I find these artificial divisions boring after a while. BTW you forgot GenZ in one of your lists. Maybe it because some people don't want to own their shortcomings and limits. So they project that on the Boomers. As is your wont, you hit on so many points for elaboration and expansion.
"It is so much easier to preach the universal panacea to everybody else than to take it oneself, and, as we all know, things are never so bad when everybody is in the same boat. No doubts can exist in the herd; the bigger the crowd the better the truth--and the greater the catastrophe." Karl Young
'twas the times they ("they") unleashed massive MK Ultra programs, LSD, free sex ("free"), horrific wars and coördinated violence (Cold War; Viet Nam; Gladio; neo-colonialist take overs). we didn't get the memo and weren't prepared, on purpose. no guilt: we didnt have enough information to see what was going on. long but powerful read explaining the development of pop music/pop culture - http://www.frot.co.nz/design/conspiracies/how-the-tavistock-institute-invented-rock-roll/
It is long, but some good info in there. I don't quite agree that psychedelics were a bad thing. It's certainly possible that the intent was to disrupt society and control people with that, but in the end I think it backfired on them.
Honest, I haven’t read the whole thing and may well agree with its main points about what has been foisted upon us in the name of pop culture.
But, I must point out that the Beatles and Rolling Stones were the end of rock’n’roll and the beginnings of Rock. Neither was rock’n’roll invented by Alan Freed as is so often claimed.
Listen to what is often called jump blues from the late 1940s, frequently to be found on independent R’n’B labels based in Los Angeles. Not only is the music obviously a precursor of what came about with Elvis Presley, Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis and all the other acknowledged names of the mid-late 1950s, but you will hear the phrase “rock and roll” sung again and again.
As such I feel that rock’n’roll was originally both a resurgence of African spirit into the world at large and an agent of liberation for the teenagers of the time, black and white alike. I will say that, when the Beatles originally broke through in England, I as an upper-middle-class 11-year-old found them tremendously liberating. All that followed from some time continued that liberation. Undeniably, it has been perverted and weakened by the corporate forces of the national entertainment state.
agree on the rock’n’roll part (old-time, 'raw' blues fan myself, with a splash of Chuck Berry and Little Richard). as for the Beatles....nah. a bit too much ado about nothing, what with the hysterical girl-audiences. although that might've been manufactured for the cameras....
Girls were screaming at The Beatles when they were still doing lunch-time sets at The Cavern. It might even be considered a liberation thing. Dodgy argument.
Thank you for adding Little Richard to the list of original rock’n’rollers. How could I have overlooked him? Perhaps the greatest of the lot.
Sorry, but that article is near unreadable — no, utterly unreadable, far from being powerful, riddled with errors, and highly suspect in its cherry-picking of "facts" and tenuous conspiratorial connections. It is not information itself, but disinformation by mind-addled nitwits on seriously wrong drugs. It does not even begin to explain "the development of pop music/pop culture." It is reactionary in the extreme. An outstanding piece of rubbish even by internet standards.
If one wants to argue about uninhibited efforts by shadowy figures to influence culture in a negative way, one has to look no further than the screen you use just about every day. What Zuckerberg and Musk and a few others have brought into being is far beyond anything this article suggests.
politely disagree. the introduction of mass media since the early 20th century (radio, Hollywood, television) are much more closely linked to the near-psychopathic need for control of 'the masses', with staggering consequences, than is often thought. according to the article the introduction of pop music and subsequent development of music/pop culture was a most important element in this process. of course Adorno didn't invent "yeah, yeah, yeah" (as it mentions), however it does point out the far-reaching, international influence of the German nihilist philosophers of the post-war era, the covert tentacles of MI6 and the CIA and the existence of the MKUltra programmes. perhaps time to rewrite and update it.
Humankind ruined the world. And continues to do so. Lots of talk these days about AI taking over. Maybe that's not such a bad thing. Could things be any more fucked up than they are now? Probably. BTW, and mary-lou may this upsetting, but I believe LSD and free sex made the world a better place.
i like you Bret and deffinately agree on the free sex and LSD. i think i got the acid experience so well that often when i want to i can on my own get into that space again. it’s a very useful tool for dealing with some issues and situations.
