Boomer Bust

Weekly Standard: Baby Boomers, Despite Their Self-Praise, Are No Great Generation

(Weekly Standard)  This column was written by William Kristol.

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Q: If the World War II generation was the "greatest generation," what is the Vietnam War generation?
A: I don't think the full judgment of history is in yet. There is certainly greatness in the '60s generation. They changed our attitudes about race in America, which was long overdue.
-- Tom Brokaw, interviewed in the November 19 U.S. News & World Report, on his new book, "Boom! Voices of the Sixties."

Whoa! The '60s generation changed our attitudes about race in America? Rosa Parks, Bayard Rustin, and Martin Luther King Jr. — were they from the Vietnam War generation? Earl Warren, Lyndon Baines Johnson and Hubert Humphrey? For that matter, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, murdered on June 21, 1964, in Mississippi? None of these was a member of the "'60s generation." None was a boomer.

There really was greatness in the "greatest generation." It fought and won World War II, then came home to achieve widespread prosperity and overcome segregation while seeing the Cold War through to a successful conclusion. But the greatest generation had one flaw, its greatest flaw, you might say: It begat the baby boomers.

The most prominent of the boomers spent their youth scorning those of their compatriots who fought communism, while moralizing and posturing at no cost to themselves. They went on to enjoy the benefits of their parents' labors, sacrificed little, and produced nothing particularly notable. But the boomers were unparalleled when it came to self-glorification, a talent they began developing as teenagers and have continued to improve up to this day. They were also good at bamboozling their parents, and members of the "silent generation" like Tom Brokaw, to be overly deferential to them — even to the point of giving them credit for things they didn't do.

Now the first boomers are applying for Social Security. Their time is passing — without eliciting any discernible consternation among their successors. It's not that every last one is unworthy. But for each David Petraeus or Ray Odierno (two very impressive members), there are countless posturers and blowhards who have received wildly disproportionate attention. We've had two boomer presidents now, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. They followed eight presidents whose lives were more or less defined by the experience of World War II, or the Cold War: Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush. (Carter is the exception that proves the rule — a bit young to be defined by World War II, he turned out to be a kind of baby boomer avant la letter.) With all due respect to Clinton's intelligence and Bush's determination — it's hard to make the case that boomer presidents were an improvement. (And some of the most impressive characters in the Clinton and Bush administrations — Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Vice President Dick Cheney, to name two — weren't boomers.)

The boomer urge for self-glorification is still going strong. In its latest issue, Newsweek celebrates "1968: The Year That Made Us Who We Are." Recently Hillary Clinton spoke at Wellesley reliving the glory days of her "experiment in human living" 1969 commencement speech. For her reprise, she received mostly fawning coverage, in accord with the how-wonderful-our-kids-are coverage her original remarks received four decades ago. But rereading that fatuous oration today makes one think that the romance of the '60s must surely fade.

Maybe we'll even see this in the 2008 presidential election. Maybe the American public will decide two boomer presidents are enough. The Republicans will either nominate a pre-boomer (John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson) or an anti-boomer (the square Mitt Romney or the preacher Mike Huckabee). As for the Democrats, they can pick from two quintessential boomers — Hillary Clinton and John Edwards — or go for Barack Obama, barely on the edge of boomer-dom (Obama was born in 1961) but really a post-boomer.

America's hopes for the future rest mostly with the 9/11 generation. Despite their unfortunate propensity so far to vote Democratic, these young men and women will, I believe, turn out to be far more impressive than we boomers who begat them. It would of course be a fitting fate, after all the soaring rhetoric about the boomers, if they turned out to be basically a parenthesis. They may go down in history as occupying space between the generation that won World War II and presided over a relatively successful second-half of the twentieth century, and the 9/11 generation that will deal with the threats the boomers neglected during that quintessential boomer decade, the '90s. It is the 9/11 generation that will have to construct and maintain a new American century. The best we boomers can do now is help them get started on the job. Meanwhile, the experience of the boomers should hearten us: America is such a great country that it will end up surviving even a not-so-great generation.

