Growing up a dingbat in the post-war era

WHEN Iwasa young man, I
‘ couldn’t believe how stupid.
-the older generation was.

: By: “generation,” I really meant
all the surviving generations except
.- Mine: The few great-great-grand-
parents | to be found were as much to
~ blame as my great-grandpurents,
grandparents and parents. .

: simple high school grasp of
history was enough to tell me that
these folks had all bungled badly as”
they went through t their lives. They

ad-allowed just about every bad
thing to happen that could have ;
happened.

“Under the Stewardship of iny -
forebears; : slavery, racism, sexism,
‘militarism ; capitalism, communism, ”

der, Tape}, kidnapping, disease, |
poverty, ignorance, tha to ani-

> the | generation ‘after mine,, ig 0
‘i ilt around ‘the myth’ thar the’ yup-
s pillaged thé planet; to pay for
€ » leaving the bill for ;

"4 beg to differ with ‘Genération ;
X. Ti was my | folks, the’ ‘ones who!
hit. ‘adulthood i inthe. Depression, : :

who’ were to “bem for Seamne

Who were they, after all, 10 tell
me anything?

What had they accomplished
other than to bring the world to
within a hair-trigger’s breadth of
ulter destruction?

The generation | generally iden-
tify with are called baby-boomers,
but 1 was actually born at the begin-
ning of the war, not after, so [ was a
bit ahead of the curve,

Given that J had no respect for
the wisdorn of my elders, | slipped
into the profound error of assuming
that, if anyone would know what
was going on, it would be those
who were younger than me.

Margaret Thatcher's most
insightful comment. I believe, was
the observation that we all take
metaphors too literally these days.

' We start believing in “iron cur-
tains” and “third worlds.”

We become intellectual prison-
ers of the metaphors we have
invented to describe reality.

The term “generation” has
- become a metaphor.

In fact, with the world’s popula-

tion doubling at the rate it is, anew

. generation appears on the fuce of

the Earth every decade.

We are on the lower slopes of an
‘exponential population curve now,
‘don’t forget. and the old “natural”
reproduction rhythms are gone.

Given all these qualifications, |
' still relate to the baby-boomer
_ mindset, whose central tenet was
that the previous generation had
indeed nearly totally botched the |
job. ..°

Then, virtually, the other day, an
amazing thought entered my mind.

Jt dawned on me that Ino longer
- think ‘of myself as a “young man.”
Not an old man, certainly, but not

” And when did I stop being
“young?” Wel; to tell the truth, just

threat of an all-out superpower
nuclear exchange has ebbed for the
moment, although with a madman
loose inthe new Russian parlia-
ment, how long we can breathe eas-
ily isa moot point.

So far, all the vaunted “peace
dividend” has bequeathed us is 35
brutal civil wars raging at the same
time.

The rate of decay of the ozone
layer has slowed ever so slightly,

thanks to the Montreal Accord.

A few species have been tens-
porarily saved, but their habitat
continues to disappear as fast as
ever,

The rising global warming curve
slowed briefly too, but that was
thanks to ML. Pinatubo, not to any-
thing the baby boomer generation
has taken upon itself to do,

The invention of television,
miss communications, the avail-

ability of information to everyone
-—~ these were the factors that were
supposed to make the post-war gen-
eration smarter, more capable, ~
wiser than their elders.

It didn‘t happen. f don’t think
we've shown ourselves to be any

osharper than our parents at all.

Maybe that's what growing up is
actually all about: realizing just
how stupid y you are too.

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Nery, very recent. Maybe just the -

- into. a pea
1s that possible? A hottitying
* thought, given my opinions of
7 grownups. Sey
“And here’s the rub. In the time it
has taken me to get past being

young (and superior), “ my” ” penera- .

:-tion has had plenty of time to come:

* to power around the world,

.Many.a ‘politician, general, exec-
‘“utive.and activist is younger than
sme, and has been around long
*- enough’ to have made a’dent.

Is the world i in much better

oa shape?

an absurd i pelea ey as the idea
of, say,'a monarchy,” ora nation-.”

Slate, ora papicy, then you | deserve. :

“te be'treated like a peasant,"

‘Psychologically, you are one, as
opposed to an autonomous human
being, which is surely the goal.

I was so sure about my parents’

-generation’s guilt hat J found it dif-

:-» ficult to take orders or instruction
from older people.

Have we eliminated slavery,

“racism, sexism, militarism, capital-.

, ism, communism, totalitarianism,
* torture, mass murder, rape, kidnap-
. ping, disease, poverty, ignorance,
"eruelty to animals and bad breath? °
OK; so we’ve pretty much elimi-

nated bad breath, or at least coun-
tered it with mints and floss.

’ All of the rest are still with us in
one form or another.’ ;
. Oh, there is movement. The

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