a question to baby boomers about death

Post Reply New Topic

I have been thinking about the baby boomer generatiin a bit lately, and the grand narrative of the twentieth century, according to which history "ended" with the fall of the soviet union. And during the 90s, people seemed to have this attitude that yes, historiccal struggle is over, and it will all be prospering liberal democracies.
At the same time, things like ecological collapse were still in the future, and could be brushed off easily.
Well, 20 years later, things look differently. We're in the midst if rapud clinate change, great extinction, "communist"-governments are much more efficient capitalist leaders than democratic governments, capitalism itself has come to mean again what it used to mean in marx's time (alienation, wage slavery, instability, speculative bubbles etc.) technology has come to mean communication technology, and transhumanism is basically the new religion for the most progressive and successful people in our society.

Now, the baby boomers lived through a period in which cultural values got overturned -our grandparents lived in a very different world- and the boomers were raised quite different (authoritarian, patriarchal) than they raised millennials (anti-authoritarian, feminist, etc).

What strikes me is that boomers -who are the people in positions of power for a few more years- seem to be ignoring the problems of millennials and following generations. They seem to still be living in the nineties, and pretend that things have gone as planned, and future generations will live like thay did and nothing is fundamentally going to change.
I recently spoke to my grandma, who's 89 and her health is failing her badly now and she told me how she list interest in the future, technology and ... Basically everything. Sad, but understandable.

But I have the feeling the boomers I know lost interest, too. My father is acting like this internet thing might be a fad. That climate change is something like the yearly flu-hysteria (which he also doesn't understand is an actual problem).
He's speaking about future development of infustry in the village he grew up in - failing to notice that there are basically no people between the ages of 16 and 45 living there, and i.e., a whole generation has already left.

Friends feel similar about their parents.
And it appears to me, politicians are thinking along the same lines: short term adjustments to keep things they were 20 years ago - because long term, everything eill stay like this, forever.

So, finally, I'm wondering if this is somehow a deeper psychological thing relating to this generation's mortality... There are so many things that are just getting started, the future looks horrifying and unbelievable and unimaginable right now- ... It must be weird to know that history is going to go on, that this is far from the end.

So to any boomers in the audience: how are you feeling about the future you're not going to be part of, but also ignoring (while being in positions of economic and political power)?

We baby boomers have lived through many things touted as a permanent world changer that ended up being a fad. We have lived through endless predictions that this or that is going to cause the world to end or permanently screw us and it never happened. So we tend to be cynical about such predictions.

At this point however after 25+ years I can not understand how anybody still thinks the internet is a fad.

As far as boomers ignoring and downplaying millennial issues that is something most older generations do. The boomers were criticized by their parents for being ungrateful spoiled brats, they said rock music was brainwashing the young, and the "boob tube"(television) is turning them into zombies. Sound familiar?

While I'm not a boomer I wonder if this question might help shed some light on the issue.

Do you think it's possible that generations, in aggregate, tend to only have to worry about problems that will impact them directly and therefor only tend to take interest in what they'd classify as their issues?

Some people have said rather scathing things about the baby boomer generation on self-centeredness and lifestyle maintenance (whether earned lifestyle or unearned) in that they sort of rode the crest of the wave and want to die in good shape no matter where they have to pull the money in from to do so. That suggestion offers that it's something special or specific to the circumstances that framed their worldview. While I have some partial sympathies to that idea I don't know how much reinforcing long-sightedness will push gen x-ers or millennials to be all that much different. Gen Z might be different because they're used to swimming in data and they may very well find themselves with such a big mess to wade through that they'll feel uncomfortable taking their eye off the ball.

Who knows though - I suppose we won't really get a clear read out on any of this for another thirty or forty years when we get to see other generations grow up and take the mantle.

You are right to some extent. However, reading about 'traditional' societies, including pre-modern europe, there is a strong sense of time as cyclical, and the idea of passing on ones wealth and getting some reward in heaven for it. (Specifically, I'm thinking of the book "horrible children of modern times"by peter sloterdijk, which isn't out in english yet and I roughly translated the title myself).
The "elders" not only passed on wralth but also "eternal" culture.
But the boomers are the first generation to be truly non-christian -although often somewhat spritual- who seems to have largely accepted that there probably is no afterlife. And they rebelled successfully against their parents' culture.
I don't feel like my father's son, culturally, and while he supported me through college, I niw have no chance of affording the life he had at my age. - so, if he wanted me to keep 'tradition' (i.e. a family, a small house, a steady job etc. - you know, the eay boomers lived at 35ish) ... I'd need massive financial support.
And I mean... Massive. With current housing prices, maybe more than he could afford.

So even with his help, I could not keep up the lifestyle my parents had. So the boomets are not leaving a tradition of how to live to millennials - but it seems, during the "end of history" period of the nineties, they thought they would. They thought they had set up the western world in a way that their lifestyle could live on.
And 2008, that ended, and history started again. ,.. and it feels the boomers, who, I want to stress, are in charge, still, haven't any interest in changing their world-setup, while we millennials can see quite well that it's failing to work, potentially with catastrophic results for organized human life...

I believe in self-reliance and self-sufficiency.

I also believe people should cooperate with each other.