Originally published at: Quirky song blames boomers for wrecking everything | Boing Boing
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That was jazzier than I was expecting. Truly a wonderful thing
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With the disclaimer that many American Boomers – especially but not only PoC – didn’t enjoy the big party that was the post-war economic anomaly and weren’t selfish “Bobos” who betrayed the ideals of their youth and suppported Reaganism, this swingin’ song contains some harsh truths. Taken broadly as a generation, there still seems to be way too much self-congratulatory celebration at what the Boomers supposedly* accomplished in the '60s, ma-a-an, and way to little acknowledgement of how their profligate consumerism and demographic voting habits set the stage for the current mess of global warming, inequality, and resurgence of fascism.
[* most of the leaders of the Civil Rights, feminist, and anti-Vietnam War movement were Silents or older. The Boomers were foot soldiers at best.]
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We had it all, We had it all
It was never in the plan
To wreck the future but Hey Man …
Where and when was the “we had it all”, because that’s not how I remember it.
P.S. Placing blame at one subset of society for all it’s ills is fucking lame.
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Word. Especially when far greater blame for the current state of things actually should go to a much narrower sector: plundering, rapacious greedy assholes who never, ever have enough money and power.
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And never pay taxes to the USA, ever.
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But we took the earth for granted, and we missed the wake-up call
Gen-Xer here, but I think I remember there was definitely a wake-up call. Somebody simply hit the snooze button.
Thumbs up for Pat Paulsen!
I tried to find the iconic one with the kid walking through the landscape asking if the parents will save the world for the next generation, but came up empty. Anyone else remember this one?
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I think that New Model Army’s “Tomorrow Came” encapsulates it best, plus the singer is a Boomer, so it feels a lot more heartfelt.
I was born in the Spring and raised as a child through the years of the great harvest
The last of the generation that blew away the prison walls of the past
And we celebrated victory over the remains of the old order
By blasting into space, into the mountains, into the forests and into the ice
We sang songs of love and freedom
And we vowed to protect the weak even as they were cast aside
For the follies of everlasting youth were to be our new religion
For each person’s dream was to be made flesh and the world it was ours
As we slashed and we burned and laid waste to it all
To the glory and the vanity of rock and roll
Saying I want it all now
As our children stood and watched us in silence
Pray god they’ll forgive us
So the seeds planted for the future withered even within our own lifetimes
For it was the ties we so hated and destroyed that had made us strong
And the walls of every house now echo with that old refrain
There must be more money, there must be more money
Remember all those songs of love and freedom
As if they were the same thing – now we know they were not the same thing
They echo in empty beauty down through the boarded-up streets
To the sound of closing doors and the locking of the gates
As we slashed and we burned and laid waste to it all
To the glory and the vanity of rock and roll
Saying I want it all, give me more and more
As our children stood in silence and watched us
And now pray god they’ll forgive us
They’ve started filming for the final scenes
We’re still becoming what has already been
The stolen future and dissolving dream
Tomorrow never comes but tomorrow came
With the new day sun on our ageing skin
As we stand here naked with our children’s hungry eyes upon us
Pray god they’ll forgive us
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I dunno about blaming all the Boomers—but I do blame those of my own generation(late-Boomer/late-Gen X cuspers), those now in our late 50s/early 60s. We are the generation that bought into (allowed ourselves to be brainwashed) Reaganism and Neo-Liberal economic theory. Basically ignored all the warnings we grew up with through the ‘60s and ‘70s by the time we became adults.
Ours was the last-gasp of privilege, and I feel like we squandered it. I know I tried to push back, but that blind privilege was like a drug to some of us.
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Ok, Boomer.
Forgive me, that was too tempting.
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