When one thinks of Rogue Boomers, one immediately thinks of people like prime ministers Stephen Harper (born 1959) and Tony Abbott (born 1957) --- and not just because they are currently leading the charge (from the rear) against doing anything substantial about man-made climate disaster.
Rather it is something so unexpected about the vivid contrast between their still-baby faces and their totally Old School ways of thinking that humans can control the natural world - thinking we'd might expect more from their grandfathers, let alone their fathers.
Yes, those I call Noir's Children , the most vocal (and regrettably the smallest) segment of the Boomer kids got it, successfully absorbed the dire lessons (on all sides) from WWII , and adjusted their thinking.
But the Rogue Boomers ( the silent majority of my Boomer generation) carried right on as if nothing had changed, still believing in the simplistic old pre-war ways , despite Science (reluctantly) revealing an ever more complicated world.
It was as if they were to be frozen in aspic, forever locked into a time warp with the first generation of comic book super heroes.
Entombed forever within WWII's golden age of superheroes, superpowers, super-weapons and super-easy solutions to controlling unpleasant reality....
Showing posts with label silent majority. Show all posts
Showing posts with label silent majority. Show all posts
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Silent Majority Boomers - not their parents - running (and ruining) this planet
I've changed my thinking - at least a little.
I still believe that the most extreme and the most vocal supporters of climate change denial are older people - men mostly - in their eighties - people who were teenagers at the very apogee of Modernity and who thus naturally find it hardest to change ingrained habits.
Rupert Murdoch is a prime example of this sort of 'changed reality' denier.
But Murdoch and his generation aren't running and ruining this world - at least not officially.
My generation - the Boomers - is.
Clearly not all of us Boomer kids fully absorbed the obvious lesson from WWII : that there actually are limits to even supermen's ability to control reality.
Not all of us Boomers - not by a long shot - successfully made The Transition from the old ways of thinking (ones that had fueled the Enlightenment Project for nearly 500 years) to the needed new ways of thinking.
These Boomers weren't the most vocal or most visible part of the Boomer generation (recall the Sixties protests), but like their parents before them, they formed a powerful - if largely reticent - silent majority.
Some of these silent majority Boomers are now prime ministers, presidents, CEOs, media publishers etc but most are not.
They are simply voters and consumers who might even (feebly) talk the new talk - but when it comes to their pocketbook at the gas pump and the ballot box, walk (or rather drive) the old walk.
And if we can't help them make The Transition - and soon ! - subsequent generations might never get a chance to live out their expected three score and twenty five ...
The unacknowledged divisions within the Boomer Generation
I still believe that the most extreme and the most vocal supporters of climate change denial are older people - men mostly - in their eighties - people who were teenagers at the very apogee of Modernity and who thus naturally find it hardest to change ingrained habits.
Rupert Murdoch is a prime example of this sort of 'changed reality' denier.
But Murdoch and his generation aren't running and ruining this world - at least not officially.
My generation - the Boomers - is.
Clearly not all of us Boomer kids fully absorbed the obvious lesson from WWII : that there actually are limits to even supermen's ability to control reality.
Not all of us Boomers - not by a long shot - successfully made The Transition from the old ways of thinking (ones that had fueled the Enlightenment Project for nearly 500 years) to the needed new ways of thinking.
These Boomers weren't the most vocal or most visible part of the Boomer generation (recall the Sixties protests), but like their parents before them, they formed a powerful - if largely reticent - silent majority.
Some of these silent majority Boomers are now prime ministers, presidents, CEOs, media publishers etc but most are not.
They are simply voters and consumers who might even (feebly) talk the new talk - but when it comes to their pocketbook at the gas pump and the ballot box, walk (or rather drive) the old walk.
And if we can't help them make The Transition - and soon ! - subsequent generations might never get a chance to live out their expected three score and twenty five ...
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