Well, Gentle Reader. It looks like the extended love-in between Boomer parents and their darling and perfect Millennial babies has finally come to an end. And now, behold, the Generation Gap, reinvented! Of course, this has been all rather late in coming, given that when I was a kid we were already in full and open rebellion against our own horrible parents as soon as we turned fourteen. That was before the days of helicopter-parenting, and kids were totally free-range, and yes, we were vulnerable, yes we had adventures, yes we were at risk, and yes, we grew and matured rather fast thanks to all that freedom from neurotic and anxious parents. At that age I was already a teenage hippy smoking pot and learning everything I could about where I would fit in alternative and underground counterculture, so I was meeting people, hitch-hiking around and reading underground newspapers to educate myself about the environment, women's rights, queer rights, anti-capitalism, and all sorts of progressive causes that were at one time considered radical, subversive and borderline illegal. We were all resisting war, resisting the Man, taking drugs, listening to outrageous music, dressing outrageously, and dancing and partying naked. We were once young, wild and radical. And many of us were also thinking. And writing. And educating. And even now that we-re in our sixties and seventies, there are still a good number of Boomers who have not sold out on our original values, and I for one rather resent being lumped in with the selfish sellouts by Millennials who have still not learned how to think independently.
And not all Millennials are whining hyper-neurasthenic little snowflakes, but enough of them are. And as for the Boomer category, we are not all Boomers. Somewhere in the mid-fifties, a subcategory of Boomer was born, 1955 or so, and we actually are called Generation Jones. The Boomers gave the world Woodstock. We gave you guys punk rock. When I came of age in the mid-seventies, all the low hanging fruit had already been picked, eaten and digested by our elder Boomer siblings, and now we had to avoid stepping in the resulting shit.
Not all of us vote conservative. Not all of us are sitting on fat home equity piggy banks. In fact, some us, like me, live in social housing. a lot of us embrace environmental causes and are working against climate change. And some of us are too old to be Boomers. Ever hear of David Suzuki? Stop blaming all of us for planet and environmental destruction, because we were also trying to knock sense into the heads of your grandparents' generation years before any of you spoiled little mucous drippers were so much as a twinkle in your daddy's eye! Stop painting us with the same brush, Snowflakes!
Instead of blaming us for everything, maybe try to understand that we were every bit as weak and imperfect as your grandparents, our own moms and dads whom we have finally started to forgive, and you are also going to prove to be every bit as weak and imperfect aqs we were. The problems of this earth and planet are so huge and complex that by the time we got on the train it was already out of control. Yes, a lot of us did sell out, especially to corporate and capitalist interests, and so did our parents, and so did a lot of Gen X people and so are some Millennials. This kneejerk blame game is simply that historical dynamic that happens with every succeeding generation, and the younger are always going to blame their problems on their elders, just like we did to our parents, and just like they did to their parents, and the beat goes on.
Another thing: The younger generations are always going to resent and envy their elders for their wisdom and toughness, every bit as much as we are going to envy the younger for their beauty, youth and boundless energy. I hope I am still around to hear the children of Millennials, and what they are going to have to say about their mommies and daddies. I can hardly wait. I will be in my nineties, by then, and I look forward to seeing you Snowflakes getting your own back. Suck it up, Snowflake!
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