Scourge of the Baby Boomers: Genesis of the Generation

The baby boomers are the children and grandchildren of the "Greatest Generation", the one that had to struggle through two world wars and a major economic depression. They were born to parents who had the intestinal fortitude and courage to not only survive those hardships but to go on and selflessly ensure that their children (we, the boomers) would have better lives than they had had. For these previous generations marriage was looked at through the prism of duty, obligation, and sacrifice. The welfare of their children was the highest priority and after overcoming such dire times they assumed the responsibilities of adulthood, marriage and family at an early age. And once you got married it meant forever for most of them anyway. There was no easy way out. It's probably difficult to believe now but society then considered marriage to be sacred and almost inviolable. Divorce should only be considered in the most extreme circumstances. Unlike today, saner heads understood that the breaking up of a family not only damaged the individuals involved, especially the children, but also was destructive of society at large. Consequently divorce laws made it very difficult to sue unless you had "grounds". People were still held responsible for their actions and to "judge" someone was not yet a politically incorrect crime. As a result the divorce rate in 1950 was an unbelievable 19% as compared to the 70's and 80's when it soared to about 50% where it pretty much still stands today. And no, not all those marriages were blissfully happy. But unless one of the parties was guilty of conduct that made going on with the marriage impossible, such as adultery, or mental or physical cruelty, you sucked it up and did your best. Our parents didn't have the time nor the inclination to look for their "soul mates". They were busy working and raising their children. And in spite of not searching for and finding their own personal "bliss" and "self-actualization", they still managed to keep the spousal murder rate to a minimum. Whereas if you open the newspaper today you are sure to find a story about murder in the family somewhere. In the 50's and 60's and even 70's familial murder was so uncommon that it still had the power to shock. Long gone are the days when you could let your young child go to school by himself (and of course herself) or go into a public washroom unsupervised without fearing that some child sexual killer will be lurking in the shadows.

And into this (compared to today) veritable nirvana were the baby boomers born. Most of us weren't rich but post war North America was affluent compared to what our parent's and grandparents had to lived through. We didn't have to worry about a roof over our head,or where our next meal was coming from. And until Vietnam there was no real war threatening the boomers. Certainly there was always the possibility of a nuclear attack from Russia but probably because I grew up in Canada it seemed pretty far fetched. No one I knew actually built a fall out shelter. And the only time I felt real fear was after seeing the movie "Fail Safe". So lucky were we that thanks to the miracles of modern medicine we were safe from the ravages of all those childhood diseases that previous generations had suffered from. Thanks to Jonas Salk we no longer had to fear getting polio and spending our lives in one of those horrible iron lungs. Medical advances also kept our parents living longer. I can't think of anyone who had to quit school to go to work and help support his/her family if a parent died. If truth be told our lives were pretty cushy and stress free. We didn't have to deal with step-mothers or step-fathers, step-brothers or step-sisters, mom's boyfriend of the month, dad's new girlfriend. Mom never wanted to go bar hopping with me (not that I went bar hopping)and though I wore a mini in my early twenties my mother never did, even though she probably would have looked good in one. She was my mother not my friend.

We had very little to worry about so we spent most of the time thinking about ourselves and about what was wrong with society and how we were going to fix it. In their university days boomers decided that society needed a revolution to throw off the shackles of their parent's generation. There would be an end to war, poverty, the enslavement of women, the subjugation of the black man, sexual expression would no longer have any rules constraining it and if the pill didn't work or you forgot to take it, abortion would be on demand. It would be about "self-actualization" in other words it would be about ME! ME! ME! Ours would be a "brave new world" aided and abetted by all those advances in science and technology, and forever young. Who could have imagined that it would turn out the way it did?

Addendum to my last posting

The reader may be wondering what this has to do with Baby Boomers and how they are complicit in the tragedy that happened here. Well let me respond by saying that if the politically correct wackos of my generation had not been in such thrall to the U.N. and had not placed the security and the welfare of the world's neediest and vulnerable in their corrupt hands, perhaps this latest disaster like so many others (Somalia, Rawanda just to name a few) could have been avoided.

Just keep collecting those pennies for UNICEF.

J.

