Itās truly amazing how a single generation (the boomers) were able to bring western civilization to the brink of collapse.
Discussion
it's how it goes
Cut them some slack. We've been going downhill since the 1890's
Don't be so pessimistic. There is still time. The Fourth Turning is just beginning.
Because most of them still think the Internet is a fad.
Are you talking about the American boomers? Or all the boomers? :)
All of them
I think the most annoying part is. That they now try to shame us into not living as they did. Because they now see that its their fault the "environment" is "toast" and we should stop using energy now! While sitting in their summerhouse charging their incredibly big electric car. Refusing to listen to millennials about what we need, because they know better.
That is the vibe I get from grandparents and colleagues nonetheless.
I'm 61 years old, the last of the boomers
When I was a kid I thought old people were morons and that we knew it all
Now I think youngsters are morons and they need to get off my lawn
You will be exactly like me
It is The human condition
I am somewhat like the boomers because I was raised by them, but I do my best to rid myself of this brainwashing.
The last 3 people to start road rage with me were 50-60 year old boomers I just want you all to die already
Lol! People in their 50's are not Boomers they are Gen X'ers. Stop being angry, you sound like the people you hate. You're robably a terrible driver too š
Youāre absolutely right sir.
good times create weak men
What's gonna really break your noodle, is so did the generation before them with their global wars. Suspect maybe every generation does it in their own way.
The average boomer had nothing to do with any of that. It is the people in govt, always has been. That would be like you saying you are responsible for everything world governments do right now. Boomers didnt have computers and 24 hour news either. Boomers i know worked their asses off to provide for their families, some of them became well-off, many of them not.
Boomers were and still are the largest voting block. They are collectively responsible.
We all are part of the voting block now, today. I dont feel responsible for all the crimes and bad laws that governments allow.
They were incapable of seeing that the bus was driving off the cliff, much less course correcting. Nero fiddling while Rome burned vibes
So you feel personally responsible for the bad things that happen today? Just because you're alive today? What can you do to stop every bad thing that a govt does?
Personally no. And Iām not talking about any one boomer individually either. My generation in aggregate will also be responsible for things, time will tell what those things will be.
We can go on blaming others in blanket statements, or we can try to focus on the causal factors.
My point being: Hate the magician; not the audience that fell for the illusion.
You probably were duped by the same type of people in some respects too. Humility will be key to our salvation. Returning to the last known good will be where we need to pick up from. The Gold Standard eroded generationally before the boomers
I donāt hate the boomers, I pity them. And but pointing out their failures in attempting to help the next generations from falling into the same traps.
Yeah, they deserve pity. Especially once the charade ends and theyāre exposed for not actually having what they think they have.
I get that, bro, and not trying to be adversarial with you. Just want to hear more about exposing the traps and less of the shaming whole generations.
I know you and yours are doing well, and Iām proud of you for your financial successes and insight. However, there is a palpable covetousness between the younger generations towards the boomers.
You are playing into the powers-that-beās division tactics.
All of us peopleāno matter their age, race, creed, or backgroundāneed to be aligned in freedom and goodwill towards mankind for us to overcome the monsters we have to exterminate. And it will take acceptance and forgiveness for us to all to work together. We need to look at each other equally: not down on, nor up to.
Exactly, govts love it when we blame each other because it keeps the focus away from them.
The boomers are fully delusional man. I donāt believe it will be possible to bring them in unison anytime soon. They still watch television. They live in a mass media bubble.
You canāt possibly believe that every single member of that entire generation is all guilty of that though.
Now yes, maybe the majority of the generation, sure, but again blanket statements make people closed off to healthy communications.
Without effective communication, there will be no learning or healing. It will be trying, it will take patience, it will take understanding and forgiveness, but if our generation is so much better we have to show it by remaining humble, helpful, and open minded.
Donāt forget to blame their parents too
My (Boomer) dad worked very hard for what he has. He added to society through the two businesses he started, and within the two trades (Tool& Die Maker and Stationary Steam Engineer - Journeyman in both trades) he practiced in his career.
Many from his generation grew wealthy because they were willing to do the work. When I hear people complain about the wealth gap, I am always curious what they did to earn the wealth!
