomers is just pure-D silliness. Boomers are getting toward 60; the kid born in 1964 is going to turn 40 this year and is barely in the category of middle-aged.

[POed_Ex_Repub]

5. Every generation thinks the next one is 'worse'

But I do agree that we're culturally strained as of late. Maybe it has something to do with parents feeling the need to be productive (ie. having to work the jobs of three people for the luxury of paying rent) over the simple joys of properly raising children. Or maybe technology has gotten us so disconnected from our community (I mean the public, not the average DUer who seems to integrate just fine with the aid of technology). Or maybe our modern economy has us doing things that we normally wouldn't do, but don't see the effects of, and so we do them anyway? Or maybe there's just too many people competing for too few resources. Or maybe it's all of the above.

[regnaD kciN]

10. And every generation thinks the one before it is to blame for everything..

I remember how we, as teenagers, used to rail against our parents and the mess they made of the world. According to our perception, they could do nothing right, and were directly responsible for war, militarism, racism, sexism, environmental depradation, the existence of poverty, etc. etc. From our viewpoint, we would have to spend the rest of our lives cleaning up the disaster they left us.

Of course, those same people are now widely considered "the Greatest Generation"...

:shrug:

[pansypoo53219]

6. oh, i am po'd

i have banished classic rock stations. and Bush is ALL THEIR FAULT. so is RR.

[regnaD kciN]

7. As a "boomer," I say...

...bite me.

I could honestly give a damn about your "anger." Life is hard enough for everyone. And part of the reason it's hard is because of years and years of Republican governments -- elected in part by GenXers. Yes, you've got that right: blaming us for conservative governments is the height of absurdity. It's no coincidence to me that once GenXers came of voting age, the Republicans took over...after all, polls from back in the 80s confirmed that Reagan was most admired by "young people" (i.e. GenX) of the time, who also considered the boomer generation's prior and continuing concern with social justice issues to have been laughably ridiculous. If the young people of GenX, at that time, had been willing to join forces with the many of us boomers who were still fighting for these things, we might have had a chance to prevail. But who gives a s**t about racism, pollution, or death squads in Central America when we have our MTV and videogames and movies of Sylvester Stallone kicking Soviet butt with lots of cool explosions? And which generation, when they grew up, paid no attention to anything but their own solipsistic existences, never looking outside the bubble of their own jobs, friends, and lovers? Not us, boys and girls. If you have a problem with the way things are going, and want to find someone to blame, try looking in a f***ing mirror!

:grr:

[Occulus]

12. Yes, yes, whatever.

Tell me... what age group hold the reins of power, here and now?

Thought so.

[regnaD kciN]

22. It's not a matter of "age group"...

...it's "socioeconomic group" -- and we all know which group has power now.

Age has little to do with it.

[HereSince1628]

37. Man Like THAT is IT so Totally--- whoaw yer one rad dude

It had to come to this...what goes around comes around.
Personally I quit trusting in myself when I turned 30.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. I began teaching college in the early 1980s

I found a lot of the students appalling in their "me--me--me" orientation and total lack of curiosity about anything that wasn't pop culture.

We used to talk about the stuff we were reading for class. When some of my students complained of boredom ("I haven't done anything here that I didn't do in high school"), I suggested things like attending plays and concerts, participating in plays and concerts, learning a new sport, making friends with some of the foreign students, taking up art or a craft, reading for pleasure, and talking about what they were studying in class. They looked at me as if I was from another planet.

I had the unusual experience of teaching at my undergraduate alma mater during those early years, and I talked to some of my own former professors.

One of the history professors said, "You know, I used to have outright arguments with D.C. (a classmate of mine) about interpretations of historical events, and I used to want to wring his neck at times, but at least he CARED enough to argue. It's been years since a student has shown signs of actually thinking about the material."

Another clue: I still have the program from my college graduation, 1972. The most common majors were education, English, and sociology. In a class of four hundred, there were three (count 'em, three) business majors. There were more philosophy majors than business majors.

Ten years later, when I came back to teach, business majors so completely dominated the college that they were distorting the curriculum, because the business department required its majors to meet their general ed. requirements with specific courses. Advisors would try to get students to take unrelated electives, but if they had a free slot in their program, they'd take another business course.

Now part of this was due to corporations' wishes for new employees who were trained rather than educated, but one has to ask why that early 1980s generation, which was so inclined to say "fuck you" to everything else, didn't do the same to the corporations.

Last year, when I was participating in anti-war demonstrations, the two age groups that stood out were the middle-aged and the Generation Y kids. There were very few thirtysomethings or late twentysomethings.

The older people who were demonstrating were mostly veterans of the peace marches of the 1960s. They were also there for the nuclear freeze marches in the early 1980s and the marches against intervention in Central America. I had the dubious joy of handing out leaflets against the Contras on a campus where a huge percentage of the student body wore ROTC uniforms once a month and sported Reagan buttons in 1984. Very few students cared that their government was training terrorists in Nicaragua, and the only younger people who came to our meetings were some older grad students who had been in the Peace Corps in various countries in Central America.

In short, I find that Generation Xers (AS A GROUP, despite some fine exceptions, many of whom are posting on DU) are either conservative or apathetic and proud of it, if they're sophisticated to pull off the "I'm full of post-modern alienation" shtick.

The baby boomers may share some blame if they over-indulged their children, but frankly, I think the Gen Xers are much more likely to have out-of-control brats than my contemporaries ever did.

[Desertrose]

17. gotta agree LL as a boomer myself

and with JDWalley,too.

Our generation- at least a big chunk- gave a shit...we cared...we cared about a lot of stuff that didn't affect us directly that much at the time but affected our future and our kids future....and we acted on those concerns.

