Paco Dennis
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I can't understand why. Everyone I have ever met is nourishing themselves first and foremost. So what have we done that makes us stand out as being self centered?
I can't understand why. Everyone I have ever met is nourishing themselves first and foremost. So what have we done that makes us stand out as being self centered?
Yes, @JimBob1952 although very true, our inclinations began in early childhood. We were the first generation to be considered first, from birth. Socially and generally speaking, of course.
A quick check shows Wolfe called the 70s the "Me Decade". I forgot to mention the focus on exercise, diet, self-actualization and so many other characteristics of the Me Generation. Boomers born in 1946 to 1949 missed a lot of it, as the whole thing really got going with the arrival of the Beatles. So if you were 12 to 14 in 1964 you were a prime candidate for the Me Generation.
Not just postwar, but post Depression too. The Depression seemed to have the biggest impact on my parents' psyches. They grew up with nothing except gumption.Yes, our postwar parents looked at us as something to enjoy and cherish, especially given the prosperity of the 50s and early 60s. I think another element was that things opened up a lot for young women in the postwar era.
I feel so young as I am not even considered in the Baby boomer generation. I was born in 1967 which is considered the beginning on the Generation X generation I suppose.
Here is a book with a direct hit at us poor boomers.
"A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America
In his "remarkable" (Men's Journal) and "controversial" (Fortune) book -- written in a "wry, amusing style" (The Guardian) -- Bruce Cannon Gibney shows how America was hijacked by the Boomers, a generation whose reckless self-indulgence degraded the foundations of American prosperity.
In A Generation of Sociopaths, Gibney examines the disastrous policies of the most powerful generation in modern history, showing how the Boomers ruthlessly enriched themselves at the expense of future generations.
Acting without empathy, prudence, or respect for facts--acting, in other words, as sociopaths--the Boomers turned American dynamism into stagnation, inequality, and bipartisan fiasco. The Boomers have set a time bomb for the 2030s, when damage to Social Security, public finances, and the environment will become catastrophic and possibly irreversible--and when, not coincidentally, Boomers will be dying off.
Gibney argues that younger generations have a fleeting window to hold the Boomers accountable and begin restoring America. "
https://www.amazon.com/Generation-Sociopaths-Boomers-Betrayed-America/dp/0316395781
For sure. That is the main problem that I perceive. We all are conditioned by nature/nurture in different ways...and society changes. Labeling is a mistake, but we will insistently try to describe our experience, and it is never what we think it is. So why labels? To avoid confusion? I think it amplifies confusion.Our brains habitually classify, categorize and label things for convenience tho at one time a lot of it may have been for survival. But there are so many factors in why any individual behaves as they do it is a mistake think any group one chooses to define is truly fully homogenous and will behave exactly the same way in a given situation.
Once again we are the 'sandwich' generation catching hell from both sides. Many in older generations angry we upset the status quo, tho they raised us. Younger generations, i'm not sure what their gripe is except for the ones who buy into the idea that America was better when there was more concern for the already privileged than for the working stiffs (including farmers/ranchers, truckers, factory, store and sanitation workers) who keep the country fed, running and somewhat clean in spite those that litter.What nonsense. Sociopaths don't fight for civil rights, equality for women, have an anti war movement whose sole purpose was to save lives. I call BS!
So what have we done that makes us stand out as being self centered?
Spoiled is a good word for us. Maybe we feel a certain innate "we deserve what we want" privilege.? Entitled?
You are correct. We have really yet to see how the future young generation will step up and handle adversity. We have seen a little of it with some outspoken young people like the young girl from Sweden Greta Thunberg and others as well from other countries, but really haven't seen it as a whole yet and won't for sometime. I imagine like you have stated they will handle things as they come and are faced with them accordingly. Things will be different as times changes, but people adapt.I kind of doubt that we are a lot different from other generations. People are people, only our environment changes. One thing that certainly impacts the perception of our generation is having followed the WWII generation, "The Greatest Generation". They were forced into a very tough situation, and for the most part rose to the occasion. So we are often compared to them.
I suspect that we would have acted the same had we been in a similar situation.
Who fostered that and supported it? Our parents, most of whom wanted us to have 'better lives' and 'more' than they had. The ones who took the time to teach us values, they gave some of us a more balanced view of giving/gettingI think one of the first indicators was Christmas
The spirit of giving changed to the spirit of getting
(I blame the big catalogues)