Culture Zohn: Boomer Girl Strikes Back

Maybe it's because I actually decided to miss my high school reunion last week, or maybe it's because there has been a lot of chatter about Hillary's having beencastrating or maybe it's because Obama claims to be aloof from the psychodrama of the baby boom generation, or columnists from David Brooks to Meghan Daum are ranting about boomer narcissism but I wanted to take a minute to say,

Hey, wait just a minute!

Why the avalanche of ranting about boomers, just now? Is it because we are at the very apex of population demographic and we've reached the tipping point? Or are there other more subtle shifts at play?

Not long ago, two stories with implications for boomers were prominently featured in the press. Though I was sure the editors and writers had not consulted with each other, they represented a right/left coast bookend of alt-boomer counterpoint: one a rant by a thirtysomething writer who is a columnist at the Los Angeles Times and one a diary of a young Gawker blogger who seemingly had lost her way until she landed on the cover of the New York Times Magazine alluringly draped upside down in her tattoos and camisole on what appeared to be satin-y gray sheets.

The first, by Meghan Daum, was a screed against being held hostage, culturally, socially, politically by the boomer generation. Daum is mad as hell and she's not going to take it anymore, her Network (ing) moment a rallying cry for her own Gen X generation and any other that is sick of hearing about 1968 henceforward, sick of being told boomers were better, smarter, more political with the best music just a decade before she came to life.

Daum does not mince words. She says she has been strong-armed,, has endured bored bewilderment and feels as if she was trapped at a reunion for a school [she] didn't attend (that's why I didn't go to MY reunion!), that she and her fellow Gen X'rs are victims facing debt, no more social security, expensive real estate, and most gratingly, years of memorials to events that boomers have made larger than life in a sickening cycle of self-congratulation. She says boomers have stolen the cultural zeitgeist away from those just ten or so years behind, not just once, or twice, but in a seemingly endless wheel of samsara hell in which they, and everybody else, is forced the relive our successes (does she mean Woodstock? ) and failures (does she mean Woodstock?) over and over again.

The other article is from an even younger perspective (Gen Y) the kids practically young enough to be boomer children, who have been so indulged that they think every thought, every whim, every vague notion is important and worthy of being shared. Emily Gould, former Gawker girl reveals just how little work she had to do, how little expertise she needed, to fall into (and Gould is pictured supine most of the time) a job that only demanded that she let the net suck her life up. Gould doesn't blame anyone but herself for her mistakes, certainly not pointing the finger at some massive generational malaise, rather blaming Mommy Internet for suckling her and then weaning her without teaching her how to walk and talk.

Women are reading and writing blogs, and are patrons of the internet more than any other demographic. While this says something mistressful (if masterful can be a word, why not this?) about technology, really it's because we love to chat with each other and share our thoughts, we are interested in learning about other people have solved problems and the net has just become another vehicle for so doing.

But let's do look at Boomers, at least Boomer women, who as far as I can tell by the small sample of People I Know are trying desperately themselves to keep up with their children (short skirts, again! Fillers) society (we can never retire since you can work from home) and the men (or women) they love. The Boomer women are the most ambitious of my acquaintance. They are working harder than anyone else, desperate, it seems, to claim a place for themselves, aspirational to an unimaginable degree, as if they had spent so much time serving (children, husbands, politics, being the best, ideals of one sort or another) that a new kind of ticking clock has emerged, one about leaving your mark on the world and not just your genetic material in the form of offspring. I see publishing executives, agents, film programmers, producers, writers, consultants, media baronesses, internet queens, and that's just on my turf. Last week in Aspen I met women who are on the ground in Afghanistan saving children, in Africa fighting Aids and in Washington fighting with Congress for dollars ( I also met a hog dog entrepreneur who turned me on the VERY best hot dogs I have ever had). The airports and executive suites are filled with them. They have started online newspapers that are competing with old media (hooray Huffpo) and stealing its thunder, they are helping launch their children into the world or letting them live at home; they are taking care of parents who are living longer and still want to go to Europe and Shakespeare festivals (vacations just becoming a euphemism for family reunions ), they are leaders in the art world, in the business world, in the not-for-profits and profits too.

Yes, we loved our Joni Mitchell and our Rolling Stones, and we still do. We do still think it's better than anything going now, but we are willing to experiment, even if it's Carla Bruni (new album, just out, yum) and we listen with our kids and we buy the stuff at Starbucks. We have Ipods and Blackberries and I phones and the latest Macs. We are insatiable consumers of new fashion (sometimes to our detriment) and of new television programs, and not just because we are the ones making the decisions behind them. Reality tv was created by Boomers after all, even though we now complain of its relentless focus on minor, mostly talent-less celebrity.