Many of us grew up hearing about how hard the depression was from or parents and WWII stories and we did our damnedest to not have that happen to our kids...and yeah, I saw examples of parents spoiling their kids cause they didn't want them smacked around and treated the way they were when they were kids. Anytime you break a pattern - you have to forge a new one. Thats what boomers have done...boomers have broken old shit so the following generations can build on top of what the previous generation has done.Sure, many didn't go bout it in the best of ways...but we, as a generation, wanted to change the things we didn't like about the world.

But the generation who reaped the benefits the boomer generation provided...never gave a thought about why things were the way they were...I agree...it was so "me" and so centered about what the world gave (or did) to them that damn few ever asked how they could give back....

say what you want about boomers, but at lest we gave a shit and tried with what we had at the time, to make it better. I do see in the gen Y kids that things are coming back full circle..we shall see...

Peace
DR
And yes...bless all the exceptions to the rule....many here on DU...you give me hope!

[Nay]

23. AAAAAMEN, Walley.

And add the fact that many of us lazy-ass boomers are housing and supporting Gen X's who just can't seem to get their shit together long enough to even support themselves. Oh, and don't forget Grandma, who had to come live with us because she didn't save enough money either, and the damn Repubs took away what little she had left.

[Dees]

38. Right On JD. Just compare the two Woodstocks. At least Boomer

idealism extended beyond Xbox.
I went to high school, war and college in the 60's. I'm Boomer to the bone. We tried our damnedest to make things right. Now it's all about bling bling.

[AngryAmish]

79. Lets compare the 2 Woodstocks

The first one was done with some idealism and had a nice vibe.

The second one was done to make money. They gouged the crowd and did not provide basic necessities and the crowd reacted. The Boomers got older and was only trying to wring more money out.

A better comparison is Altimont and Woodstock2. Same things happened, for similar reasons. Again, Boomers, in retrospect, try to make themselves look better.

[Dees]

96. One missing element....the Hells Angels..who were hired

for security by management of the Rolling Stones. It was a bad scene where one man was stabbed to death.

What was the excuse at WS2? Too Hot? Too commercial? Overpriced food? What exactly sent the "young" crowd into a violent frenzy?
Apples to apples...we had our Woodstock and you had yours.

[sendero]

43. thanks...

... if I hear one more smug ass white college boy blathering about free markets and incentives, well, I'm gonna puke.

There is plenty of blame to go around and gen-x is as much at fault in shaping the political culture and climate as anybody.

I fear for my kids because I know that as hard as it was for me to make it it will be even harder for them, even though I will be able to offer them advantages I did not have, like a college education.

But excuse me if I don't feel personally responsible for this mess.

[camero]

57. Um, take your meds.. we couldn't vote in the 80s

But you guys did. And in 84 Reagan won in a landslide. Now who did that?

[regnaD kciN]

77. Uh, do your math...early GenXers could vote in 1984...

...and polls showed they thought the Gipper was "cool."

:eyes:

I will grant that you have one point...I think the arbitrary generation "dividing lines" are not drawn very accurately. See my post a bit later for details.

[camero]

87. They also had the lowest turnout of any age group in 84.

It was Xers that got Clinton the presidency in 92.

[DerekG]

66. Give me a break, JD...

You're suggesting that some mythical struggle existed between the sell-outs and Reagan. Face it, a good number of boomers dropped their militancy the minute the draft was ended (hence, their nobility was built on a foundation of self-interest). Now, I know that boomers like to think that they were the first group of people to dream of a better world. Well, you guys really dropped the f@#$ing ball. Let's see if Gen X and Y can pick up the pieces.

[PVnRT]

70. As an "X-er"

You can kiss my ass. How many boomers were staunch leftists until Nixon canned the draft? Care to answer that?

For that matter, anyone on either side promoting this conflict can kiss my ass as well.

[Birthmark]

9. I suppose that technically, I *am* a boomer. ('57)

But I've never considered myself one. I have watched the Baby Boomers since I was young -- and I thought that they were idiotic even then. (Realize that I am generalizing an entire generation, so many exceptions exist. Don't be offended.) Let's tally up a few of the Boomer's dubious accomplishments, shall we?

- Turning health care into an "industry"
- Destroying the union movement in the US
- Moving our industry overseas
- Corporatizing politics
- Corporatizing the media, destroying the free press
- "Protest zones"
- Taking sports from an affordable trip out to an "event" for most families
- Undermining the Constitution

The list is endless. Feel free to add it. Boomers are truly the heinous generation in American history.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. That's the segment of the boomer population

that was never enlightened in the first place.

The George Bushes and Patrick Buchanans and HMO managers and sports franchise owners and outsourcers of manufacturing jobs can rarely point to a past as a socially conscious political activist. If anything, they may have gone into the hippie scene to get high and get laid, but their commitment was about 1/4 inch deep.

The people who stuck with their ideals rarely made it into positions of power.

By the way, you know the Greatest Generation(World War II) that everyone raves about? That's my parents' generation, and in the 1960s, a lot of people blamed THEM for all the world's problems.

[SoCalDem]

19. Your "bullet points" were changed by "leaders" in the 80's

The ones "in charge" back then were born in the 20's,30's & 40's.. You are putting blame on people who we in their late 20's and early 30's back then.. MY generation (born 49) was too busy being bent over and screwed by Reagan and his ole buddy-pals, back then.. If you take the time to actually read up on the subject , you will find, that MY generation came of age just as the gravy-train was pulling out of the station..empty...

All the loverly freebies that the greatest generation (our grandparents and the older parents of boomers) were the ones to benefit from $1 down house loans, and FREE college..

When WE were ready for college , there was barely enough room for us, and the "free ride" was pretty much over.. WE are the ones who bought first homes at 14.9% interest rates.. We were the ones who had our FICA & SS raised to the upper limits to pay for the elders and to provide a cushion for when we retired "someday".. We were the ones who got hit for the savings & loan debacle of the Neil Bush & pals gang..