To those who complain about income/wealth inequality, I have this to say: Learn from, and apply the principles taught by Dave Ramsey and Mike Rowe. They're not perfect, but their advice will make you wealthy if you choose to follow it.
Yes, all the boomers i know worked very hard for what they have/had. The ones that didnt work did not do well. Many folks nowadays think that boomers all became magically rich.
The Boomers had social supports, low college tuition, easy access to entry level positions at low skill jobs with union support that had pensions. They did work hard, but were also able to accumulate wealth by means that are no longer available.
They are also the generation that practically single handedly brought us Ronald Regan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.
The Boomers are not bad people, but that doesnāt mean they donāt make bad choices.
Bad choices are not something specific to any generation, bad choices are a personal thing. And the picture you paint of all these opportunities and easy life is not accurate, i saw how hard life could be for many in that generation. I would argue that making a living today is easier because of the internet.
Making a living on the internet is not a low skill entry level position with a pension.
Your argument that bad choices being a personal thing could be extended to your proposition that life has been hard for āmanyā in the Boomer generation.
The Boomers as a whole make bad choices that may be in their immediate best interests, but have long term consequences they do not fully understand.
The Boomersā choices have resulted in an unbalanced government. Instead of a right wing and a left wing party we have a right wing and centrist party (thanks to Clinton and perpetuated by Obama).
The Boomers refuse to acknowledge group responsibility or personal responsibility. They are a generation that has manufactured their own suffering and now try to pass the responsibility onto the generations that followed them.
The only thing anyone is asking for from the Boomers is to step aside and pass the torch to a new generation, which they failed to do with Gen X, and now the Millennial for their turn. Meanwhile Dianne Feinstein refuses to step aside for a new generation and dies in office.
Again, my point is that i dont blame a large swath of society just because they live in a time when bad things happen. I dont feel personally responsible for anything that happens today, except for my own decisions.
Weāre not talking about blame. We are talking about personal and group responsibility. Blame, responsibility, and accountability are three separate things.
The Boomers generation has a responsibility to pass the torch in the same way it was passed to them. But instead they choose to elect the oldest Presidents in history and die in office, as mentioned above.
So you are blaming the whole generation. And i know many people in all generarations who make bad choices in all areas of life. The current generations chose the recent ancient and senile presidents.
In any case, it doesnt matter how we got here, we should put our big boy/big girl panties on, and make the best life for ourselves that we can.
If we donāt understand how we got here history will repeat itself. It is everyoneās responsibility to understand exactly what got us here and take action so that it doesnāt happen again.
I dont think anyone on nostr does not understand how we got here. But this constant whining about "boomers" being responsible for all the world's problems is tiresome. Every generation has their own set of problems, and every generation before that, etc. We should all be responsible for how our own lives turn out, instead of blaming someone else when things dont work out the way we want. That is just childish.
Well said!
I have enjoyed chatting, but I need to go. (I have ducks to let into their yard, and I have to finish building a computer for my friend.)
Iām told that I donāt sound kind when I discuss things, so, please know I meant no offense, and did not intend to make anyone angry.
I hope you all have a wonderful day & weekend!š
Enjoy your day, friend.
As for asking them to step assideā¦Iāve been finding that the Boomers are waiting for younger generations to grow up and take initiative so the Boomers can feel comfortable passing the torch to them. Torches are earned, not given! It takes willingness to learn and grow- from BOTH side of that equation!
The Boomers are the first generation in recent history that has clung to power to the point they are dying in office. That is why we keep electing the oldest presidents ever.
It is not the responsibility of younger generations to make the older generations feel comfortable with letting go of power. If the Boomers take the approach of āYou can have the Torch when you pry it from our cold dead handsā there will be repercussions. This was Dianne Feinstein attitude.
Iām confused - are the Boomers certain politicians, or your parents/grandparents?
Because if youāre talking about politicians, I wonāt sit here and defend them - most are useless wastes of skin.
If youāre talking about the generations of people before me, iIāll defend them more vigorously than the politiciansā¦.
My parents elected those politicians.
