General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Baby boomers are killing themselves at an alarming rate, raising question: Why? [View all]Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)that is resulting in this story is not lost on some of us. I'm not quite a boomer (jones - x, I'm not sure and don't really care), but I was old enough to see and mostly understand what the line; "It was not the life he had envisioned as a young man in the 1960s and 70s", implies.
Many of you were not alive, and some of us have forgotten, but this nation was far better and improving prior to the '80s.It was far from perfect and rife with problems in just about every aspect of society, but things were better and most importantly, on a trajectory toward enlightenment.
Racism was still rampant, but it was not acceptable in polite society. Your violently racist uncle was an embarrassment and not invited to parties.
Sexism was less prevalent than today and the "hey baby, nice rack!" asshole-on-the-street was just as likely to be confronted and ridiculed by a group of whoever was around as he was to be ignored.
Unemployment was high, but when you finally did land a job, it was far more likely to pay enough to live on.
Government was corrupt and likely as not to make things worse, but it strove to do great things, not devoted to lowering expectations.
Listen to the content of Jimmy Carter's State of the Union speeches. Any leader that tried to pass off "This sucks but it's the best we can hope for" as a strategy would not be the leader of anything the following week.
These people have lived the lives they are living, not because of some amorphous 'vision', but under the terms of a contract. That contract has not just been broken, its very existence is denied. Their future was stolen from them and simply handed to the very worst criminals around in exchange for nothing.
A black President. Wiccan symbols in Arlington. Gay marriage. Women in executive positions. Cars that get 40mpg and are able to keep you alive after a catastrophic accident. The computer or phone you are reading this on and the internet which links us all together. The list goes on and on, are all the direct results of what we were doing then.
What are we making today that we will have 30 years from now?