The baby boomers did not have any power until ...right about 1992.. and the huge mess was started waaaaay before then.. The oldsters before us, spent like there was no tomorrow, and all during the 90's , a boomer DID do something about bringing it under control...But it was all for naught, since a "smash & grab" boomer reached back into the past and dug up all the same old guys who screwed us in the 70's & 80's..

So don't blame us, my friend, we have not been the "screwERS... we have been the screwEEs"..

If the reins of governmnt were truly "turned over" to the newer generations, generalizations like your "could" be valid, but look at the ages of the people who really run things in our (or any other ) country.. They are OLD..OLD..OLD.. There may be a token John Edwards, here or there, but the ones with the money and power go waaaay back , and they are NOT boomers..

[Birthmark]

20. All of those changes...

...were made by people who were elected by boomers. Boomers profited greatly. Boomers certainly haven't changed any of those things. Indeed, they are making them worse.

Let me reiterate that I am generalizing to the point of uselessness here, so no individual should be offended.

[SoCalDem]

21. Elected by MORE than Boomers

If you take note of the ages of most of the senate,house and supreme court, you may notice that the "boomers" are still not in charge.. and with the rich old guys behind the scenes pulling all the strings, we may never be..

We are suffering from the "Prince Charles Syndrome".. Old enough, smart enough, but the damned oldies just won't step down :)

[regnaD kciN]

82. The big problem of generational "dividing lines"...

When people speak of "boomers," they take as a starting point the beginning of the postwar era, so that it begins with the first children born of returning WWII veterans. That makes a degree of sense.

They then apply the notion of a "generation" lasting until the point when the first members reach adulthood. So, 1946 + 18 = 1964, which is arbitrarily designated the end of the "boomer" generation.

Demographically, it makes a lot of sense. Socially and culturally, it does not.

Many here have commented on how college students in the early 80s were far more conservative and careerist than their predecessors. However, the first GenXers would have entered college in 1983, several years later than the time this phenomenon was noted.

Is the age bloc born in 1946 to 1964 a distinctive unit? Or are there two "boomer" generations?

If you look at when the rise of conservatism among young people began, you would have to look among that group of people born between 1958 and 1962. The earlier-born members of that group would have been graduating from college the year Reagan was first elected; the younger members would have been enrolling in college at that time. And it was just about that time that various phenomena, from the general apathy and apoliticism among college students in general to the rise of outspoken conservative student publications (like the one at Dartmouth that launched the careers of future right pundits Ann Coulter and Dinesh D'Souza) emerged to signify the resurgence of conservatism on college campuses.

What could have happened to the group born between 1958 and 1962?

Generally, adolescence is the point when people begin to actively "think for themselves," challenging conventional wisdom, standing in opposition to those who had come before, and interacting more completely with the world around them. For the earliest of "boomers," adolescence would have taken place right around 1959, when the civil rights movement was serving notice that the old status quo would no longer be tolerated, and when the aging Eisenhower administration was beginning to give way to the desire for youth and new directions that gave us JFK.

For the '58-'62 group, though, adolescence came between 1971 and 1975...when Vietnam was winding down or entirely over (and the draft no longer a threat to any of them personally), President Nixon gone from being an incarnation of imperialist evil to a pathetic figure ground down by scandal to a point of utter impotence, and the "older generation" to be rebelled against was really their elder brothers and sisters who had been active in the 60s, as well as parents who, like as not by that time, had themselves embraced at least some of the 60s cultural heritage.

Is it any surprise that this group, taken as a whole, seems to have begun the swing away from liberalism and social concern? (or, indeed, to have more in common with thosed who came after rather than those "boomers" who came before. For them, said liberal social concern was as out-of-date as hula hoops had been to 60s activists. For them, demonstrations, protests, and volunteering for political campaigns were something for the "older generation" (including their siblings) to have done, but nothing that made any point in their lives. Is it surprising that, by the time they got to college, any rebellion they may have had was focused on the activism and "political correctness" of their elders?

Is it possible, then, that the major dividing line is not birth into some hypothetical demographic group based on being born in the postwar world, but whether one reached adolescence in the 60s or 70s? Logic would seem to suggest the latter, and the evidence of political swings would seem to substantiate it as well.

[SoCalDem]

110. Exactly right.. "The Boomers" are two distinct groups

and even now, as we move through our 50's, there are few of "us" whop actually have much power...or ever have had..

Power and wealth are not "automatically turned over to the next generation that's nipping at the heels of the ones ahead"..

Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms should have illustrated that..

Look at the people who are "really in charge"..It's mostly determined by nepotism, class, and greed.. The same ones who were in charge back then and pretty much in charge now.. They may only be the "fresh legs" of the oldsters who "claim to have stepped back", but who really are just "training and mentoring" their chosen few.. Chronologically, some of our leaders may be younger , but the ones pulling their strings, are just following the same old "rules of priviledge" that have always been followed..

One would think that if the "boomers" had/have been in charge for years now, some of the things that we have been "fighting" for years would have been "solved" by now.. NEWS FLASH... The politicians will NEVER really ever solve anything..Their goal in life is to make it sound and look like they are trying to solve those same old problems, all the while , what they are really doing is, tranferring the wealth of the country (our tax money) into the bank accounts of the upper class..

It's all just a grand scheme.. Placate the lower classes with promises, and while they are "calmed down" and distracted, steal their money and find a way to blame it on them :(

[Nay]

24. Exactly right, SoCalDem.

Reagan was hardly a boomer, nor were any of these other "leaders" who screwed the boomers back then and now.

[RandomKoolzip]

14. What, you mean my parents?

Love 'em. I was born in 1975 and I don't feel a DAMN thing in common with anyone my age or younger (with some notable exceptions.) At least the generation before mine DID things. This generation just whines about the inability to do so. Fuck 'em.