I also looked at the document mary-lou sent and saw it seemed to come down hard on psychedelics. Yes, there may have been a control agenda in place, but I think to a large extent it backfired.
One of your best Su. I have been “Boomer bashing” in my private thoughts for about a year now. Partly because I felt we (yes, I am a Boomer) we’re spoilt, always pandered to by society simply because of our weight of numbers and that collectively, as we aged and opinions moved rightward accordingly, we were responsible for Brexit, MAGA and Nationalism in general.
Your article was a much needed counterweight and has given me some fresh perspectives. Very interesting as ever.
Su, there are so many insightful messages in this piece!
The generational labels, to me, are reductivist. They reduce complex thought to simplistic slogans that explain nothing. I don't think in those terms much anymore.
When I was raising a young son, born in 1988, I was concerned about media literacy. I volunteered in his kindergarten class to teach some of the aspects of visual storytelling, using a video camera.
When we watched TV, we watched videos borrowed from the library, and very little commercially-sponsored programs. I think Sesame Street was about it. We also watched a lot of silent films, particularly Chaplin's. And we talked about what we watched, where I learned about how he perceived small things like a character's facial expressions. I always felt he had things to teach me, and vice-versa.
I tried to not park him in front a screen. I taught him to be skeptical of "messaging" in commercials (he saw them with friends, of course, and at his mom's home), and to look for the lies they told to influence him. It wasn't a perfect approach, he was still affected by trends that came and went, but he also did his own thing. One school year he decided to wear his clothes inside out, and unmatched socks, and did not cut or comb his hair! I asked him, "do you know why you're doing this?" He said he did, and that was the end of the conversation.
In other words, I taught him critical thinking, as best I could, and encouraged him to make his own decisions. To me, this is the best that parents can do. My personal credo for being a parent was a quote I came across: "A parent's job is to teach their child to walk, and then, walk away."
Today, my son is teaching kids in grade 5/6, in his first year as a teacher, in Vancouver. He has strong core values, like tolerance, kindness, finding joy in simple things. He cares deeply about the kids he teaches. He also coaches sports teams in his school, after a lifetime as a gifted athlete. And I'm very proud of him. He's not afraid of swimming upstream, against the tide, when necessary. We talk about his classroom activities often, and I am careful to hold back all the fatherly advice I might want to give. This summer, if all goes well, he will become a dad for the first time. I think he will be an exemplary parent. And as the times we live in become ever fractious and difficult, he will face so many challenges! He will find his own way, as he usually does.
The kvetching about generations and the harm they have wrought is a waste of time and energy.
Keep 'em coming, Su. I will share today's post with some of my friends!
Sounds like you raised your son well. Never heard this quote, "A parent's job is to teach their child to walk, and then, walk away." Many parents seem to claim some kind of ownership over their children, which is ridiculous.
Once again, an extremely well-written, researched, considered article, Su. I know the Bernays documentary, and was surprised to learn a great friend of mine who was mega-successful in advertising, with degrees in same, had never heard of him. How could this be? Regarding the multi-generational bashing; hasn't that always gone on? Doesn't every generation think they know best, have the best music, and everything before was stupid? The one thing that seems to cure it is growing older. Then you KNOW that your generation knows best, has the best music, and everything before was, and is, stupider. Thankfully, I learned yesterday that NASA has upgraded the chance of a "city-killer" asteroid striking the earth in 2032, from 33% the week before, to 43% just one week later. Since I can't round up all these spoiled, stupid kidz and make sure they're in that city, I can only hope I am. As Kurt Vonnegut used to say, "Ho-hum."
Speaking of asteroids and end of the world scenarios... I have a "party" question for you. A real conversation starter. Or ender. IF you knew that the end of the world was immanent, would you choose to, a) die peacefully in your sleep the night before, blissfully unaware, or b) pull up a lawn chair with Jose in your lap, Johnny by your side, with cocktails in hand, and watch the end-of-life show? I think I may have asked you this before, but can't recall your answer. If I had to guess, I think it'd be the same one I'd pick...
