But there’s more to it than that with Boomers because there are more of them. They are a monolithic force that has largely controlled our economy, our politics and our culture for over 50 years now. Most generations get 20-30 before the next one sweeps in; the Boomers were a large enough generation to not just resist that replacement but re-shape it into the dysfunctional system we have now.
As a Gen-X, i can say: my generation is nearly powerless compared to the Boomers.
I did feel that way at times, but I’m not proud of it.
I spent my entire career in academia, and a lot of the older people I worked with had started their careers in the 1960s, when higher education was expanding due to the baby boom and LBJ’s Great Society initiatives. When I got my first university job, all that was over and it was endless budget cuts, hiring freezes, etc. I was struggling to advance and I resented the older generation for not “getting out of the way.” But I didn’t say that openly to anyone, and now I realize that my resentment wasn’t justified.
I disagree completely about the “monolithic force.” Boomers split the same way any subset of people would split.
Your “generation” doesn’t need to do anything. People in your generation can, and do.
Is an inner city kid who got drafted to fight in Vietnam, returned with severe PTSD, never got treated, couldn’t hold a job and died on the streets from a heroin overdose in 1998 really part of a monolithic force that controls you?
When you look at it like that, yeah. The truth is that generation is a somewhat fuzzy term. I think the definition of millennial has changed a few times to the point where I’m not even entirely sure what it means all the time. It’s like trying to define the 60s. It’s not really 1960-1970, it’s more like 1964-1973. I was born in 1976 and grew up in a very different world from my niece who was born in 1996. I was shaped, in part, by the Cold War and glasnost followed by the collapse of the Soviet Union was a big deal to me. She didn’t have those things like I didn’t have social media, the war on terror, or Pokemon. I assure you, she’s had a different experience growing up than I did.
Totally awesome username / post combo there Boomer!
What’s that bit about old age and treachery again? 
Well played!
Maybe we can rename them as “Idiots, comma, Entitled and Demanding”. In other words, IEDs! That’ll make a lot of women named Karen happier.
I’m about ten years older than Odesio. Just to show how different people’s lives are, none of the above had any effect on my daily life. The only time I even thought about them is when they made the news. Sure, it’s great the cold war ended, glasnost happened and the USSR collapsed but if none of it happened my life would have been just the same.
Does the existence of that man also invalidate the idea that men overwhelmingly control our economy, politics, and culture?
Men? No. But a wealthy millennial tech (or finance) bro has a lot more power than a homeless Vietnam vet.
Me too, age 57. But then, I’m finding Boomer and Gen X behavior harder and harder to stomach.
Why is there confusion when talking about a generation? Of course individuals may differ; have we now decided that generations do not exist?
Well, of course not, if he’s dead. I mean, isn’t that what “I wish they’d all get out of the way” means? We should all just die and get out of the way. If we’re not dead, at best we’re using resources that could go to younger people; at worst, we’re voting for the wrong people and the wrong way on ballot initiatives. And we’re all absolutely identical, and have nothing to contribute to the world.
A backlash and a reckoning against a whole ‘oppressive’ class? Funny how that reads and how folks feel it’s justifiable.
I don’t want my Mom to die; she rocks. Or you or anyone else. But why do we need the same generation’s population to hold sway for so long? It’s a combo of things that converged for the Boomers but ultimately I think it has been holding the country back for decades now. We are still arguing over health care, gun control, racial strife, immigration… all the same things that Reagan campaigned on more than 40 years ago. Politically and culturally, we’re fighting battles that should have neen settled twenty or more years ago IMO and my generation and younger ones have not been problem. It is that they cannot get enough weight to displace the existing hierarchy yet.
There are all kinds of sociopolitical complexities we can get into here, but when it comes down to it, this is about young people making fun of old people who don’t understand young people. This has happened throughout history. Zoomers are not particularly ageist relative to previous generations. I think the main difference is that due to the internet, Boomers are hearing it to their faces. And yes, may I point out the unbelievable amount of shit that has been heaped on Millennials by older generations? Ageism isn’t limited to the young.
You do realize that like any large demographic, those born in certain years are not homogenous in thought?
Didn’t I just say that?
Boomers only recently got to be in charge. It’s always the older generation running things. We’re living a little longer so we’ll be running things a little longer, but unlikely for as long as the succeeding generations. But it was our parents who really screwed things up, That’s where all the debt has come from.
Can I ask you to clarify: is it that the whole of the generation holds sway, or that all of the people holding sway are members of the same generation?
Because those two things aren’t the same.
Do you really think it’s boomers who are voting for the wrong people? What generation do Charlie Kirk or Marjorie Taylor green or Andrew Anglin belong to?
My first post here said that generationalism isn’t quite as stupid as racism, but now I’m wondering if I should walk that back.