Must the Baby Boomers Die?
79Boomsday by Christopher Buckley
Have you stopped to ponder whether we are on the doorstep of generational warfare? I have noted of late, that there are an increasing number of posts in the blog-sphere by 20 somethings who seem to be mad as hell at "Old People."
A fair number of the posts are rants about older drivers with a "get out of the way" theme. In some cases there is a "get out of the way of society" slant to the post rather than just a "get off the road" theme. Beyond the road rage, there are a number of messages that see Baby Boomers as "Not the Greatest Generation." Boomers are portrayed as greedy, technology challenged, resource goobling, Social Security wrecking, anti-green country club living, retirement sloths!
This generation gap is captured in a brillant piece of political satire by Christopher Buckley of "Thank You For Smoking" fame. I recently read his new novel, "Boomsday" which puts a modern day spin on Jonathan Swift's "Modest Proposal" for Ireland. (Some folks may need to pause here to visit Google or Wiki!) This is an LOL (not little old lady) mindbender that will have you chuckling and thinking for weeks after you close the back cover.
The central character is a 26 year old political spin doctor who creates draft legislation proposing that Baby Boomers be lavished with benefits when they retire, but be required to submit to euthanasia when they turn 75. She then beds a Republican U.S. Senator who is running for President and convinces him that supporting and introducing such a Bill in the Senate would secure him the youth vote. Things really start jumping after that!
Check out this Library Assoc. Review
*Starred Review* With Boomsday looming as 77 million baby boomers get ready to retire and crash Social Security, Cassandra Devine, a sarcastic spin doctor by day and a ferocious blogger by night, calls for a revolution. Why should the under-35 crowd pay higher taxes to support the "Ungreatest Generation?" What have boomers done for anyone? Look at Cassandra's heinous father. He absconded with her Yale tuition and convinced her to enlist, leading to her encounter with a land mine while escorting Massachusetts senator Randolph Jepperson. After going to jail for instigating anti-oldster riots at golf courses, Cass takes a cue from Jonathan Swift and offers her own outrageous "modest proposal." With one eye on the White House and the other on tough and lovely Cass, blue-blood Jepperson decides to back her provocation. As Cass's mensch of a boss observes, "The line dividing reality from absurdity in this country has finally disappeared." With delectable, smart-talking characters and a devilishly clever story line, prizewinning humorist Buckley, author of the novel-turned-movie Thank You for Smoking (1994), has created a scrumptiously shrewd and hilarious political satire that takes bold measure of the newly widening generation gap and politics even worse than usual. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Boomsday at Amazon
 | Amazon Price: $0.70 List Price: $24.99 |
Checkout other reading recommendations from SunDiego.
CommentsLoading...
Just a reminder. Most who are "kids" today will...God willing...be old too someday and the kids then will be making the same complaints as they're making now. Happens in every generation. As for the Extended Willard Scott Birthday Greetings, it'll never happen. The morbidly obese won't live to 100, more likely won't make it past 65 or 70, so that's only (at most) 8 years of SocSec wasted on these people. Same for the smokers.
Now a few words for the "Get out of the way, Grandma!" crowd: "Bad planning on your part (i.e. hitting the snooze button one too many times) does NOT constitute an emergency on my part". Riding my bumper will NOT make me speed up. In fact, I can go a LOT slower than this. By the time they finally take my license away, you'll be middle-aged and driving more responsibly too. Maybe...if you don't have a coronary from getting your knickers in a knot over things that won't matter one wit 20 years from now. If you DO have a coronary, well that's one less future old fart to be collecting Social Security, right? This may come as a shock, but old people were once young and hot-blooded just like you are now, and had wild nights of SEX which made it possible for YOU to be here. So yes, you SHOULD work YOUR ass off to contribute to THEIR Social Security payments, because THEY worked theirs off to raise your parents who, had they known how ungrateful and disrespectful you'd turn out to be, might've gladly drowned YOU at birth.
I've been saying for years: "Youth is wasted on the young"!
Nice hub, btw.
Hey JamaGenee and desert blondie...thanks for the comments. I have been interested in generation gap issues for a number of years having received my Masters in Gerontology in the late 70's. I had ended my teaching career just as the big plan to turn schools into self-esteem centers hit education and I predicted the bad outcomes. I think it really hit me a few weeks ago when I read that schools are telling teachers to stop using red pens for grading because it makes it too easy for other children to see that someone has made mistakes or errors! I am pretty sure my English teacher Mom, who taught for 35 years, is rolling her angel eyes. Take care all.