Daum thinks we have cheapened the culture, not enriched it, focusing endlessly on ourselves.

But the post WW II generation also memorialized itself in film and theater and in literature. Hello, how about Arthur Miller and Philip Roth and Saul Bellow and William Wyler and Frank Sinatra? I know there are talented Gen X'rs and they may not be on my radar (music from this period, it's true, has passed me by but I was having my babies and EVERYTHING passed me by) According to Daum, Gen X includes 1982 but goes all the way back to 1965. This seems to me a wild and crazy span to begin with, encompassing everything from Daum, at one end, and my son, who couldn't be further from her, on the other.

Daum thinks our original sin is not knowing when to quit. I say it's our original grace. The never-say-die-ism is rampant, it's true--(George Bush anyone? Hillary Clinton, anyone) but it also has made these years some of the most advanced culturally, technologically, scientifically--and has powered huge cultural shifts, ones that must even inpsire Daum. (Apparently, Daum's column generated more mail, 144 letters, most of them negative, than almost any other column so I guess we're still feisty. And Daum is writing a book about real estate, surely the hot Boomer topic du jour)

The blog girls like Emily Gould may not know where to draw the line but they seem more akin to boomers (there's boomer genetic material in these Gen Ys after all): shared, is our enthusiasm and our reach out and touch someone-ism, (now by net but used to be in person) which can get in our own way as well as everybody else's.

We probably have embraced the internet because we have been conditioned to give it all away for free, anyway. (Who knows how much impact Free Love and Free Speech and Free the Panthers ultimately has really had?) We are inclusive, not exclusive. We don't blame anyone else for our failures, or shortcomings (unless it's Richard Nixon or George Bush). We have taken the relentlessly self-absorbed ethic of the sixties and seventies and delivered it over to our kids and they are running with the ball like crazy.

Daum's generation is the middle generation, and like the middle child, they feel left out and anxious and a little bit worried that they will be overlooked when it comes time to hand out the achievement swag bag.

And by the way, it's not just women: a good friend, male, who used to run publishing companies and is now a best-selling author says it's because we are all finally having our moment. Daum would say our moment has passed. But I wouldn't count us out just yet.

I have deliberately left out our Dem presumptive because he already had a hard week. You could spin Obama's listing right as a course correction, pandering to the masses or just plain common sense for the general election. But you could also look at it as the quintessence of boomer legacy: we are chameleons and that is our strength; we know when to march without bras and when to wear the push-up kind too.

Comments

[wayoutleft]

X & Y can't escape it and might as well learn. you are SUPPOSED to hate and blame boomers. that is what you were born to do. the more you hate boomers- the more progress you are making. anyone who cares about the future positively REVELS in the superiority of future generations. that's what's so insidious about the greatest generation propaganda: a declining subsequent generation is a catastrophic failure on their part. but X&Y superiority are a great boomer ACHIEVEMENT.
many challenges stand before X & Y... what to do after obama rips you off... how to book 600 indie bands into 4 profitable clubs... how to live with the towering reality that the boomers invented pizza delivery and the bong. .. how to distinguish bob dylan from frank sinatra. .... how to work for greenpeace while playing warcraft 20 hrs/day. ... and what have you. i feel you are up to the challenge. with work and dedication, you may yet see the day when smallville episodes are free online. peace.

[OnTheCusp]

GenX might have had more of a chance if you boomers hadn't ABANDONED and ABORTED so many of them. You boomers LOATHE Gen X because they were your "starter" families, the ones you screwed while you were "never growing old" or trying to "figure yourselves out," the ones who you feel really guilty about when you look at them. GenY's subsequent coddling is a direct result of the boomer guilt over having screwed GenX...."Well, we left those first kids to raise themselves with nothing, so we'd better give this next set of kids all we've got." And yeah, they are ALL sick of hearing about you. I know I sure am. I hope you don't think they'll be waiting in line to empty your bedpans when your time comes, you feisty, sassy, "conscious" old boomers. You boomers trashed the world...just ask your parents. You sold out....just ask your children.
And you know it.

[wayoutleft]

so this rules out being your myspace friend...

[NoSillyName]

OnTheCusp, sounds like maybe you're talking about your own family.

Many of us never abandoned, aborted, or reproduced.

Many of us never trashed the world or became Yuppies.

