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I don't see any popular evidence that Boomers were different in inherent personality, rather there were enormous social changes afoot brought about by inevitabl

I don't see any popular evidence that Boomers were different in inherent personality, rather there were enormous social changes afoot brought about by inevitable historical shifts, which puts them in a different context. Younger people also don't have little living memory of those before them for a basis of comparison. My Great Grandparents were disowned from their respective families because one was French Catholic the other English Protestant. That wold have been 'normal' for the time. That's not even the tip of the iceberg for 'estranged family'. My German ancestors would not attend my Irish ancestors wedding reception (they did the ceremony, but not afterwards), because they felt the Irish were brooding alcoholics. Which would itself be a bit of racism, but it was essentially true, I mean, the stories I've been told ... Some of the casual Boomer bigotry I see on other Social Media and TikTok especially is fairly shocking, it's as though people have no insight into what happened in the last century, especially the later part of it. Maybe it's possible that lead poisoning had something to do with it, but I wonder if it would have changed things that much. We no longer have any living memory of the holocaust, the introduction of mass media / TV, life before vaccines, serious adversity, life before plastics (!), birth control, antibiotics, vast infant mortality, real war (Vietnam being the last), or overt and institutional racism (i.e. the bank policy says 'no loans to blacks'), or direct segregation (this fountain is for whites only) or when almost everyone 'went to church' as a cultural event, not so much for overt religiosity, but wherein it was an more or less just a community activity that 'people did'. In terms of material possessions, safety, opportunity, legal recourse, and focus on self ennoblement and aspiration, we live in an age like no other. We are collectively like the children of a 'Very Wealthy Family' - some a little better off than others. Hating on an older generation is a perennial pastime, it's the lack of context that's a bit disturbing. Finally, I believe that every individual story of social malaise is 'very complicated' where there are generally few true heroes and few true villains.

taurath 5y ago
To me it’s funny when people loudly shout the progress a generation made themselves while at the same time saying “and no further!”. The truth is most of the older generations right now not only don’t want to understand what the struggles are of the day they live in, they insist on keeping as much power and influence as possible. They’re now learning (or not) the lesson that they taught the generation before them. > In terms of material possessions, safety, opportunity, legal recourse, and focus on self ennoblement and aspiration, we live in an age like no other This isn’t true by practically any metric other than violent crime rates.
- jollybean 5y ago
  "This isn’t true by practically any metric" It's true by every metric. My grandparents were born on farms without plumbing or electricity and they were not 'poor' relative to those in the region, they were about equal to others in nearby farms and villages. In just a few generations we have: cars, electricity, ratio, air travel, safe air travel, plastics (just consider how pervasive that one is), dishwashers, washing machines/dryers (fundamentally changing domestic work), microwaves, 'all season' produce, vast array of selection, home ownership, consumer finance, credit, TV, the internet, access to information instantaneously from around the world, educational access (in 1930 about 4% went to College, now it's 40%), insulin, outpatient heart surgery, antibiotics etc.. Walmart, the Dollar Store, Target, Costco and Amazon have exploded consumerism far even beyond those things: you can buy any little trinket for a few dollars, and have it delivered from China to your door. We live in an age of unparalleled material abundance, really, it's not even an argument, so it says more about perspective than anything. You can draw the line probably anywhere from 'Silent Gen to Millenial' but there is no doubt, from here on in, the pluarity of people in Wealthy Nations have completely surpassed any concept of 'material need'.
  - taurath 5y ago
    You could also pay for housing healthcare and college with a part time job. This is like saying Rockefeller wasn’t rich because he didn’t have an iPhone. Individual economics for recent generations in the US is much more dire than you make out, though yes creature comforts are more abundant. Income inequality is already at levels of the 1920s. The ownership classes are making away with all the assets and the security of common people has gone down drastically.
rakejake 5y ago
Fantastic comment. People who cannot wrap their head around this can look at developing countries where generational change over the last few decades has been even more drastic. When you cannot figure out why certain practices came to be, it behooves you to look at the environment more closely. I remind myself that even the broad use of Acetaminophen and NSAIDs as OTC pain relievers only came about sometime in the last 100 years. While the raw ingredients that go into pain control have been known for hundreds of years if not longer, their formulation and dose was not standardized until very recently, and you certainly couldn't get 100 pills for $10 from the grocery store. As someone who uses these drugs semi-regularly, I cannot imagine having to do without them. OTC analgesics improved QoL and productivity by orders of magnitude. This is something even Churchill's generation did not have.

taurath 5y ago

To me it’s funny when people loudly shout the progress a generation made themselves while at the same time saying “and no further!”. The truth is most of the older generations right now not only don’t want to understand what the struggles are of the day they live in, they insist on keeping as much power and influence as possible. They’re now learning (or not) the lesson that they taught the generation before them. > In terms of material possessions, safety, opportunity, legal recourse, and focus on self ennoblement and aspiration, we live in an age like no other This isn’t true by practically any metric other than violent crime rates.

jollybean 5y ago
"This isn’t true by practically any metric" It's true by every metric. My grandparents were born on farms without plumbing or electricity and they were not 'poor' relative to those in the region, they were about equal to others in nearby farms and villages. In just a few generations we have: cars, electricity, ratio, air travel, safe air travel, plastics (just consider how pervasive that one is), dishwashers, washing machines/dryers (fundamentally changing domestic work), microwaves, 'all season' produce, vast array of selection, home ownership, consumer finance, credit, TV, the internet, access to information instantaneously from around the world, educational access (in 1930 about 4% went to College, now it's 40%), insulin, outpatient heart surgery, antibiotics etc.. Walmart, the Dollar Store, Target, Costco and Amazon have exploded consumerism far even beyond those things: you can buy any little trinket for a few dollars, and have it delivered from China to your door. We live in an age of unparalleled material abundance, really, it's not even an argument, so it says more about perspective than anything. You can draw the line probably anywhere from 'Silent Gen to Millenial' but there is no doubt, from here on in, the pluarity of people in Wealthy Nations have completely surpassed any concept of 'material need'.
- taurath 5y ago
  You could also pay for housing healthcare and college with a part time job. This is like saying Rockefeller wasn’t rich because he didn’t have an iPhone. Individual economics for recent generations in the US is much more dire than you make out, though yes creature comforts are more abundant. Income inequality is already at levels of the 1920s. The ownership classes are making away with all the assets and the security of common people has gone down drastically.

rakejake 5y ago

Fantastic comment. People who cannot wrap their head around this can look at developing countries where generational change over the last few decades has been even more drastic. When you cannot figure out why certain practices came to be, it behooves you to look at the environment more closely. I remind myself that even the broad use of Acetaminophen and NSAIDs as OTC pain relievers only came about sometime in the last 100 years. While the raw ingredients that go into pain control have been known for hundreds of years if not longer, their formulation and dose was not standardized until very recently, and you certainly couldn't get 100 pills for $10 from the grocery store. As someone who uses these drugs semi-regularly, I cannot imagine having to do without them. OTC analgesics improved QoL and productivity by orders of magnitude. This is something even Churchill's generation did not have.