Here is my friend Barb, having way too much fun pointing out to Boomers that history neither begins nor ends with us. Yes, I am a Boomer, and, on behalf of my generation, I apologize to both my parents and my children and grandchildren for our sheer insufferability, self-righteousness, self-absorption, self-involvement, self-centeredness, SELF Magazine, self-love, self-concern and selfishness. Indeed, true to my generational ethos, I can’t even write an apology without making it all about Us, the Baby Boomers, toward whom all History has aspired and after whom nothing will ever quite as awesome—including our awesome, awesome faults which nobody has ever quite equaled because we are just more special than all other generations before and after.
Anyway, Barb points out that as a new generation of culture makers is arising, we are starting to see some departures from such beloved Boomer themes as Don’t Do Your Duty, Follow Your Desires! and Jaded Cynicism Conquers All and The Universe Owes Me Perpetual Pepsi Generation Adolescence and If I Can’t Have It My Way Then Let the World Burn. As she puts it:
The Boomers’ exit from cultural influence creates a two-sided pastoral challenge for the 21st-century Church.
First is the effect on the gargantuan Boomer generation of a lifetime of listening almost exclusively to their own voices. The movies being created by and for the Boomers today are a very unentertaining mix of “Never regret! Life starts at 70!” and “Life is a cruel joke, ‘full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.’” Movies like It’s Complicated showcase a bunch of grey hairs still acting badly, swallowing their shame, and ignoring their appropriate role as the wise mentors of the younger generations. The Dorian Greyish dark echo of this kind of story, are movies like There Will Be Blood and the chillingly titled No Country for Old Men, in which the characters’ lives of narcissism and greed devolve into cynicism and brutality.As an institution charged with saving souls, the Church’s urgent outreach to fading Boomers must encourage them to face and take responsibility for the mistakes they have made. If they would be saved, the Boomer Generation must be guided into repentance for the way they self-righteously sacrificed all others as they fled from the simple heroism of adult human life. The rigid eradication of tradition, the gross materialism, the unbridled license, the embarrassing promiscuity—all always accompanied by shrill distortion and denial—have left our society disconnected, bloated, poorly educated, unable to trust, and simmering in resentment. I see many of my Millennial Generation students clamoring to set back the clock to a day before the Sixties, when there were grown-ups.
Amen and amen. One of the things that has most impressed me about the rising generation is the way in which so many Millennials have sought to look over the heads of Generation Narcissus and seek to connect with the World War II generation as models for how to be grownups. From the electric connection young people had with John Paul II, to the fascination (frustrating to Woodstock priests) that both Benedict and the Extraordinary Form hold for young Catholics, to the popularity of shows like Mad Men or Band of Brothers, what bleeds through is the sense that the rising generation longs for adulthood and maturity in its adults and in itself. Expressions of this are found, as Barb notes, in such unlikely places as The Incredibles (which celebrates parents acting like grownups and even the notion that happiness is found in exercising your unique gifts, not in outcome-based sameness) and in Knocked Up (where taking responsibility for one’s choices—not a favorite Boomer theme—is honored).
Barb also points out that the Church has an urgent pastoral mission to Millennials since the domination of Boomers has left a massive imprint on our culture, including on those who resent the domination of Generation Narcissus. Lots of Millennials can’t wait for Generation Narcissus to stop sucking all the oxygen out of the room. And one of the lessons the Boomers have taught incessantly is “Inconvenient people should be killed”. As Barb warns, that will doubtless be played out when Boomers get too old to change the Beatles CD and dominate the conversation with anecdotes about how superior we are to our parents and children. The temptation to euthanize us, while understandably strong, is still to be resisted. But in the comfort-worshipping world of radical individualism, worship of comfort, utilitarianism, and comfort-worship we Boomers have created and passed to our children, it is an uphill challenge to teach Millennials why this is so.
Part of the mission will be through culture and the sort of films and stories people like Barbara Nicolosi Harrington will be creating. Most people don’t read moral theology. They learn the elementary truths of life through story. A moral theory about something called “radical self-donating love” won’t move most people. But seeing Sam Gamgee carry Frodo up Mount Doom does. Most people don’t readily recite phrases like “the dignity of the human person”. But if they know the story of George Bailey, the little guy from the Building and Loan who finds out what the world would have been like if he’d never been born, they know in their bones more Catholic anthropology than 50 philosopher fools like Peter Singer. God bless Barb and her work in raising up a new generation off artists to embody the truth and beauty.s that my generation has done so much to obfuscate and uglify.
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“and after whom nothing will ever quite as awesome”
That’s okay. The next generation may be more awesome at using being verbs.
:p
Awesome!
