The Dinosaurs of Geriatric Park

Has The World Gone Mad Or Is It Us?

If you’re a BABY BOOMER, and you are if you were born pre-1964, then like all of us post-war brats, you were forced to face the most rapid technological and social changes in the 20th century.

• • My apologies if you find the term *’brat’ offensive, but I’m not an advocate of political correctness?
    *Brat-Middle English (1200s): the sense of “child in rags” or “beggar’s child.” In other words, a poor, ragged kid. Merriam-Websters, which many of us were back in those early post-war days.

Granted, it DID NOT begin with us post-war children, we are merely a part of the social evolution of the planet, but as the great army general-turned-gladiator, Maximus Decimus Aralias once said (in a movie):

“What we do now echoes in eternity”

The DNA of a Culture is in its Music

As BOOMERS, those post-WWII years launched us into a maelstrom of cultural changes, and the successive generations erupted amid the chaos of a yet unsettled world. A world reeling from one disaster after another.

Through it all was the “MUSIC OF THE TIMES,” and that music reflected the story of each period of generational growth. (Music DNA—Source: ChatGPT5)

The character of each generation through the twentieth century is easily identified through the DNA of the music it grew up with. Every generation edits the DNA of its music, rewriting its code to express the heartbeat of its own time.

The music continued to morph and twist itself to reflect the attitudes and proclivities of the subsequent periods, and the minds that set the mood of the music also influenced fashion change as well as dramatic changes in social norms.

Depending in which part of the boomer era you were born, you may recall the spasms our parents and grandparents went through at the advent of ROCK-‘N’-ROLL in the 1950’s and 60’s, along with the subsequent changes in fashion: ‘Bobby-socks,’ ‘pony-skirts,’ ‘pegged pants,’ ‘Saddle shoes,’ etc.

Then came the “British Invasion” and those Beatles hair cuts, Matador boots, freaky beads and incense, bell-bottoms, and flower power that, ironically, influenced the removal of my home-town school dress codes.

Meanwhile, as the world’s culture continued to morph, we boomers eventually began doing our ‘grand jeté’ into our senior years and retirement.

Dealing With Cultural Change

How many of us during our teens and twenties were among those rebellious, “putting down the man,” and “bucking the establishment” types?”

Or, perhaps you were one of the not-so-lucky ones that fought in Korea, or perhaps like my brother and me doing military service at the height of the Viet Nam “conflict?” (Or was it really a war)?

Although many of us boomers still listen to “the oldies,” there are many lingering reminders of those times that rocketed us into our senior years. (e.g.) How many of us, I wonder, have names of friends and / or family on that big wall in DC?

Was it worth it? A question to be debated ad infinitum.

Depending on our circumstances, many of us still have trouble dealing with so many rapid societal mutations.

It makes us wonder how it all happened so fast!

How did we end up retired already!

And There We Were Thinking We Would Change The World

Far out man!  The Fact Is—We Did Change The World!

How groovy is that? The “Hippie” generation is long past us. The question is, what are the results?

(Ask George Carlin! But be cautioned: You know what Carlin can be like! Very offensive.)

Whether we were ‘once-upon-a-time hippies,’ or simply observers; we witnessed what our generation did to politics, morals, and freedoms.

Although we all ‘thought’ we were doing the right thing, we came out of the Korean war and began dealing with Viet Nam, The Cold War, civil rights, and the ominoust threat of nuclear annihilation.

An entirely new way of thinking took over, turning the post-war children toward to the philosophy of “Free Love.”

Nobody wanted a repeat of the previous five decades, and those movements weren’t just social fads — they were eruptions from a pressure cooker of postwar prosperity, political disillusionment, and cultural rebellion.

How did all that ‘free love’ and honest, open dialogue echo into the future?

A new and improved society!

The thinking and teaching of those like Dr. Benjamin Spock (1903–1998), who incited a social ‘quackademic‘ that advocated such things as the “time-outs” over solid, firm discipline for children, was one among the many influencers of the time.

People like, Carl Roger, Abraham Maslow, Dr. Martin Luther King, Betty Frieden, Rachel Carson, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and a slew of others including poets, movie and music icons, and politicians, would influence generations to follow.

