Talking About My Generation

Yesterday, I blogged about my generation. As I said, I’m a baby boomer, but born in the mid 1950s. I missed out on some parts of the smelly hippie times—for the better. But here’s one more thought that bubbled up in my mind. Why do hippies have to take the good they did, but take it too far and turn it into something bad?

The hippie generation pointed then out that we were polluting our environment, and they were right. In 1969 the Cuyahoga River caught on fire. To use the patois of the time, “Man, it’s a river man and it burned man! What a bummer.” So, they and many others demanded a cleaner environment and got it. We made great strides forward.

Of course, being hippies they couldn’t accept their environmental victories. Instead, they had to carry it too far when they implemented draconian wetlands acts, wanted to sign the Kyoto Treaty though it’s based on questionable science, and so much more. No, they have to pervert what could have been a huge accomplishment into an embarrassment.

Let’s look at another example. In the 1960s, civil rights was in the air and the hippie generation fought for it and helped others win it. Now that former hippies are in power they can’t let go of tools that helped win civil rights; affirmative action, quotas and everything else that could lead to tyranny if taken too far.

Because Ten Ring is a gun blog, I’ll have to mention guns. Hippie types wanted peace and sought a centered, balanced lifestyle. Peace is a worthwhile goal, but for them, guns were evil implements that “pigs” and soldiers used to kill the innocent. They gave guns almost human qualities of evil and sentience. We gunnies live with that unbalanced view today.

I could go on with other examples:

1) get rid of conformity, but create political correctness;

2) question authority, but then become the “authority” and not allow questions;

3) and so many more.

My generation took things too far and they haven’t been able to let go of philosophies and ways of doing things that are no longer germane. In fact, they are contributing to the divisiveness in our politics today. The parents of the hippie generation were called the “Greatest Generation” and they accomplished so much. It’s sad their kids (with the exception of me, I must protect my own vanity here) can’t say the same.