[wayoutleft]

what worries me about all this is that the two subsequent generations are even aware of the old boomers. one would think their blogging , facebook friending , twittering, texting and kindling would have pushed the boomers beyond even the recollection of their successor generations. but no.
it's warmer and more human than that. X & Y ragging on the aging irrelevant boomers just like their greatest generation parents ragged on them is the perfect boomer closure. it seals the deal. it ties the knot. it's far out man. really heavy. keep it up X & Y. keep bumming the boomers out. it's been a very long time since they've been a pain in the a** -. it means so much to be recognized . and the ceaseless social service demands of the boomers as they survive toward and across 120 yrs of age should draw X&Y even closer to their boomer mentors. peace.

[marignymitch]

Boomers might be unique in that we have been reviled by other generations in most stages of our lives.

Before the first of us were fully adult (I was born in '47) we were blamed (by the alleged Greatest Generation and don't get me started on that moniker) for tearing down the country, being unpatriotic Communists arrogantly unwilling to serve as cannon fodder in 'Nam (for?), lacking respect for our elders (especially our white, male Republican elders), failing to repect the value of the dollar and law and order. Plus they suspected we all were into illicit substances. I graduated from college into a decade-long recession known as the 70s and (oh, the irony) was accused of being insufficiently career oriented.

And now we're guilty of, um, being in the way?

Because they'll always resent us the Boomers' best strategy is to ignore the critics, I think. In fact that's been the best strategy all along.

To Gen X,Y and whatever I say, Be patient we'll be getting out of your way in earnest in 20 years or so. But then whom will you blame?

[dissolvethecorporation]

It's not like we're forcing Zeppelin and the Doors music down your throats. I'm tired of listening to the same songs, too. So effing come up with something worth listening to!

[wayoutleft]

i'd like to learn more about this Y-specific johnny cash fixation of a couple of years ago. there's a desperation to it- possible authenticity issues... or possibly a cry for help from the X'ers who also wear nothing but black. X'ers are the true yuppies. their wholesale abandonment of the american automobile as status-deficient while backing the same conservatives as the reagan democrat auto-workers deserves examination.
we need to get this settled before ppl show up whose moms went to britney shows. that will be an interesting group.

[stringer]

Well only one generation has managed to literally start melting the planet on their watch.

But okay.

We'll let bygones be bygones if that makes everyone feel better.

[Sportswoman]

PS
I'm not even sure were alone in ending the Vietnam War, either. Nightly news did that, and our protests would have gone unnoticed were it not for network news showing up on campus. As a student at at Wisconsin (Madison) in those days, I recall that when news leaked out that "CBS is here!" everyone showed up knowing their folks would catch them on Walter Cronkite's telecast. TV news exacerbated the demonstrations, which is why this administration stifles Iraq coverage as much as possible. My parents came to pick m up one weekend when the National guard was called onto campus and my dad, a WWII vet said, "My God, this looks like Vietnam!" Parents freaked out over Kent state--that was a defining moment.

[NoSillyName]

The body bags & coffins coming home had a great deal to do with it. The first war to be televised showed the world what it looks like.

[Sportswoman]

We did not ALL "go away in the 70's;" we were shouted down, ridiculed and drowned out by the amnesiatic Faux Rght, who found it easier to forget the historically profound lessons of Nixon/Watergate, anti-Brown vs Board of Ed, pro jim crow Eisenhower, and do- nothing Hoover, while they Mansionized, made tech money, sent the kids to the upscale private schools rather than attend the local PTA, and, holding their noses with blinders on, donated to Ronnie while ignoring the environment, social services, education, and rising health care costs. We treated our fellow Boomer vets with disdain, and allowed Reagan to cut their medical care. Only when their tech money bucket had a hole in it did they discover somethting of themselves in Bill Clinton, but even he came to the Party in a Republican disguise just to be noticed.
Yes, we were a generation of activists, but we took our foot off the pedal for far too long. I will say this: our most sustainable contributions have been GREAT music, (Gen X, Brand X whatever--you can't come close) proliferation of marijuana, (our parents lived through Prohibition, but perhaps we tweaked the message, while, thank God, ludes were only a college phase for some), and organic food. Early boomers in the minority can take credit for civil rights, too, and they were the best of us.

[PinkSpider]

David Brooks' article was concise and well written. Brooks' article was about a shift in what it means to be mature and why we should consider character when selecting a candidate. It was not a rant about boomers, but it is revealing you read it that way.

More revealing is the way you take credit for artists not of your age demographic. The artists you mentioned are from the Silent or Greatest Generation. To illustrate, Philip Roth, 1915, Joni Mitchell, 1943 and the Rolling Stones run the gamut from 1941 - 1947(1947 is Ron Wood, not an original). These are not Boomer years, but the Silent and Greatest. If you want to celebrate Boomer contributions to culture , it behooves you to choose someone from your generation.

