Are the Baby-Boomers Abandoning the Darkside?

Vietnam raged and the affects of McCarthyism were still being felt. The country was dominated by fear and anger and hatred. Amongst this turmoil the largest generation America has known was coming of age. A highly educated generation and highly independent, forced to watch their friends kill innocent people. Forced to watch their friends die and they lived with the fear that they could be the next one called to a foreign land to fight for a bogus cause.

These young Americans began to speak out and rise-up. They gathered and wrote and sang and yelled and fought back. They obeyed few rules as they sat-in, smoked pot and challenged authority. They had their own artists and their own art. They had their own culture. They changed America and improved the world by getting us out of Vietnam.

It was as if the children of America were going through a collective adolescents. But something happened in the 80’s, 90’s and oughts. It felt like they had become complacent, as if they’d grown up and become the America they fought against. They got married, had children and their priorities changed from global to personal, they had to make sure their kids were safe and going to soccer, politics became less important.

Children are not children long and the children of the Baby-Boomers are out of college.

What do the baby-boomers do now? Maybe politics, for politics have become important again as again they watch their friends die—only not from war, but from poor healthcare or abysmal social support. This situation will only get worse as the old get increasingly older, the baby boomers will most-likely have an average lifespan of over 100, they’ll need something to do with all that time. And as they’ve proven before, politics is something they’re very good at.

As you may have heard a baby-boomer icon has leapt from obscurity. Bob Dylan’s new album “Modern Times” debuted at number one and although not as overt as Neil Young’s “Living With War”, “Modern Times” is still political and very powerful.

In addition it has been reported that drug use is up among Baby-Boomers, sitting around with friends post-retirement smoking a Jay doesn’t seem so far fetched when that’s how you sat around with friends pre-employment.

Does this mean the Baby-Boomers are becoming… dare I say it… LIBERAL once again? I believe it does, in fact I think that their little (albeit 30 year) selfish, money-hoarding phase is over. I think it has to be if they want to remain members of a respected nation that allows them to grow old with respect.