My generation could well be the first generation in American history to leave our
country worse off than we found it.
I am a member of the baby boomer generation. The generation that came of age in
the late sixties during the turbulent times of Woodstock, Watergate and Vietnam.
The generation that is now holding the reins of power in most American institutions,
from politics to media, to education and culture. The generation that will likely
be responsible for squandering America's hard won freedoms and changing America
into a third world country, all in the name of 'equality' and 'social justice.'
A defining hallmark of baby boomers on the left is hubris and an absolute refusal
to learn or acknowledge the lessons of history. They know best.
Moral relativism is the cornerstone of most baby boomers. Their theories rest on
subjective, personal values instead of concrete scientific definitions. And they
acknowledge no other authority or moral code larger than one's choice. They have
adopted the Rousseauian strategy of emphasis on passion instead of reason.* And
despite the utter failure of the social policies they have instituted, they persist
in believing that they can define their own reality.
Author Shelby Steele, in his book White Guilt, comes closest to explaining
how and why the baby boomer generation believes as it does. Steele makes the excellent
point that every generation, when it comes of age, seeks to challenge authority
and tradition. Like most adolescent rebels, they are quickly humbled because they
overestimate their own truth and underestimate the truth of their elders. They learn
a valuable life lesson when they are smacked down by their elders and reality.
My generation never learned this lesson. As Steele writes, "The sixties generation
of youth is very likely the first generation in American history to have won its
adolescent rebellion against its elders."
The reason for this: As baby boomers came of age, America had just taken the giant
step of acknowledging and apologizing for its history of slavery and racism. At
that moment in time, America had lost its moral authority, hence the progressive
assaults on campuses resulted in defeating the traditional hierarchy. Heady stuff.
With this victory, my fellow boomers adopted the notion that they were invincible.
"Their rite of passage to maturity was cut short and they were falsely inflated
instead of humbled. Uninitiated, they devalue history rather than find direction
in it, and feel entitled to break sharply and recklessly with the past."
The boomer's adolescent rebellion was validated. They then proceeded to infect every
segment of American society with their own, unproven theories.
The media that had historically acted as a watchdog became an enabler for the boomers.
The media encouraged and validated the politically correct, utopian theories that
were a result of hubris rather than sound policy. And convinced millions of unsuspecting
Americans along the way.
Our universities not only succumbed, they incorporated and taught as fact the baby boomers'
notion of America as an oppressor and capitalism as evil. Courses in Western Civilization
were replaced with women's studies, black studies and queer theory. Indoctrination
replaced debate and group identity quietly started trumping individual accomplishment
as the road to success.
Fast forward to today. President Obama and our Democrat Congress are the end result
of a generation steeped in successful rebellion. They are the quintessential perpetual
adolescents that define the baby boomer generation. Never having had to pay the
price for our freedoms, they are oblivious to its worth. To Obama and most of
his fellow boomers on the left, the Constitution is a roadblock to their more perfect
vision. Instead, they take their cue from Saul Alinsky's Rules For Radicals.
My generation is now in a position to radically alter America. There is a very good
chance that boomers will prevail in their efforts to defeat capitalism, God and
traditional values and instill their own version of 'social justice.' Despite socialism
having failed abjectly in every country it has been tried, baby boomers like Obama
have the arrogance to believe that with them in charge, it will finally work.
Under the leadership of my fellow baby boomers, there is a very good chance that
the America that we all know and love could end up on the ash heap of history. James
Madison gave clear warning in 1788. "There are more instances of the abridgment
of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power,
than by violent and sudden usurpations..."
America is in the process of being conquered from within. By an arrogant and elitist
generation more concerned with their own status and power than with the good of
the country. This is my generation. And I'm ashamed to be one of them.
She lives in South Carolina
Article may be reprinted, with attribution.