"how people are controlled by subconscious/unconscious forces and programming...." < most people. not everyone, and not to the same degree. non-thinking consumers are swayed by the current hype-du-jour, yet many people still do not have an iPhone or are clever doing their thing without Ai. because... what for? since when is using 'old' technology a disadvantage?
besides, between (misogynist) 'Freud' and 'fraud' only one letter is spelled differently.
Definitely not everyone and not to the same degree. But it's sobering the amount of control that we accept, or take for granted, when it doesn't have to be that way.
I was born in 1939, and I have suffered greatly because my generation has not been labeled. Or, if they have I've missed it. Without a label how do I know who I am or what I'm supposed to thimk? (sic) I have no idea who belongs to what generation. That's one of the advantages of ignoring the "news." Also, one advantage of growing old is not giving a damn.
Conversations with my 30 yr. old step-daughter are interesting. She has almost no concept of what has gone on in the world before she was born, and she's not dumb. She has a university degree in Korean studies, speaks 3 languages and is the only Thai I know who can think logically. Even here, groupthink has taken over. Maybe even to a greater degree because that's the MO of the society.
Due to the connectivity, through the internet, of the nearly the entire world, the same ideas, for good or bad, (subjective) can be spread everywhere at the same time.
One of the most popular occupations today is that of "Influencer." I've never figured out whom they are influencing or what their influence is. Can one get a degree in "Influencing?" Thereby gaining higher status and influencing even more people.
Haha, I'm sure we can think of a label for you Go, if you really want one :-)))
I remember having a conversation with my niece and nephew when The Truman Show came out....they had absolutely no problem with the idea of being monitored 24/7. Regarding "influencers"--a 25 yr old colleague of mine told me he used to be an influencer with many followers, but he quit that in order to focus on jazz piano. Now that's a kid I can like!
“Boomers as a whole fucked society. They were basically given everything. No wars, no depression.” Spoken by an utterly ignorant person who knows nothing and can’t be bothered to find out.
I was pleased to see you immediately called him on his “skewed perception.”
I’ve been meaning to do fuller research on this for ages, but here goes anyway. Possibly the most significant factor affecting “boomers” was that they were the first generation exposed to television. Marshall McLuhan somewhere says that the effect of television is different from radio and newspapers in that it convinces the viewer that they have a personal relationship with what’s on the screen. The result is that one “thinks,” or at least feels, the broadcast is actually a direct connection with you, or communication to you, i.e. a narrowcast rather than a broadcast. It’s a trick that laid the groundwork for the newer communications systems of today and the deleterious crap that is flooding through society faster than a backed-up sewer system with a fatberger in a seaside town.
Needless to say, both TV and the internet are almost totally reliant on advertising. Thus, we are “individually” changed from persons with agency to mass audiences of consumers, targets in other words. I claim that this explains the ugliness in personal communications so prevalent today. Subconsciously we are simply passing along to others the way we are treated.
One of the key techniques of advertising is the collection of data along demographic lines. That is, knowing your consumer by age, economic status, location, interests, etc. Then you segregate your messaging appropriately and, you hope, effectively and efficiently. Obviously, the internet allows this system to be employed with considerably more detail than the old world of television. However, the underlying principles are the same.
The creation of this tedious generational warfare is, I believe, directly attributable to the advertising industry and originally television, although certainly throughout the twentieth century there were some examples of younger people, especially affluent ones, creating a bit of a social ruckus. It just didn’t really kick off until the mid 1950s, the Beats, and the surfacing of rock’n’roll into the white teenage world. And, if I may point out, rock’n’roll was a not a “boomer” creation. Let’s get that little piece of history straightened out for the uninformed.
As I see it, the older generation is always shaping the future for next generation, but we are inevitably influenced by the fuckery of the industrial-military-consumer-entertainment state that runs the show. We think we have agency, but beyond the smallest personal decisions that is utter bullshit - and likely influenced by advertising anyway - unless one happens to be one of the top predators such as we are seeing run amok these days not only in Washington DC but around the world.
