Boomer bashing

Next time you're fooling around on Google, try typing the words "boomers" and "blame" into the search box. You'll be glad you're sitting down. They hate us, they want our hides. They blame us for everything: the financial meltdown, global warming, precarious employment, income inequality, the shrinking social safety net. Before you rise up in righteous indignation, go make yourself a cup of camomile. Take a few swigs. Then check to see if you can feel any niggles at the back of your head.

We boomers were the lucky ones, born into unprecedented stability, prosperity and ease, full of optimism for a rosy future that was ours for the taking. We had a social safety net, affordable homes, well-paying secure jobs, and benign governments promoting the public good. Of course it wasn't all paradise. We came of age during a time of social unrest, discrimination against blacks and women, and the United States was fighting what many considered an unjustifiable war in Viet Nam. When we were young, our generation took action on these issues, and made a difference.

After that, we lost our cohesiveness. We no longer had common issues. While some boomers became lifelong social justice activists, many others shifted their sights to the business of getting and spending. It was our generation that was running the show when climate change became an undeniable reality, and when corporate interests outcompeted the public good and became the dominant ideology in developed countries.

Maybe what happened to us is no different from what happens to every generation as they age. But the outcomes are more disastrous this time. The millennials are furious with us for the mess we've made, despoiling the planet, stripping our own children of the kinds of opportunities we had to build a good life. It's all the worse because we were the generation that preached about a new world order, based on peace and love. We've left a troubled legacy.