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+---- Thread: Abandoned Xer elders (/thread-573.html)
Abandoned Xer elders - Saint Stephen - 11-22-2016
It has been a long while since I posted, but I used to post on the old forums when everyone was wondering if we were 4T yet or not.... But that isn't what I wanted to post about.... This is: I recently went to this site: http://www.lifecourse.com/about/method/generational-archetypes.html where I learned that nomads are abandoned as elders... I was really hoping we were going to catch a break at some point... Weren't Xers abandoned as kids? How is that going to come to pass when some of us are doing all that we can to protect future generations from the nightmare of debt bearing down upon them? And how is it that Boomers are "respected" in elderhood while Xers are "abandoned"? When I look at things it seems these things ought to be flipped... How will the "tough" midlife Xers become "abandoned" as elders?
RE: Abandoned Xer elders - pbrower2a - 11-22-2016
The Lost might give some indications of tendencies that might cause X elders to be neglected. The Lost as a pattern had much less formal education than later generations. Often having worked in industry as children, they may have been exposed to far more workplace toxins, especially lead and mercury, that could have messed up their minds. Coming of age before antibiotics, those who got STDs were more likely to reach tertiary stages of syphilis and gonorrhea. Stunted very often by bad childhood experiences, they rarely developed the 'sweetness and light that later elderly generations could show.
Add to this, the American High and Awakening Era featured multitudes of Americans moving across state lines at the behest of employers. But could cranky old Grandpa and Grandma make the trip and adjust to the new world? Not likely. The nursing home came into existence as a means of pushing such old people aside. It was then fairly cheap and convenient. Grandpa and Grandma would probably lose their old houses in neighborhoods becoming slums -- but who cared? Maybe they couldn't be trusted with stoves and ranges. (of course I had to lay the law down on my father on the range and stove -- the microwave was safe and acceptable, but the stove and range were off limits if I was not around. I didn't want a house fire). But his house still had some value. My brother and I expect to sell it, and I expect to use half the proceeds on some life-enriching travel and perhaps a newer car before going off to senior housing. That;s not how things were in the 1960s.
this is my opinion: we Boomers are unlikely to be liked as a group. We have given America some of its most exploitative bosses and the worst political leaders in American history. We have yet to come up with a Lincoln or an FDR, and if Donald Trump is our last President, then such might be the albatross around us. We may be the pompous asses that younger generations encourage to submit to euthanasia so that our nursing-home bills don't cost the grandchildren their college educations. The Lost didn't get the means and ended up messed up for that. We Boomers often got coddled all the way, and as a group we have really messed up the world.
RE: Abandoned Xer elders - Earl and Mooch - 11-22-2016
Don't be so hard on yourself.
RE: Abandoned Xer elders - Saint Stephen - 11-22-2016
(11-22-2016, 08:35 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: The Lost might give some indications of tendencies that might cause X elders to be neglected. The Lost as a pattern had much less formal education than later generations. Often having worked in industry as children, they may have been exposed to far more workplace toxins, especially lead and mercury, that could have messed up their minds. Coming of age before antibiotics, those who got STDs were more likely to reach tertiary stages of syphilis and gonorrhea. Stunted very often by bad childhood experiences, they rarely developed the 'sweetness and light that later elderly generations could show.
Add to this, the American High and Awakening Era featured multitudes of Americans moving across state lines at the behest of employers. But could cranky old Grandpa and Grandma make the trip and adjust to the new world? Not likely. The nursing home came into existence as a means of pushing such old people aside. It was then fairly cheap and convenient. Grandpa and Grandma would probably lose their old houses in neighborhoods becoming slums -- but who cared? Maybe they couldn't be trusted with stoves and ranges. (of course I had to lay the law down on my father on the range and stove -- the microwave was safe and acceptable, but the stove and range were off limits if I was not around. I didn't want a house fire). But his house still had some value. My brother and I expect to sell it, and I expect to use half the proceeds on some life-enriching travel and perhaps a newer car before going off to senior housing. That;s not how things were in the 1960s.
this is my opinion: we Boomers are unlikely to be liked as a group. We have given America some of its most exploitative bosses and the worst political leaders in American history. We have yet to come up with a Lincoln or an FDR, and if Donald Trump is our last President, then such might be the albatross around us. We may be the pompous asses that younger generations encourage to submit to euthanasia so that our nursing-home bills don't cost the grandchildren their college educations. The Lost didn't get the means and ended up messed up for that. We Boomers often got coddled all the way, and as a group we have really messed up the world.