And after listening to the local Clear Channel-owned pop/hip hop radio station for the last hour, I can honestly say that I weep for the future, because it's gonna be ugly.

[alwynsw]

16. Dead center boomer here

Funny. I only know of two of my contemporaries who lived with their parents after graduating college - high school in many cases. One was paralyzed from the neck down in an accident, the other is just weird (47 and still rides between his parents in the front seat of the car).

I do, however, know several X'ers who still live with their parents (shame on the parents) and are in their 30's. I gave mine an option - pay me rent or pay it elsewhere. He got a J O B and moved out. Oh, yeah -he's finally gotten back into college and is carrying a 4.0 in engineering - all classes.

My wife taught in public schools until retirement. With each year, the kids got worse both in academics and behavior.

As for retiring in comfort; I am. Worked my ass off to do it, too. I'll not be accepting Social Security or Medicare, thank you very much. My wife takes her pension from the schools for now. We plan to forego that within 10 years. It's a point of honor for her - and legal liability. So long as she's in the system, KRTA (Kentucky retired Teaches Association) maintains her liability insurance for those possible lingering lawsuits that kids are so fond of these days for either teaching them to little or too much, or whatever else they and their lawyers can think up.

[camero]

67. The cost of living is way too high nowadays

and the pay is too low. Maybe that's why you see more Xers living at home. That's more political than maturity. I went the other way. I bought my mom a house so she could stay out of an abusive relationship.

What did I get? Walked away from when I was close to death a couple of months ago.

Now do you think I really deserved that?

[Jerseycoa]

18. Boomer Here

You misunderstand something, I think.

"A whole generation ... spoiled by their parents"

This was absolutely not the case of the Boomers, whose parents grew up in the Depression Era and knew they had to prepare their children for hard times. We did rebel against the system, but the lessons were learned and once we decided to grow up, finally, we knew how to take care of ourselves. It was my generation who spoiled their own kids rotten enough they believed the world owed them a living.

[ScreamingMeemie]

25. Born and raised by boomers and I think I have very good manners

Sadly, I think many of us now get fixated with being liked instead of standing up for what is right and treating people decently. But then there are those who think I should have lived in the 19th century...but then, there would be no football, and I would be devastated. :P

[pmbryant]

26. I've always thought these generation definitions are ridiculous

How do I, born in 1968, get put in the same category as someone born in 1984 and currently 19 years old? Barely out of high school. I'm practically twice that age.

:wtf:

I have much more in common with those born in the early 60s, yet those people are supposedly in this 'boomer' generation that I'm supposed to be mad at for some reason I don't quite fathom.

--Peter

[ScreamingMeemie]

27. Good point Peter!

:hi:

[pmbryant]

32. Thanks, MrsGrumpy

Furthermore, someone born in the late 60s grew up completely in a world dominated by the immediate threat of massive nuclear annihilation. I literally had nightmares about this as a kid, as no doubt did many others.

Someone born in 1984 has little or no memory of that world, as they were barely 5 years old when communism fell apart and the cold war ended.

--Peter

[amazona]

85. too true

Everyone my age (born in the late 50s and early 60s) when I sit down and talk to them about dreams can recall these mushroom cloud dreams. Hell, I can recall the Cuban Missile Crisis and the whole family hiding in a basement thinking the world was about to end.

What do I have in common psychologically with someone who grew up thinking that the world would last forever and get better and better? Kids who were born into a world where it was discovered that the Russians didn't even have a delivery system.


Fears of a dirty bomb de-valueing your downtown property or of a Saddam Hussein "thinking" about building a bomb are just not in the same category as fears of a Dr. Strangelove scenario.

[jogi1969]

29. so i am a Gen-X'er?

i was born in '69
huh
i cant really relate to people who are in their early 20's
now, so i always thought i was a Boomer.

[SmileyBoy]

30. Born in 1982, so I guess I'm a Gen-X'er???

I always thought I was in a seperate generation of people born from 1978-1990 called the "Baby Boomlets" or "Generation Y".

OK, well the thing I guess I'm pissed at the bommers for is ruining the world with the starting of wars and whatnot. I think most neo-cons in power were born after 1945, right???

[Whitacre D_WI]

45. You are correct.

According to the original definition, "Generation X" is that group of Americans born betweem 1965 and 1976. Well, that, and Billy Idol's first band. And a sociological study of Mods and Rockers in early-'60s London.

Anyway, those born after '76 are not Gen-Xers, which makes me ('75) at the younger side of the generation.

The whole idea of making the endpoint for Gen-X births later and later springs from the early association of Gen-Xers with MTV; and then as MTV's demos shifted younger and younger, folks' definition of "Generation X" changed.

Members of Generation X are between 27 and 38 right now. Politically, we tend to be somewhat apathetic, but more liberal than those who came after us -- the problem is, the conservative members of "Generation Y" are more politically active than we are (generally).

The Baby Boomers screwed a lot of crap up. So did we. So will those who come later. I do think the Boomers, as a group, are the most self-indulgent -- but they're the ones in power, the ones with the OPPORTUNITY to be self-indulgent.

I would not be so arrogant to presume that our generation will turn out any better, we may end up being quite worse.

There's good and bad in everyone, there's good and bad in every group. No sense in "blaming" Boomers -- if they hadn't screwed it up, somebody else would have.

[Robb]

31. I don't believe in "labels"

I feel like "all" of you are "breathing" and "using up" my "air".

So quittit. :silly:

[SmileyBoy]

33. Exactly. I find myself more in common with those born...

...in the early 70's than those my brother's age (born in the late-80's). Hell, most of my good friends are 4 or 5 years older than me, and they don't care that I'm 21 and not 25 or 26. They feel I communicate on an exact equal level with them about knowledge of the world and life, etc.

