So what did my generation do with the legacy left us?
The Boomers started off great by fighting for social, political, and environmental change so the generations who followed us would reap even more benefits than we did.
We squandered our opportunity by turning into intractable self interested mimics of the worst of past generations. We tossed aside the legacy we could have had so we could own grander cars, bigger houses, take extravagant vacations.
We could have had all that and still forged ahead by adding to the progressive legacy we were so eager to support as young citizens. Instead, it became too inconvenient to worry anymore about the things on the horizon that threatened our future well being: issues of a political nature, climatic nature, and social nature. Before we knew it, we had allowed our country to change from a country of hope and optimism into a country full up with self inflicted misery. The term "Ugly American" became something to aspire to.
The only glimmer of hope I see is that this cycle we are in has occurred time and time again throughout Human History. Rise and Fall, rise and fall, blah, blah, blah. And so far, Humanity has emerged damaged but alive on the other side. Over time, odds being what they are, at some point they go from odds to certainties.
When that happens, or if it happens is entirely up to us.
In the meantime, ferchrisakes, keep it 'tween the ditches ............................
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I re-read the above and Whew! That was a harsh and less than rosy picture. Those were the words of a Gloomy Gus. I'll own it. Someone has to. There are just too many of you assholes out there who don't seem to be paying attention.
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It's a two-fer today. Two videos, one to honor one survivor, the other to honor the song he wrote and sang a few years ago. It was briefly a chart topper.
4 comments:
I think it was back in the 80s that I saw a comment on how some of those that were hippies in the 60s were now investment bankers, and like a lot of people that acquire money they think they have to become FuckingRepublicans!
Or like me after being fucked over all my life we become more liberal and would like to see the scales balanced a little.
Kulkuri - I came from a privileged background. My family wasn't rich, but we had the pedigree. The kids I went to prep school with: most have unfriended or blocked me. And yeah, almost all of them settled into the businesses of and for the Rich. I chose a blue collar life and have never regretted it. Maybe that is because I have never coveted money.
I think the sacrifices The Greatest Generation made collectively, seem to be taken for granted now as an entitlement by subsequent generations and that's a shame. Things are definitely very different and being sacrificial is no longer aspired to by most. Too many do what is Easy rather than what is Right or Hard, most seem so immersed in their own Bubble that they are oblivious to anything beyond them.
Bohemian - I think you have it right. The sense of sacrifice we once championed has been replaced by either a sense of entitlement or a sense of resentment. And sadly this is manifested the most in the White populations.
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