The word "boomer" with letters crossed out to reveal the word "me."
We’ve entered one of the most awful periods of the year for public rhetoric: commencement season.
Between high school and college, these commencements can roll on for weeks. And those who don’t get to give speeches don’t hesitate to offer advice in other venues, like this piece of drivel from a writer named Margaret Renkl that appeared last weekend in the New York Times:
You are children of the 21st century, and yours is the first generation to recognize the inescapable urgency of climate change, the first not to deny the undeniable loss of biodiversity. You have grown up in an age permeated by the noise of a 24-hour news cycle, by needless political polarization, by devastating gun violence, by the isolating effects of “social” media. You have seen hard-won civil rights rolled back. You have come of age at a time of existential threat — to the planet, to democracy, to the arc of the moral universe itself — and none of it is your fault.
I wouldn’t blame you if you’re wondering how somebody of my generation, which wrecked so much that is precious, could dare to offer you advice.
Oh, for cryin’ out loud. Why is it that every older generation feels the need to flog itself in front of their children? And, by the way, you want a bad generation? Try the “Greatest Generation.” They gave us nuclear weapons, and used them a couple of times. They also stopped the Nazis. So, there was that.
The truth is that this group of graduates is among the most fortunate in recent history because they’re entering a red hot labor market. Unemployment among college grads hovers around 2%. And, as a generation, they’re set to — soon enough, don’t rush us — inherit a bunch of money from their Boomer grandparents. And, to top it all off, war, disease and poverty are at their lowest rates in human history. (For convincing evidence of that see Steven Pinker’s excellent book, Enlightenment Now.) In the big picture and in the long-run, things are good and getting better.
But the main thing I wanted to write about is this whole bogus generational thing. Back to our New York Times writer, a fellow Baby Boomer, where does she get off blaming all of us for climate change, loss of rights, and existential threats to democracy?
We lost our chance to do much about climate change in 2000 when conservatives on the Supreme Court made George W. Bush president over Al Gore. Not only did I vote for Gore, but I voted against those presidents who appointed the conservatives who handed the election to Bush.
By “loss of rights” I suppose she means abortion. Here again, not only am I pro-choice, but I didn’t vote for the presidents who appointed the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade.
And as for existential threats to democracy, I would walk across hot coals (something I’m sure Republicans are planning for voters next time) to vote against Donald Trump or anybody like him.
I’m not responsible for any of this stuff because I am not some faceless member of some vaguely defined generation. Born in 1959, I’m supposed to be a Boomer. But if you weren’t of draft age during the Vietnam War your experiences are completely different from those who were. I don’t have anything more in common with anti-war radicals than I had with my Greatest Generation parents.
It would be a good thing if we stopped assigning people specific traits based on when they were born. It would be nice to be seen as an individual, not the caricature of the know-it-all, self-satisfied Boomer (any of my writing to that effect to the contrary). And it would be good if people my age stopped lumping everyone who came of age around the turn of the century as poorly focused, unserious “Millennials.”
In fact, this leads me to take my argument even further. It seems like we’re living in a society that wants to categorize everybody quickly and easily, not only by age, but also by race, gender, education and more. One good thing about my generation is that we did, more or less as a group, rebel against precisely that kind of constrictive pigeon-holing. But now it seems to be all the rage on both the left and right to blame or excuse people based on their identity. We are all victims or oppressors, and it has nothing at all to do with what we think or what we’ve done as an individual human being.
My wish for the Class of ‘23 is that they drive demographers, marketers and pollsters to despair with their stubborn resistance to stereotypes. Now, go forth.
Dave Cieslewicz is a Madison- and Upper Peninsula-based writer who served as mayor of Madison from 2003 to 2011. He prepared a speech to the Class of ‘23, but surprisingly received no invitations to offer his advice and wisdom. He is open to offers for next year.
