I had an interesting chat with my niece and nephews today.

[Journeyman]

4. vHow myopic, to lay blame on a "generation". . .

I'm 65 years old, and if the truth be told I just got here myself. The planet seemed unbelievably screwed up when I arrived -- dead Hitlers and Stalins littered the Earth, McCarthy wouldn't be censured for another month or more, Rachel Carson was only beginning her career -- it couldn't be more surreal if Kafka himself were orchestrating it.

I spent my childhood beneath a school desk hiding from nuclear destruction. As a teenager, I feared I'd win my only lottery prize -- early induction to fight an asinine war no one believed in anymore. And despite all my best efforts -- and the best efforts of some of the best minds of my generation (those not destroyed by madness, who could do more than Howl) -- it just seems to be getting worse.

For every step forward we stumble three back. Again I face nuclear annihilation, though this time without the comfort of a protective desktop. Now it's my children who may face the horror of death by lottery. McCarthyism runs rampant in the halls again, the ecological disaster we face is far beyond anything Carson envisioned, and the ghosts of totalitarianism seem to stir yet again.

Point a finger of blame at another generation? Why, because they arrived a day or more after me? No. It's no one's fault and it's everyone's fault. . . take your fair share of blame. There's enough for all.