Has the Establishment Failed us? Is it time to overthrow Generation X?

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Assumming they could have been prevented, neither Cheney nor Rumsfeld -- the two most powerful people in the White House on 9/10/2001, including the president -- are boomers.

george w Bush - born july 6th 1946 (same day as me ) baby boomer
william Clinton - Aug 19th 1946 - baby boomer
Condoleeza rice - born nov. 14 1954 - baby boomer
George Tenet (Director, CIA) born jan 5 1953 - baby boomer
Louis J Freeh (Director, FBI 2001) born jan 6 1950 - baby boomer
Stephen Hadley (NSA) born feb 13 1947 - baby boomer
Karl Rove - born dec 25 1950 - baby boomer

Actually, if you'll recall, it was boomers who made the government solvent in the 90s. But they were just dealing with the errant policies of non-boomers Reagan and Bush I. As for the current administration's policies, it was non-boomer Cheney who publically declared "deficits don't matter."

Actually, it takes both congress and the president to balance the budget. with clinton, the republican congress couldnt see past the D appended behind his name, so they blocked many bills. many of the house and senate are baby boomers. the same guys who were there with Bush I, and Bush II.

This has been a problem since the twin sucker-punches of the 1970s (the OPEC Embargo and the Iranian Revolution), when no boomers were in charge.

and now that the boomers have been i ngovernment for the last 15 years, they still havnt done anything about it. 15 years is long enough to get your house in order. they failed, move over.

Number of Boomers involved in Watergate: 0
Number of Boomers involved in Iran-Contra: 0
Number of years before the Boom that Duke Cunningham was born: 4
Number of years before the Boom that Dan Rostenkowski was born: 18

Jack Abramhoff - born feb 28 1955 - baby boomer
tom delay - born april 8 1947 -baby boomer
jeffrey skilling - born nov 25 1953 -baby boomer
'pardongate' clinton -baby boomer
bill first - born feb 22 1952 - baby boomer
michael chertoff - born nov 28 1953 - baby boomer
michael d brown - born nov 8 1953- baby boomer

A term coined in the 18th century to describe what was then already a common practice.

something which the 'anti - establishment' generation has failed to change.

Which had never, ever happened before, right? But the 27th amendment which disallows Congressional pay raises from going into effect until an intervening election, was first proposed in the 18th century but was forgoten until resurrected by Boomer Gregory Watson

something which the 'anti-establishment' generatiaon has failed to change

Hey! I remeber this criticism! Seems to me it first became part of American political discourse in the 1960s, when it was voiced by those long-haired, pot-smoking, peacenik...Boomers.

hey, seems to me that they shouldnt have done that and should now reverse course and get rid of this double faced hypocricy.

I've seen your generation. It plagiarizes books and jopurnalism articles to further its career. It kills people for their Nikes. Given the chance to confront a president, it asks, "Boxers or Briefs"? It is the primary demographic for Reality TV.

it learns from the best doesnt it? from the generation who continues to send its poor and uneducated to kill other poor and uneducated, from the generation who cares more about giving no bid contracts, rewarding political friends and donors than trying to fix up america's poorest neighborhoods like south philly, detroit, washington dc, atlanta, south central la. probably because the ruling elite doesnt come from those places, hasnt visited those places, ignores those places. and when those areas come out in opposition to the ruling elite, it gives the establishment, and a generation of selfish consumers and voters who have their heads in the sands about anything other them themselves, another reason not to help them.


on a side note, I think that the daily show had a 24 yo kid on who wrote a book about the exact same thing (im in europe, so I get the clips a few days after they have passed on the telly)

[Colon™]

I am a borderline X-Y case, being born in 1982. Don't really have an opinion on the baby-boomers, but I think Generation Y'ers are spineless, spoiled brats and I have more faith in any generation but that one.

Bring back the generation that went through the Great Depression and WW2. The generation that kicked Hitler's ass and rebuild the West.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

dont forget, the baby boomers are also the ones responsible for all the young fat kids due to taking them out to mcdonalds everyday, or serving fast food in school cantines. the baby boomer generation is poinsoning their own children and would rather do that than stand up to special intersts and big business.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
dont forget, the baby boomers are also the ones responsible for all the young fat kids due to taking them out to mcdonalds everyday, or serving fast food in school cantines. the baby boomer generation is poinsoning their own children and would rather do that than stand up to special intersts and big business.