What X'ers find grating and officious is Boomers "ability" to see themselves as the only people who matter. I graduated high school during the Reagan recession and the only job I could find was sweat shop work for $3.35/hr . Yet, I was a slacker, lazy and unenlightened. Also, during your watch, you pulled the plug on student loans, started the "War on Drugs" and ended pension plans. You had a good time at the party and left the cleaning to us. What a wonderful legacy.

Aging gracefully is not about staying relevant or dying your hair. Aging gracefully is about knowing to step aside and let younger people have their 5 minutes. It is a lesson you need to learn.

[NoSillyName]

Sorry, but you're talking about the republican "boomers" not me and not most people here at HuffPost.

[j.gold]

a boomer is a boomer!

[wayoutleft]

stones and mitchell were with the benny goodman ppl... 'fraid not. i guess you had to be there.
that reminds me. you'd better save-to-file those illegal downloads. then you can come back and lecture doddering, helless retired boomers about responsibilities..

[Darsan54]

Boomers helped end the war in Vietnam, open up the voting process to all races, raise awareness of ecological damage from humans. The Greatest Generation also gave us Barry Goldwater, the MAD doctrine and the military industrial complex which threatens to overtake the entire country and culture.

[NoSillyName]

Darsan54, you forgot to mention a few other things from the GG: Nixon & Watergate, Reagan, most white people moving to the suburbs necessitating at least one car for every household, TV dinners & other pre-made chemical "food", rampant consumerism & disposable goods, the population explosion, the "Silent Majority", and all the other things I and so many of us rebelled against.

Those of us who weren't part of "straight" society, back when straight didn't mean heterosexual, formed the concerns and attitudes that many of us still have today.Such things as social justice, preserving the Earth, living simply, eating whole foods & trying to stay healthy, conserving resources, seeking peace & non-violence, loving instead of hating, not wanting America to be Imperialistic, etc.

We were idealistic, not nihilistic as, sadly, so many are today. But we couldn't change the world, unfortunately.

It seems that the younger people here spewing hatred for their elders are citing mostly things that were and still are being done by those of our generation who became "yuppies" or republicans.

We did not all do that, but apparently there are not enough of us to have prevailed, so we get lumped in with those who votes for, gag me, Bush.

[Americain]

When I think of my generation I think of the Vietnam War, protest and pop culture. When I think of my father and his generation I think of sacrifice, surviving The Great Depression and winning WW II. As talented as we are we will never be able to match The Greatest Generation's accomplishments, sacrifice and bravery. And it galls us. We will always be the underachieving malcontent with delusions of granduer while our parents slip away into immortality as the model for us all. Eat your hearts out.

P.S. Can I include a pic of myself lying on the sofa?

[lacartedumonde]

Generations, past, present, and future, and their differences are always overrated. It's the media need something to discuss.

We're all much, much closer than we appear or think.

Quick, everyone go get a glass of water and in real time together, toast a person of a different generation.

See how easy it can be!

[remc]

Thanks for the voice of reason - I agree with you. Some folks (of ANY generation) always need to define themselves in opposition to something else.

[dobberdoss]

Generations the world over have always blamed the previous generation for the woes of the world, that is perfectly natural & in many cases as we ALL know quite often correct.
In any case, lets just try to get along & fix this country, and world( preferably without the usual `bullying` of other world nations to your way of thinking America!

[Jjc2006]

Great article. I am so damned sick of the whining gen xers.....they are the ones who made Reagan a hero and Bush a president,.......not us. They really need to get over themselves.

[fchongrutherford]

Um, I wasn't old enough to vote, so I'm not sure how I helped Reagan win office ...

... BUT, as much as it can be typified, this is classic boomer mentality. Everyone else in the world is wrong but us. It's a variation on 'Don't trust anyone over 30.'

Which is why I agree with jackpinesavage. I'm not interested in blaming the baby boom generation for our ills. I am interested in figuring out ways to clean it all up, because that's the challenge that's been left for my generation.

I will NOT be surprised if this is followed with a, "your generation is not up for it," cry of some kind. At this age, I'm used to it, as are a lot of folks of my generation. And all that a lot of my generation is interested in is fixing and cleaning the excesses. Most of the people I know don't resemble anything from a Douglas Coupland novel ... and would certainly recognize just a touch of irony given his status as a boomer.

Anyway, I'm all for the boomers getting up and getting it done. I'll just believe it when I see it.

