The Greatest Generation grew up during the Depression and WW2. They saw real hardship, sacrifice and death the likes of which haven't been seen since. They grew up with a father who went to work, or maybe not if it was in the 1930's, and a mother who stayed home with the kids. They oversaw the rise of the biggest middle class the world had ever seen, America was prosperous and, for the most part, happy. However, since those grand old days, this group has turned into some of the most bitter, racist, Republican bastards still breathing. This is the group that votes against their own interests on a daily basis as the GOP's party platform routinely wants to eliminate Social Security and Medicare, a program 90% of them rely on. That is stupid. It would be like voting against food or clean air. Oh wait, they vote against that too as Republican anti-regulation nonsense is poisoning us regularly. These are the regular Fox News viewers and the most-ill informed individuals alive today. Talk Radio exists to placate them and they eat it up and believe every word of it. Their generation does not have the same degree of mistrust in government and media that the rest of us have as, when they were young, that level of deception did not exist yet. It does now and these old farts are ill equipped to deal with it.
Then comes the worst generation of all, the Baby Boomers. When they first got started, growing up in the 50's and early 60's, which was a very good time to be a kid, they had the whole world in front of them. Again, they had a dad who went to work and made a very good salary, enough for a house in the suburbs, a new car and vacations, which came into vogue in this era. Mom stayed home. As they got older, they stood up to authority, massed in great numbers and helped end an unjust, illegal war. That is how protest is done as some people died for what they believed in, something today's youth seems to have no courage to do. But then the Boomers sold out to large corporations where, instead of promoting a fairness for all, changed business into a Darwinian free for all which eviscerated the middle class and led to every problem we are having today. The made lots of money and figured out ways to hide it, not pay taxes, steal from everyone and everything and then blame everyone but themselves for the issues they created. The men of this generation are overwhelmingly Republican while the women lean more to the left. If you were black in this generation you were the first generation to have a chance to land a good job, a milestone thanks to LBJ in one of his better moments. The Baby Boomers ruined this country for the rest of us and it looks like it will never be fixed. However, this generation still has an independent streak and will stand up to authority if challenged.
Then there is my generation, Generation X. We grew up in the 70's and 80's which again wasn't that bad. School shootings were not seen yet in any kind of huge numbers, childhood was fun, Dad went to work and, eventually so did women, a turning point in American history. Feminism drove women into the workforce. What it didn't do was allow women who DID NOT want work that option. The glut of workers who suddenly entered the workforce diluted the pay scale to levels that have not risen since. Why would employers pay top dollar for someone when they can always find someone to work for less? With millions of new employees, salaries dropped and stayed there. I know this sounds misogynistic, and would never say women should be barefoot and pregnant, but there were consequences to this new idea and the end results have been terrible. When I was eight, my mom went back to work. I spent my days in the library, which wasn't such a bad thing as I was a genius who learned to read at age 2. I read everything I could in the library for the years I spent there, a fact which is why I am so smart today. But I digress. The point of this is, kids started to grow up without any parents, and while I turned out okay, studies show many other didn't. Without supervision, my generation started getting into real trouble as crime spiked, partly in response to this but mostly due to the crack epidemic. We were fools who believed in the American dream, most likely the last. We went to college, got good jobs and thought we would be okay if we kept our heads down and didn't bitch too much. We were such idiots. We all got laid off in the Great Recession of 2009, our 401k's dragged us down even further and then found out there were no good jobs left to get. Almost every single person who has been laid off since 2008, had not found a job any where near what they used to get paid. Worse, there is no end in sight to this pay drought which is literally killing the middle class now. We should have fought back harder against the rising tide of idiocy, but we didn't and that is our greatest failure.
Lastly, there is the Millennials. They are growing up in a huge cloud of poison, radiation, tainted water, and foul air. They are being raised in a culture of death, pornography and other hazards that no generation has ever seen. They have neither a mom or a dad at home because my generation is too busy working fifteen jobs to notice. They are going to go to a college that will guarantee them nothing except a mortgage size debt and no way to pay it off until they long dead. Most will never be able to afford a house, or even a new car at this rate. They are technologically savvy in a way few previous generations are. They are also wholly self absorbed, single minded and have apparently bowed to authority in signs of submission rarely seen in youth. The police state has indoctrinated them to NOT rebel, less they get arrested and any future at that point is destroyed. The problem with this is, soon it won't matter as the rich will have the power and their future will be destroyed regardless. Sometimes you have to rebel, no matter what the costs and today's youth has to get on the ball and start mass protests again, only this time have demands, a leadership and the willingness to get shot if need be. I write this column knowing that sooner or later I may piss off the wrong person or organization and then you will be reading about my "suicide" in the local paper.
However, some Millennials are going about this the right way by suing places to get their way. Now when that uppity bitch from New Jersey sued her parents for not paying for college, that is Generation Wuss in action. The opposite is the suit against Northwestern College to treat their athletes like a union. That is smart and devious and I love it. College athletes should be paid for their time considering the billions of dollars being made and the fact that some of these guys are going hungry without adequate housing says a lot about how slave like some of these guys really are. Another lawsuit is one that intends to end unpaid internships which is great because corporations have turned what should be valuable work experience, into literally using them as unpaid employees, doing things someone making money should be doing. It may not be a mass protest demanding the resignation of the entire Supreme Court (hint, hint) but it's a start. Millennials are our last hope. If they don't stand up and fight against the tyranny that is becoming rampant, then we really will be a oligarchy with no hope, no future, no nothing but slavery. Your choice young people. Choose wisely as the rest of us are depending on you.
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