I admit I have enjoyed the “OK Boomer” memes that have started cropping up recently. Lest anyone accuse me of being ageist, I admit I am a Boomer myself. Why am I not offended by these memes?
Firstly, I am aghast at the Boomer generation in power: their abject selfishness and refusal to believe a world exists beyond their stock portfolios and multiple (large) homes (and other “property”—huge emphasis on “property rights” in this group, including an obsession with using guns to protect said property). Not everyone in the Boomer generation is this utterly selfish—I am speaking about those who have done everything to put themselves in power, and the group of folks who voted them in. We know them mostly as Republicans, although there are also Boomer Democrats who have not done their best for the generations to come.
Secondly, my career has been all about working with young people, to help them learn and grow. I am encouraged by these young people, who since the new millennium have shown themselves to be, as a group: inclusive, caring, and wanting to do the right things for the planet and for others. I have hopes that these older “children”/younger adults when they graduate, will continue to have public spirit, and will promote the public welfare. Most signs point to this being the case.
As others here have noted, the recent Atlantic article by Brownstein, “The GOP’s Demographic Doom”, points to the fact that soon Millennials and Gen Z will be the largest voting block in the country, and they lean toward Democratic policy: economic equality, climate/environment concerns, affordable health care and housing, and end to racism and other “isms” to name a few of these concerns.
A recent article in Yes! magazine, “Young Activists Aren’t Waiting For Anyone”, reiterates that this bloc of young people is tired with the “nowism” of the older generation. As the article states:
“Nowism privileges short-term, present-generation well-being at the expense of long-term environmental and societal sustainability vital to younger and future generations.”
Nowism makes politicians demand that we “save our economy” at the expense of everything else.
One of the more interesting parts of the Yes! article is a graph titled “Young People Are Living Safer Lives”. In summary, the graph shows that the violent death rate has been increasing for older whites since 1990; but it has been declining for younger people and non-whites. Note this this goes entirely against the Republican administration’s making noise about “antifa” and “violent thugs” at the George Floyd protests.
To end the article, I share a story from my profession. Business schools have been exploding at universities, while humanities have been imploding. Recently, I was with my faculty planning courses for our new multi-disciplinary program in Sustainability. Our dean came in and told us we were wasting our time, because the program was only worth the effort if it brought in lots and lots of enrollment. There was no understanding in our Dean that such a program would impact students in a variety of majors, including future business leaders who are most likely to want sustainable businesses. All that seemed to matter was how much money we could make from the program. Now, I am in a public, state funded four-year institution. I sometimes despair that the idea these institutions are there to serve the public, rather than to “polish the asses of corporate drones “ (phrasing from a family member) seems to have completely left the people in charge of these institutions. I would despair except for the generational activism arising in our young.