I also suspect that the up-and-coming generation usually have a poor opinion of all the old dinosaurs who are so, so out of touch with the latest big must-have deal foisted upon the world by those who hope to profit from whatever it is.
What I think is happening today is that generational animosity is being stoked by the internet and its devious ways for reasons connected with the undeniable global shithole of a mess that unrestrained global capitalism has delivered. Let’s attack each other for however old we are (like we have an effing choice!) rather than focusing on how we’re all being jerked around - and more importantly how we are all complicit in the system. The impending ecological collapse has been long coming and is now accelerating due to a lot more than the consumption patterns of one generation.
I have to add that no generation is monolithic. There are plenty of youngish people who find better things to do with their time than type moronic crap out in the manner of those Su has been afflicted by. However, if they represent the future in any way, we are in more trouble than even I think.
And let's not forget the hypnotic power of the backlit screen, deployed for centuries by the Catholic Church (in the form of stained glass) and later by TV and now device screens. Plus, John Lilly and Adam Trombly discovered that entrainment frequencies were being deployed on an unsuspecting public through the power grid itself! I have written about this before.
Can’t stay away from the psychedelics issue. I’m of the opinion that at the time of puberty all young men should receive a reversible vasectomy along with a very large dose of a psychedelic yet to be determined. But LSD would work. This would, of course, be done under extremely ritualistic and meaningful circumstances. The young men would then be released into the care of older women who would teach them how to be humans - and good lovers. If a male was eventually deemed worthy, his vasectomy would be reversed and he could become a father.
Sorry. A bit off track there! But, hey, almost all societies have some form of ritualized initiating ceremonies frequently involving genital . . . umm, what’s the right word? Not quite surgery and not manipulation, but you get the idea. Mutilation is sometimes what’s involved. Mind-altering substances are also frequently administered.
Beyond that, many societies use psychedelics in one way or another for a variety of purposes. Their reemergence in the west in the 1960s was a sign of recovering lost knowledge, even if the process was screwed around by the CIA and other assorted agents of evil. The big issue is that use of psychedelics should be not so much recreational - but re-creational.
Well Jonathan that's pretty radical but it's certainly one way of dealing with the situation. I believe you are correct in that the West lacks ceremonial rituals for youth entering puberty, as they have in other countries and areas, like the Diné Sun Dance for instance. I've played for plenty of bar/bat mitzvahs and Communions, and they don't at all accomplish the objective of entering adulthood as far as I can tell. I personally didn't feel like an adult until I had to buy my first refrigerator....
Being an adult is remarkably overrated. I have now bought several refrigerators and am still unconvinced of my adulthood.
About being radical. Firstly, I can spout these apparently ridiculous ideas because I know that most people will think they . . . go a little far. And not take them seriously. But it’s both a form of play for me - and, you know, might yet shift the playing field. Which needs shifting because patching up the same old astroturf ain’t going to do the job of producing the changes we need in society. We in the west/global north have some very radical problems and we need radical ideas to fix them. Unfortunately, the current radical ideas, especially in the US, will make things things so much worse. The marketplace (!) of ideas needs some serious competition. Play can be serious.
I find these artificial divisions boring after a while. BTW you forgot GenZ in one of your lists. Maybe it because some people don't want to own their shortcomings and limits. So they project that on the Boomers. As is your wont, you hit on so many points for elaboration and expansion.
"It is so much easier to preach the universal panacea to everybody else than to take it oneself, and, as we all know, things are never so bad when everybody is in the same boat. No doubts can exist in the herd; the bigger the crowd the better the truth--and the greater the catastrophe." Karl Young
I too find the artificial divisions boring!
Yes, it has gotten a little old. Time for new divisions as if we as a country are not polarized enough.
I also forgot to add vegans and omnivores to the list.
For shame!
