It's All Your Fault Boomers, was the subject of an almost entire MACLEAN'S Magazine edition this week, Feb.17 2020 It seems to be built around reaction on an app called Tik Tok, recycled cardboard protest signs,a bunch of numbers from Stats Canada and a whole bunch of media generated alphabetized generations starting with (Baby Boomers) GenX, Millennial's (Gen Y), Gen Z and soon to come Generation Alpha. There is also mention of the Greatest Generation. I was born near the beginning of the Baby Boom an I can tell you the Greatest Generation influenced several generations into the future because it was made up of several generations each growing from the last. Each future Gen will do the same.We feared for our kids and now our grandchildren.
The Greatest and Boomers saw cutbacks and job losses in every financial quarter going back decades (mid 1980's) for every working person.Not the problem for corporate bottom lines.Today we are seeing the effects of de-industrialization with the rise of Asia. Manufacturing jobs and workers priced themselves out of jobs as globalization lifted boats across the world.
The Greatest still overcame the most, as several age groups stood on the shoulders of the other to win against the last greatest evil and build a world they thought would be fair to all.Good intentions have unintended side effects.Greed became good in a race to the bottom.
Officers in WWI became generals in WW ll, they lived through the First Great War, the Roaring Twenties and ten years of the Great Depression that ended with the beginning of WW II. In WWII, my uncles and neighbors fought in that War during their twenties. My mother worked in an aircraft plant, my dad in a munitions plant. My grandparents, as most of the people in my neighborhood, were immigrants (migrants in today's language). A little known fact about WWII: the manufacturing ability of North America was a key factor in defeating the Nazi army. Could we do that again in this modern time? Modern thinkers are wondering about the vulnerability of current supply lines, networks and their length.
The Depression and War marked several generations into the future. These people suffered and became savers and builders, their humility has never been matched by any generation that followed. This generation did not name itself.They built Canada. Respect.They recycled and reused in the 1940's and that continuously dwindled to the present day.
Today Canada no longer sees itself as a building nation and its economy is based on contract jobs, tips and commissions, soon to be replaced by the mysterious digital and climate economy that may simply be the new word for welfare.
A big bet is being placed on solar panels and the installation jobs that will be created if anyone can afford them. Geez. Has anyone noticed how dark it is getting. Canada and Australia still export coal to the Asia.
North America is going through Europe-if cation, as China and the Far East are beginning an industrialization process that took North America over 200 years to peak. China will do it in less than 75 years.
This is elementary school social studies.
As the rest of the world rises, the Western world will dip to an equilibrium. Economic climate change, western wealth melts.Idleness and welfare is a trap.
Our media is obsessed with micro conflict and is causing an anxiety level of hypochondria unmatched in history. So many parents are financially supporting their kids through their university years and again well into their 30's (through no fault of their kids) that it is effecting their own retirements.
The Transfer Wealth from the Greatest Generation has created a false floor to our economy that, when it is all spent, the real trouble will start with none of the following alphabet generations being properly employed and not ever being able to be a saver nor builder of wealth.
The deserved hysteria over climate change is causing our grandchildren anxiety. They may never develop skills to overcome.
Greta Thunberg's near nervous breakdown on the internet inspired my letter to my granddaughter on her tenth birthday last December. It is an explanation in the simplest of terms intended to calm and inspire. It was not intended to cripple. It is not meant to be a nursery rhyme because I have always told my kids the truth presented in ways they could understand. (Mall Santa's are not real but the spirit of Santa is very real).
This was in letter form with a stamp and the text she sent back to us was very emotional and inspiring to us. There is hope; there needs to be hope.
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To our dear granddaughter:(name with held)
Congratulations on your tenth birthday today. You are about to inherit the Earth.
The Earth might be compared to buying an old car: it has a few problems with age. The biggest problem is the temperature gauge is broken. The Earth's engine heats up too fast. I know in the next few years you will hear things about climate that will cause you much anxiety. The world is in a climate crisis mostly caused by people just like us who occupy this planet. We people are also the solution.
In the past, the world developed slowly and the problems of growth occurred slowly. Northern climate peoples developed fire-based technologies to stay warm. Those fires transformed into modern carbon-based technology. Today growth is rapid in the warm regions and the problems are accelerating faster and faster. This is our history. The way we live is causing nature to feel anxious and under stress too.
My hope is that you do not lose hope. Hope is feeling that has no limits, it guides us to do things better and to be better people. Hopefully you will make friends with other hopeful people and not join the easy and hopeless people who will always be less than they can be. Hopeful people need to stick together, so seek out other hopeful people.
I would hope you try to understand this complex problem but I also want to help you to cope and allow yourself to make personal choices that will be your individual contribution. Give yourself the power to change what you can change and the power to cope with things expected to happen that will be out of your control.
You need to be mindful of personal waste of energy, food, and water. Waste is at the heart of climate change. Waste is caused when you consume or dispose of things you do not need. It is based on an impulse to renew unnecessarily. Turn lights off in rooms when you leave, do not run water while brushing your teeth, learn to recycle and reuse every day items, throw trash in garbage containers and not on the street. Look for new ways to reduce waste.
The best practice for the world is to take the unusual step of doing less. Waste less, use less, renew, recycle and learn to share this earth. Learn to save. Do less by spending less and save for a rainy day. The day when there is something you need and not just want. This is about curbing impulses that promote waste. Making saving a habit keeps you away from borrowing problems and bad credit, another big world future problem.
You should always try to keep yourself physically fit, and grow your mind in ways that eventually allow you to be a good sister, daughter, granddaughter, friend and a smart productive world citizen. Your dance classes will help you achieve those goals of action and cooperation.
Be mindful of what you put into and onto your body.
Take care of your teeth, I spent most of my life, and extra money I earned, trying to fix problems with my teeth that should have never happened if I took better care when I was your age. Dental pain and expense should be avoided with good habits learned early.
Going along with this idea of what you put into your body, you need to be aware of the dangerous decisions made around drugs and alcohol. Soon you will face peer pressure to try things that will be hazardous to your health and to your brain development. Your brain will grow and develop until you are 25 years old. It is very possible and likely a person can damage their brain before that age by putting chemicals into the body, like drugs and alcohol as well as a whole host of combinations.
Peer pressure be very powerful and peer pressure is most effective on people who develop a need to please others. Negative peer pressure is about people wanting power over you. The need to please needs some limits if you want to grow up to be healthy happy, productive and your own person. You have to learn to be helpful and to make others happy in a way that does not do damage to your body or your brain.
The simplest defense is to say the word "no." No is a very powerful word and those who are not afraid to use it become very powerful also. It may be the most important word you will ever say and it is backed up by the power of justice, our world of rules and laws.
The word "no" will become more and more powerful as you grow up.
Be somebody who is strong, loving, smart, fit, helpful and productive. Be the person you would like to have as a friend.
Try to believe that people can fix what they broke. The technology that created this climate crisis will help us fix the problem, I am sure of that. I am asking you to have that faith also.
The people of our planet have created a problem of over-population, industrialization, technology pollution and human waste.
People created the problem and have faith that people will solve the problem. Remember that you are one of those people and you will have to do your part. Take up the challenge not with fear but the joy of the challenge. You are ready for it.
Happy 10th birthday. Today is a gift, that's why we call it the present. Learning responsibility slowly and early will ensure a strong and independent soul later in life. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. You cannot learn without mistakes.
Lots of Love from Grandpa and Grandma. 2019
Topic: BOOMER's Fault - A Letter to Our Granddaughter (Read 1149 times)