I just finished this book a couple of weeks ago. What a hoot! I don't think young Buckley is as as conservative as his recently departed neoconistic father. I LMAO at the zany characters he painted with the ambitious Catholic Monsignor and the pro-life nursing home owner getting caught up in a Russian call girl ring. Too funny yet every thot provoking with several Jonathan Swift and Ayn Rand references. Great summer read. BTW, love your avatar!!! Thx for the Hub.
It is not the boomer generation but the ha ha "greatest generation" that is the problem. They got all the goodies, pensions, free healthcare, rising standard of living and more by sucking it out of the baby boomers and the generations after that. I work in a call center and the greatest generation feels they have entitlement to everything yesterday. You can't please them no matter what you do. They created these social pyramid schemes that we have to pay into and will never get anything out of.
Hey grilln guy and James, thanks for the comments. I agree grilln guy, I don't think Chris Buckley is as conservative as his father but his comments at the memorial for William F indicated that they were very close. This author has several other books that I am currently looking to pick up at my very used book stores.
James, I agree that there appear to be several levels of entitlement thinking across older generations but I do think those folks that fought in WWII and then built us into a world power have earned most of theirs. They sure do not like it when I tease them about getting their health care from the largest welfare program ever invented in Medicare. As the token boomer in the coffee group, it's nearly gotten me thrown out of Dunk'n Donut a couple of times!
Take care.
"So yes, you SHOULD work YOUR ass off to contribute to THEIR Social Security payments"
See? This is why nobody likes you. WORK FOR YOUR MONEY. You aren't entitled to anything. You certainly aren't entitled to having me work to support you as you suggest. My generation won't even see social security benefits. Maybe you should work until you're 90 so that your continued tax contributions can contribute to a fund that will support ME. Of course, I would never seriously propose such a selfish plan. It would take someone out of your generation (e.g. YOU) to seriously suggest that you are entitled to have other people go to work every day to support you while you don't work.
I honestly believe they will work on legalizing euthanizing anyone past 75 to get us off earth. Most I think will not or do not want to be here anyways without a young body and health. I know I have supported older generations and I don't think younger generations x, y and z should complain.
Boomers have really (through their sheer numbers) really made life hard on following generations, and didn't ever vote once to plan ahead for their children's or grandchildren's future. This must be acknowledged before dismissing the anger of "20 somethings" as mere "oldism". There has been real selfishness and negligence involved.
In my opinion the biggest problem the boomers created stems from selfishness and wanting everything now. What does everything now mean?
It means LEVERAGE. The boomers have never saved, not just for retirement but everything. BecAuse of there sheer numbers they have the power of demand and the sense of entitlement to have now! So they borrowed money, lots of money. They bought lots and lots of things. The most important of which was real estate. They borrowed more and more on leverAge, money they didn't even have, and drove the price of everything sky high.
But it was ok for the boomers. They already had houses and they enjoyed increased equity. So instead of using that equity as something they could use for retirement, what did they do? You got it. They borrowed more money! And got more leverage! And they spent it on nice cars, dream vacations, eating out , and golfing memberships.
Now my generation comes along and wants to start a family, but we can't buy a house because their leveraged inflated price is too much. And all the good jobs are being occupied by old inept lazy boomers.
When they finally do retire (late because they can't afford to retire cuz they spent all their money on themselves) our good paying jobs won't be so good because all of our money will go to SS.
Move to Asia or Africa
desert blondie 3 years ago
Fantastic! Gotta get this book! I'm on the young end of babyboomers and even I keep wondering...how does the USA support all these Old People who keep living and living and living with their Lipitor pills and cataracts and hip replacements and bypasses and all manner of increasingly expensive medical procedures and cure-alls? Do I really want my tax dollars to pay for bypass surgeries when somebody should've just quit eating bacon, and beef all their lives? What will states like Mississippi do, and Alabama ...? People there smoke like chimneys, eat way too much meat and fried everything -- fried twinkies for goodness sake -- they sit around so obese they all need knee and hip replacements .. how wilol government services survive? Pretty soon they'll have to give an entire half-hour to the Willard Scott Birthday greetings section for those who've hit 100 on The Today Show! Quite a quandry for the USA that we won't be escaping for decades and decades...until all us baby boomers gone and the economy gasping!