Recently, I realized what my greatest disappointment of all really is right now, and that is at my own generation, the Elder Millennials, or whatever we call ourselves this week. We were supposed to be the generation who saved the world. And we had every chance to do so, and we blew it big time. No wonder we look like we haven't aged very much if at all: just like vampires, we sold our souls long ago.
We failed to stop the Bush/Cheney warmongering. We let the once-promising Occupy movement fall by the wayside. We failed to stop Trump the first time. We fell for the Covid lockdown, mask, and jab nonsense and leaned heavily into it, instead of either adopting the "flu strategy" or perhaps grounding only our parents and grandparents for a brief time as we built herd immunity, which would have saved far more lives in the long run. We couldn't wait to throw younger Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha under the bus, because "I got mine, screw everyone else". And now, the majority of us either voted for Trump or third party or not at all, in part because we didn't have the intestinal fortitude to demand years ago that the mainstream Democrats do better.
Oh, and the world is on fire too, both literally and metaphorically. And also metaphysically.
And then we have the GALL to blame it all on our Boomer parents? Well, the apple sure didn't fall far from the tree!
So to any younger generations reading this, or who will read this in the future, I sincerely apologize for what my generation did and failed to do. What a "wonderful" world you will be inheriting.
Will future generations ever forgive us? Because that would be a pretty tall order!
I'm a member of this generation too. We were silent when we should have at least said something.
ReplyDeleteThis is no to confuse us with the actual Silent generation, who were in many ways the last sensible generation. Having lived through the Depression and WW2, they did not take Functionality for granted, unlike those who've been born after WW2.
Well-said, Wayland. It's really sad.
DeleteAs for why we were so silent to the point of complicity? My latest theory is that were the very first generation to be raised NOT to stand up to bullies, or at least not directly, but to depend on various "authorities" to do it for us. And look where it got us!
DeleteIn my previous post, I was speaking relatively when comparing one generation to another.
ReplyDeleteI may have expressed some nostalgia for the days of the old (Silent) establishment in Britain before 2005. But it's worth noting many injustices were still committed.
The Boomers then took stupidity to a new level in the late 2000s and 2010s, after they took over the upper echelons of the institutions from the Silents.
The rest is history.
In truth, we are all responsible for what has gone wrong through our silence.
Do you think anything will change when Gen X dominates the institutions?
It seems younger generations won't be any better in power either as things just seem to be getting worse with each new generation.
ReplyDeleteAnd my own generation, Millennials/Gen Y IS the worst as we were too damned lazy to even say anything. I just think of all those people I knew from school and ask, where were you when we needed you? Where were you when all this was going on?
ReplyDelete