|
Because of my work, I've been learning all about the demographics of baby boomers since 2006, so maybe my judgment about Tom Brokaw’s/CNBC “BOOMERS” TV show is a bit too inside when compared to the general population. My take is that it was predictable and unoriginal.
Brokaw covered the basics of the boomer history — population growth after WWII, first generation to grow up with TV, civil rights changes, rock and roll, Woodstock, the antiestablishment movement, Vietnam, most educated generation, women in the workforce and boomers as consumers. The history lesson was predictable, but that's how history is.
My criticism falls largely on Brokaw’s predictable and unoriginal treatment of today’s boomers. He interviewed a handful of college-educated, reasonably successful boomers who served as a focus group representing the boomer generation today. The takeaways of the conversations were that success came too easily for the boomer generation, they consumed too much in the form of bigger and better houses and cars than needed. They felt remorse or guilt about that, and they lamented the insecurity of their economic futures. Every one of the boomers seemed like guilty, gloomy worriers.
Why is the mantra about boomers today so often repeated in such a disparaging way? As a child I had heard the positives of attaining the “American Dream” which was sold with the nice home with the white picket fence. Does it matter that the image morphed into a McMansion in the suburbs? More important and understood was that in America I could be anything I wanted to be without the restraints imposed in other cultures such as being born female or to the wrong class in society. That was a beautiful dream that became real for masses of people regardless of race or gender.
As compared to those in Brokaw’s focus group, I don't think success came easily. For myself and many others, college was possible but not provided without sacrifice. After college we entered the workforce competing with other bright folks for promotions or the next level in our careers. We became parents, took care of our own parents in many cases, and all the while still held challenging jobs. As a byproduct of our education and higher skills, we advanced developments in science, technology and just about any field imagined in a significant way. For successful boomers, there was more opportunity for sure. But opportunity alone never made anybody successful.
In my view, Brokaw and the boomers were too simplistic and OMG, what cliches. Not all boomers live in the McMansions, but if they do, so be it. As for the current economic downturn, it has shaken things up. Economic cycles are a fact of the world, and not as a result alone of our over consumption. There are so many variables that go into economic cycles and to be that simplistic is to simply be wrong. No matter the time or the generation, if you ask people in the midst of a downturn, some will be pessimistic — that has more to do with human nature than being a boomer.
|