LOL
'twas the times they ("they") unleashed massive MK Ultra programs, LSD, free sex ("free"), horrific wars and coördinated violence (Cold War; Viet Nam; Gladio; neo-colonialist take overs). we didn't get the memo and weren't prepared, on purpose. no guilt: we didnt have enough information to see what was going on. long but powerful read explaining the development of pop music/pop culture - http://www.frot.co.nz/design/conspiracies/how-the-tavistock-institute-invented-rock-roll/
It is long, but some good info in there. I don't quite agree that psychedelics were a bad thing. It's certainly possible that the intent was to disrupt society and control people with that, but in the end I think it backfired on them.
Honest, I haven’t read the whole thing and may well agree with its main points about what has been foisted upon us in the name of pop culture.
But, I must point out that the Beatles and Rolling Stones were the end of rock’n’roll and the beginnings of Rock. Neither was rock’n’roll invented by Alan Freed as is so often claimed.
Listen to what is often called jump blues from the late 1940s, frequently to be found on independent R’n’B labels based in Los Angeles. Not only is the music obviously a precursor of what came about with Elvis Presley, Eddie Cochran, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis and all the other acknowledged names of the mid-late 1950s, but you will hear the phrase “rock and roll” sung again and again.
It’s also worth reading “Hear That Long Snake Moan” by Michael Ventura, https://michaelventura.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/HEAR-THAT-LONG-SNAKE-MOAN.pdf, which illustrates quite clearly how the roots of the music are traced back to Africa.
As such I feel that rock’n’roll was originally both a resurgence of African spirit into the world at large and an agent of liberation for the teenagers of the time, black and white alike. I will say that, when the Beatles originally broke through in England, I as an upper-middle-class 11-year-old found them tremendously liberating. All that followed from some time continued that liberation. Undeniably, it has been perverted and weakened by the corporate forces of the national entertainment state.
agree on the rock’n’roll part (old-time, 'raw' blues fan myself, with a splash of Chuck Berry and Little Richard). as for the Beatles....nah. a bit too much ado about nothing, what with the hysterical girl-audiences. although that might've been manufactured for the cameras....
Girls were screaming at The Beatles when they were still doing lunch-time sets at The Cavern. It might even be considered a liberation thing. Dodgy argument.
Thank you for adding Little Richard to the list of original rock’n’rollers. How could I have overlooked him? Perhaps the greatest of the lot.
amazing line-up: Little Richard: vocals; Jimi Hendrix: guitar; Billy Preston: organ: Clyde Johnson: saxophone; William Green; saxophone; Buddy Collette; saxophone; Ronny Miller; bass; Bernard Purdie; drums. (1965) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egx1WYG0g_o
Sorry, but that article is near unreadable — no, utterly unreadable, far from being powerful, riddled with errors, and highly suspect in its cherry-picking of "facts" and tenuous conspiratorial connections. It is not information itself, but disinformation by mind-addled nitwits on seriously wrong drugs. It does not even begin to explain "the development of pop music/pop culture." It is reactionary in the extreme. An outstanding piece of rubbish even by internet standards.
If one wants to argue about uninhibited efforts by shadowy figures to influence culture in a negative way, one has to look no further than the screen you use just about every day. What Zuckerberg and Musk and a few others have brought into being is far beyond anything this article suggests.
politely disagree. the introduction of mass media since the early 20th century (radio, Hollywood, television) are much more closely linked to the near-psychopathic need for control of 'the masses', with staggering consequences, than is often thought. according to the article the introduction of pop music and subsequent development of music/pop culture was a most important element in this process. of course Adorno didn't invent "yeah, yeah, yeah" (as it mentions), however it does point out the far-reaching, international influence of the German nihilist philosophers of the post-war era, the covert tentacles of MI6 and the CIA and the existence of the MKUltra programmes. perhaps time to rewrite and update it.
Humankind ruined the world. And continues to do so. Lots of talk these days about AI taking over. Maybe that's not such a bad thing. Could things be any more fucked up than they are now? Probably. BTW, and mary-lou may this upsetting, but I believe LSD and free sex made the world a better place.
i like you Bret and deffinately agree on the free sex and LSD. i think i got the acid experience so well that often when i want to i can on my own get into that space again. it’s a very useful tool for dealing with some issues and situations.
ask your women friends, compare how they experienced it....
