Have Boomers Adversely Influenced Succeeding Generations?

While some may perceive the boomer generation as being self-centered and problem children, without the boomers where would civil rights be? Or womens' liberation?

Many boomers wholeheartedly embrace the environment and their desire to keep it intact for their children. This began with the hippie movement of the Sixties. And while many may consider the boomers too left in their ideology, without them would there still be people riding in the back of buses? Would women still be considered the inferior sex?

Some may also believe that without the boomers there would be no war in Iraq. But there have been wars long before the boomer generation was ever born. Wars are about money and politics and in earlier years about religion. Many also believe that the boomers will be an economic drain on society. But many boomers plan to continue working at least part time and those that have money to spend are avid consumers and travellers putting money back into the economy.

Many boomers are health conscious and with their interest in diet, exercise and their wish to keep their brains active, hopefully age-related diseases will be held at bay somewhat compared to the generation ahead of them.

The boomer generation for the most part value family although many do have a liberal view of marijuana usage. Boomers and their offspring tend to have more intergenerational harmony than that which existed with their own parents where there was often a great divide. Miles apart in their musical interests and other things, they often had little in common.

The boomers brought about rock and roll; a type of music still loved, listened to and sang by succeeding generations. Even very young children will sing a Beattle's song. When the boomers were young, no one sang along with Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby. I believe the rock and roll the boomers enjoyed in the Fifties and Sixties will endure.

Boomers influence because of their sheer numbers but as a group, particularly as they grow older, their opinions are quite diverse. Many have become very conservative. Leaving their love beads, long hair and their desire to live from the land behind, they got the call of money and entered universities, eventually donning their suits and ties.

So have boomers had a bad influence on the succeeding generation? Have they made it difficult for the generation to follow? Did they take more than they gave? If you look at the previous generation, the boomers were left with the aftermath of a Great War, and the Cold War that followed. Yes, the boomers have lived during affluent times but can some credit go to them for their good work ethics and their hard working mentality? If boomers wanted something, they were quite willing to work for it. They have never expected anything to be handed to them. Many things might be better because of them. No one will ever know for sure.