Generation Mess

Photo from AP

We sat down with Steve Gillon, author of Boomer Nation: The Largest and Richest Generation Ever, and How It Changed America, and insisted he admit baby boomers are worthless piles of pedantic shit. VICE: Look around you. How can you say the boomers did any good? They’re a mess. Steve Gillon: Today, they are a mess. It’s hard to argue that the baby boomers have grown very gracefully. However, if you look at 1963, when most of the boomers came of age, and you compare it to today you have to admit that most Americans are better off. We now have a black middle class. Women have more choices. And gays and lesbians are not only out of the closet—they can even get married in Massachusetts. Oh, come on. Those changes are inevitable. It’s called “time.” I’m not saying baby boomers were solely responsible for these things, but you’re not going to convince me they did not have a very large part in it. What about this war? It feels like they’re just trying to relive their parents’ past. “Mom and Dad had a war—we want one too!” The boomer generation is nothing but spoiled babies that never had any hardship. I was surprised to hear Bush, after 9/11, refer to “this generation’s greatest challenge.” It seems the baby boomers feel guilty about being so flabby and, as they get older, they want to re-create their parents’ challenges. You could call them “generation envy.” Great. They can re-create a challenge from the suburbs and send working-class kids off to war. That’s exactly what they protested during Vietnam. The huge class problems we have in America today come from this inability to discuss important issues like fiscal responsibility. The most important issue right now is jobs. Boomers are arguing about the pros and cons of diversity while the dollar plummets to zero. So much of this last election was taken up with people arguing about gay marriage and abortion, but nobody wanted to ask about globalization or outsourcing jobs. There are two Americas and they are divided by class. This is the greatest failure of our generation and it’s making it pretty hard to see the success. You’re starting to sound like one of us. I don’t know what that means. CHRISTINA CRAPPLEGATE
Author’s note: We really wanted to lynch Gillon but he was a good sport, so instead we’re going to plug the Newt Gingrich vs. Bill Clinton book he’s working on now.