Baby Boomers and how we/they are perceived in today's world

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I thought I'd mention that Ronald Reagan was truly Kryptonite for Baby Boomers as his Presidency drastically reversed a number of trends that had grown as Baby Boomers reached adulthood in the 70s and began to directly affect the direction of society. This happened when Baby Boomers finally settled down to raise families while the Silent Generation and earlier became Empty Nesters and had more time to be involved in politics and related activities, and universities came to be populated by people with no memory of the Vietnam War or of the Beatles being together. I see this as the beginning of negative attitudes towards Baby Boomers on the part of Generation X as well as people born before the end of WWII. Nowadays it's considered foolish to publicly show disrespect to Reagan however I'll bet a lot of Baby Boomers ever learned to love him the way the typical American is expected to.

On another thread, somebody posted a Talking Heads video which sort of made me think about how the Talking Heads were probably one of the first broadly popular music acts to appeal primarily to the post-baby boom population, although certainly plenty of their fans were baby boomers. But they nevertheless represent a clear paradigm shift from what was considered hip during the height of the counterculture with which baby boomers largely identified through much of their youth.

The very first people to be called "hippies" in 1965-66 or thereabouts were a really small cohort. These were people who seriously rejected post-war society and adopted a lifestyle based mostly on use of LSD and music associated with that culture. You could almost say they voluntarily accepted the life of homeless people. Many of them turned to panhandling to survive and probably many nights were spent outdoors. Some eventually left the city for rural settlements but I'll bet a lot of them soon became the kind of derelicts one identifies with Skip Row. They were followed by others for whom a "hippie lifestyle" was more of a fashion statement. By then i.e. 1968 or thereabouts very few people called themselves "hippies" except for teenage wannabes. So it's ironic to me that punks in the late 70s would use "hippie" as an insult as 10 years earlier the people who were most commonly referred to as "hippies" already rejected that designation.

"Punk" has a very similar history as a cultural phenomenon. By the time that term came into widespread use, none of the original Punks would acknowledge that term as a legitimate way to talk about themselves or their music. I happen to think of Punk as somewhat more of a niche phenomenon compared to what was first called "New Wave" but eventually became the most widespread form of popular music in the 80s. When I said that thinking of the Talking Heads made me think of the final death of the Counterculture, it's not just because their music and style was so utterly different but because it was also widely popular rather than a niche movement you might need to be in the Bowery at 2AM to experience.

A tribute to Boomer culture I can remember watching at our old house, 30 years ago when I was 40, and Boomers could already see something like this and feel nostalgic:



I challenge any member of Generation X and Generation Y to make sense of this or understand its appeal. As for myself, I didn't really appreciate Dylan at the height of his popularity TBH his work seemed less accessible to a teenager on the spectrum, in much the way that I failed to "get" Mel Brooks' humor at the time. I can appreciate this stuff much more now than I did back when I was a member of the target audience.

Food for thought: who here can imagine a young Dylan as a contestant on The Voice?

EDIT: after posting this I can see that it's not apparent that this is from a broadcast celebrating the 10th anniversary of David Letterman's first late-night TV show, which BTW was brilliant.

Oh, I understand the situation, having been born in 1957. And if you had read further in this thread, you would have seen this list, which I compiled and posted:

• Bill Gates (1955)
• Steve Jobs (1955)
• Rowan "Mr. Bean" Atkinson (1955)
• Martina Navratilova (1956)
• Tom Hanks (1956)
• Carrie Fisher (1956)
• Katie Couric (1957)
• Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958)
• Ellen DeGeneres (1958)
• Michael Jackson (1958)
• Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. (1959)
• "Weird" Al Yankovic (1959)

So my original assessment was wrong.  Boomers ARE important people.  It is sad we get so little credit.

I would argue that Dungeons and Dragons began as a Baby Boomer phenomenon. You can nitpick about the birth dates of those involved in its creation, but I first became aware of it while still in college. Of course this was sort of on the cusp between early and later Baby Boomer as those born in the first few years following WWII had probably already become full-fledged adults before D&D became a thing and less likely to pick up on it.

Nevertheless, the whole fantasy aspect, basing a game on imagination rather than something more concrete and real-world, seems to me like something that would have had a much tougher go at getting traction before the late 60s Counterculture exploded, even though a great many D&D aficionados since then have been the diametric opposite of "Countercultural".

I will make this remark that doesn't show Boomers in a good light.

As I recall, when we actually became adults, able to support ourselves etc. it almost seemed we had a hard time believing we had arrived at that point in life. Whereas it seems this came more naturally to Generation X. I have no data or anecdotes to support this, just a theory.