What’s worse than a life spent cleaning up someone else’s mess?
I came across this Facebook group yesterday, called Sounds like Baby Boomers but OK.
The group description start with:
Arguably the most selfish generation ever. Thanks a lot for leaving this bullshit mess for us.
OK, so it’s probably targeting climate-change-preoccupied millenials. The description ends with We also don’t put up with argumentative behaviour in here.
Uh-huh {snort}.
But the tagline across the top of the page left me a bit chilled.
Why won’t boomers die already
(I was sorely tempted to join the group and then post, Cuz we haven’t screwed up the planet enough for you yet, and we still have time and money to do it with.
I refrained. Bias alert: I’m a boomer.)
What bothers me most about this group is the ingratitude on which it is based.
We deserved to be born, raised and educated in a perfect world, with no muss, no fuss, no problems, and no messes to clean up. And you’ve FAILED in that obligation.
Instead, you brought us into a world with a changing climate, insupportable government debt, affordable housing shortages, smart phones, laptops, the internet, 4G connectivity (5G?), lattes and cappucinos, plentiful food and wine, Burning Man, cheap international air travel, craft beer, tattoos, designer T-shirts, designer just-about-everything . . . .
Terrible, just terrible.
The point being, Boomers haven’t left you with no messes to clean up. Granted.
But that might be partly because when you think they should have been preventing those messes, they were busy working long hours to feed, clothe and educate you. Designing those smart phones and internet connectivity systems. Laying the groundwork for those apps. Building those airliners. Working the hospitals and clinics that brought you around when you were sick.
Show a bit of gratitude.
Capitalism and the fossil fuel industry are what has allowed most of the planet to climb out of abject poverty in the last 100 years.
Yes, they’ve created some problems that we now have to solve. But give me a choice between our current situation and what life was like for the teeming masses in Victorian London, I’ll take today, thank you very much.
Show some gratitude.
Gratitude goes a long way toward making your day worth living.
And frankly, you know what’s worse that a life with a mess to clean up?
A life with NO mess to clean up. Nothing to live for. No purpose.
That’s Hell. On. Earth.
