What will our descendants say of those born to the Greatest Generation, those who bravely fought to save the world from Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan? Did the “Boomer” generation measure up?
We Boomers, eager to shed the fetters of traditionalism, raised our children as free spirits. We were disinclined to adhere to the traditions and preferences of our parents as stogy and unimaginative. Sex and intoxication replaced modesty and sobriety. Heavy metal preferable to a violin concerto. Television was desired more than a good book. Sleeping in replaced Sunday services. Hedonism substituted for virtuous living. Anti-Americanism supplanted patriotism. We were part of a generation in revolt that in the end realized that our behavior and practices were themselves revolting.
Many of us Boomers took account of how we lived our early lives and settled on the Christian worldview. But certainly not all of us. For those who didn’t, they raised a generation of children further inclined to revolt against their parents, even those whose view of the world began to reflect that of their parents. They recognized—at long last—that their thoughts agreed with those of their parents. By then, however, the generations since have embraced values increasingly alien and distant from the Greatest Generation’s.
Boomers sired Gen X, who in turn yielded the Millennials, who then brought forth Gen Z, the latter having a much distorted view of the work ethic and the role and purpose of government. Many believe that they can dictate the nature of their jobs. They insist that work accommodate them as opposed to conforming to the requirements of their employers, to whom they freely obligated themselves. They’ve adopted the notion of “work-life balance,” as if employment must conform to their schedules and requirements, not what their employers expect of them.
Gen Z views the government not as the protector of our freedom, but rather the guarantor of their success. Furthermore, they have decided that the government is obliged to oblige them. That free stuff fulfills their freedom. That someone else can pay for their needs. Is that demented notion any wonder given the last 60 years when those who have ruled over us have transformed the government from the guardian of our freedom to an ATM? Should it mystify us that when you raise a generation utterly ignorant of civics, they would have such views? When history is jettisoned for replacement theories concerning the nation’s founding that conform to radical ideologies, should we be astonished by the ignorance of our progeny concerning who they are and from whom they descended?
We Boomers once regarded our parents as members of the Greatest Generation, those who rose to oppose genuine fascism, not the progressive recasting of that evil that far-left radicals confer on those who seek to sustain our free constitutional republic today.
The Boomers and our children must bear the burden of what we have wrought. And what now exists—like a thrown boomerang —is hurtling back in our direction to strike us in the face. What we have done is now undoing our nation. What shall we do about that?
Os Guinness, a well-regarded Christian apologist and critical thinker, has observed that in the American tradition of freedom, the only appropriate restraint in living as free men and women is self-restraint. That needs much repair today. We can attempt to fix that problem with legislation. In some cases that is needed, particularly to deal with the evildoers living among us who have utterly no concept of self-restraint. But while in some cases that may be necessary, it is insufficient.
The real answer is to right our own worldview and take actions to embrace and exhibit the Judeo-Christian ethic in our society. That must, however, be an authentic expression of Biblical truth, not virtue signaling whereby we speak what is right but fail to live up to it. Our children may lack any understanding of that worldview, but they are not blind. They can detect hypocrisy and virtue signaling quite readily. We must live genuinely and, in doing so, begin a vital transformation that many of us believe can only occur with a Christian revival across our nation.
Doing so requires we also confront how social media acts as an echo mechanism by which misinformation and distorted truth are transmuted into twisted interpretations and outright falsehoods. We must recognize that if we want to propagate facts and truth, we must engage misinformed generations on their digital turf. We are being outdone in that by deceivers, and we must rebuff them soundly. That means using the technology of young Americans to inform them of the transcendent wisdom they need to go forward best. Maybe then, we also will measure up to being the great generation that our parents were, something well within our grasp.
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