Scourge of the "Baby Boomers": Part III, The Nightmare Continues

It is estimated that this week's earthquake in Haiti will probably cost the lives of thousands upon thousands of people. Contrast this with the San Francisco earthquake of 1989 in which 67 people were killed, 6,000 homes destroyed, and 2,000 left homeless. Both quakes registered around the same strength, so then why was one a major disaster and the other a cataclysm of bibilical proportions. Haiti became more than just an island in the caribbean in 1967 when the movie, "The Comedians", was released. For movie fans it starred Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. It is set in the Haiti of "Papa Doc" Duvalier and details in living colour that brutal and savage regime. Duvalier ruled with an iron fist and anyone who dared to oppose him was dealt with by his murderous thugs. His son baby doc followed in his father's footsteps and lacking his father's ruthlessness he was quickly deposed and forced out. Thereupon followed a long line of pretenders until the present day. And for many, many years this island has been one of the most wretchedly poor places in the world.
The world however, did not turned a blind eye to the suffering, and over the years billions and billions of dollars have poured into this tiny basket case of a nation, unfortunately to no avail. For as the rescue teams sent from everywhere are finding out, that even with all the money in the world nothing can help if there are no means to reach the injured and dying and starving. In spite of the presence of the U.N. (9000 of them), all that international aid and all those missionaries and do gooders, Haiti still does not have an infrastructure to enable rescue teams to do their work. The majority of homes don't have safe drinking water, sewage disposal or electricity. There are no reliable roads or even a sound financial system. Half the people can't read or write and one in eight children dies before the age of five. On the positive side they probably have never heard of Al Gore or global warming.

So where did all that money go? It sort reminds me of Arafat and the Palestinians. Apparently the Prime Minister had a very nice house, larger even than Obama's house in Washington,but unfortunately it fell down, it too was built according to code, Haiti's that is. And as for the U.N., another success story, just one of many. It is sad that their house fell down too, they should have built it out of bricks rather than straw.

J

Scourge of the Baby Boomers: Part II

Anyone who doesn't believe that society has fallen into a dark hole only has to open up the pages of his daily newspaper, watch the evening news, or follow what now passes for entertainment.

I come from a faraway land where people were responsible for their actions.  Childhood was not extended to middle age and once you reached the age of majority you were expected to take on the mantle of adulthood and not behave like a selfish, spoiled child.  If you acted badly then you had to suffer the consequences.  If you acted badly no one reassured you that your behaviour might be bad but you were still a good person.  These were the days before excuses.  If you were an alcoholic it was not a disease but a choice you made.  If you were a serial adulturer it wasn't an addiction that you couldn't control but disgustingly selfish behaviour.  If you intentionally murdered someone you faced the death penalty. Of course those were the days when innocent human life was still sacred and and the taking of it was considered by society to be the ultimate crime.  Most children lived together with their mothers and fathers who tried to raise them to be responsible adults who would go on to form their own nuclear families.  If you were a kid growing up in the 50's and 60's certain things were expected of you.  You respected your parents and other adults and didn't talk back to them.  There were definite boundaries that people didn't cross.  Your parents were your parents and not your friends.  Their job was to care for you,  teach you moral  values and discipline you when you did something wrong.  School was there to teach you the three R's  and not to be a substitute for your family.    Divorce was rare; parents didn't murder their children; children didn't murder their parents; mothers didn't steal their daughters' boyfriends; fathers didn't steal their son's girlfriends; and daughters didn't go bar hopping with their mothers.  Being a wife and mother represented the highest goals for a woman, and a man was expected to be the bread winner in the family.  There was no free love, hence the term shot gun wedding.  Come to think of it there is still no free love.  Someone always has to pay the piper.

So what happened to destroy this almost idyllic picture.  Enter the baby boomers. Not all of them.  Some of us managed to grow up and ignore the revolution.  We were too busy doing what we were supposed to to pay serious attention to what the bra burners were doing.  Too bad.

Baby Boomers and how they led to the dumming down of society: Part 1

I mentioned in my last blog that Toronto was still the same dull and boring city that I grew up in during the

50's and 60's.  I, however, was not aware at the times of just how stultifying the place was because I had

the good fortune of being born into a family of Jewish immigrants who had survived Hitler's inferno.  The

survivor community was very warm and close-knit and for a people who had lost so many of their real

relatives other survivors became part of their extended family.  It is remarkable that these people who had

suffered  such unspeakable evil, could walk out of the ashes and create whole new lives for themselves. 

