General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: It seems like there's a lot of dislike and contempt for "boomers" from "millennials" [View all]thucythucy
(8,039 posts)of action on how precisely this could have been done, I'd love to see it.
Some struggles are "easier" to win than others--I put "easier" in quotes because ANY social change for the better is usually tremendously difficult to achieve. And so, "the grassroots groups showed" that SOMETIMES the powers that be can be overcome, but not other times.
Most boomers I know got damn little if anything out of the way the economic table tilted during the past thirty some odd years. We've got boomers trying to deal with their aging parents--worried about their Social Security--at the same time they're dealing with a shinking job market for older people, while the younger people in their families try to make a place in that same economy. The boomers I know, in other words, are trying to extend themselves supporting the generation ahead of them, and the generation[s] behind. But hey, they didn't overthrow predatory capitalism when they had the chance, so what good are they?
"They could have and could have enacted the change they showed possible in other areas."
You honestly think the reason we don't have more economic justice in this society is because the Boomer generation--those activists who worked on social justice issues anyway--just didn't want it? Again, that seems awfully simplistic to me. Kind of close to "blame the victim."
There are certain mega-factors in politics that are generally beyond the control of the masses, no matter which generation they belong to. I can understand the impulse to want to deny that truth--who wants to admit life is so unjust and uncontrollable--but my reading of history tells me that's just the way it is.
Again, if you personally have a way to confront and defeat those forces, go for it. I wish you all the luck in the world.
Meanwhile, I'd ask you to remember that you'll get old one day as well. You might consider how harshly you'll be judged by your own standards, if and when they come to be widely accepted, and the entire world isn't remade in the image you think best for everyone.