Boomers in the 80s and 90s were fucking depressed. They described their lives as a boring, soul-crushing existence where they did the same hollow shit day in and day out. They hated their bosses, they hated their jobs, their kids, their wife/husband. People had “Mid-life crises” where they tried to fill the void with “a fast car and a young hot fling.” things capitalism told them would make them happy. It didn’t.
Seriously listen to any media made by boomers when they were in their 30s-50s. It’s all jokes about how fucking mundane life is.
Even at its peak, life under capitalism was hollow and soul crushing.
They were basically taught “as long as you keep your head down and play the game, we won’t hurt you financially”
Sure, (if you were white and male) you had money, but it took everything else away. Community, friendship, family. Trapped them in a gilded cage. Having to watch their children having even that promise of financial stability ripped from them. And don’t get me started on how terrible it was if you weren’t a white dude.
I have to wonder if the “selfish, childish boomer” stereotype is something of a coping mechanism. Maybe some boomers are like that because thats their jokerfication.
Is it cheesy to say “the best things in life are free?”
Maybe. But in my experience, with a few decades under my belt, it’s definitely true. Unfortunately our society, under capitalism, forces the worship of endless consumption to keep the wheel turning. None of us are immune to it. Some of us are more resistant.
No job I’ve ever held or commodity I’ve ever owned will ever be worth more to me or make me feel more alive than time I spent with friends that I loved.
My parents (boomers) and grandparents, when they were alive, were completely incapable of ever understanding why I would work whatever minimal amount to survive and spend my other time basically “doing nothing” which just means not creating surplus value for some capitalist. Of course I was doing something though. Reading, going to concerts, just watching movies with friends, whatever. I work to live not live to work.
To me, it’s an absolutely bizarre and impossible to understand mindset that boomers have. Always work work work (maybe not harder but more hours) and then spend spend spend.
I just saw my dad spend his money on stuff and he never seemed to get a shred of joy from it. Just light money on fire basically, never smile, then get ready for Monday. Always angry, annoyed, in a hurry. Impossible to talk to. My mom wasn’t much better. She’s “retired” like 4 times now because she literally cannot just sit and read or, I dunno, come over and hang out with her son (me) and just chat about random shit in the world. It’s all a big rush; they’re always in a hurry to get their task done to move on to the next task. They aren’t living, really; they’re just distracting themselves from existence. Scared that if they stand still and think about things they might have a feeling for once, and it won’t be a good feeling.
When I was like 20 years old, I remember everything felt like it was on a track towards… Something that felt relatively positive. Better than where we were. I’d sit with my friends at the time, sometimes we’d drink, and when I was really drunk I could lay my head back and look straight up at the stars and find the constellations or invent new ones. We’d talk about what the future was going to be like. How it was almost our time to run things and to fix things.
I guess that’s the sad thing in the end. I can look back on every dollar I’ve ever earned and spent and it means shit compared to sitting outside on a chilly autumn or winter night, drunk, just staring up at the stars and “knowing” things would be better and different someday. One memory among hundreds that cost me very little or nothing.
We don’t need all this shit. It will never make us happy. We all know it. But we’re stuck in this giant fucking pit with everyone else who also know it. We’re all individually powerless to change anything, so we crush that part of us that just wants to stare at the stars and we replace it with overtime work. We buy the commodities anyway. We justify it however we must. We cope however we can.
The boomers had everything and were still depressed. My generation had (almost) everything and we’re even more depressed. Ever notice how the zombie apocalypse genre blew up in the like mid 2000s and is still kinda ongoing? I think that’s our depressed Simpson’s style humor or way of coping. People just LARP and hope the world ends so they can have a reason to not go to work on Monday. So they can be freed from the hamster wheel forever. How fucking sad is that…
Well, I don’t know wtf all this means, apologies to the zoomers for depression-posting.
Oh yeah man, I feel this with my soul.
Heavy like lead in my bone marrow.
nah the zoomers know it too, despite all of the marketing shoved down their faces via social media 24/7, even younger reactionaries understand it but they blame the “left”? for it.
I have a lot of zoomer friends, so I try not to be too… I dunno, honest? about certain things because it’s just depressing. I don’t want to feel like I’m contributing to them becoming jaded and cynical, even if I kinda think that’s inevitable.
I do like that, I guess due to the internet which millennials grow up into and zoomers grew up with, there’s this solid group of people that are all sort of united in being fucked over or see others their age fucked over. This group from like teenagers to 40 are all in this together. Obviously it’s a spectrum and generally the older people are the better off they are in terms of material conditions, but everyone can also see the creeping reality that even if they squeaked by, there’s less and less for every person after them. The only thing left to consider is if you care or not…
I do give the younger people I know who are politically active a ton of credit though. When a 24 year old in the US has read Marx, that’s worth noting with pride. When I was 24 I’m pretty sure I was getting drunk and trying to fight Christmas trees (true story). Their radicalization has happened much more rapidly just due to circumstances and reality. As far as I can tell anyway.
it more than inevitable, it happened years ago. we’re already jaded and cynical. I wouldn’t worry about that
great post earlier. I miss that feeling that the future will be better and is full of possibility. you describe it well
Shit man, this made me tear up. I remember that feeling, but I haven’t known it in a long time.