Know Jack #521 My Generation

“Why don't you all fade away (Talkin' 'bout my generation)

And don't try to dig what we all s-s-say (Talkin' 'bout my generation)”  The Who

One of the things I remember most about 1969 is how a generation proud of being better educated than their parents and sure they knew how to run the world, decided to use their self-proclaimed victimhood and exclusion was a valid reason for the violent destruction of American values.

Spurred on by teachers and employing a well-developed sense of smug superiority, this generation, wrapped in the righteousness of the cause, instigated riots across the land. They burned buildings, blocked traffic, and threw rocks, bottles, and slurs at those sent to enforce the law. They defied the authorities to fight back, and when that happened in May of 1970, the wails of wanton fascism were deafening.

They spit on their own who dared to disagree with them. There was no diversity of thought, no equity, nor inclusion for those outside the fold. I remember all this because the generation doing it all was my own—the Boomers. That’s right, it’s all been done before (and we weren’t the first to try). The difference is that our parents couldn’t afford, and were unwilling, to let us linger unemployed in the basement at home until we were in our thirties. The few who had those parents are taking care of business and working at nothing all day in Congress.

The rest of us went out into the world to forge a life rather than be handed one. Life changed us more than we changed it. Life quickly taught us that we weren’t as smart, as morally superior, or as ready to run the world as we thought. Neither were we as indestructible as we thought. There are thousands of names chiseled into a wall to prove it.

We had our whiners, our screamers, and our ideologues. We had multimillionaires singing about having no possessions, university ensconced protesters singing about how they were feeling like they were fixin’ to die, and the socially conscious who knew we were on the eve of destruction. The poet of the day sang about how the times were a’changin’ until he grew up and changed his mind.

Personally, I have found that it’s always best to live in the real world a while and see how it works for yourself before trying to institute the notions advanced in the classroom. But then I took to heart the old advice not to let my schooling interfere with my education. Can you dig it, man?