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Ok Boomer, Listen Up
We’ve got to talk
There’s a war brewing between generations in a way we haven’t seen since the sixties. At issue is one basic question: The Baby Boomers — good or bad? While the baby boomers themselves have admirably defended their record, younger Millenials and the upstart Gen Z have struck back. The retort, “Ok, boomer” and the memes it has spawned have put this generational conflict in the popular consciousness. So boomers, let’s talk about that.
People tried to put you down. You were born into the tempests of perhaps the darkest century of human existence. Your parents most likely survived WWII, only to bring you into a world teetering on the edge of nuclear annihilation. Your childhood was marked by anxiety and an uneasy continuation of the social, political, and cultural morés of your parents’ generation.
Just because you got around. In spite of the drawn battle lines of the Cold War, your generation was an active one, growing into your collective vigor the way that young folk do when there is a challenge to embrace. You defined a youthful counterculture for them and showed them what the collective energy of a group could accomplish if you put your minds to it. Remember 1968?
Things they do look awful cold. Yes, from your perspective, your parent’s generation had settled. Settled into stasis. Settled into…