I also looked at the document mary-lou sent and saw it seemed to come down hard on psychedelics. Yes, there may have been a control agenda in place, but I think to a large extent it backfired.
One of your best Su. I have been “Boomer bashing” in my private thoughts for about a year now. Partly because I felt we (yes, I am a Boomer) we’re spoilt, always pandered to by society simply because of our weight of numbers and that collectively, as we aged and opinions moved rightward accordingly, we were responsible for Brexit, MAGA and Nationalism in general.
Your article was a much needed counterweight and has given me some fresh perspectives. Very interesting as ever.
Thanks Steve, nice to hear from you!
Su, there are so many insightful messages in this piece!
The generational labels, to me, are reductivist. They reduce complex thought to simplistic slogans that explain nothing. I don't think in those terms much anymore.
When I was raising a young son, born in 1988, I was concerned about media literacy. I volunteered in his kindergarten class to teach some of the aspects of visual storytelling, using a video camera.
When we watched TV, we watched videos borrowed from the library, and very little commercially-sponsored programs. I think Sesame Street was about it. We also watched a lot of silent films, particularly Chaplin's. And we talked about what we watched, where I learned about how he perceived small things like a character's facial expressions. I always felt he had things to teach me, and vice-versa.
I tried to not park him in front a screen. I taught him to be skeptical of "messaging" in commercials (he saw them with friends, of course, and at his mom's home), and to look for the lies they told to influence him. It wasn't a perfect approach, he was still affected by trends that came and went, but he also did his own thing. One school year he decided to wear his clothes inside out, and unmatched socks, and did not cut or comb his hair! I asked him, "do you know why you're doing this?" He said he did, and that was the end of the conversation.
In other words, I taught him critical thinking, as best I could, and encouraged him to make his own decisions. To me, this is the best that parents can do. My personal credo for being a parent was a quote I came across: "A parent's job is to teach their child to walk, and then, walk away."
Today, my son is teaching kids in grade 5/6, in his first year as a teacher, in Vancouver. He has strong core values, like tolerance, kindness, finding joy in simple things. He cares deeply about the kids he teaches. He also coaches sports teams in his school, after a lifetime as a gifted athlete. And I'm very proud of him. He's not afraid of swimming upstream, against the tide, when necessary. We talk about his classroom activities often, and I am careful to hold back all the fatherly advice I might want to give. This summer, if all goes well, he will become a dad for the first time. I think he will be an exemplary parent. And as the times we live in become ever fractious and difficult, he will face so many challenges! He will find his own way, as he usually does.
The kvetching about generations and the harm they have wrought is a waste of time and energy.
Keep 'em coming, Su. I will share today's post with some of my friends!
Sounds like you raised your son well. Never heard this quote, "A parent's job is to teach their child to walk, and then, walk away." Many parents seem to claim some kind of ownership over their children, which is ridiculous.
Once again, an extremely well-written, researched, considered article, Su. I know the Bernays documentary, and was surprised to learn a great friend of mine who was mega-successful in advertising, with degrees in same, had never heard of him. How could this be? Regarding the multi-generational bashing; hasn't that always gone on? Doesn't every generation think they know best, have the best music, and everything before was stupid? The one thing that seems to cure it is growing older. Then you KNOW that your generation knows best, has the best music, and everything before was, and is, stupider. Thankfully, I learned yesterday that NASA has upgraded the chance of a "city-killer" asteroid striking the earth in 2032, from 33% the week before, to 43% just one week later. Since I can't round up all these spoiled, stupid kidz and make sure they're in that city, I can only hope I am. As Kurt Vonnegut used to say, "Ho-hum."
Asteroid on the way? Well I certainly have days where I think the end of the world can't come soon enough....