[trof]

35. pre-boomer

And the younger generation is ALWAYS going to hell in a handbasket.
Mine did!
We started our pathway down to hell by listening to that Rock & Roll "nigger" music (according to one southern DJ who went around staging public R&R record smashing ceremonies).
Oh, and HOT RODS!
We damn near killed off an entire generation with those damned hot rods and drag racing.
It's a wonder any of us made it to our 20s.
;-)

[noonwitch]

36. I'm technically a boomer by two months

I was born in October of 1964. I don't really consider myself part of either generation-baby boomers are generally thought of as the group that was in college in the late 60s and early 70s, when I was a little kid. As a young person in the Reagan years, I did think that most boomers cum yuppies were total sellouts. They were crappy parents, an observation I made as a delinquency worker in the early 90s. Most could never find a balance between their role as an authority figure in their kids' lives and their role as "friends" to their kids, and ended up screwing up their kids by bouncing from extreme to extreme.

That aside, I have a lot of friends who are 8-10 years older than me and are very nice people. The music from their times still ranks as the best rock ever, and some of them still know how to have fun.

[AngryAmish]

40. It is funny to listen to Boomers deny their privilege

Listen, Boomers distort the culture with their sheer numbers. Is it a plot, no. But as a fish is ignorant of water, they are ignorant of their demographic power.

For example, classic rock. By and for Boomers. Large increases in public school funding when their children were going to school. But they will cut off school funding once they get older.

Also, listen to the absolute howls of outrage in increasing the retirement age. When SS was initiated the average life expectancy was less than 65. Now, the avg. is north of 72. But are the Boomers willing to bow to demographic reality? No.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

44. Are you sure it's the boomers who are cutting school funding?

The parents of the current generation of elementary school kids are mostly Gen X. The people who are crowding the suburban fundy churches are mostly Gen X. The people who are buying trophy houses and SUVs and then pleading poverty are mostly Gen X.

Most of the boomers I know are appalled by the way the schools are no longer providing courses and services that we took for granted.

[camero]

50. Here in Florida

The governer is a boomer. The members of the school boards are boomers. The principals and other administrators are boomers. Using parents to say they are the problems with funding is a lame excuse.

[alwynsw]

54. Amen! You tell 'em Sister Lydia!

Strong agreement from a fellow boomer.

[AngryAmish]

78. I think I was unclear

In many towns, the Boomer parents have increased funding when their kids are in school. The older generation seeks to limit funding - their kids are out.

I am just wondering once the Boomer kids are through if the Boomers will continue to support the funding. But that is speculation and maybe my personal prejudice.

I just believe that many Boomers assume that their experience was somehow more important and real than other people. I think that it is common for people to think music, movies etc. were better in their youth. I do and I am a child of the 80's. (The popular music of the 80s was wretched, but there was some wonderful tunes if you don't listen to top 40. And as I get older there is less and less new music I listen to. Is this because the quality has changed? No. It is a function of age. I think this is somewhat a universal reaction.)

Since there are so many Boomers, for example they think that they "changed the world." This is reinforced through pure numbers of similar thinking people.

[RobinA]

74. Here's One Boomer

who does not deny our privilege. I'm on the young side of the boom ('58), and I KNOW I've reaped a lot of advantages that have been procured by the population horde in front of me.

The boomers have made some mistakes, as any generation will. One of their biggest is not turning off the F?#$@kin' TV when they were/are raising their children.

[regnaD kciN]

86. Ah, yes, the old "group privilege" canard...

...by which all members of some group have an equal amount of power over everybody else.

This sounds not unlike the charges of "male privilege" that cannot distinguish between a CEO shipping jobs overseas and an ex-employee at one of his factories now working two service jobs to support his family. Since they're both male, the "privilege" argument goes, they are each equally gifted with unfair power, while an Ann Coulter or Sandra Day O'Connor, by virtue of being female, is forever oppresssed and deprived of that power.

Give me a break.

:eyes:

[Logansquare]

102. Ewww, classic rock is for me?

You're being very silly. The prime demographic for advertisers are males aged 17-34. We just had a lively discussion on why people of that demographic aren't watching television in Late Breaking News forum. Now I'm a 45 year old female, but I don't watch TV either, and neither do most of my friends. Advertisers hardly give a shit about me. Just because Viacom and Clear Channel wants to play to the lowest common denominator of your age group doesn't mean I'm going to accuse Gen-X of being "privileged"

[CBHagman]

41. Nazgul35, never assume.

I won't bore you with the tired joke about "assume" from "The Odd Couple." However, I do find it very interesting to learn, at this late date, that my parents spoiled me and set no boundaries before sending me off to a life of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Wrong on everything but the rock and roll, and the rock and roll did me no harm (not even my hearing).

It's much easier to spout rehashed right-wing generalizations than to actually talk to people. Studs Terkel you aren't.

[Raven]

42. You have a hell of a nerve!

Branding all boomers s**theads! Alot of us did not do drugs, sex and mass consumption and we raised good kids, put them through school, paid our taxes, cared for our parents and paid into social security. We also promoted some pretty good leaders like JFK, RFK, HHH, Gene Mc Carthy, George McGovern and many others. The large majority of us are not fat cats and have worked all of our lives. If it wasn't for us we'd probably still be in Vietnam and the civil rights movement would never have happened. Those of us who are women paved the way for the younger generations of women to have the freedom of choice they have today, which, I must say, they take for granted. So... grow up, will ya!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

46. You tell 'em, Raven

especially all those women athletes, solders, lawyers, and doctors.

I remember when a young woman stumped the panel on What's My Line because she was (gasp!) a lawyer.

[bratcatinok]

49. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I worked hard all of my life to support my son as a single Mom.

I remember one of my first jobs at a bank. I was a collection secretary who was allowed to call the people who were 10 days past due on their installment car loans. I couldn't be a collector or skip-tracer because I was a female. Only males had the intelligence to do that job!

