Understanding the Failure of American Idealism
Understanding the Failure of American Idealism
14 December 2005
I had a thought a few days ago that surprised me. Something that seems to me so obvious and yet I have not read or heard it stated before. I’ll try to make a case for this idea here.
After the return of the World War 2 soldiers there was a sizable increase in the number of babies born. This group has been labeled the Baby Boomers, often defined as those born between 1946 and 1964. There are just fewer than 80 million baby boomers in the United States today.
This large bump in the population curve of our country has had many important influences in all of our lives. It has and continues to have serious economic consequences. But the greatest change in our culture came from the sexual revolution brought about by the influence of such a large number of teenagers and young adults among us. The United States went from a Victorian like puritanical society to one where sexual expression and female sexuality were celebrated rather than condemned. The country became much more liberal in social mores as well as in politics.
The middle aged baby boomers are now preparing for retirement. Their once liberal approach to society has now changed to the conservatism typical of their age. The problem is that they are still this enormous bump in the curve. That sizable number that once espoused “Make Love Not War” now has property and position to defend. They have followed the historical path into conservatism and become the anathema they once defeated.
It somehow makes me a little more tolerant of my country to realize that the reason we seem to have once again lost our moral anchor is only the ageing of our liberators. As they worry about their increasingly annoying arthritis and waning libido they respond just as did their parents and grandparents. Those crystal clear principles of their bounding youth are somehow now childish excesses.
I do not condone the conservative social values of our present government. All who know me and my annoying rants against it know this all to well. But now I feel that I understand the reason for our move to the right a little better. I don’t know how much the economic influences of this conservatism have helped cause the increasing fundamentalism in the Middle East. In as much as the increasing difference between the rich and the poor causes unrest and dissatisfaction it is partially the cause. Advances in communication that let the world know the augmenting difference is also a cause.
America has not gotten stupider, just older. We will recover once the boomer tsunami has passed.
14 December 2005
I had a thought a few days ago that surprised me. Something that seems to me so obvious and yet I have not read or heard it stated before. I’ll try to make a case for this idea here.
After the return of the World War 2 soldiers there was a sizable increase in the number of babies born. This group has been labeled the Baby Boomers, often defined as those born between 1946 and 1964. There are just fewer than 80 million baby boomers in the United States today.
This large bump in the population curve of our country has had many important influences in all of our lives. It has and continues to have serious economic consequences. But the greatest change in our culture came from the sexual revolution brought about by the influence of such a large number of teenagers and young adults among us. The United States went from a Victorian like puritanical society to one where sexual expression and female sexuality were celebrated rather than condemned. The country became much more liberal in social mores as well as in politics.
The middle aged baby boomers are now preparing for retirement. Their once liberal approach to society has now changed to the conservatism typical of their age. The problem is that they are still this enormous bump in the curve. That sizable number that once espoused “Make Love Not War” now has property and position to defend. They have followed the historical path into conservatism and become the anathema they once defeated.
It somehow makes me a little more tolerant of my country to realize that the reason we seem to have once again lost our moral anchor is only the ageing of our liberators. As they worry about their increasingly annoying arthritis and waning libido they respond just as did their parents and grandparents. Those crystal clear principles of their bounding youth are somehow now childish excesses.
I do not condone the conservative social values of our present government. All who know me and my annoying rants against it know this all to well. But now I feel that I understand the reason for our move to the right a little better. I don’t know how much the economic influences of this conservatism have helped cause the increasing fundamentalism in the Middle East. In as much as the increasing difference between the rich and the poor causes unrest and dissatisfaction it is partially the cause. Advances in communication that let the world know the augmenting difference is also a cause.
America has not gotten stupider, just older. We will recover once the boomer tsunami has passed.
posted by Louis Brossard at 4:21 PM
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