Speaking of asteroids and end of the world scenarios... I have a "party" question for you. A real conversation starter. Or ender. IF you knew that the end of the world was immanent, would you choose to, a) die peacefully in your sleep the night before, blissfully unaware, or b) pull up a lawn chair with Jose in your lap, Johnny by your side, with cocktails in hand, and watch the end-of-life show? I think I may have asked you this before, but can't recall your answer. If I had to guess, I think it'd be the same one I'd pick...
b) ‘cos if I picked a) I’d never know that it really happened. I might pick something other than cocktails to enjoy the show with.
Yeah, me too. Probably pizza and ice cream.
B by all means
Me, too!
"how people are controlled by subconscious/unconscious forces and programming...." < most people. not everyone, and not to the same degree. non-thinking consumers are swayed by the current hype-du-jour, yet many people still do not have an iPhone or are clever doing their thing without Ai. because... what for? since when is using 'old' technology a disadvantage?
besides, between (misogynist) 'Freud' and 'fraud' only one letter is spelled differently.
Definitely not everyone and not to the same degree. But it's sobering the amount of control that we accept, or take for granted, when it doesn't have to be that way.
I was born in 1939, and I have suffered greatly because my generation has not been labeled. Or, if they have I've missed it. Without a label how do I know who I am or what I'm supposed to thimk? (sic) I have no idea who belongs to what generation. That's one of the advantages of ignoring the "news." Also, one advantage of growing old is not giving a damn.
Conversations with my 30 yr. old step-daughter are interesting. She has almost no concept of what has gone on in the world before she was born, and she's not dumb. She has a university degree in Korean studies, speaks 3 languages and is the only Thai I know who can think logically. Even here, groupthink has taken over. Maybe even to a greater degree because that's the MO of the society.
Due to the connectivity, through the internet, of the nearly the entire world, the same ideas, for good or bad, (subjective) can be spread everywhere at the same time.
One of the most popular occupations today is that of "Influencer." I've never figured out whom they are influencing or what their influence is. Can one get a degree in "Influencing?" Thereby gaining higher status and influencing even more people.
As they say in the Yukon; Hush you Muskies.
Haha, I'm sure we can think of a label for you Go, if you really want one :-)))
I remember having a conversation with my niece and nephew when The Truman Show came out....they had absolutely no problem with the idea of being monitored 24/7. Regarding "influencers"--a 25 yr old colleague of mine told me he used to be an influencer with many followers, but he quit that in order to focus on jazz piano. Now that's a kid I can like!
He can probably influence more people via his piano playing than whatever he was doing to influence them before.
All labels welcome and summarily rejected.
Hey Su... it's snowing like heck, no reason for me to feel thirsty. Yet why am I craving a Coca-Cola? With ice?
“Boomers as a whole fucked society. They were basically given everything. No wars, no depression.” Spoken by an utterly ignorant person who knows nothing and can’t be bothered to find out.
I was pleased to see you immediately called him on his “skewed perception.”
I’ve been meaning to do fuller research on this for ages, but here goes anyway. Possibly the most significant factor affecting “boomers” was that they were the first generation exposed to television. Marshall McLuhan somewhere says that the effect of television is different from radio and newspapers in that it convinces the viewer that they have a personal relationship with what’s on the screen. The result is that one “thinks,” or at least feels, the broadcast is actually a direct connection with you, or communication to you, i.e. a narrowcast rather than a broadcast. It’s a trick that laid the groundwork for the newer communications systems of today and the deleterious crap that is flooding through society faster than a backed-up sewer system with a fatberger in a seaside town.
Needless to say, both TV and the internet are almost totally reliant on advertising. Thus, we are “individually” changed from persons with agency to mass audiences of consumers, targets in other words. I claim that this explains the ugliness in personal communications so prevalent today. Subconsciously we are simply passing along to others the way we are treated.
One of the key techniques of advertising is the collection of data along demographic lines. That is, knowing your consumer by age, economic status, location, interests, etc. Then you segregate your messaging appropriately and, you hope, effectively and efficiently. Obviously, the internet allows this system to be employed with considerably more detail than the old world of television. However, the underlying principles are the same.