When my high school in Houston was integrated I was one of the few who made friends with the blacks who were bussed in. Thankfully my Dad was progressive in his feelings about race.

We left the Baptist Church when I was 14. My Dad was a deacon at what is now the biggest Baptist church in Houston. One Sunday a black family showed up to attend church services. Everyone got in a twitter because "What are we going to do?"! There was an emergency meeting called for that afternoon to determine what steps to take to keep the blacks out of our church. The final decision was to have membership cards which inquired about race filled out and then the people applying for membership would be voted on as to whether they could join our church. My Dad stood up after the voting was tabulated and quit his position as a Deacon. He also asked the people that were there the following question..."What better place for them to be than in our church?" Today that question would sound racist but at the time it wasn't intended in that way.

My Dad spent a lot of his time and money in helping to build that church. It broke his heart to leave it but he felt he had to take a stand. It was 15 years before he went back to that church and it was only after that church began to actively pursue members of all races.

I marched in many an anti-war march during the Viet Nam era. I didn't spit or put down our soldiers because they were my classmates and my friends. They were drafted and had no choice.


On edit: BTW, my Dad was a Republican so they weren't all racist fucks.

[Skittles]

73. THANK YOU RAVEN

Gawd I hate to lumped in an 18 YEAR STEREOTYPE.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

47. Gen Xers are the most conservative politically.

They vote 63% or greater for Republicans!


:puke:

[camero]

48. There is still alot of anger about their actions in the 70s

And they never repented for it. They just blamed everyone else for their actions. Then they have the nerve to call us "slackers" when we are going to be cleaning up their mess.

Now that they are running things they make policy decisions that are effectively destroying us. Yeah, you could say I'm angry at the boomers.

And don't just say it was the 70's or the 60's. Lame excuse. You're responsible for your own actions and to the people you hurt.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

51. Excuse me, the boomers weren't in charge in the 1970s

Nixon, Ford, and Carter and nearly everyone in their administrations were born before WWII.

[camero]

52. I wasn't talking about politically

I'm talking about socially. All the pot and booze parties around children. Leaving them as latchkeys. Not teaching them to read or write, just "letting the schools do it". Abandoning their children.

That's where the anger comes from. Not politics.

[bratcatinok]

55. Latchkey children.

How would you suggest a single mom doing something different? My son was in daycare until he was 11 when they wouldn't accept him any longer. What was I to do with him? Should I have quit my job and lowered our standard of living in order to be there at home when he came home from school?

Pot and booze parties? How about not having a social life at all because I was too busy raising my child. Not teaching him how to read or write? Bzzzzt! Another erroneous misconception on your part.

[camero]

56. More anecdotals

A social life is one things but raising children around sex and booze is quite another. Nope, no misperception. I lived it.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

58. So you had a dysfunctional family

that moved in very different circles from the ones I moved in.

I didn't have any kids, but I knew plenty of people who did, and I do not personally know any 1970s-era parents who took part in mate-swapping or who drank to excess, especially in front of their kids.

I honestly cannot think of one. The worst parental sins I can remember are smoking (tobacco, not dope) in the presence of their kids and letting the kids get away with being annoying. Sleeping around and getting drunk out of your mind and getting high were considered youthful excesses to be set aside once you married and had kids.

I'm sure your childhood was rough, but don't extend that justified resentment to an entire generation.

[camero]

59. Either you are living in a bubble or outright lying

everybody knows what went on then. Don't try to hide it. Ah, youthful indiscretions, but you throw stones at people who have suffered the sins of thier fathers. The divorce rate also hit 50% around your time and hasn't come down since.

And it wasn't just my parents I saw it in. Very few boomers were not doing stuff like that then. Luckily I found ones who didn't and hung out with them.

[bratcatinok]

61. Could it be that the reason

you saw so much of it was because of that old saying "Birds of a feather flock together"? You may have been exposed to more than most because your parents attracted people like them. That in no way means the rest of us were like that.

Very few boomers were doing stuff like that then. Oh, and no one is throwing stones at people who have suffered through the sins of their fathers. Just don't generalize us all as being from the same flock as your parents.

[camero]

63. Could be I'll give ya that

Most boomers I was around even in the workplace had and still don't have any right to tell me how to live because they refused to go by the mores themselves.

[regnaD kciN]

94. It seems to me that YOU'RE the one "living in a bubble"...

...and a most unpleasant bubble it seems to have been, but has it ever occurred to you that maybe it was your experience that was out-of-line with the average, and not everybody else's?

For the record, I remember one girl I knew who did have a youth such as you describe, where her parents shared their drugs with her and looked on approvingly as she shared her bed with partners of both genders as a teenager. However, based on her age, her parents weren't in the boomer generation, but seemed to have been part of the pre-WWII generation that went through "mid-life crises" in the early 70s.

[camero]

95. More blame others

Those things were going on then and you know it so stop lying.

[bratcatinok]

98. Y'know those types of things

aren't exclusive to the boomer generation. As long as there has been civilization there has been alcohol, drugs and sex. It was only more public since the boomer days.

Don't blame your homelife on the boomers. Put the blame where it belongs on your parents.

[camero]

101. I know he just keeps attacking me

I must have hit a nerve. I've seen a few of other generations do these things also but it wasn't "hip" at the time.

[regnaD kciN]

117. "Those things" go on at all times...

...to some extent. Where I have a problem with you is that you take the fact that these things happened to you as proof that they must have happened to everybody else, or even the vast majority of others, as well (you had bad parents, so that means that all boomers were bad parents), and that anyone who experienced differently is lying.

[bratcatinok]

60. Yours was the exception

instead of the rule. People my age were busy getting married, starting families and working hard. We worked hard to give our kids an even better life than we had when we were growing up.