I agree with nostr:npub13kwjkaunpmj5aslyd7hhwnwaqswmknj25dddglqztzz29pkavhaq25wg2a - the internet makes it so easy to make a living, whether it be by finding a job, selling items online, finding side jobs. Those tools didnāt exist for GenX. And Dad was born in the ā50ās (before they totally devalued the nationās money).
But it sounds like youāre falling into what I call the trap of āPoor-mouthing.ā My grandparents - great, hardworking farming family - did this. It was always āthe manā or unfavorable circumstances that held them back. They were farmers by profession, and were wealthy if you considered the value of the property they owned, but there was always someone who had it better than they didā¦ And I believe that same attitude allows many to justify their own failures.
Boomers were able to buy houses in places like the SF bay area for ~ 5 figures in the 70's and 80's... which turned into a giant treasure chests of generational wealth.
They then proceeded to pull up the ladder behind them with NIMBY regulations.
Add to this government pensions, and any boomer who had two brain cells to rub together in their 30's and 40's is now sitting on multiple comfortable passive income streams for their retirement... None of which are available to their children.
But hey, at least we've got Bitcoin!
How about the generation before that forced the Great Depression and two world wars?
The greatest gen were kids during the Great Depression. Their big sin in adulthood was abandoning the gold standard.
"think of how stupid the average person is, then realize half of them are stupider than that"
Dude, get a life and quit crying, 1 generation did this, you can vote I assume what have you done?
A lot of triggered people here. The truth upsets people.
They are definitely the worst generation of all times.
Most boomers I know are entitled brats
Canāt only blame one generation
You can tell how GREAT the Times were by how WEAK the Men it created
*Kill the boomer song*
Pillow Time by John Bradley from Boomer Patrol??
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Ego is the enemy.
They got one shotted by mass media. No immune response, just total capture by Walter Cronkite et al.
Resulted is compliant sheeple easily wielded by sociopaths and incapable of taking back their sovereignty.
Absolutely true
Itās not just in the west. They are also statists everywhere else in the world too.
Well given their parents were āThe Greatest Generationā and survived the depression and WW2, it makes sense
They have just tried to live their best life as every generation try to do.
This collapsing is not a question of generation, it is just a systemic problem.
More debt, inequality increase, bad money repartitions.
It is just roots for war, hate, fear, anxiety, individualism.
Mass "people" always follow and are confident in their leaders that should do their job to manage the country well.
But leaders are less and less good. they only care about themself and not their people or their country anymore.
So the problem is not only about one generation, but the fact that any generation follow the same way.
And it will stay this way until people with really face enough difficulties to force changing the system and their leaders.
And here i am talking about all politics that are just useless nowadays, not about one specific color only. I put all of them in the same bag. If some were different we would not talk about this now.
How soft must you be to think Western civilization is on the brink of collapse. Itās like the teenager that cries after finishing 3rd in their weekly high school track meet. A little perspective and self reflection might be in order
How stupid must one be to think itās not
Please enlighten me, if we are at the brink, as to how this collapse will unfold? Sounds like hyperbolic climate change alarmist nonsense. Anyone is free to project their anxiety onto the world. But as for me? Iām gonna be alright. So will my kids. We arenāt on the precipice of societal collapse no matter how much you squint
šÆšÆ
Couple points.
Firstly I said āwestern civilizationā is on the brink of collapse. Not society. Society and civilization are related but distinct concepts.
Society = The People & Their Relationships
Civilization = The Larger Cultural & Structural Super organism
Society is the living body. It eats, works, fights, mates, dies. Civilization is the skeleton and memory. It holds form, passes down knowledge, and builds cathedrals.
So when I say āWestern civilization is collapsing,ā
Iām not talking about a dysfunctional society, iām talking about the disintegration of the entire cultural architecture that held together multiple societies across centuries.