However, rather than strong social norms, good morals, and self respect, our children were raised on weed and wishes. Or as Wink Dinkerson put it:

Hey there, groovy guys and groovy gals!
Peace, love, dope! Beads, bells, incense, light shows, crash pads, and Hari Krishna, all you groovy freaks! 
You’re tuned to the Wink Dinkerson show — where every day is flower power day!”

To see how it affected our time, all that we have to do is tune into a few television shows to register the answer to the question.

Ergo, what we used to have our mouths washed out with soap for saying, is now the common language of most households.

So, Then, Was It Us? Did We Change the World?

To answer that question, we must keep in mind that many of those “groovy people” are currently our government officials!

So, what happens today if:

• You say something about the ludicrous look of orange or purple hair, or you express too loudly why you don’t like body piercings, and body tattoos.
• Or you complain out loud at work about immodest styles of dress, or cross dressing / transvestites or flamboyant gays in your workplace.
• Should you mention the fault or proclivity of a certain person of an ethnic group, or report to your boss a coworker who fails to bathe regularly.

It is more important in today’s society to spare someone’s feelings than to value honesty and truth.

“Why should people in a free country be afraid of saying what they believe? Think about that, and you will know the direction that the “progressives” want to take us.”
― Gad Saad, The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense

SOCIAL FALLACIES:

The social fallacies of GEN-X to GEN-ALPHA permeate society.   (Political Correctness: The Gen-X view of things.) Generations who have abandoned reason and logic for emotionalism and “progressive” sensitivities.

What we know is that our grandchildren and beyond will be spinning like tops amid the divisions and controversies that each new day brings.

Government in general has gone completely RADICAL, on all sides, and the two-party system is deeper into the shitter than it has ever been!

Has it gone too far?

Yes it has, when even playful banter among peers is now under scrutiny and people are losing jobs for telling a “socially unacceptable joke.”

Even I was told that, “You should not refer to your peers, even of your own age group as dinosaurs, or ‘old people.” They claim that even the term “elderly” will ‘shame’ and older person! All names that the NAME-POLICE, i.e., GEN-X classified as “offensive hate-language.”

Are you offended or ashamed because you’re retired? Old? Elderly? Are you embarrassed to be ‘a dinosaur?’ Perhaps you’re offended when someone holds a door for you? Or what if they call you ma’am, or sir? I mean, how offensive is that!

According to GEN-X, you should be!

Where Have All The Flowers Gone — Long Time Passing

Has the world, no, has HUMANITY gone completely MAD? Is everyone that ultrasensitive that we now have to ban the songs, books, magazines of the past? Should we stop honoring those of the past because they were raised in a different culture, despite the contributions and sacrifices they made for humanity? We we change our lives because THEY (Gen-X) are offended by something?

It may not matter to us now that we’re retired, but think of the implications as our offspring step into the future.

Is it incumbent on us to mute ourselves so as not to “offend” the made-up codes of the cisgender, transgender, gender-queer, demigender, neutrois, and the other 318 pseudo gender bullshit titles that are so well guarded, protected, and regulated by today’s THOUGHT POLICE that one can be shunned, fired, or even jailed for speaking their mind?

What’s Happening?

Has the world lost it’s mind? Or has it simply lost it’s center?

Fragmentation, liberation to litigation, the right accuses and the left dismantles, fake-news spreads, social media mimetically expands misinformation, and information becomes a weapon! Zealots without a cause—all of this is classified as political correctness!

Making My Golden Years A Pale Yellow

To be completely honest, I miss the days when I lived in poverty and rode my bicycle without the government telling me that I needed a helmet.

A time when they couldn’t legally take away my 22 rifle because I was too young.

I miss terribly those times when I was in forth grade and camped in the Pennsylvania hills by myself, miles from home, without worry or fear of anything or anyone.

Has our time to influence culture passed us by? Branded as old, out of touch, past our prime — are we now cultural dinosaurs?

Technology and the youth culture (soon to be in the hands of Gen-Alpha) changes so quickly, that what is understood as “the thing to do, or the way to be,” becomes a museum piece almost overnight.

The right wraps itself in nostalgia and fear; the left cloaks itself in purity and rage: each believes itself the savior of civilization; each behaves like its executioner. AN ABSOLUTE NON-ZERO-SUM GAME that leads to nowhere!

As Geriatric Dinosaurs, it’s up to us to keep a moral compass and do our best to re-influence the norms that once seemed logical and made sense.

Those things, at the least, made life feel a bit more normal! 

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