I'm sorry your parents chose booze and drugs over being proper parents but that doesn't mean the majority of us were doing the same.

[camero]

62. Look up.

At my post above. What was the generation that started bathhouses? And the AIDS epidemic? (No I do not believe it started with homosexuals, it started with adultery). They were not the exception.

[regnaD kciN]

97. You're living in a fantasy world...

Sorry, but AIDS in this country did begin with gay males, as any history of the subject would make crystal-clear. Similarly, bathhouses (in the sense of places for sex -- I'm not talking about ordinary saunas!)...I know of no heterosexual ones, nor any which were not strictly segregated by sex.

The fact is that bathhouses (and many other such "social centers") were indeed not a generational creation, but a homosexual one -- and a not-too-surprising development, considering the ostracism to which gays were still liable should they attempt to have a public relationship. When committed relationships were forbidden, it's not a surprise that the venues for anonymous sex emerged. It's no different from the prostitution districts near the harbors of large port cities.

But your insistence on making it a generational issue is as ridiculous as blaming evangelical Christians (who, after all, established the YMCAs of Village People fame) for starting venues for men to have sex with other men.

:eyes:

[camero]

100. Now THAT sounds like a RW talking point.

:eyes:

[regnaD kciN]

105. WHAT "sounds like a RW talking point"...?????

Specifics, please.

[camero]

108. The homosexuals were to blame for the AIDS epidemic

Exactly what the RWers were saying in the 80s when there were cases that had been dormant since the 60s. Homosexuals did not start the epidemic. "Free love" did.

[regnaD kciN]

116. That is simply not true...

When AIDS first showed up in North America, it was among the gay male population. NOT among heterosexuals of any variety of sexual morals (or lack thereof). That is a simple FACT, which you'll find corroborated by any reputable anti-AIDS organization, including those with predominantly gay membership.

If you wish to claim differently, show me the evidence that establishes that AIDS emerged in the U.S. initially among heterosexuals.

Even your completely off-the-wall, unsupported claim that these were "dormant" cases from the 60s doesn't cut it. Had they been dormant since then, they would have emerged among all sectors of society -- not just gay males. I doubt you can find a way around that inconvenient fact.

Of course, there's a big difference between saying that AIDS emerged among gays and saying that gays are "to blame" for the disease, which are the words you're vainly trying to put in my mouth. Gay males are the victims of AIDS, and, if anyone is to blame, it's the government and medical establishment for initially putting in so little effort to find a cure, because it was "only gays" who were suffering from it.

[regnaD kciN]

90. Pot, meet kettle...

You yourself seem to be the king of anecdotal arguments -- not unlike GenX's hero Ronnie and his stories about "Cadillac-driving welfare queens."

:eyes:

[camero]

91. I lived it.

You must me trying to bait me.

[regnaD kciN]

103. No, I'm just tired of your categorical assumptions.

You may have "lived it," but that doesn't mean that it was the case for everyone else.

You, on the other hand, seem to be assuming that your own experience is the norm for everyone else, and that anyone who experienced anything differently is "living in a bubble or just lying." Well, I did complain that some GenXers tend to be solipsistic, so I guess your posts shouldn't surprise me...

[camero]

107. I didn't even state that in the original post

But you want to attack and I'll attack back. You wanna deny that these things didn't happen, go right ahead. All I said is there was anger from actions in the 70s. IT's almost like "holocaust denial".

[regnaD kciN]

113. No, you stated it in post 59...

..and have repeatedly accused me of "lying" because I didn't agree that what happened in your own life can stand as a universal experience of the evils of the boomer generation. If there's any denial going on, it isn't on my end.

[regnaD kciN]

88. Wow...

All the pot and booze parties around children.

Strange. Somehow I must have missed all of those.

:eyes:

It sounds to me like you're just spouting off stereotypes from the right-wing "Blame The Sixties For Everything" playbook -- most of which are fabricated to begin with.

[camero]

89. No, actually I'm not

Why don't you try looking at my other posts before calling me a RWer.
Gee how did I stay here for almost 4000 posts?

[regnaD kciN]

99. Show me where I said you were a right-winger...

There's a difference between being right-wing yourself and uncritically falling for media-spread right-wing cliches.

[camero]

104. How can you fall for a cliche when you see it with your own eyes?

Oh, and who was harrassing the blacks while they were trying to go to school with you? I hear the N-word from more boomers than any other generation.

[regnaD kciN]

109. You can "fall for a cliche when you see it with your own eyes"...

...when you, as I have pointed out before, decide that if it was true for you, it was true for everybody, and that anyone who claims a different experience is "living in a bubble or just plain lying."

Just because your parents sucked doesn't mean that everybody else's did, too.


Oh, and who was harrassing the blacks while they were trying to go to school with you?

Nice attempt to change the subject, but no cigar. When I went to school in the early 70s, no one was "harassing the blacks." In fact, my school had a large and active "Third World Coalition" that was generally well-respected. I can't recall anyone there making negative comments about that group, or about any minority members, for that matter.

If you're talking about other schools in the area, the only harassment of blacks I can think of came during the judge-mandated integration of South Boston...and the ones doing the harassment were, by and large, middle-aged males, which placed them in the pre-WWII generation, not mine.


I hear the N-word from more boomers than any other generation.

And, since that's your experience, it must be true for everyone else, right? :eyes: For the record, I've heard it more from the generation before mine (once again, pre-WWII), and even more from the generation before that. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard the "N-word" from anyone a decade on either side of my age.

[camero]

111. When it's boomer after boomer

You guys just don't want anything to make you look bad even if you have to change the reality. It was the generation behind or in front not yours. :eyes:

[SiobhanClancy]

114. All generations have their faults...

I observed plenty of members of the Greatest Generation drinking to excess when I was a child...around children,obviously,as I was then. Rather than blaming other generations,why not work on making things better? I hope I live long enough to see the results:)

[Kathy in Cambridge]

53. 1964 is usually included in Gen X

it's the year I was born-I'm no baby boomer.

