OK. The American Baby Boomers dropped
anti- establishment ball. So certain in late sixties and seventies that corporate money grubbing was at root of nearly every social evil, many bought myth that things could better be changed from within system. Many immersed themselves in system and were swallowed up in busy-ness. New technology, opportunities for economic advancement and security, put questions of right and wrong on back burner for twenty five years - a sad marker of maturity. Now they are reaching retirement age and current events are conspiring to remind them of unfinished business. If they can possibly recover health and energy they lost on their detour, they are going back to right and wrong of status quo, they have been supporting.
The naked idealism of their youth created a generation gap with their parents and will likely create same gap with their children; a generation that largely sees future as next year and global events as mysteries somehow connected to money. The Baby Boomers will have to find allies among grandchildren, if they hope to change future in next twenty years. I think they will pull it off.
Rejecting their parental role models, Boomers were truly without any at all. Heroes were scarce. They became a social experiment with very mixed results. They have been pummeled with idealism backlash. They have submitted to pragmatism. It has not fit them or worn well. They are about to shed their pragmatic skins and return to their idealistic roots. They have a hindsight that reinvigorates possibilities for future beyond that which was conceivable twenty five years ago. And they have economic power far beyond that of their youth. They can now change trade policies simply by agreeing with each other they need to be changed. They can now see abject failure of two party politics. Beginning in another five years, oldest of them will be free to return to political activism. Some aren’t waiting.
Half or more of them will choose to remain employed at least part time. At first glance it would seem they will be competing with their children and grandchildren for that employment. That will not be case. They will become greatest group of corporate drop outs world has ever seen. Moving back into world of individualism, they will create many of new, unincorporated businesses that will employ millions with better working conditions and personal satisfaction, than has been known before. They will cease their support of universal corporate power and begin creating global hope and prosperity. They will begin setting examples and providing models world craves.
Half of those remaining employed will do so from economic necessity. Lack of private pensions, inadequacy of Social Security and little support from their children will force them to remain employed. However, they will have options they could not imagine before Twenty First Century.