Secondly, if youād like to know why it is near collapse please see the following listā¦
- loss of shared values
- broad cultural decay/degeneracy
- decline of the family unit
- rise of consumerism/hedonism
- cantillion effect
- unsustainable debt
- loss of trust
- corruption
- elite capture of institutions
- mental health crisis
- gender confusion
- addiction epidemic
- below replacement fertility
- mass migration
- spiritual emptiness
- woke ideology
- decline of Christianity
- censorship
- media tyranny
I guess I see Western society as easier to destabilize than Western civilization. Economic systems, political systems, social trust, technological dependence are all things I would classify as societal. Democracy, rule of law, science, capitalism, Christianity are part of western civilization. All these are under attack and always have been. Perhaps itās worse than ever - I doubt that but I guess Iām open to that idea. However, I donāt see the scenario where those ideals completely collapse. Maybe this is an argument of semantics? Maybe Iām just naive. But Iām hopeful and that has really never wavered in my lifetime despite the perpetual chaos in the world
Gradually then suddenly my friend. Iām not saying that we will collapse. Just saying that weāre close and we need to slam the car into reverse hard. No more complacency.
No society is more than three meals away from revolution. I am personal struggling with obesity so I say bring it.
šrecency bias?
And they continue to gaslight the younger generations for being "lazy" lol
max extraction by the boomers often with no shame
Pelosi defends lawmaker stock trades, citing āfree marketā
here's a thought experiment for you: if you didn't have the crutch of the concept of "generation" (which some of us can see as just a cruel manipulation tool inflicted on the unthinking masses by "Madison Ave" advertisers to divisively split us all into targetable "segments"), how would your views on this change?
what "historic" ills would you still attempt to blame on any one "other" group if you chose to actually think these complex issues through rationally? could you learn anything new, see things from a new point of view, if you relaxed your rant a bit? or would your commitment simplistic over-generalization and this divisive, blame-anyone-else narrative survive even that test?
it's disappointing to see you and others continuing to fuel this bogus narrative. but I don't expect to know you well enough to be able to claim "hoped for better from you"... maybe this is your best effort after all?
The point isnāt to scapegoat, but to trace cause and consequence across time. Thatās not simplistic. Itās historical literacy.
Boomer: "I don't understand why the Millennials are so upset."
Nah, brother. Itās the Jews. Grow a pair already.
Why do you blame a generation for the ills caused by the FIAT system that they didn't even know existed? It's not their fault.
You can always know. Someone knows.
Someone yes, but not an entire generation.
Why did they all not know? Kinda seems indicative of the type of problem with the boomers Iām alluding to.
not knowing worked in their favor. ignorance is bliss exemplified
Right and thatās why they fucked up western civ
It takes a lot to disband from the herd.
This āgenerational fuckupā is laced a thousand times through history. This cycle rotates at speed across centuries and cultures, and is human. I just finished reading The Life Of Greece, by Will Durant, book two of his series The Story Of Civilization. Itās illuminating.
Same shit weāre dealing with was eating away at the stability of nations of people 2000 years ago, 3000 years ago, and 4000 years ago.
Empires fell from the same shit weāre doing again, blind to history in general as a population. Weāre in a slow motion stumble that is being observed by those educated who are aware of the human condition.
Will someone wise and capable take the helm and right us before we face plant again? Can we stumble forward in slow motion for another 50 or 100 years before re-entering the human doom cycle? šæšæšæ
Was it āthe Boomersā or was it the invention of television. They both arrived around the same time.
Nailed it.
I think HOLDās point is demonstrated in the comments. Little acknowledgment of any responsibility for the past 40 years and loads of deflection of responsibility onto other generations.
Exactly
Blaming a generation for being born is surely all their fault. The peak boom was 1961. What followed years later were crammed schools. Then what followed later was empty schools, and lack of jobs. You surely cant blame them for being born all at the same time and trying to forge a path through life.
Opps two times edit
The peak boom was 1961 where millions of them were born.
What followed years later were crammed schools. Then what followed after that was empty schools, and lack of jobs.
Then they bought all the homes and raised real estate prices because there were not that many homes built. Real estate boom ensued.
Read Boom, Bust and Echo by David Foot. He explains how it all happened and his future predictions.
Donāt blame them for being born all at the same time and trying to forge a path through life.
They are exactly like you , not understanding the dynamics and economics of living with millions of others like themselves.
They all were like you, trying to forge a path through life with millions of others that were born at the same time.
Interesting book.