Posted by
Trubador on Monday, December 11, 2006 12:49:40 PM
Elizabeth Powers over at First Things
touched on something that I have thought for some time. I call it,
"Wandering Through the Desert with 50-year-old Adolescents." I'll have
to expand on that thought some day.
"...There
is a noisy contingent still trapped in [the 60s] and whose opposition
to the war in Iraq comes straight from the sixties playbook, but such
overtly anti-American attitudes haven’t, in the current conflict,
gained much traction. After all, the Boomers have grown up,
chronologically at least, and the liberals among them don’t relish
camping in tents in Crawford, Texas, or even marching in the streets.
They have also benefited most from America, Inc. By now, they have made
it through the institutions, the media, the law, and the universities.
They have paid off their mortgages. They enjoy the advantages of the
best health care system in the world. They are about to receive not
only Social Security but also the fruits of their considerable
investment in retirement plans. The terms of their opposition to war
and to authority have changed—the president is an incompetent—but, as
in their youth, they remain averse to sacrifice. Their priorities are
now those of people who have had a good life and don’t want to
jeopardize it..."