They lost everything.  Their families, their homes.  Most had to learn a new language.    Whatever sorrow or

pain they felt they kept banked down deep inside themselves so they could get on with the job of living. 

Every new child that was born was a victory over Hitler.  I remember great joy and laughter especially when

the Bar Mitzvah's started in the late fifties.  What could be a greater symbol of survival and a greater cause

for celebration than the Bar Mitzvah of a son.  The family invited everyone they

knew and simchas with more than 400 guests were not uncommon.  Even though they were not people

of great means the majority being either garment factory workers or small shopkeepers, no expenses were

spared.  You never got by without at least an eight piece live band, liquor flowed, food was bountiful. 

The host family would greet all their guests in a formal receiving line, each person stopping to wave or say

something to the camaera.  Everyone was dressed in their finest.  Men wore tuxes and the perfectly coiffed

women were in long evening gowns and those who could afford it were wrapped in mink stoles.  The latter

were usually women.  And no matter what age they were no female went bare legged.  Sox for children and

once you reached adolescence nylons or pantyhose were obligatory.  To go without stockings would have

been considered to be the height of bad taste unlike today where even in the coldest of winter and

defying all common sense  you see females of all ages including those who should know better going sans

stockings.  There were no naked toes dangling over the edge of a summer sandal.  Thank God!

For me the moment in the evening that I looked forward to the most was when the dinner was over

and the tables were rolled out to make room for the dancing. I remember how exciting it was, everyone

dancing their tuchises off (butts in today's vernacular) to waltzes, polkas, fox trots, tangoes.  When I was

younger the Bunny Hop was a big deal for the kids, as was jive and the Cha Cha.  Our parents did not make

fools of themselves by trying to emulate their kids by doing the "new" dances.  Thankfully I never saw my

father do the "Twist" even though he was a great ballroom dancer.  Nothing looks more stupid today than

all those geriatric baby boomers who stand in the middle of the dance floor shaking to the Golden Oldies. 

Most of them couldn't dance then and what was acceptable in youth now looks like they are suffering from

Huntington's Chorea. 

That brings me to the  main purpose of my blog;: Baby Boomers and how they

ruined society.  My generation, those of us born after World War II, that is from about 1946 to the early

60's just refused to grow up.  Many of us will hold on to our childhoods until our dying day.  And we

produced a generation that has extended their childhood even longer than we did to the point where

contemporary society has created a culture by children and for children and where so called adults refuse

to put away their childish things.

J.



 
 

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It's been quite a while since my last post but the holidays got in the way and with a full house I didn't have the concentration to be able to get my thoughts down.  Originally I was going to go into a detailed history of the city of Toronto for this posting but I decided that not only would it put me to sleep but it would have the same effect on anyone who by chance came across this blog.  Suffice to say that the Toronto of today is nothing like the city I grew up in during the fifties and sixties.  Toronto was clean, safe and and a stronghold of Waspdom, especially the Protestant Calvinist kind.  I don't remember seeing a non white face until about 1956 when I was nine years old.  Of course Toronto had its Jewish minority which until the late forties when Italian immigrants started to come to the city in large numbers, represented the largest ethnic group next to the white Protestants.  Today Toronto is a city of so many different ethnic groups that it is truly a global microcosm.  One of the largest groups comes from China with a population of approximately 600,000.  This fact is responsible for one of the few reasons to visit the city, it has great Chinese food.  Prior to the late 60's and early 70's Toronto Chinese food was your regular Western fare, chop suey, chow mein, sweet and sour chicken balls, egg rolls.  But once the massive influx of  Chinese immigrants began and the restauraters had a solid Chinese customer base the food became much more authentic.  That's the good news.  Unfortunately it is outweighed by the bad.  Toronto is still as dull and boring as it was in the early years but it is no longer clean or safe. 

Naturally all things must change but I never would have believed that a city that was once so conservative and orderly could be so turned on its head that it has become unrecognizeable much like the rest of the world that this 60+ year old finds herself in.  Looking back on almost six decades especially in the last three decades I don't think that any generation has had to face as much change as the baby boomers, much of it negative and much of it of their own making.