Great article. As you wrote about my generation’s (I’m 25, but haven’t a clue what my generation is called) resentment of the Boomers, I had to think of my theology students, who seem to leech off their parents and all drive BMW and Mercedes make cars. While some of us hearken back to our grandparents and the things long since cast away in the selfish revolution of the ‘60s, I think there are many others, ripe for conversion, who have not yet been touched with an appreciation for the traditions that have not been handed on to us. They seem to know that their parents are hiding something, that they have something which, in their self-interest, they keep to themselves, hiding it from their children, with an explanation rising out of false charity (“I have to protect you from chastity/Latin liturgy/devotional life”) that really is just a cover for their own rejection of the munus, the gift and duty, offered by our forefathers. My students know this is being withheld from them. They sense it, and in a vain attempt at it, like Zeus to Uranus and Uranus to Chronos, there’s a series of parental mutilations going on. Attack the parents, bite the hand that feeds you, because we all know you have something I want. Perhaps this is why teens today seem not to look up to their parents at all (the rash of dumb and irresponsible parents on television, especially fathers, tell us about the market appeal among teens of dishonoring parents). Chronos tried selfishly to keep all power to himself and swallowed his divine children, only to be undone. Perhaps if Boomers would hand on to the next generation the tradition they have received, rather than fearing the renewal of that tradition in the hands of their children, there would not be such a strong backlash aimed at the parental units of our day. In the meantime, I consider it a part of my job as a teacher to hand on this tradition to my students. At a Latin Mass we had this year, I was pleasantly surprised by how many teens had their eyes opened to the beauty they could be experiencing. One teen, a Protestant, told me it was the most beautiful spiritual experience of his life. We must continue to kindle the fires of this peaceful revolution. For the sake of you Boomers, I hope it doesn’t end as it did for Chronos.
Got my Greek mythology lineage slighty out of order, but my point stands. The younger generation attacks the older becuse the older has authority, a sense of superiority, stemming from something they have that they don’t want the kiddos to have.
Some of us boomers didn’t have the traditions handed on to us by “the greatest generation”. Some of our parents took to the post-Vatican II changes, liking the idea of being “in charge” in the parish. They were good at parish council, school board, social events…but I don’t know that I ever saw them praying outside of church or before meals. I didn’t learn the rosary from them, or reverence for the real presence, or respect for the hierarchy of the church. So some of us boomers had to learn the traditions in order to pass them along to our children.
You know, I have to say, I don’t think many people will miss the boomer generation.
The words ‘unwept, unhonored and unsung’ come to mind…
Yes, unwept, unhonored, and unsung because many Boomers didn’t hand on anything of real value, save life itself (and often reluctantly), to the next generation.
I agree that the real challenge is going to be convincing the Millennials (that’s you, Mike) that their boomer parents shouldn’t be ganked the second they become an inconvenience. I honestly have no idea how this can be done, though (a few good movies on the subject would be a start, but—let’s face it—elder care is only going to get more expensive and with a world economy in terminal depression, you can pretty much connect the dots), and so what we’re probably going to see is a couple of generations of kids offing their inconvenient parents until the grandkids of the Millenials come along and say “Hey, this is probably wrong, too!”.
That said, Barbara Nicolosi Harrington is a treasure of the Church. Heed well what she says. :-)
More subtle proof that the Millenials are looking back to the WWII generation: fedora-wearing college guys and cassock-wearing seminarians.
Wow! I just brought up this web site for the first time, and I’m astonished to see that THIS is Catholicism?? The religion of “love one another as Jesus has loved us”, and care and justice for the poor and the oppressed, knocking an ENTIRE generation? I don’t think this is the publication OR web site for me—I won’t be back.
We did have some good tunes, though. . .
Great article Mark! I guess you can’t win them all though. See ya around Karen. ;)
I agree… The Boomer generation did produce (or include) Stevie Wonder. That kind of makes it all worthwhile.
I am kind of sorry that we weren’t more touchy-feely, hippie-dippie, fuzzy-wuzzy in our discussion of the boomers, though, as we’ve obviously driven at least one person away. About the only thing I can say to that is “Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” Let’s hope the next few generations bear better fruit.
I’m afraid Apostles of Tolerance who offer one passing glance and declare “I am never returning ever again!” don’t impress me too much. This measly blog entry is enough to put poor Karen to flight? What an intolerant self-absorbed thing to say. Sounds like a Boomer to me.
I was going to speculate that that might be the case, but I’m far too charitable to ever label anyone a “boomer” without sufficient evidence (and even then, I would probably hold back, lest I find myself guilty of detraction).
Down with Boomers! Just kidding, sorry.
I have a lot from my Boomer parents to be thankful for, but faith isn’t really one of those things. My parents are Mass-going dissenters (mom moreso than dad…how common is that? I’d argue that Boomer women tend to dissent more, simply because of the whole attitude of dissent from patriarchal structures and blah, blah, blah in the ‘60s)...anyway, they also sent me to a mediocre Catholic school, but I didn’t learn my faith until I had to defend it at a very secular high school. So to Boomer parents one and all: get your priorities straight and figure out that the eternal truths are much better things to give your kids than sweet-16 BMW’s.
