Generation Schmeneration.

[baby_mouse]

Frankly, I'm finding all this talk of generation gaps to be so much hot air. The main thing that I've noticed about people younger than me is that they all have the SAME cultural references, not different ones!

How much of this talk of slacker youngsters with their impenetrable directionlessness is fear of being REPLACED?

When I went on the HUGELY well attended Stop the War March it wsa STUFFED with young people, the vast majority of the march attendees was young people!

[Blue_In_AK]

1. I don't think there's near the gap

there was when I was young back in the Dark Ages, at least in my own family. I really didn't have much in common at all with my parents -- not the music, the clothes, the politics, the lifestyle -- nothing. They just had a whole different outlook on life, coming out of the Depression and World War II era. Now with my own children (21, 29 and 34), we listen to a lot of the same music, all generally have a fairly liberal outlook on life (although the older one claims to be a Republican, I'm not sure where I went wrong there), we talk openly about sex and drugs, other "controversial" topics. That just never would have happened when I was in my 20s. The gap then was huge ... the gap now is in name only, I think.

Maybe I'm just an extra cool mom. :)

[baby_mouse]

3. So cool!

You sound like an excellent Mom! I kind of wish mine had been as cool... She voted Thatcher. Still would...

[Warpy]

2. I don't think there's much of a gap on the left, especially

As for younger folks being directionless, it's hard to choose a direction when 90% of them lead to jobs vulnerable to either mechanization or offshoring. We boomers saw the jobs start to go and Congress do nothing about it. They don't have most of them to begin with and lack any sense of security regarding the ones that have a chance of staying here. Remember, they're trying to offshore healthcare, cheaper to fly a heart patient to Thailand than get him treated here.

When one of them spouts ignorance of recent history, I'll correct him. However, I realize we're all on the same side here.

[baby_mouse]

4. I know.

I just got pissed off with all pro Draft people, really the draft seems like a bit of a sledgehammer to take to an entire age group simply on the grounds that that they're *directionless*.

I didn't see you on any of the other threads, Warpy, are you pro-draft? I promise not to bite you. :)

[mtnester]

5. I am not a friend of pro draft

using our young people to force an issue is not a good thing.

And it would shame the memory of those who are no longer with us who fought a draft during another waste of a war.

We should work harder on a change of heart for mankind rather than using tactic, force or subterfuge to make a point..demeaning young people who are not for a draft is NO different than calling someone Un-American if they disagree with policy.

For the record, I have a draftable age son...who they would not take NOW under the Don't ask, don't tell rule...but would certainly sacrifice in a minute under a draft, no matter the INTENTION of forcing a draft.

[baby_mouse]

9. Agreed.

It was shifty-eyed, that wrangling. Why can't they get that they've WON, already?

[Warpy]

12. Here ya go

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2979921&mesg_id=2979949

[baby_mouse]

13. Word.

:thumbsup:

[Greyhound]

6. Are you an American? Have you lived here long or ever? n/t

As a borderline gen X member, I have seen the results of following the largest, most selfish, irresponsible, generation this country has ever created, first hand.

[Blue_In_AK]

7. I think that's really quite unfair personally.

Not all of us "baby boomers" are George Bush and his minions.

[Greyhound]

11. No, of course not and I understand this. I don't know if it is even a majority, or

if it is a significant minority, but you have to admit that the boomers have taken far more than they've given, and with no concern for how their behavior will effect succeeding generations. My parents are/were baby boomers, they marched for civil rights for all, they were also hippies years before it became fashionable and they kept those values for the rest of their lives.

It is just that the good one's are either too few in number, or too marginalized to have a voice that is heard. Looking at election results since 1968 I suspect it is the former.

So, I'm probably not talking about many/most here on DU.

[baby_mouse]

8. No, to be fair, I am not and have not

And if there is a genuine problem with under 35s behaving irresponsibly then this has to be addressed...

BUT I find it hard to believe, given the Americans *I* have met, who are mostly my own age (35) or under, that these people deserve to be drafted along with the jackasses to give them direction. They are *always* among the most generous and responsible people I know, also, they have the CLEAREST ideas about the sancity of life and the most sincere dedication to their principles that I have observed.

*I* think it's being ignored that there is a new left arising among young people in the States. Drafting them is not a good idea. Surely there is some tool less sledgehammerish?

I realise you're talking about that Other Lot. Yes, between them and Gen X/Y there is an almost unsurmountable gap...

[Greyhound]

15. I see, and I didn't understand where you were coming from. I agree

that the draft is a terrible idea, insane even.

I also totally disagree with the slacker label hung on us by the media because of a book that they apparently never read, because the picture they chose to paint was the antithesis of the book itself, i.e. we didn't live with our parents longer because we were too lazy to go, but because we came into our working age during re:puke: administrations and the accompanying contracting/consolidating markets while simultaneously butting up against the 4(2?) million boomers that still occupyied the available positions.

Peace.

[Sapphocrat]

10. If I feel any gap at all...

...it's between my own Lost Generation -- the Baby Busters (raised on "Bewitched" and "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron") and the actual Baby Boomers (raised on "Howdy Dowdy" and Pat Boone) -- who got all the good jobs (and still get all the attention) by virtue of being just five to 15 years older than we are/were.

I share a lot more in common with Gen-Xers and all the "babies" who came after. Not pop-culturally (I became utterly clueless about what's in and what's out sometime in the 1980s), but politically.

As my sister (nine years older than I) told me, the day my parents brought me home from the hospital, she just knew me, on sight; she looked down at me for the first time and said, "THERE you are! I've been waiting for you!"

That is how I feel about 'most every lefty younger than I am: It TOOK you long enough to get here! But now that you've finally been born, I certainly am glad to see you! :)


On edit: Stupid typo, as usual

[baby_mouse]

16. Baby Buster!

I did not know this term. I'd have called "Bewitched" a boomer show.

:hi:

[Sapphocrat]

17. Just means those of us...

...born at the very tail end of what's considered the Boomer era (which "officially" ended sometime between 1962 and '64, depending on who you ask). Which is really stretching it; how can a "postwar" baby boom last 16-18 years after the war is over? I would think the frenzied equivalent of "Terror Sex" would have been finished after the first few years. LOL

I was born in '61, btw. Great year for movies, wine, and babies. :D

[Jed Dilligan]

14. There are only partisans and non-partisans

Partisans want to shift the blame for Democrats who don't inspire the young to vote onto the young themselves.