I followed the Facebook page 98% for years. It is supposed to be about the rights of regular citizens. But, for the last couple of years they have posted many nasty memes about "Boomers".
The most recent was about the rising costs of a college education. Not a thing I dispute. But, at the bottom, it had the following: the words--"what will it take to get boomers to accept this" with an image of a young man phyically assaulting an older woman.
I was not the only one to take offense and to comment on it. A 30 something guy proceeded to lecture me about the difference between the boomer generation and the boomer "mentality" which I then said doesn't exist. Because we are individuals, not a monolith.
Ageism is one of the most ridiculous prejudices. All of us seniors were young once. We understand youth. The same does not apply going the other way. Every one of the millennials and zoomers who are lucky enough to get old will someday experience much of what we boomers are now. Setting up a hostile situation is not helpful.
And, in this case, it is absolutely mistaken. First of all, it is Reagan and his class war, combined with late stage capitalism that keeping the up and coming generations down. It is also keeping the middle class and below among the boomers and gen-x down.
Reagan was not a boomer. He was WWII generation. But the salient detail is not his generational affiliation, but his position of power.
Second, many boomers are strapped with student debt too. One of the largest demographics of debtors are over 65. They will never be free without student loan forgiveness.
Contrary to popular belief a great many boomers live in poverty and will never fully retire. We need to stop allowing the divisive tactics and look at the real oppressors. That is how we avoid falling for the divide and control ploy.
Another thing I have noticed is an explosion of articles telling “boomers” what to wear, how to decorate their homes, how not to look “old”. But we are getting old, and that is the natural way. Most of these instructional articles are written by 25 year olds. I would not try to tell a 25 year old how to live, and believe I should be afforded the same respect.
Then there are the vociferous calls to overturn the power dynamic in the public sphere by throwing out all the representatives who are “too old” and replacing them, willy nilly, with younger models.
Never mind that some of these public servants have stood with their fingers in the dike holding back fascism for decades. Never mind that they are consummate professionals still getting things done.
My advice to the upcoming generation is to step up and run for something. Nobody is stopping you. And you will get your turn in the fullness of time. It is the nature of life that the young supersede the old. Don’t bitch— step up!
There has always been tension between the generations. The young want to lead and the old don’t want to retire, or lose their prowess, or, ultimately, die.
But in evolutionary terms, inter- generational cooperation is the rule, not the exception. Grandparents play an essential role in the survival of the children.
And even the ones spouting the current nonsense actually know this. Because they too have elders that they admire and love.
There are plenty of characteristics that separate us. Most of them static. Our race, our sex, our IQ, and our social class. But our age is not one of those things. If you live long enough, you get to experience all of it.
Generations are made up of individuals, but also share a common experience of a moment in history, where time is also moving on. If we are to survive this perilous moment in our overarching human history, we must do it together.
My generation had its own saying: Never trust anyone over 30. It was our “OK Boomer”. And we were both wrong.
Why would we discriminate against our future selves?
Yup.