Actually, most boomer kids are no longer kids -- think Chelsea Clinton, or the Bush twins. Those fat kids waddling around out there are, I'm sorry to say, overwhelmingtly the children of Generation X.

But you miss my point, which Agathon made directly: there's nothing especially bad about Boomers. Every generation eventually comes to feel that they've been betrayed by their elders and now it's Their Turn. It's how the Boomers felt about the generation that fought WWII, and its how that generation felt about the Eisenhower/Truman generation. It's how the Edwardians felt about the Victorians. It's even how the first generation born after the American Revolution felt about the Founders.

Every generation assumes that the problem is their elders, and that they'll do better.

And every generation is wrong.

Gen X will come to power, and soon. And their politicians will be craven and corrupt, their businessmen greedy and amoral, their foreign policy muddled and directionless, their comprehension of current events dismal. Not because they're Gen X, but because they're human.

[Elok]

Originally posted by Colon™
Bring back the generation that went through the Great Depression and WW2. The generation that kicked Hitler's ass and rebuild the West.

Sorry, but they're busy losing their marbles in the nursing homes we stuck them in. And I'm in generation Y, so watch your mouth, sirrah!

[Odin]

Originally posted by Elok
According to Wikipedia, our standard source for quick and dirty data of questionable accuracy, Gen X was roughly 1961-1981, something like that. Everyone after until around 9/11 is frequently judged to be in Gen Y or the Internet Generation by demographers. The whole demarcation is a thoroughly artificial and fairly arbitrary thing anyway.

By my understanding it's:

1945-1965: Baby-Boomers
1965-1985: Gen X
1985- : Millenials/Gen Y

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Im 85, which one am I?

isnt there a subset called Generation Why from 1982 - 1985.

[Q Classic]

Actually after we overthrow the Baby Boomers, we might as well start on overthrowing Generation X, too.

They are, after all, rather grungy and a bit too disaffected to really care, right?

[Q Classic]

Originally posted by Colon™
I am a borderline X-Y case, being born in 1982. Don't really have an opinion on the baby-boomers, but I think Generation Y'ers are spineless, spoiled brats and I have more faith in any generation but that one.

Bring back the generation that went through the Great Depression and WW2. The generation that kicked Hitler's ass and rebuild the West.

I tend to agree. I'm 1983, so I'm more Yish, Millenial/Internetish.

That said, we're far more attuned and used to The Technology than the fools in power now, who just don't... get it, and are well on their merry way to killing the golden goose.

[Agathon]

Anyone born after 1977 is just not worth listening to.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Originally posted by Odin


By my understanding it's:

1945-1965: Baby-Boomers
1965-1985: Gen X
1985- : Millenials/Gen Y

Terrific I'm 1965 and mid 1965 at that.

I still say I'm a tweener.

[Q Classic]

Anyone born after 1977 is just not worth listening to.

Most born before 1977 doesn't fully grasp the concepts, the powers, and the potential uses behind modern digital technology. Those that do get it tend to work in CSci departments or as IT specialists already, so~

[Kontiki]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
Actually after we overthrow the Baby Boomers, we might as well start on overthrowing Generation X, too.

They are, after all, rather grungy and a bit too disaffected to really care, right?

Dude, I'm a Gen X'er and that statement makes me so ......meh.......I'm going to listen to some Nirvana.

[Colon™]

Originally posted by Agathon
Anyone born after 1977 is just not worth listening to.

Au contraire, anyone born after 1977 ought to be listened to. At least until after 1982. That's when they began breeding lazy, spoiled brats.

[Arrian]

What Rufus said.

Besides, what's up with grouping together huge numbers of people in a "generation" and labelling them all? How the **** does that work? A baby boomer is necessarily a spoiled brat who did drugs in the 60s? What about people of that generation who aren't/that didn't? Tarr & feather 'em anyway, right?

Oh, right, when your CAUSE is based upon doing such a thing, maybe you fall into a pattern.

-Arrian