Wow... Pbrower, your response is like a breath of fresh air. Not what i am accustomed to from a boomer. It has all the humility one could expect from a grey champion with the wisdom about the Lost to boot. Gen X is far to cynical to expect a grey champion to get elected, but don't think we can't spot one flowering from a mile away amongst the weeds & mark them as a rally point.
Pbrower, you can call me Steve.
I do feel the vacillations between the frenetic energy and exaustion, but i keep holding onto this hope that when Spring comes, Xers will get some sense of satisfaction that we guided the millies and hommies thru the crisis and protected the things we all hold to be most sacred collectively. Abandoned hardly seems like a reward given the importance of the task at hand... Its the 4th turning.
RE: Abandoned Xer elders - tg63 - 11-28-2016
(11-28-2016, 11:36 AM)X_4AD_84 Wrote: X will get abandoned because the Boomers will "eat everything in sight," so to speak, as they make their end of life journeys. By the time we X are in our 70s and beyond, the public elder care system will be burned out. There is however a silver lining. For the fraction of Xers who have decent retirement funding, things like CCRCs will be falling over each other for our business due to the steep drop in demand.
add to that (or as part of the eating everything in sight), the crisis and ensuing 1T rebuild - assuming the crisis manifests itself in a big way - will require resourcing at a level that compromises social programs. Great infrastructure projects, or war, or whatever, costs hard money ... and we (Xers in elderhood) will be an easy target. Inflation will be tolerated, even encouraged - at our expense.
RE: Abandoned Xer elders - Warren Dew - 11-28-2016
(11-22-2016, 08:35 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: this is my opinion: we Boomers are unlikely to be liked as a group. We have given America some of its most exploitative bosses and the worst political leaders in American history. We have yet to come up with a Lincoln or an FDR
FDR was hated by many, but they shut up during WWII for the sake of solidarity, and he didn't survive the war. Actually, I suppose Lincoln didn't survive his war by much either. If a boomer is in charge when the crisis is resolved, he will be lionized as FDR was, even if he's actually just as bad as FDR was.
RE: Abandoned Xer elders - Kinser79 - 12-03-2016
It isn't the nature of Nomad Generations to catch a break. We are born as the old society dies, being ripped apart at the hands of the destructive prophets--and they are always destructive--we then struggle through life often leading the civics as the build the new one until we are suddenly old.
RE: Abandoned Xer elders - Hintergrund - 07-11-2018
The Lost generation didn't know about generational dynamics. We do, however.
RE: Abandoned Xer elders - pbrower2a - 07-11-2018
(07-11-2018, 01:08 PM)Hintergrund Wrote: The Lost generation didn't know about generational dynamics. We do, however.
But much less than a minority. Some Gilded and X did really well in old age, having prepared themselves well with successful entrepreneurialism or heroic saving earlier in life. But if one got ill paid in early adulthood and got no chance to climb the economic ladder, then old age would eventually be almost inevitably be dreadful.
RE: Abandoned Xer elders - Hintergrund - 07-17-2018
The Lost may have felt that they were screwed, but didn't have enough proof. We OTOH...
RE: Abandoned Xer elders - Galen - 07-17-2018
(07-17-2018, 12:03 AM)Hintergrund Wrote: The Lost may have felt that they were screwed, but didn't have enough proof. We OTOH...
They knew they were and they found the Boomers to be disappointing. The Lost that were left when I was growing up were less than happy about what was going on in the sixties and seventies. Truth was they were glad they would be dead because they fully understood how destructive Boomers were as a generation.