I believe 1960-1980 is Gen X...

[DerekG]

64. Stephen King and George Carlin on Boomers....

King: "They had a chance to save the world, but settled for the Home Shopping Network."


Carlin: "Selfish, narcissistic people with one motto: Give me that it's mine! Give me that it's mine! These people were given everything. And they took it all. Sex, drugs and rock and roll. They stayed loaded for 20 years but now they're staring down the barrel of middle-age boredom and they don't like it. So they turn self-righteous...They're cold, bloodless people, it's in their slogans. They went from 'Do your own thing' to 'Just say no.' They went from 'Love is all you need' to 'Whoever winds up with the most toys wins.' And they went from cocaine to rogaine."

[SiobhanClancy]

65. Since Stephen King is a boomer himself...

He should be saying "we" instead of they:)

[Nazgul35]

68. Just to get back into the argument...

I do not personally blame an particular generation or group for anything....I tend to deal with my humans one at a time....

There is plenty of blame to go around....but the biggest problem we face, I feel, is the corporatization of America....

Someone above pointed out the two woodstocks, an excellent example of how much corporate America has infiltrated our every day lives....

It may have been baby boomer ad execs who created name brand products, but it was the X generation that embraced it! It was the 80s that was called the me decade (I preferred the Al Frankin decade....)...

Today...roughly 90% of college students polled said that the reason they are attending college is to get more money.....education has fallen down....I know, I teach in a prestigious Midwest university....

The truth is, unless we address the issue of corporate America, greed and sloth, America will continue to descend farther and farther down the road to destruction....and that will be the responsibility of every generation....

But you damn boomers did use up all the good sex!!!!!!!!

:evilfrown:

[camero]

69. I got an ongoing debate with my Y sister going about that

I'm of the camp that thinks you should learn for the love of learning and she thinks she should just learn to make money.

But you can't be a whole person if you just learn to make money.

[indigo32]

71. as a Gen Xer by almost any definition

born in 1970...I tend to agree that things have gone WAY down hill in some important ways since Reagan... but I think to blame it on only one generation is wrong. There were many circumstances that led to the 80s, along with human nature. I think to throw blame around is pointless. Lets figure out how we're gonna fix it.

BTW Camero... my folks weren't swinging and drugging in the 70's... they were raising 3 children... and when the Fundies started really moving in the early 80's in our neighborhood... my folks saw right through them.

[nini]

72. "Teach your frigging kids some manner for crying out loud!!!!"

Where are yours? You came here and generalize the crap out of a segment of society based solely on their age.

Get real, it's a bit more complicated than that.

I'm on the tail end of the boomers. I did not grow up spoiled and priveledged. Most families back in my day were barely surviving. Save it.

Perhaps you confuse age etc.. with money/class priveledge.

[Nazgul35]

76. I refer you to my post #68

try reading to the end of a thread before posting....

and it was meant in jest...but perhaps that was too suttle for the written word....no tone or lifting of the eyebrows....etc....

:evilgrin:

you guys used up all the good sex though....admit that!!!!

[Faygo Kid]

75. 1985-plus is the Millenium Generation. A boomer wondering what went wrong.

A Boomer here who is ashamed of GWB and other boomers. What happened to us? The X-ers are cynical (daughter born in '76; me, '51). Still think the Boomers can be sages, in another 10-15 years. Right now, we gave it up to the worst elitists in American history. Some of us still remember, though, about civil rights, anti-war, safety net stuff. We are not done yet. But, right now, I would have to say selfish and cynical defines my generation, which showed such promise. If we don't stand up, the Millenials may be Bushjugend (as in Hitler Youth).

[Logansquare]

80. Gen (fill in the blank) is just marketing

The generation gap is forever; it gained a few fancy labels when the media got its hands on it.

When I look at a young person, I pretty much see myself a few years ago. We original punks were cool shit in 1980, and ugh, those old idealistic, lazy "hippies!"

Like it or not, you'll be middle-aged *sooner than you think* and a 25-year-old will be decrying your greed, self-satisfaction, child-rearing skills--you name it. And if you've grown up, you will smile and say "there goes me 20 years ago."

[BiggJawn]

83. You're most Welcome....

Since you seem to think the X'ers are all that and a bag o' chips.

I was born in '57. My daughter was born in '82, thus she's an "xer" and I'm a "boomer"...

BTW, what makes yo so damn sure there's gonna be any SS left for ME?

And no, I will NOT "hurry up and DIE so you can have my job"!

[aQuArius]

92. I'm an Xer and I think some boomers are quite sexy

;)

[Faygo Kid]

106. Why, thank you!

At this age, I will grab onto any compliment, no matter how vague and nonspecific.

[SoCalDem]

115. Madison Avenue and the media made the Boomers

Imagine that the media of today had been the media of the mid to late sixties..

The media covered all the stuff that the boomers did..and they covered it wall-to-wall.. We were who we were BECAUSE of the media.. The people in our parent's era were passe.. They had won the "Big One" and had settled back into boringville USA.. They had their backyard barbeques, and their lawncare, and their ladies bridge clubs.. In other words..BORING..

All "kids" act up and act out.. The difference with ours was that there were so many of us, and the press had always found us interesting because of our sheer numbers.. We were like the sextuplets...only much magnifyed.. The press always liked to keep tabs on what we were doing..

We had gripes, and the press was confrontational back then.. We were interesting, and lots of the press were people who were just a few years older than we were..

Our "movement" would have been over in short order, if people had not seen us on TV every night.. The movement would have continued in real life but no one would have seen it..

How many people really know about the millions of people who have taken to the streets in protest of *???