Throughout the twentieth and now the twenty-first century, generally each American generation has taken on an identity of its own, shaped by the circumstances that surround it during its most seminal years.   It is also an American tradition for clever Madison Avenue types to attach a nickname to each generation that embodies its most weighty attribute; the “Baby Boomers” after the post-war spike in childbirth, which lasted almost two decades.  The “Greatest Generation” was branded due to the overwhelming hardships that generation overcame in order to deliver a more prosperous and safer nation to its successors.  There is “Generation X” and “Generation Y” - the offspring of “Baby Boomers” who dragged us into the high-tech revolution of the present by its demand for more gadgets, and its penchant for multi-tasking.  The current group of twentysomethings is aptly referred to as the “Me Generation” for its members’ apparent empathy deficit and attitudes toward marriage and family.  

My parents are of the Greatest Generation, I am of the Baby Boomers, and my children are of the Me Generation.   Throughout my life I have learned that those from the Greatest Generation tend to be more identical in the attributes they share.  From the emphasis on religious and family values to their sense of economy and loyalty, the Greatest Generation was shaped by events that had a far greater impact on their lives and upbringing than any other generation alive today. 

We Baby Boomers, who flourished in an America that enjoyed mostly vibrant economic growth and relative peace, became more diverse in our principles and values, as there was no great life-changing event to cause us to unify.  We encouraged cultural diversity which served to segment American society rather than integrate it.  Throughout the baby boom period, social engineers were busy finding the next cause célèbre to provide meaning to our otherwise mundane lives.   The tone of politics and the nature of protest changed during these times in a revolutionary way.  Slowly the foundation of American culture began to erode, spawning a new counter-culture movement.  

No longer satisfied with the preceding generation’s version of the “American Dream,” a quest for excess manifested itself in everything from our art to the cars we drove.  Bigger, faster, more outrageous was the meme of my generation.   The immense economic wealth of our nation triggered generational complacency, and apathy toward America’s roots and the great sacrifices made on our behalf by our ancestors.

  
Every generation eventually matures and gains valuable wisdom along the way.  The Greatest Generation was forced to mature early by two world wars and an economic depression lasting more than a decade.  The Baby Boomers as a generation were relative late bloomers.  Whereas the life lessons we were taught by our parents were about integrity, work ethic, loyalty and family, and were born of the events that shaped them, the lessons we imparted on our children were about equality, tolerance and self-awareness.   These lessons were born more from political strife and the avant-garde methods of education in the 1960’s and 1970’s, where one’s feelings about an outcome suddenly became more important than the outcome itself.  Concepts like self-esteem, self-actualization and celebrating diversity caused a digression of our maturity to the point where we became our children’s friends rather than their parents. 

The emphasis the “Boomers” placed on feelings made its way into politics, education, and even jurisprudence.  We became a “feel-good” society, which led to more drugs, more sex, and more risky behaviors – consequences be damned.   In a society where our role models were once our mothers, fathers, and brave men and women who sacrificed so much for our freedom, we suddenly idolized arrogant, self-absorbed politicians and counter-culture ideologues.  We allowed the “feel-good” tenets of Socialism and Liberalism to insidiously corrupt our educational system.  We stood idly by while the Christianity that served as the foundation for our nation of laws was slowly yanked out from under us by the opportunists we trusted to lead us.  In a prolonged moment of exceptional laziness, we enabled descendents of slaves to be enslaved themselves, only this time by the “feel-good” policies enacted by anointed, power-hungry politicians, where the plantation is now the voting booth.  Instead of promoting equal opportunity for prosperity, we shamelessly promoted the opportunity to receive barely enough, in exchange for a vote.  The incomparable system of education that served America so well through the late 1960’s, was envied by almost every industrialized nation in the world.  We compromised its principles, by placing emphasis on cultural diversity, giving new meaning to the term “offensive” while sacrificing the necessary basics like math, science and English.  We forced sensitivity training onto our teachers and subordinated proficiency training.  We now are looked at as an educational experiment gone horribly wrong.  We sat back and applauded as the Federal Government reached its tentacles deeper and deeper into our lives in the name of public safety.   For every problem, there was a government solution.  Or so it seemed.  Only most government “solutions” were over-reaching, bureaucratic boondoggles with unintended consequences worse than the original problem.

My generation loves its country and we never backed down from a fight.  When called upon to fight for our nation or for a cause we believed in, we were there.   In retrospect however, we did not always choose the right side or we ended the battle too soon.  After winning the battle for equal rights for all Americans, we should have kept on fighting against the over-corrections and the push for protected classes of Americans.  When the cancer that is Political Correctness was just a Leftist hallucination, we should have fought back with a zeal never before seen in American politics.  We fought the Communists in Vietnam, but didn’t fight the Communists within our own borders.  We revered our Military, but did not fight long or hard enough to care for them properly in their time of need.  We sat silently by as the environmental movement hijacked our sense of self-preservation in the name of preserving something else.  After enduring the misery of the Carter presidency and the OPEC stranglehold on our nation, we said “never again.”  Yet as we stand today, we have a Jimmy Carter replica in the White House and we are more dependent on foreign oil than ever.

Each generation has left its successor a better, more prosperous America than it inherited.  As the last Baby Boomers approach the age of fifty however, that streak may end.  And for that, on behalf of my generation, I apologize.  We should have been more attentive and less narcissistic.  We should have been more give and less take.   We should have recognized the time-tested fact that government is rarely the answer and usually the problem; that Ponzi schemes like Social Security always collapse under their own weight, and that when government intervenes in an industry like healthcare, prices will soar.  We should have been aware of politicians entering Congress with a modest net worth, and exiting as millionaires.  Only we were too busy tending to our own needs. 

The current Great Recession may serve as a life-altering experience for Generations X and Y, and may create an environment where tried and true fundamentals will drive decisions and not feel-good experiments.   Perhaps these generations will learn the value of the energy sources we have and not chase the fairy dust mirage of solar and wind power without regard to current energy needs. 
 

If the Great Recession is merely a course correction that builds a foundation for future prosperity, then my generation’s reckless disregard for anything but self-satisfaction will not have been in vain.