The creation of this tedious generational warfare is, I believe, directly attributable to the advertising industry and originally television, although certainly throughout the twentieth century there were some examples of younger people, especially affluent ones, creating a bit of a social ruckus. It just didn’t really kick off until the mid 1950s, the Beats, and the surfacing of rock’n’roll into the white teenage world. And, if I may point out, rock’n’roll was a not a “boomer” creation. Let’s get that little piece of history straightened out for the uninformed.
As I see it, the older generation is always shaping the future for next generation, but we are inevitably influenced by the fuckery of the industrial-military-consumer-entertainment state that runs the show. We think we have agency, but beyond the smallest personal decisions that is utter bullshit - and likely influenced by advertising anyway - unless one happens to be one of the top predators such as we are seeing run amok these days not only in Washington DC but around the world.
I also suspect that the up-and-coming generation usually have a poor opinion of all the old dinosaurs who are so, so out of touch with the latest big must-have deal foisted upon the world by those who hope to profit from whatever it is.
What I think is happening today is that generational animosity is being stoked by the internet and its devious ways for reasons connected with the undeniable global shithole of a mess that unrestrained global capitalism has delivered. Let’s attack each other for however old we are (like we have an effing choice!) rather than focusing on how we’re all being jerked around - and more importantly how we are all complicit in the system. The impending ecological collapse has been long coming and is now accelerating due to a lot more than the consumption patterns of one generation.
I have to add that no generation is monolithic. There are plenty of youngish people who find better things to do with their time than type moronic crap out in the manner of those Su has been afflicted by. However, if they represent the future in any way, we are in more trouble than even I think.
And let's not forget the hypnotic power of the backlit screen, deployed for centuries by the Catholic Church (in the form of stained glass) and later by TV and now device screens. Plus, John Lilly and Adam Trombly discovered that entrainment frequencies were being deployed on an unsuspecting public through the power grid itself! I have written about this before.
Can’t stay away from the psychedelics issue. I’m of the opinion that at the time of puberty all young men should receive a reversible vasectomy along with a very large dose of a psychedelic yet to be determined. But LSD would work. This would, of course, be done under extremely ritualistic and meaningful circumstances. The young men would then be released into the care of older women who would teach them how to be humans - and good lovers. If a male was eventually deemed worthy, his vasectomy would be reversed and he could become a father.
Sorry. A bit off track there! But, hey, almost all societies have some form of ritualized initiating ceremonies frequently involving genital . . . umm, what’s the right word? Not quite surgery and not manipulation, but you get the idea. Mutilation is sometimes what’s involved. Mind-altering substances are also frequently administered.
Beyond that, many societies use psychedelics in one way or another for a variety of purposes. Their reemergence in the west in the 1960s was a sign of recovering lost knowledge, even if the process was screwed around by the CIA and other assorted agents of evil. The big issue is that use of psychedelics should be not so much recreational - but re-creational.
Well Jonathan that's pretty radical but it's certainly one way of dealing with the situation. I believe you are correct in that the West lacks ceremonial rituals for youth entering puberty, as they have in other countries and areas, like the Diné Sun Dance for instance. I've played for plenty of bar/bat mitzvahs and Communions, and they don't at all accomplish the objective of entering adulthood as far as I can tell. I personally didn't feel like an adult until I had to buy my first refrigerator....
Being an adult is remarkably overrated. I have now bought several refrigerators and am still unconvinced of my adulthood.
About being radical. Firstly, I can spout these apparently ridiculous ideas because I know that most people will think they . . . go a little far. And not take them seriously. But it’s both a form of play for me - and, you know, might yet shift the playing field. Which needs shifting because patching up the same old astroturf ain’t going to do the job of producing the changes we need in society. We in the west/global north have some very radical problems and we need radical ideas to fix them. Unfortunately, the current radical ideas, especially in the US, will make things things so much worse. The marketplace (!) of ideas needs some serious competition. Play can be serious.
Here's a previous article that relates to what we're discussing:
https://open.substack.com/pub/templeofartists/p/use-earplugs-to-watch-leave-the-world?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=wk75r
Nice piece. I'm not about to enter the trenches for any generation. War, what is it good for?
Couldn't agree more.