The Legacy of the Baby Boomers: Consumerism & Self-Indulgence?

Forbes.com released a survey that says that when people think of the Baby Boom generation born after World War II that is now entering their 60's, what most comes to mind is consumerism and self-indulgence (HT: Ed Stetzer via Twitter). Ouch. 42% of respondents chose that answer. 27% said changing values and ending a war (Vietnam), and 32% said that either nothing came to mind or they weren't sure.  The Baby Boomers were shaped by the events of the 1960's, where battles over race, the Vietnam War, sexual experimentation, and the changing role of women and the family took center stage.

John Zogby, who orchestrated the poll says,

Some sociologists have observed that youth culture of the 1960s wasn't so much a rebellion against our parents' values as it was a cry out for society to literally and completely follow values of democracy and egalitarianism, ones that the World War II generation fought for in battle and after the Great Depression.

That statement is key and it is what made this article blog-worthy for me. To better understand where we are today in the playing out of cultural shifts, we would do well to look back at the 1960's and try and understand what caused the upheaval during that time.  American institutions, including the church, were not living out the ideals that Americans claimed. Baby Boomers grabbed hold of the ideals which correlated to freedom for all people, and rejected authority and institutions that did not promote those ideals. Every group that found themselves on the wrong side of these cultural battles was considered to be opposed to what they felt was valid. Of course, Zoby is just representing the Woodstockesque view of the Baby Boomers, but, by and large, that view is what has characterized that generation, even if it does not fully describe everyone born during this time period. 

Zogby says that by and large, Baby Boomers' chldren approve of them and have bought into their values. In explaining why, he says,

I think there are two other factors here. One is that baby boomers are the parents of First Globals, and our children seem to like us rather than rebel against us. The other, and some may disagree, is that the attitudes of First Globals, including their support for Obama, are a sign of who has won the culture wars. On matters of multiculturalism, race, women's and gay rights and sexuality, First Globals are quietly accepting of behaviors that, prior to the 1960s, were well outside the mainstream. They are, in other words, accepting behaviors for which their parents fought.

So, Baby Boomers are seen as being self-indulgent and consumeristic on the one hand, and are seen as having fought for diversity and freedom for all people, regardless of their race, gender, or sexual orientation on the other. Would it be fair to say that Baby Boomers are seen as being selfish personally and permissive communally? What are the ramifications of such a view? If you raise your children that way, what will they care most about?

Here is a question to leave you with:  What if the Church had been on the RIGHT side of some of the battles in the 1960's? What if the Evangelical Church had, for the most part, supported Civil Rights and had torn down segregation in the South instead of defended it?  What if the church had led the way in the fight for justice and equality under the law, instead of siding with a culture that would fight against the Nazis in WWII, but support segregation at home? If the Church had been on the right side of history, would a generation that rebelled against authority have had anything to rebel against? Would we be where we are now on the issues of sexual freedom, both straight and gay?

These are questions that I ask. The predominately white, evangelical church had a real opportunity in the 1950's and 60's to make things right. We had strength, power, resources, respect, and cultural clout. What if it had? What would that have taught the children of that generation? What would those children have taught their children? How would the world be different?

I'm not trying to say that Baby Boomers are self-indulgent and consumeristic. I mean, I guess that they are and I guess that that is obvious, but I don't think that they are to be demonized for it. Aren't all of us that way? It was a generation that lost its bearings and went off in search of something of meaning and all that it could ultimately find was itself because it had rejected all that came before. That never works and the generation that started by trying to "get together and love everybody right now" ended up being known as self-indulgent and consumeristic. Ironic, isn't it?

Only Christ can change us. Only He can cause us to put others first and not live for ourselves. The ideals of the 1960's got sold out and traded in for cheap plastic toys and implants because they were not based on the Truth of Christ. If that idealistic generation had been reared at the altar of Christian sacrifice and justice by their parents, could you imagine what could have happened? If they had seen the white evangelical church repent and walk alongside black Christians in the fight for equality and justice racial lines, could you imagine what would have been the result?

I think that the Church is starting to get this. When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, many churches awakened and went down there for months, and years, to help others. They did this, not just as good people, but as followers of Jesus. They changed things. You might be able to say some negative things about the church, but no one down there who received food, shelter, clothng, and love would do so. A great number of the people who went down there were Baby Boomers, following Jesus, wanting to help their neighbor. God is not done with this generation yet, and as tens of millions move into their senior adult years, we need to be praying that they would, at the end of their lives, meet their Savior.

Zogby concludes his article by saying, "So boomers will find new careers and hobbies and volunteer. They are a big part of what I call secular spiritualism, a growing rejection of materialism. People are embracing the notion that the American dream is measured in spiritual, not material, fulfillment.  Let's hope history will also remember how we played the last few innings of the game of life--and that we'll be thought better of than we are now."

Let's hope that history will see a massive turning of this generation to their Creator and Savior and that they realize that self-indulgence and consumerism is a dead end street, full of potholes of discontent. 

Maybe God can use their children to help them see that.  

 

Comments

[Jean Castille]

As a generation -Xer, I despisenthe baby boomers. And the people that
were the most active in civil rights were not the baby boomers. There were members of the WW2 generation. King, Robert and Bobby Kennedy were not baby boomers. The boomers just faked the funk
during the 60's and 70's. The boomers make me sick. They are the most
self-absorbed, self-aggrandizing people to ever be born on planet earth. Yes, they are materialistic and rampant consumers. They also want to impose their archaic value system upon the younger generations--ie greed, selfishness and materialism is a good thing. The boomers did nothing but fake idealism during the 60's and 70's. They
found their niche in embracing corprations in the 1980's (see
also: the greed is good era). We can thank boomers for outsourcing jobs, Viagara, unbridled greed, political corruption and white color crime amongst other things. We still face many of the problems today that they pretended to march and protest against. What a "generation of vipers" and phonies. Most of us will be glad when the boomers are gone. The baby boomers proved during their entire litetime to be heroes to no one. They are opposite of their parents.

be a hero to no one.