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.