Hi, Mike! Thank you for sharing your story… Here in Metro Detroit they give out sweet-16 Mustangs (in Detroit proper they give out sweet-16 9mms), but my experience in public High School was much the same as yours: I was one of 3 “conservative” kids (my sister being one of the 2 others) in a public High School of 400, so defending my beliefs was something I learned to do out of survival more than anything else. I definitely don’t think I would have had that chance had I gone to a (nominally) Catholic High School. That sort of environment probably isn’t good for all Catholic kids, but if your kid has a strong contrarian bent, the best thing you can do for his or her faith is to throw them off the deep end into a pool of people openly hostile to their beliefs: whatever they don’t know about their faith will be filled in by their personality.
Poor, poor Boomers..! I am sooo glad that I never had to deal with all of the “ideas” and “freedoms” of today, from the “boomers” on… I grew up just a kid, with a loving family and I loved all of them..and they loved me….and there were LOTS of us..Did any of you ever hear of a “state” or condition called “Iowa”...The Field of Dreams is there. It really is.
, and it is also known as “The Land of Perfect”..If you don’t believe me, ask ANY Iowegian !
“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one an Iowan and the other a Boomer. The Iowan stood and prayed thus with herself, ‘God, I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this Boomer. But the Boomer, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
ALL Iowegians are so trenmendously humble that they have a free pass
into Heaven at all gtimes, even when they ARE boomers..!
I believe the real parable goes something like this: “Two people went up to pray, yadda yadda, Iowan and Boomer, and the Iowan prayed with herself thus “Lord, there’s a lot of corn around here. And it’s also very flat. But, hey: I thank thee at least it’s not Nebraska.” But the Boomer standing far off, would not even lift his eyes up to heaven because he had noticed the Iowan standing there and was too busy trying to pop the Cialis out of its package.
Then God smote Victor for blaspheming his home state.
PS-I’m from Omaha.
:-p
I really don’t mean to judge the Boomers as persons, but their general approach to responsibility is one that ought not to be repeated, and there but for the grace of God go I. The Pharisee in the Temple ought to have prayed, “Lord, I am a sinner in my own way. Forgive us both and keep us from sin.” That’s how Millenials ought to pray for Boomers. We’re making plenty of our own mistakes. Every day I realize something I’m doing wrong in raising my own kids.
Mia, I’m from Iowa myself, and—gasp!—also a Boomer.
Happily there is more “Iowa” in me than “Boomer.”
Partly maybe because I was born late in the “Boomer” age and was too young to really engage in the protests of the 60’s and 70’s. I never rebelled and carried signs (except at pro-life rallies).
I was also raised in a very good Catholic home with two wonderful parents (married 58 years this November), who also taught me that value of education, and many Iowa virtues as well. My parents didn’t talk about the faith that much, but they sure lived it.
I read constantly from the time I was six or so, and during my younger years, I read the OT, the NT, the lives of the saints, and so much about the teachings of the Church (all that was in our house) that I was proof against the wackier stuff in post-Vatican II catechesis. My younger brothers and sisters got most of the wacky, fuzzy-wuzzy stuff after I was finished with CCD; all except one have now left the Church. I was also proof against whatever I heard from agnostic profs in college. I am still—very much a sinner—within the Church, and I hope, a contributing member to society.
Please, no one hate me because I’m a Boomer! That is, don’t stereotype. When you are born is only a part of it. Where and to whom you were born are also a part of it.
And yes, the right reading is very important.
Lori, I don’t think anyone would call the anti-boomer rhetoric here anything more than semi-humorously intentional over-generalization. Nothin’ but love for the Boomers as a whole, but the Boomers do have certain negative tendencies in general, just like Millenials.
Yeahhh, that’s it! Semi-humorously intentional over-generalization. ;-)
But you’re right about the Millennials: nothing but a bunch of spoiled, solipsistic, Facebookin’ reality-avoiders with ear pods and iPhones stuck in their faces 24/7. Flibberty floo!
Iowegian? From around Decohra, not?
Love it here, but what’s up with our state supreme court and the last presidential election?
UFF DA!
Dean..I don’t know..about your state supreme court and the last presidential election. Tell me about it….We are in Nebraska, now, and we are, as you know, Republican. Mike Johanns is a brilliant legislator..BET on that..!
Mia,
That can’t be true of all Iowans. Captain Kirk surely does not have a free pass!
I’m not Roman Catholic myself - I’m Orthodox Christian, but I certainly see your point. I’m 57 years old, in the middle of the “boomer” generation. In my opinion, the shortcomings with our own upbringing mostly didn’t have to do with our parents themselves, but with the self-styled “experts” who gave everybody bad advice. What I’m talking about is the Gramscian “long march through the institutions.”
The old ways were better. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…”
My husband and I did not turn out to be “typical Baby Boomers” - and we don’t have a lot of material goods to show for it either. But then, we were both innately more independent minded than most people are.
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