I recently viewed a video (link below) which was passed along to me from a conservative friend which was sent to him from other more conservative friends. My friend is more a moderate wannabe. In this very short clip, Greta Thunberg, the teenage climate activist phenom, is heatedly chastising an adult audience for their greed and negligence regarding climate change. This video may have come out a while ago and I just missed it. Following Greta’s remarks, it cuts to a conservative Aussie commentator who chastises Miss Thunberg and her Generation Z pals for not examining their own nest as mega-consumers of techno-goodies and being comfort-demanders before she casts stones at her parents’ generation.
Having been born in 1943, I’m proud to say I’m one of the last members standing from the Silent Generation, an honor I religiously adhere to faithfully as a true MAN OF THE HELD TOGUE. The Baby Boomer Generation ousted us in 1946. I assume the Aussie is a Boomer, but I would say this to my conservative friend’s friends:
The Aussie commentator reminds me of myself: an arrogant, egotistical, ignorant, over-reaching, generalizing boob. To support his superficial crap is to show appalling ignorance. And who created Generation Z’s ultra-consumer lust for techno-goodies and creature comforts? Greta Thunberg and her Z pals? I don’t think so. If you don’t know how the supply and demand free-market system works, then you are missing a cylinder. We created these mega-consumers; they didn’t create themselves. And how many of us of the Silent and Baby Boomer generations possess big, expensive toys? 4-wheelers, jet skis, yachts, summer palaces, etc. How many of us have ostentatious mega-homes and cars that we don’t remotely need but crave for flaunting?
Mr. Aussie seems to be overlooking the important fact that Baby Boomers remain the nation’s biggest spenders overall when comparing discretionary spending. According to Buxton, a consumer intelligence technology company, not only are Baby Boomers the wealthiest generation, holding 70% of the disposable income in the U.S., but they also spend roughly 50% of all CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) dollars (https://www.buxtonco.com/blog/the-lost-generation-baby-boomers). Thus, I shall write the following letter to our Aussie Commentator friend, effective immediately:
Dear Mr. Kangaroo,
The Millennials (also Y), X, and Z generations (ages 55 to 1) combined, make up 72% of the 2020 U.S. population are going to be responsible for cleaning up a monumental global mess, in the form of climate change. Of course, this mess was left by none other than their parents and grandparents, the remaining 28%, the Boomers (21%) and guys like me, the strong, the silent, and the gluttonous (7%). Which, by the way, they are already doing. Thus, it seems critical to me to stand back in appreciation, awe, and sadness for those three generations for what they are going to have to do to save humanity and all remaining biota on Earth. To put it mildly, the odds are stacked against them. Their future will be a future of pain and misery the likes of which mankind has never seen before. If you were packing a full deck, Mr. Kangaroo, you would be kissing their feet instead of ripping them a new one.
If each of us would just stop turning a blind eye to our own hypocrisies and realize that what we so passionately criticize in others thinkikng/actions is really a reflection of our own shortcomings. Create a viewpoint that someone else’s point of view may not be totally correct to you, but there are nuggets of truth to explore–especially within onself