There has always been a peculiar fascination with those born between 1946 and 1964. All along, you have been obsessed with what we wear, the music we listen to, our political opinions, and what we think about, practically anything and everything.
There is a funny scene in the movie A Hard Day’s Night where hip marketing men bring Beatle George Harrison into a conference room to find out what makes teenagers tick. “Teen” was invented as a cultural marker around that time. These marketing men circled around Beatle George with his tight jeans and pointy-toed “winkelpickers” like he was from another species, which he was. They showed him a new product endorsed by the latest teen sensation. George informs them that the product is “grotty” and that when she is on TV, he and the lads turn down the sound and say “rude things.” The marketing men are startled because the trend was not supposed to change for another two weeks.
What you need to know is that no one in that scene was a Boomer. Not the marketing men who were likely from the so-called Greatest Generation, born before 1927. Not even George, who was from the Silent Generation, born in 1943. No, George was not a Boomer.
And this is a problem for those who want to label certain things in the ’60s as Boomer! Hardly any of it was. None of the Beatles were Baby Boomers, nor were any of the Stones. Only a few of the performers at Woodstock were Baby Boomers. None of the Chicago Seven were Boomers. Five were born in the 1930s, one in the 1940s, and one was born way back in the 1920s. The hippest, most culturally significant movies of the 1960s—Easy Rider and The Graduate—were not written, produced, or acted in by Baby Boomers but, instead, by Silents and also by those from the “Greatest” and preceding generations.
Helen Andrews published a book a few years ago called Boomers: The Men and Women Who Promised Freedom and Delivered Disaster, which was supposed to be an argument ending broadside against us. As examples, she mentioned Abbie Hoffman, Tom Hayden, and David Crosby. Google them up, kiddos, if you don’t know.
Hayden said, “We ended a war, toppled a president, and desegregated the South.”
Crosby said, “We were right about the war. We were right about the environment. We were right about civil rights and women’s issues.”
Hoffman said, “We were young. We were reckless, arrogant, silly, headstrong, and we were right.”
Not one was a Boomer. Hoffman was born in 1936, Hayden in 1939, and Crosby in 1941. Andrews’ book is full of such mistakes, as is much criticism of the Boom and our present cultural, economic, and political aches and pains.
Let’s consider Boomers and the Church. Blame is often placed on Boomers for all the guitar masses, horrible catechesis, and felt banners. However, here’s the thing: the average age of the bishops who voted at Vatican II was 62 years old, with most of them born between 1880 and 1910.
Here’s the thing: the average age of the bishops who voted at Vatican II was 62 years old, with most of them born between 1880 and 1910 – definitely not boomers.Tweet ThisAhh, but the decline in the Church may have started with these men, but younger priests and bishops carried it on. Let’s look at 1975, when the average age of American bishops was between 60 and 62, which means the youngest of them were born in 1915. Not a Boomer in sight. But what about the priests? The average age was 45, meaning they were born in 1930. Without a doubt, the front end of the Boom were being ordained, but they were not running the show. And, by the way, all those religious who left the Church in the 1970s were not Boomers. They were Silents and older, much older.
The Boomer bigotry has shifted in recent years. Now the criticism is not so much against the “demographic” but what they see as the Boomer mindset, what used to be called the “psychographic,” which knows no age limit. The criticism then becomes rather slippery and circular. The Boomers are selfish, self-centered, and narcissistic, we are told. Really, who? Well, you know, the Boomers. Sometimes examples are given, and when you point out these examples were not Boomers, well, it is the Boomer mindset that can occur in any age group. It could happen that a narcissist born in 1936 is exhibiting Boomerism.
The Boomers got cheap houses, and they are sitting on them and not letting us buy, and even if we could, we really couldn’t because the Boomers ruined the economy that was given to them. They are sitting on loads of savings, and they aren’t giving any to us! And the Boomers are all so liberal, even though most of us voted for Nixon, most of us voted for Reagan, most of us voted for Trump not once, not twice, but three times!
All the whining gets a tad boring. And finger-pointing is just not manly.
The real problem with this Boomerism thing is that it makes no sense to lump someone born in 1946 with someone born in 1964 and therefore exclude someone born one minute before midnight in 1965. Was there some kind of magic that happened in that minute? One last push at 11:59 saved Junior for GenX? Thanks be to God.
Even within the demographic, there is a profound divide. I was born in 1956, roughly the height of the Boom. I was in grade school when the Berkeley Free Speech Movement was started by Mario Savio (b. 1940). I was seven when the first demonstration against the Vietnam War happened. I was not yet out of high school when the Vietnam War “ended.”
A marketing guy named Jonathan Pontell came up with a new moniker for people like me, people who missed the ’60s because we were too young. We are Generation Jones. Pontell explains Generation Jones fills “the space between Woodstock and Lollapalooza, between ‘Turn on, tune in, drop out’ and ‘Just Say No,’ and between Dylan going electric and Nirvana going unplugged.”
The Boom was a convenient invention created by lazy marketers and journalists. Same with all the “generations.” Writer Gertrude Stein coined the “Lost Generation.” TV newsman Tom Brokaw invented the “Greatest Generation.” Time magazine coined “Silent Generation” in 1951. There is no meaning to any of this. It is all made up, meaningless, and easy; and it is increasingly bigoted. Whatever you don’t like is now Boomerism.
I say, let’s treat each other like people, man. Oops, where did that come from? Somewhere in my Boomer brain! Oh, hell, maybe you are right.
The average age of bishops in the 1960’s and 70’s is somewhat meaningless with regard to all the Church innovations during that period since they did not exercise their responsibly to Govern and permitted (as well as condoned) many unfortunate things.