[kansas1946]

If you ever doubted that Mr. Kristol was a right-wing hate monger, doubt no more. He in his self-riteous, smirky, condescending, voice, has just dogged every one born between 1946 and 1964.
If Bush was popular right now, Mr. Kristol would be extolling the boomers for good taste, wisdom, and forsight. Instead because Mr. Bush, and Republicans approvals are in the toilet, Mr. Kristol has decided that this whole generation of people are ignorant, spoiled, cry-babies, that can''t recognize a great person when we see one. Yes, we can, Mr. Kristol, and your current crop of Republicans contenders are anything but great men, and they Republican in the WhiteHouse is not even a mediocre man, but a below average man. I think my generation is doing just fine.

[bennyblack1]

I wonder what would happen if we had to agree to and take this oath to remain US Citizens? And I wonder, could we stand up to it? Could the members of the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court, the corporate heads, and employers be held accountable?

The Oath:
I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God. In acknowledgement whereof I have hereunto affixed my signature.

[standlee5]

They left out womens rights, civil rights, AWESOME music, environmental movement, self help revolution and Huge mega andvancements in tech leading to phenomenal wealth creation and huge mega increase in philanthropic giving. The boomers aren''t total loosers

[jon2012-2009]

It''s easy to make sweeping statements without the burden of proof. The boomer generation has a propensity for self-glorification? Mr. Kristol, is this something you can quantify? So what percentage of boomers lived off their parents'' labors and contributed nothing to the economy? And is that out of line with historical trends? Don''t we all engage in moralizing and posturing, boomer or not? It is annoying, but what is the relevance of this rather common behavior anyway?

If the 9/11 generation holds America''s prospects for the future, we need them to have the proper training and education to think critically to process facts, numbers and ideology. For example, evolution and global warming should not be difficult to grasp because they are based on data and science. If they have problems here, as the boomer generation seems to be having, I can''t really hold out much hope.

[markangeloo]

SINS OF THE FATHERS
Why if they were so great wasn''t the so called generation able to pass it on to the next age ??
That is the question that needs to be asked.
Why couldn''t the WWII crowd teach its young ?
Were they too shell shocked ?
Did they become to rich & self satisfied ?
Did they think their greatness a perogative?

[bluestardad]

SPOKEN LIKE A TRUE DUEL PASSPORT HOLDING NEOCON WHO HAS NO REAL TIES TO AMERICA OR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!

KRISTOL IS A MEMBER OF AIPAC AND PNAC LARGE ISRAELI LOBBY GROUPS AND NOW THE WORLD IS TURNING AGAINST THEIR RETORIC AS EACH PASSING DAY THEIR TRUE ADGENDA UNFOLDS!

HE IS ONE OF THE PEOPLE THAT WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN PUSHING FOR ALL THESE WARS IN THE MIDDLE EAST BY AMERICAN SOLDIERS!

THERE IS NOTHING IN THE MIDDLE EAST THAT AMERICA TRULY NEEDS! EXCEPT TO BRING OUT ALL OUR TROOPS AND MONEY!

[jetranger7]

AGREE WITH NATIVE WOMAN ON HER POINTS, HOWEVER, CLINTON ALSO SUPPORTED NAFTA, AND DID VERY LITTLE TO UPHOLD ANY IMMREGIATION LAWS EITHER. I CAN REMEMBER THO THAT EVEN THE FAST FOOD RESTRAUNTS COULDN''T FIND ENOUGH PEOPLE TO WORK FOR THEM AND UPPED THE SALARIES TO ATTRACT WORKERS UNDER CLINTON // UNDER BUSH - EVERYBODY IS EITHER LOSING THIER HOMES OR IN FEAR OF LOSING THE HOMES WITH MASSIVE JOB LAY OFFS, ITS IN THE NEWS ALMOST DAILY, IF SUM OF THE DIM-WIT REPUBLIGOONS WOULD BOTHER TO READ, IF THEY ACTUALLY COULD !

[Razzl]

Behind Kristol''s weak diatribe is a transparent admission that the baby boomers are liberal, progressive, committed, and will eventually kill what is left of his militarist conservative movement. And the youngest generation today will adopt the positive and progressive values of their parents. We will bury you, and there''s nothing you can do to stop it short of acknowledging how right we are and falling back in with your generation...

[imnho]

This guy is a real arrogant chickenhawk. He did not go to war, but likes to play war with other peoples lives. He comes from a ritch family and has never had to take that silver spoon out of his mouth.He looks down on the boomers because there not all ritch.

[johnshaft4]

Kristol, will you please off yourself? You are a bore.