Baby-Boomers - "Why Thus Glum?"
King David, within the psalms, cries out to the Lord, "Why therefore downcast my soul?" The quote below, from a Pew Analysis article, asks a similar query of the baby-boomer generation, in explicit, those baby-boomers who are ages fifty four to sixty two: "Why thus glum, you older baby-boomers?"
Why So Glum?
In the top, these survey data do not say definitively why baby boomers are bitter compared with alternative adults, however these numbers and other research suggest some possibilities. Seven-in-10 boomers say they're dissatisfied with the direction in that the country goes, which is significantly higher than the share of younger adults who say so (fifty four%) and about the same because the share of older adults who do (sixty eight%). They are more seemingly than either younger or older adults to trust the statement that the wealthy simply get richer these days whereas the poor get poorer.
Why thus glum, baby-boomer? As an older baby-boomer, I'll tell you why we have a tendency to're so glum. Of course, let me count the ways that!
one) "Wars and rumors of wars:" Korea, Laos, Vietnam, Kuwait/Iraq, Iraq 2 (that is still dragging on), with military skirmishes (throughout the years we tend to were supposedly at "peace") everywhere the globe.
2) "The Cold War:" Within the late 1950s and early 1960s, nuclear ("NUCULAR") testing was a continuing reminder to me and my friends, as prepubescent kids, that our families, friends and ourselves may be vaporized at any given moment. Fall-out Shelters were high on the list of priorities for those families who might afford them. We have a tendency to had air-raid drills in elementary faculty, where we were taught to "duck and cowl" below our desks. One major example of this concern and paranoia was the Cuban missile crisis, within the Fall of 1962! I was twelve years recent when this occurred, and I will still bear in mind the fear in my parent's faces as they watched the evening news every night for nearly two weeks. My mother would cry and ask my father, "Do you actually assume the Russians will attack us with nuclear weapons?" My father never had an answer. I will remember going to bed and staring out the window to determine if I might spot an incoming ICBM. I used to be terrified, as was virtually everybody else, including President Kennedy!
three) Assassinations: John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy. These three men were touted by our parents and academics, and nearly everybody else, because the saviors of our country, and every one three of these men would be assassinated among a five year period. These three assassinations would ultimately leave us saddled with the likes of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Richard M. Nixon, Spiro T. Agnew and Gerald Ford. A 10 year war, with virtually 60, 000 American fatalities, Water Gate and impeachment proceedings would be all that was left of "Camelot," and there would be no political or societal "holy grail" to revive us as a nation!
four) A Divided Generation: All of this turmoil eventually would lead to a division in my generation. By the center of the Nineteen Sixties, we tend to baby-boomers were divided right down the middle, politically, culturally and religiously. Many folks supported the war and government and would serve and die in Viet Nam and Cambodia. Many of us would reject the war, the govt and also the values that our folks had always held as precious. This caused a rift even in families. I grasp men who fled to Canada, to evade the draft, that also don't have any contact with their folks and siblings. Many folks, who chose the radical left position, literally threw out our ancient spiritual, social and political opinions and values with the bath water. To the current day, we tend to have not, as a generation, utterly recovered from this division, which is evidenced in our current political and cultural climate. We have a tendency to are a nation that is divided and in several, several ways!
5) 2 Generations & 2 Completely Opposite Responses to Major Challenges: Our parents had experienced two world wars and a nice depression. These were events which the world had never experienced before, or at least not in the identical magnitude. Our parents, along with the govt, had banded together to overcome these huge obstacles, and in doing so they had become terribly unified as a nation. To my parent's generation, the full was positively greater than the sum of its elements, and they greatly benefited from that perspective.
We (the baby-boomers), on the opposite hand, would adhere to the other manner of addressing major problems and become fully divided and self serving. The sum of its components had suddenly become, in my generation's eyes, larger than the full: the "I, me and mine" generation would have a self absorbed and inner focus, that would lead to our inability to resolve the main problems that currently face us every day!
Personally, my generation would have lost the two world wars and never recovered from the nice depression! Why? As a result of, in contrast to our folks, we now not have an identity as a nation or individuals. We have a tendency to don't apprehend who we have a tendency to are or what we have a tendency to believe regarding something, and therefore, we tend to realize it very tough to return together and solve the most important problems which affect all folks: our unresolved economic crisis, the Iraq war and our decline as a revered nation in the planet are simply 3 examples of this lack of identity and unified will.
There are more reasons, that are too varied to count, why we have a tendency to baby-boomers are therefore "glum," however I will wait for someone with a lot of ability than me to put in writing about them.
Author Resource:
Christian Gordon has been writing articles online for nearly 2 years now. Not only does this author specialize in Baby Boomer, you can also check out latest website about
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