I recently read a very insightful blog by Uber-blogger and thought leader Ted Coine'. He makes some great points in his post entitled "An Open Letter to the Young & Unemployed". You can read it here: http://www.tedcoine.com/archives/107
There was a theme however, that got me thinking. It has to do with the push-back I keep hearing from Boomers about our current economic situation we find ourselves in. Essentially, it comes in the form of this statement: "It does no good to keep trying to place blame on us for this mess, we just all need to work hard to get out of the situation".
My own caveat: I agree kids today should listen to grown-ups, because they know stuff. If you are over 50, you are not going to be comfortable with much of this, but please read through to the end. Also, this post is meant to be less a direct response to the actual article or Mr. Coiné , and more a general commentary on generational issues we face as a society. Having said that….giddy up!!
An open Letter in Response-
Dear Baby Boomer,
It's not young peoples fault that your boomerang kids are still at home.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I’m what one would call a GenX'r. I was born solidly in the middle of the range that is generally referred to as the "Lost" generation.
We grew up hearing the same rhetoric about us that is now used about the Gen Y and Millennial people. "They are self absorbed", "They are coddled", and “They are entitled". Believe it or not, they get it, and they hear you. They stand ready to take whatever punches are coming. They may even have to take knee sometimes, but their resolve is strong, as is the desire to win.
However, there is a 500 pound gorilla in the room that no one wants to talk about. That is the fact that, yes- this economic mess IS your fault! Stop telling us to pay no attention to the man behind the green curtain! Please stop trying to stifle the conversation as just a meaningless “Young vs. Old” argument. Boomers are now in the power seat, and have directed the conversation away from this fundamental fact for too long.
Sure, it’s easy enough to say that it does no good to place blame on anything as vague and encompassing as an entire generation. In this case it is unfortunately true. Here is why: the defining characteristic of your generation is inconsistency, and hypocrisy.
WOW! That is a pretty aggressively negative statement, right? Well, buckle up, because it’s the main driver for many of our society’s problems today.
Boomers like to wax poetic about being the generation that spurred a new expanded consciousness and forward thinking in the world. After all, your generation was the one who fought for equal rights and social change in the 60’s. You rebelled against the self-sacrificing, duty and honor based concepts of your parents. You created a new world of social values. This became your defining characteristic as a generation.
You then immediately turned your backs on those concepts in the 70’s and made it about hedonistic self-indulgence. As your generation made it’s way into the work force and became influencers of the economy, America saw one it’s most dark and depressing economic eras including not one, but two recessions, stagflation, and the beginning of the end of the American dominance in many industries including the automotive industry.
Then in the 80’s you overcorrected, and made it about greed and economic self-indulgence. You turned your back on the concepts of dignity for the working class, and created a fantasy that everyone should aspire to be wealthy and affluent. You dropped your deeply held beliefs that economic goals and focus where a bad thing, and you did a 180. You made it ALL about that. You took social justice off the mantel and replaced it with perceived affluence. Again, you turned your back on your core-identifying characteristic.
The 90’s came, and you doubled down. You created false tech economies, and gambled with IPOs, VCs and worthless stock options. No longer where you about creating something, or even building something, you made it about profit, and outsourcing. In 1995 your generation was at the reigns for the first bail out of Goldman Sachs, and that public/private parasitic relationship was cast in iron. You created the paradigm of “irrational exuberance” for the economy, and we are still paying for it today.
By the year 2000, the defining characteristic of the Boomer generation became an egocentric pseudo-nostalgic attitude coupled with evangelical conservatism. This again, is something that people don’t want to discuss, but what a contradiction!
At this point Boomers are creating false economies so elaborate that they make the IPO tricks of the 90’s seem “Old Timey” and quaint. (Google this: Sub-Prime Lending Crisis). Government backed trillion dollar handouts to billionaires are so common now, that no one bats an eye. The dignity of the working class no longer exists in popular culture. As Ricky Bobby said, “If you ain’t first, you’re last”. Meanwhile, Boomers are more concerned with spending their retirement savings on some sort of rock band camp, or surfing lessons, or some other equally self indulgent activity, than they are in mentoring, developing, or engaging in any altruistic endeavors (see “The 60s”).
Only now are some of the older Boomers beginning to realize that these generations that they have maligned from Gen X on, are the ones who will be wiping their butts and changing their adult diapers for the next 30 years. Only recently have some began to decry the fact that “our grandchildren will be paying for this”, even as they vote en masse to protect their own back sides with the safety net of Social Security, and Medicare while making it all but inevitable that that system will implode by the time the next generations will need it.
Well, there is a silver lining. You see, the Gen X, and Gen Y generations are also connected to the Greatest Generation. They were and are our grandparents. Believe it or not, many of us have developed a sense of duty, honor, and altruism because of this. We’ll take care of you. We’ll carry you through. Your parents taught us that. And many of us are teaching this to our kids.
While it makes a lot of sense to tell this newest generation entering the work force to “buck up” and “pull themselves up by their bootstraps”, be aware that the boots need to be pulled up because of what YOU did, not because of what THEY did. Be careful with the sanctimony. Kids today have instant access to every bit of information in the world, including details about the Boomer generation and what you have done for half a century.
There is no getting around the fact that YOU created this economic disaster, not the boomerang kids.
As negative as this portrait of the Boomer generation may seem, young people don’t hate you. Some of our best friends are Boomers. And you get all the credit in the world for some pretty awesome cultural phenomenon such as real rock music played with electric guitars, and a thousand sweet soul songs with a melody.
There is still hope for you guys. You still have immense capacity and resources to make a difference. At this point, my only hope is that you stick with your defining characteristic: inconsistency and hypocrisy.
1) Be hypocritical and mentor a young person, rather than focus on the indulgent retirement dreams you have been building and rebuilding. If you place so much value on your experiences, then don’t malign the young people for being the product of the society that you created, take a proactive role and help them.
2) Be inconsistent and reverse the mental attitude that contributed to this situation. Help work towards an altruistic society where the working class is no longer the working poor. Bring it back to thinking about others, even if it’s just a little. Turn your vision outward, rather than inward. You remember right? Help make the role of the common man something aspirational in our society again. Work to change your own way of thinking and try to realize that personal financial wealth may be a valid and important thing, but it’s not the only thing.
3) Reverse the rhetoric and stop maligning the young folk for complaining about this economy. Accept responsibility for your generation’s role in this mess. These kids where not even born when the dot com bubble burst, and we should have all learned our lesson the first time.
4) Do a 180 and make it about social justice and change again. Consider the truth in the discrepancies of available opportunities for young people, women, and people of color. They still exist. Dust off your old LPs and listen to the lyrics again: Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, Phil Ochs, Joan Baez, Sam Cooke, among others.
5) Please- for your own sake, quit hoarding your time and treasure and invest in a future that you will have no personal stake in (because believe it or not, you will be dead). Set an example for a young person that acknowledges we are all connected. You are the sage ones now. It’s up to you to set the example of personal investment in understanding our connections to yesterday, today, and yes, tomorrow.
6) Turn tail and redefine your generations legacy. Actively take the role as self-sacrificing, servant leaders of our society. Show the newest generations how to give to get. Give of your time, experience and treasure. Do it by example. Do it now. Do it a lot.
It is true that this too shall pass. But what will be left when YOU are gone? What will you pass along to the young and unemployed? You benefited from the immeasurable sacrifices of the greatest generation. They covered your butts and helped you every step of the way. Now that they are fading away, what will you do to pay it forward? How will you step up and help these young people…other than to tell them it does no good to blame you for the problem that you created?
