Baby Boomers Growing Older, but Will They Grow Up?

There's been a lot of press lately about baby boomers hitting retirement age and growing older. There's always a lot of press about whatever baby boomers are going through because there's just so many of them. Still, one wonders what this kind of national attention and societal mindset has done to the boomer psychology and the non-boomers who love them.

Millions of people have grown older and retired and it wasn't news. Millions of people before the boomers learned to face the end of their careers, possible ill health, and grandparenthood with quiet aplomb. Instead of following the modest and noble example of the greatest generation before them, the boomer psychology tends toward self-centered narcissism, as is encouraged by national news on boomers.

Not only did the boomer generation pioneer thinking for oneself and protesting war, they also relaxed social norms that protect children being born into intact families. Not only did boomers assert their right to self-expression and discovery, they also pursued careers and self-interest at the expense of their latch-key children and soaring divorce rates.

And now that boomers are entering retirement and grandparenthood, many are not letting go of their careers and are not making time to develop real relationships with their grandchildren on a regular basis. They would rather play golf and fight aging “every step of the way.”

Boomers, as Pulitzer Prize winning author Anna Quindlen quotes, “No one ever said on his deathbed, ‘I wish I had spent more time at the office.’” I would extend that to say, “No one on his deathbed has ever said, ‘I wish I had spent more time on myself trying to look or be younger.’”

Boomers, it’s all about friends and family. We non-boomers miss you, but we have given up trying to change you. We’ll be waiting here for you now and on your deathbed. The rest is up to you.

Written by a Gen-Xer, whatever that means.

Round 'N Round

Merge Records: "Round 'N Round (video)"

I love Lou Barlow. I love his cover of Ratt's (infamous) "Round 'N Round" from his Emoh record. What I did not realize until today, was that there is a video for it. It's not too exciting or anything, but I think it captures Lou's intent and feeling well.

Rock on.

-Harry

Mistaken Cost of Nuclear Plant

The most common mistake in Cost-Benefit business models is not including all of the cost factors in the model. This mistake jumps off the page from President for Progress Energy Jeff Lyash's letter on the cost effectiveness of nuclear energy.

While nuclear energy has known cost effective benefits over fossil fuels, rarely do these cost-benefit analyses include factors such as the cost of protecting the plant from terrorist attacks (which they have refused to do), the cost of transporting the nuclear waste out safely on trucks and trains (also vulnerable to crashes and attacks), the cost of storing nuclear waste, and the cost to the environment for storing the waste, and the drain on state water resources.

Plus, in the event that there is an accident, the consequences should be weighted much higher for that potential cost. In nuclear power, the costs of human mistakes are much higher than for other types of fuel. Furthermore, until Progress Energy can assure fire regulators that their protocols are practiced and safe, the NRC may fine or block new projects, also escalating the costs for nuclear power. For these reasons, including possible terror attacks and nuclear waste’s toll on the environment, the cost of nuclear energy is much higher than business leaders think.

Levy's Fresh Air interview on Raunch Culture

I really found Ariel Levy’s take on the Rise of Raunch Culture to ring true. She says so eloquently what I, and perhaps many of us, have been thinking for a few years now. Click the link below to listen:

NPR : Women in the Girls Gone Wild Era http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6549015&sc=emaf

My thoughts are on why men behave badly is because women let them. If women respected themselves, men would be forced to rise to the task. The rate of out of wedlock births has skyrocketed to 37% last year. This bodes sadly for the feminization of poverty and the shrinking middle class.

It seems that these are desperate times for women. The times may call for the desperate measures of encouraging women not to “give the milk away for free.” It seems like this may be only bargaining chip young women have left.

Securing reproductive rights is also paramount. Levitt in Freakonomics links the drop in crime from the 90’s on to the unwanted children who would have committed crimes but who were not born to do so. Levitt also found that the one predictor of child success was that the mother was over 30 at the birth of her first child. Women need time to grow up and get their education.

Finally, a lot of my friends with young children, like me, are now looking for low-paying education or service jobs. These women were executives and software engineers, and me – a Ph.D. But we all want to work school hours and don’t want to scramble on holidays or in the summer. We can’t find any companies to hire us under these constraints. The jobs just aren’t there. There aren’t even many job-sharing jobs. I’ve been encouraging my bright mother friends to do consulting instead of becoming a teacher’s aide or a lunch lady. We need to create more flex-time corporate jobs, one way or another. Right now our choices are the tyranny of housewifery or somewhat sacrificing our childrens’ well-being or at least some needed time with them.

Thank you for teaching, mentoring, and encouraging young women today. They need you more than you know!

Residents want a playground near (St. Pete Times)

Amy's in the paper again! This one is from the Neighborhood Times section, November 12, 2006. Check it out: Residents want a playground near - Archives: St. Petersburg Times

Florida Constitutional Amendments

The wording of the Amendments up for vote on the Ballot is like the Emperor's New Clothes: No one wants to admit it is entirely perplexing, lest one seem the simpleton. However, I fear for democracy that I, a well-read learned adult with advanced degrees, cannot understand the Amendments as they are worded on the Ballot.

Stop the insanity: state the Amendments in plain English for regular people. Otherwise democracy is surely impeded.

Raunch Culture relates to marriage stats

The statistics show that married adults are now in the minority (49.7%). This phenomenon has profound effects for our social structure and how future generations will understand their lives.

Research has consistently shown that everyone wants to get married: That goal has never faltered. Yet fear of divorce and changing social mores have stalled the trip to the altar. Ironically, couples who "test drive" marriage by moving in together first are more likely not to get married, and if they do, these couples are more likely to divorce.

Suspiciously, the rise of "Raunch Culture" coincides with the decrease in households with married couples. It seems that when women allow men to "sit on the fence" about marriage, objectify women’s bodies with no consequence, and stay adolescent forever, men will.

Marriage requires the hero's journey. It is a sacrifice not to “a ball and chain,” but rather to a conscious life freely chosen and fully embraced. Are most men today willing to take up the gauntlet? And are most women today settling for a boy, not a man?