[NoSillyName]

You may have been too young, but the children of many "boomers" were old enough to vote for Reagan and many of them had rebelled against their "hippie" parents and became republicans. Similar to the character played by Michael J. Fox on the '80s show "Family Ties", if you've ever seen that "old" show.

[stringer]

Umm no you need to check the statistics. I'm not part of Generation X I'm part of Generation Y so I don't give a crap.

But Generation Y was the only group to vote FOR John Kerry over George W. Bush in 2004. Period.

18-29 year olds went for Kerry over Bush 54% to 49%.

30-44 year olds: Bush over Kerry, 53% to 46%; 45-59 year olds: Bush over Kerry, 51% to 48%, 60 years and older: Bush over Kerry, 54% to 46%.

Had even ONE other generation had the sense to vote for Kerry in anywhere even APPROACHING the same numbers as Generation Y we would have had President Kerry instead of President George W. Bush right now.

So don't blame us for Bush. That's your fault. We had the sense to vote against that moron. Maybe you're the one who needs to get over yourself.

[jennbeez]

Who did you get these stats from- Diebold?

[GenXLiberal]

Has anybody forgot that the boomers are the only generation to leave the next generation worse off than their own. What a sad legacy. You had it all and you blew it.

[SaintJimmy]

While you are primarily right, Stinger (I was 33-44 and voted for Kerry), you should also remember that the percentage of 18-29 year-olds who actually voted, while higher than in previous election years, was still only in the 50's. That may have helped turn the tide as well. I only point this out as a warning to avoid the same thing in '08.

Go Obama.

[NoSillyName]

stringer, you're not talking to me. I'm 57 and wouldn't vote for GWB if he were the last candidate on Earth. You're talking about MY parents.

[Over40]

Hear, hear. I am sick of the whining too ........ especially from a generation
that has not distinguished themselves in any conceivable way except to
go back to the 50s .........BTW - I'm talking about the ones that whine -
I'm sure there are some that don't and are working hard and making
contributions.

[Over40]

Come to think about it, though, boomers are the parents of Gen-Y and many can be
faulted for raising a generation of spoiled silly kids who are ill prepared to confront
tough challenges.

[who38]

That's because they raised them according to their needs and not those of their children. Can't do enough for Josh or Samantha.

[Robert Handy]

Over 40 is dead right!
As Boomer's,we should all take some collective "responsibility" for the "disgusting" current crop of twenty-somethings.They are,selfish,immoral,and completely irresponsible most of the time with a few exceptions! What I mean by these statements is that, not all of us Baby-Boomer's abandoned all every -teaching,that "our- parent's" tried to instill in us.Things like, work-hard,be-honest,and do what is right,not what feels good,and is morally expedient.Unfortunately,too many people of my generation have abandoned all standards of "human decency",and have passed this dysfunctional behavior onto their children. We reap,what we sow!!!!!

[OhComeOnNow]

Hmmm... Maybe these were the people Gramm was chastizing for whining...

[jackpinesavage]

Um, perhaps the gen Xers aren't jealous or feeling left out. Perhaps what they're angry about is that it sure looks like the boomers are going to leave them with a huge mess to sort out...all while paying for the retirement and medical expenses of 75 million people.

Excuse us for being force fed a cultural ideal that we watched being ignored, yet we are still supposed to be in awe of it. A generation that reveled in bringing drug use into the popular mainstream has stood idly by while its children get locked up. A generation that sang "Give Peace a Chance" has done little besides making war. A generation that came up with "Earth Day" moved to the ex-urbs and commutes in giant SUVs. A generation that was handed the richest, most powerful nation on the planet has run it into the ground in under 16 years. And the children of that generation will be the first in American history to live shorter, poorer lives than their parents.

But what am i talking about, its all about you...it always has been. At least that's what your parents say.

[BADEN]

See what I mean?

I rest my Boomer case.

~A Viet Era Vet Woman with a kid who was in the Marines when we went into Fallujah.

"and Whirled Peas to you too".

[BADEN]

THANK YOU!

They blamed us for the 60s and for 68.

They blamed us for downfall of the nuclear option for war (ok - Bush snuck in the backdoor with his Neocons and it scares me to death.)

They blamed us for Kent State.
They blamed us for the rise in medical prices
They blamed us for everything.

They've watch this bulge moving thru the snake of economic and social timelines and are scared to death of the power of it if it ever realizes, as a group conscious, that it literally has the power in numbers to change the world forever in a positive way.

Went all went away ideologically in the 70s (when the kids started arriving, and the food had to be on the table on time)....

Well - we're here, and we are about to go anywhere other than progressive path to peace and prosperity for all.

Imagine.