Book: Are Baby Boomers A ‘Generation Of Sociopaths’?

[JasonBlack]

(07-14-2022, 10:16 AM)David Horn Wrote: That's a great point, but one that needs a bit of clarification.  We grew-up in a world where the ugly parts were purposely hidden, so naiveté was virtually guaranteed.  We knew right from wrong (more than can often be said today), but we lacked the abilty to see the many shades of gray, where ideal was simply unavailable and good-enough seemed inadequate.  So yes, we screwed up a lot, but our hearts being in the right place is a sour excuse.  Cnicism won far too often, and is now the de facto standard.  We're tired; we can't fix it.  I only hope we raised you all well enough to do it for us.

Right, they were naive in the 2T, corrected during the 3T. Though many could still use some work. As a group, they still have a tendency to give overly general advice, where millennials will sit down with you and hash out specific circumstances before offering a potential solution.

Just this other day this happened with my dad, a '51 cohort boomer. He's always been a gentle soul (the millennial characterization of boomers as Social Darwinists does not stand up at all), but I don't think he's ever been super poor in his life. I work two jobs to pay the bills. One is quite low wage, the other isn't paying out anything yet because I'm not profitable (I stock trade for a prop company in the morning, but it generally takes a year or so to really learn the ropes and become profitable). He lives in Kansas while I live all the way out in South Carolina, so all things considered...trying to get time off work to go see family is quite a task. Generally something I need to plan about 2 months in advance.

In about a week, I'm taking a long trip to go see the folks, and he's all like "you might want to consider coming earlier because___" and so I have to explain to him why you can't just change the dates I've scheduled off work at the drop of a hat. He is not a keeping-up-with-the-Joneses style boomer. In fact, he's extremely frugal and grateful for what he has, but sometimes he forgets that what might have been a straightforward issue for him is a lot less so for people in other situations.