Apology from a Baby Boomer to Millennials and i-Gen-ers

I’m sorry. We really messed things up for you. We the baby boomers that is. When we were your age, we were so optimistic that we could change things for the better. We fought against ‘the establishment,’ we fought against the Viet Nam War and big business, we fought for civil rights and equality for all, we fought for the environment and to get environmental standards in place. We fought for consumers’ rights. That’s, at least, what we thought we were doing.

We failed. Epically. Now look at the world we’re leaving you. It’s not a pretty picture. In our nation inequality has increased dramatically. It’s a nation where hardworking men and women cannot find meaningful, decent-paying work, and for those who are still working, wages have been largely stagnant, with working and middle class families losing ground. A nation where both physical and political infrastructure is on the verge of collapse. Where ignorance is touted over science and the civics lessons we learned as children are all but gone in our schools. A nation where racism, sexism, bullying, lying, and religious bigotry are insurgent. A nation where climate change most likely will not be seriously dealt with in the near term, yet could prove an existential crisis for humanity.

Exactly what happened? I’m not sure. Somehow we got caught up in our careers and raising our families. Somehow we forgot our idealism, and our aspirations about working for justice, equity, and a healthy natural environment. Perhaps more importantly, too many of us bought into the neoliberal narrative that told us that companies should maximize their profits—and pay attention to little else. That the realities of competition made it OK for CEOs to make hundreds of times what their average workers made. That it was all right for companies to outsource or lay off workers with impunity if they could improve profits by doing so. That it didn’t really matter what we or our companies did to the natural environment, workers, or communities as long as they were profitable. That we were consumers, not citizens so our attention should be on what we can buy and how much we have, not what contribution we are making to the world, our nation, or our communities. That markets really were ‘free’ and that the less government intervention to make sure they were fair, the better. That we were all individually responsible only for ourselves, and that we had no shared responsibilities for the wellbeing of our communities or our nation. Well, maybe not all of us forgot these things, though somehow not enough of us remembered them either.

We look to leaders to repair the damage. The truth is that there is no magic bullet. No single leader can really solve all these problems, no matter what the claims to the contrary. Particularly leaders who do not believe these things are problematic. Realistically, the system is complex with many moving parts and stakeholders interacting with each other and bringing different points of view to any issue. Whatever our leaders might do is fraught with obstacles and different interests.

The truth is that we all need to act…from wherever we are in the system. We need to work not just in self-interest, but in the interests that we all share: decent work for the willing, equitable pay, civil rights for all, communities that work, a political system that pays attention to what citizens really want and need and where the rights of all are honored, infrastructure that works, equity and equality for all, a natural environment that support our human endeavors.

These days, indeed, are dark. I am so sorry. I am grieving along with you for what seems now lost. I think we, the baby boomers, or at least some of us, are sorry to have failed so dramatically. If we believe that today’s emergent values of hatred and division are the best thing for the country, then so be it—we can sit on our hands and do nothing.

But if we believe something different, we need to act accordingly. No matter the generation, if we believe in values of equity, justice, education, and a world where all can live free and in harmony with nature, we need to act to bring that world about, each in our own ways. If we believe, that is, in the values on which our nation was founded, we need to act, each of us, in whatever ways are possible. We need to create and share with others a new story about America today, one that is both optimistic and activist, a story that will not let the forces of darkness win. Then we need to act on behalf of that story believing that in the darkest days, there is always some light that can be made brighter. As the great, now late Leonard Cohen wrote in his ‘Anthem’:

Ring the bells that still can ring.

Forget your perfect offering.

There is a crack, a crack, in everything.

That’s how the light gets in.

(Leonard Cohen, Anthem)