THE GENERATION GAP, 1999-STYLE

It's Boom Time, Baby, So Hop Into That Gas-Guzzler And Go Demonstrate For War

Babies. Boomers. Baby Boomers. From where I sit, 1999 seems to be the
year of the Boomer. Advertisers are taking direct aim at them, and so
are HMOs, television, the fitness industry and a myriad of other
commercial enterprises.

It's all about the Boomer now, and why shouldn't it be? There are a
lot of them. Even our president is a Boomer.

Obviously, the Baby Boomers are in charge, having finally wrestled the
reins away from their aging and tired parents. Ta-da! It's Boom Time,
Baby! Far out! But is it? Has the sun finally risen or has the sun
finally set? Will the creators of Generation X save us or destroy us?

It's a good question, one that needs to be answered, and though I and
others of my generation suspect the latter to be true, I am not even
sure the Boomers are thinking about it at all. This scares me more
than any thing else.

As a so-called Gen-X'er, I feel that our generation was, in a way,
fortunate to have been abandoned by the Boomers during their struggle
to wrestle power and money away from the previous generation. I say
"fortunate" because we have become alienated and disenfranchised
enough to see clearly and without prejudice the damage Baby Boomers
are doing to our society.

Clearly, Baby Boomers are not malicious but, rather, inattentive and
fearful. Unfortunately for all of us, the Baby Boomers have not paid
attention to the world they live in since they quit marching and got
jobs. In the struggle to acquire status, power and money (not to
mention behemoth sport-utility vehicles that never leave the road),
Baby Boomers have missed their chance to understand the world they
live in and empathize with those living in it.

As the Baby Boomers begin to retire and look out from the fog of
self-indulgence, they are finding that their grown children won't
speak to them, that their parents don't trust them and that the world
is on fire (except, of course, at the mall, where the security is
good). Baby Boomers are afraid -- afraid of the reality they have
created and do not understand at all.

Unfortunately for them, Boomer fear will be the true Boomer
legacy.

Already, Boomer fear is manifesting itself in a variety of ways. As
Boomers began to inherit and spend their parents' wealth, we also saw
an increase in the size and intensity of our police forces, military
operations and the development and expansion of the prison industrial
complex. We have begun to see "punishment politics" -- mandatory
minimum sentences, debtors prisons for deadbeat dads, excessive use of
the death penalty and so forth -- guiding our political, legal and
social policies.

Long gone are the policies that valued redemption, forgiveness or any
kind of extenuating circumstance. Boomer fear has begun to turn into
Boomer anger, and like the anger of a trapped animal, it is cruel,
illogical and confused.

As the new millennium dawns, I look out across the landscape of an
America filled with police, prisons and gas-guzzling vehicles and I am
dismayed but not surprised that my parents have stranded me here.

Perhaps my generation can deliver us from this cultural, political and
moral Armageddon, but perhaps not. It's all by, for and about the Baby
Boomers now, and maybe only they can deliver us from this madness.