VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Diane Havens]

Love Orwell. Love quotes. Here's one I found to be pithy:

"Being spokesman for a generation is the worst job I ever had."
Billy Bragg

And of course, the most reluctant spokeman for his generation:

"All I can do is be me, whoever that is."
and
"There is nothing so stable as change."
Bob Dylan
_________________
Diane


Veni, Vidi, Voci
http://www.dianehavens.com

[bobfromboulder]

For me, the whole debate was put into perspective one day, when I was a pre-teen and had spent a couple hours and couple dollars playing video games at Time Out, my father said,
"What is it with you kids and your video games!"

After a thoughtful moment, I replied,
"But, Dad, your generation made them! We sure didn't!"

I prefer the philosophy of the Iroquois, who "plan for seven generations ahead". I can't say that I've yet taken up that banner, but I'm trying. Reading about the acidification of the ocean, which will cause all chitinous creatures to die off in the next fifty years, or the continent of trash swirling in the Pacific (both articles are in the June edition of Discover magazine) have startled me enough to really want to change my habits.

My experience of Baby Boomers feels like my experience with my father. If the generation that comes after you is so horrible, look inward first. Were you planning seven generations ahead?

If you haven't read "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle yet, I can recommend it. As well as my own personal philosophy: "Everything everyone says to you is a reflection of what you're putting out to the world." It can be a bitter pill at first, but it eases into a responsibility about your life that's free of guilt or blame. Provided you can loosen the leash your ego has on you for a bit. :)

[jchaze]

Here's how I look at it:
As social security continues to get deeper & deeper into trouble, it's ironic that Gen X, Y and any others will have to bail all of us Boomers out. NOW who gets the last laugh?

And since everyone's supplying quotes...
"Life is a Minestrone: - 10cc

[glittlefield]

Thanks for the link, Bob! That was interesting.

Geez, so I'm a boomer, a GenJoneser and an X'er... And do *I* get any of the newsletters or emails from ANY of them?!?!? NNNOOoooOOoooo...
_________________
Greg Littlefield
VO-BB Member #59

[Diane Havens]

Only resurrecting this topic because I was reading a Newsweek article that I think sums up the generation and its significance well:

"What, after all, did the baby boomers really achieve 40 years ago? Why does NEWSWEEK commemorate 1968 instead of 1918 or 1941?
The answer: because all of us, young and old, are stuck in the '60s, hostages to a decade we define ourselves as for or against. As the pages that follow demonstrate, the '60s were not necessarily, as some baby boomers would have it, America's defining moment. But they were an era when a generation held sustained argument over the things that have always mattered most: How should America show its power in the world? What rights were owed to African-Americans, to women, to gays? What is America and what does it want to be?
These were noble questions. The debate they brought on was not. Rather, it was personal, hysterical and often terrifying. Father fought with son, black fought with white, the young fought with the old. By the end of the decade, consensus was clearly not possible, and simply restoring civilization became the goal. Subsequent generations would have to answer those essential questions."
_________________
Diane


Veni, Vidi, Voci
http://www.dianehavens.com

[DinaMB]

[Don G.]

Evidently there's still some question as to whether Twain actually said this, but it's one of my favorites:

When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.