THE 1960s GENERATION AND THE FUTURE

In a recent essay, historian Victor Davis Hanson comments that this generation of leaders pursues the solution of our nation’s problems within this scenario—“consume, don’t produce and complain.”  He offers several examples:

• The housing boom:  For the past five years, we complained as a nation about a “housing boom” that had priced an entire generation out of the market.  Therefore, the government and lending agencies relaxed standards that permitted first time borrowers to purchase a high-priced home.  “Flipping houses” and buying “no-down payment” properties became common.  But the bubble has burst and now we are complaining that greedy lenders and incompetent regulators have foreclosed!  Perhaps the real reason, Hanson argues, is that the 1960s boomers have caused this “speculation” problem themselves.
• More than 70% of the American people and a majority of Democratic senators wanted to remove Saddam Hussein, and in the early stages of the war, that majority increased.  But when a messy insurgency exploded, the language was changed from brilliant victory to “their stupid occupation.”
• Social Security is in trouble, but the boomers are unwilling to sacrifice to fix the crisis and the entire nation now follows boomer pattern of “consume, don’t produce and complain.” 

Hanson writes:

“What are the baby boomers’ collective traits?  Like all perpetual adolescents who suffer arrested development, we always want things both ways:  Don’t drill or explore for more energy, but nevertheless demand ever more fuel from other suppliers. . . Housing not only has to stay affordable for buyers, but also must appreciate in value to give instant equity to those who have just become owners.  When things don’t go well, we always blame someone else.  Why drill off Santa Barbara or Alaska when we can sue those terrible Saudis for not putting more oil platforms in their Persian Gulf?”  He concludes:  “Perhaps the greatest trademark of the 1960s cohort was self-congratulation.  Baby boomers alone claimed to have brought about changes in civil rights, women’s liberation and environmental awareness—as if these were not prior concerns of earlier generations.  We apparently created all of our wealth rather than having inherited our roads, schools and bountiful infrastructure from someone else.  And in our self-absorption, no one accepted that our notorious appetites created more problems than our supposed ‘caring’ solved. . . The fault of this age, dear baby boomers, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”  “Boomers’ Choices go Ka-boom,” Victor Davis Hanson (1 June 2008).

Permit me two final comments about the boomer generation currently in power:

• First, the effect all of this is having on the Democratic Party.  The 1960s produced the surge of political and social radicalism that I mentioned above.  This is what produced the catastrophe of George McGovern in 1972.  With the triumph of Reagan in the 1980s, a group of Democratic leaders formed the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), which proclaimed a foreign policy of military strength, a cultural conservatism to some extent and an economic centrism.  This is what produced the free trade of NAFTA,  the reform of welfare and the military engagement against Serbia—all during the administration of Bill Clinton, the poster boy of the DLC.  Clinton even announced that “the era of big government is over.”  But now the Democratic Party is clearly in the hands of a new resurgent left.  On foreign policy, the unpopular war in Iraq has emboldened the Party to embrace a new antiwar stance.  Obama thus calls for an immediate pullout of troops, despite any consequences that might ensue.  Accommodation will replace confrontation toward America’s enemies.  On the economy, Obama and the Party are hawking an anti-free trade policy.  Further, Obama wants to further tax income, payroll, capital gains, dividends and death.  He articulates a philosophy of economic redistribution of wealth through taxation.  Finally, Obama has stated that he will repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and has severely criticized the partial-birth abortion ban.  The Party is now firmly in the hands of the political and social left.  The new Democratic Party is really the old left embracing the ideas and polices of the 1960s.  It is difficult to be optimistic about this development.  See Kimberley Strassel, Wall Street Journal (20 June 2008).


• Second, let’s examine two of my heroes who recently died.  Both, it seems to me, challenged the self-absorption of the boomers and challenged the political, social and economic radicalism of the 1960s.

1. NBC Washington Bureau chief, Tim Russert.  The eulogies and programming about Russert were appropriately endless, so it seemed.  But Russert epitomized devotion to family and to his faith.  A devout Catholic, Russert believed very strongly in God, in prayer and in an ethical value system that reflected historic Christianity.  His love and devotion for his father, “Big Russ,” were legendary.  His father was a sanitation worker from Buffalo, and Russert loved him and shared that devotion publicly.  He was also a devoted father whose love for his son Luke was equally legendary.  He was faithful to his wife of decades and never neglected his love for her.  Peggy Noonan summarizes Russert’s life:  “. . . taking care of those you love and letting them know they’re loved, which involves self-sacrifice; holding firm to God, to your religious faith, no matter how high you rise or low you fall.  This involves guts, and self-discipline, and active attention to developing and refining a conscience to whose promptings you can respond.  Honoring your calling or profession by trying to do within it honorable work, which takes hard effort, and a willingness to master the ethics of your field.  And enjoying life.”  He was open to a whole range of ideas, and always gave the conservative viewpoint a hearing.  I had the most profound respect for Russert—he will be missed.  See Noonan’s essay in the Wall Street Journal (21-22 June 2008).


2. The actor Charlton Heston.  A major Hollywood actor, Heston portrayed many religious figures in various movie roles—Moses in The Ten Commandments, Michelangelo in The Agony and the Ecstasy, John the Baptist in The Greatest Story Ever Told, and, of course, Judah Ben-Hur in Ben-Hur.  A life-long and faithful churchgoer, Heston immersed himself in the stories of Scripture.  He presented a four-part documentary entitled, Charlton Heston Presents the Bible, shot on location in the Holy Land as he read Scripture and discussed the historical context of Scripture.  In 1956, Heston gave an interview in which he revealed the transformational nature of a spiritually attuned life:  “It is interesting to note that once Moses climbs Mt. Sinai and talks to God there is never contentment for him again.  That is the way it is with us.  Once we talk to God, once we get his commission to us for our lives we cannot be again content.  We are happier.  We are busier.  But we are not content because then we have a mission—a commission, rather.”  Charlton Heston—a rare breed for Hollywood!  He challenged the self-absorption of the boomers.  He will be missed.  See Steve Beard in Breakpoint Worldview Magazine (June 2008).

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