From: ibshambat@gmail.com   
      
   When I was attending a private Christian school in Virginia, I was for a while   
   a star student. Then I started going around telling people that they didn’t   
   exist. I was acting like a 1960s teenager, and that was disturbing to some in   
   the administration.    
   They thought that the baby boomers were a bad crop and that only they behaved   
   in that way. They found out to the contrary.   
      
   These people wanted to recreate 1950s. When you recreate the conditions   
   preceding a phenomenon, you are recreating conditions that lead to the   
   phenomenon. This, then, leads to the re-emergence of the phenomenon. The   
   people who want to recreate the    
   conditions preceding the union movement and socialism are recreating   
   conditions that lead to the beginning of the union movement and socialism.   
   Which means that they are going to get slammed with something like the union   
   movement and socialism – yet    
   again.   
      
   Now there are many people who see baby boomers as a bad crop; but I don’t   
   see them that way. They did a lot that was right. That was both the case in   
   them fighting for women’s rights and civil rights in 1960s as in them   
   creating the computer industry    
   and the Wall Street boom in 1980s and 1990s. There are many gen-X women who   
   despise their mothers, but without them they would not be able to have their   
   careers or their right to be anything except a stay-at-home wives. They   
   weren’t a bad crop; they    
   were people who had different ideas from ones of their parents. And many of   
   these ideas were good ones.   
      
   So here am I, looking up to the baby boomers. Does that make me a spoiled   
   child or a narcissist? I care about all sorts of people besides myself, and I   
   also care about nature. The women in my life all experienced me as   
   affectionate, loving and warm, and    
   my daughter told me that I’m the best dad ever. I fought the truly obnoxious   
   beliefs that some among baby boomers have, such as that everything that   
   happens to people is a reflection of what’s in their consciousness or that   
   fear is at the root of    
   everything wrong with the world or that positive thinking, high self-esteem   
   and believing in oneself is the solution to everything. I have no respect for   
   obviously wrong beliefs. I do however have respect for any number of baby   
   boomers.   
      
   When my former boss was telling me that he was getting long in the tooth, I   
   told him that everyone gets old except the people who die young. Many of these   
   people bloomed in their youth, and as they lost their youth they lost their   
   identity. They have    
   nostalgia for the great times they had when they were young. My response to   
   that is that the human process is never finished. There are many things that   
   they can do as older people to have meaningful life and achieve a legacy in   
   the world.   
      
   Now to be fair any number of Gen-Xers come from the right place as well. There   
   are many baby boomers who accuse them of being negative. That is because the   
   problems of the world aren’t being addressed, and there is nothing to   
   justify a positive outlook.   
    As the problems of the world do get address, I can guarantee that these   
   people will become more positive. The behaviour toward them is bullying and   
   unethical, and that gives credit to those who want to see baby boomers as   
   narcissists. The concerns of    
   gen-Xers are legitimate. They deserve to be addressed.   
      
   The people who see 1960s as an anomaly have not studied history. Similar   
   themes took place in the Romantic period that followed Enlightenment and in   
   the early 20th century period that followed Victorianism. Some among   
   conservatives have made a whole    
   ideology about how baby boomers were evil. They are wrong. They are not evil;   
   they had another idea as to how they can live. Their behaviour was not a   
   function of their character. It was a function of their beliefs.   
      
   Beliefs change all the time; and pursuing them people’s behaviour. The   
   people who started out as compassionate and idealistic pursuant 1960s   
   Romanticism became bullying, careless and short-sighted as they embraced the   
   dogmas of positive thinking,    
   winners-and-losers and self-esteem. The same people were responsible for both   
   phenomena. Their character did not change. Their beliefs did, and pursuant   
   that their conduct.   
      
   As for myself, I look up less to 1960s than to 1920s. There was a strong   
   anti-business sentiment in 1960s, and I think that that is wrong. A lot is   
   owed to business, and business should be treated with respect. At the same   
   time respect also should be    
   afforded to culture, which many in business world do not do. Both business and   
   culture constitute accomplishment. Both are valid forms of human endeavour.   
   And in 1920s the two co-existed to create the period in which America became   
   the unquestioned    
   leader of the world.   
      
   So it important that things be put into perspective. 1960s was not the only   
   time in history in which these themes were tried, nor will they be the last.   
   The people who fail to learn from history repeat it. If you recreate 1950s, it   
   is only a matter of    
   time before you get something like 1960s. And if you recreate the conditions   
   preceding union movement and socialism, it is only a matter of time before you   
   get slammed with something like union movement and socialism yet again.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)