There are a few caveats I’d like to make right here at the beginning. The term ‘boomer’ is an all-inclusive term, and on its face is an injustice. The forces that I speak of in this post did not originate with that generation, nor will they end with it. However, they are associated with that generation in most people’s minds, as they were the ones who both glorified and used them to force massive social changes.
Some of this was good. However, a sizeable portion of it was not good, due not to having the wrong motives, but to the use of emotionalism and impatience. Many times the cure they forced on society was worse than the original ailment, as they acted without sufficient knowledge and insight.
When dealing with other people’s lives, the victim cannot afford to have helpers who allow their emotions to run amok. They need help from those who are calm, cool, and collected enough that their actions are calculated and deliberate. Otherwise, they may die from some do-gooder’s efforts to help.
I’ll never forget one man. I drove ambulance for a while many years ago. We were assigned to cover the Hare Scrambles (cross-country motorcycle races) in Southern California. When we got to one man he was complaining of his back hurting and any little jostle made him scream in agony. This was before the days of the E. M. T.’s, and we had little training then. We were not allowed to treat or diagnose in any way, not even giving them a glass of water.
I had a strong hunch what was wrong though, so we loaded him as delicately as possible, then drove very slowly the 40 miles to the nearest hospital. I used no lights or siren. Much of this was against policy.
The next day the boss came to me. “Thank God, you did what you did! That man had two vertebras that were simply exploded! There was nothing left of them except splinters! Why they didn’t sever the spinal cord is beyond me.”
I did some gentle chewing on silentlamb’s and dungbeetle’s ears over on his thread. I didn’t do that because they had wrong motives or bad heart conditions. I did it because the victims themselves are the important ones here and they were so emotionally wrapped up with these cases that they were losing objectivity. Those victims are every bit as vulnerable to what we do as that man was to what I did. They cannot afford to have us allow our impatience and anger toward the perpetrators to come first. Yes, we may have to grit our teeth and bear it for a while. But that is part of our job. If you can’t do it, then get the hell out of there before you kill someone.
Should you wish to challenge my credentials for giving this advice, keep something in mind: For five long years after I was disfellowshipped, I refused to say or do anything about it, in spite of the fact that nearly every official, from the elders on up, admitted that it was an injustice. I did that because I knew that I was too emotionally wrought up to be objective. I could not stand the thought of my becoming guilty of the same thing as the elders were, by allowing my self-interest to harm the innocent. Calm, rational, objective thought is the only thing that could prevent it.
In the case of the two individuals mentioned above, they deteriorated to the point that they were calling names and searching for evil motives in order to put their questioners on the defensive, when the questions being asked were legitimate. This is another shortcut tactic made popular by the boomers, and one for which I can find no words that will adequately convey my level of contempt. The cause is almost always shallow thinking and self-interest.
Now, I’ve said some strong things here about the Boomers and their tactics. I have no qualms at all about backing them. Below is merely one small instance of what I am talking about.
It was written a little more than a year after the school shooting here in Springfield, Oregon. That’s about 30 miles from my home and I drive there every day to go to work. All events mentioned here are real and can be proven, if necessary. I then put it to the acid test by giving it to the youth themselves. Their reaction was one of astonishment that an adult --- any adult --- could understand, as well as gratitude.
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On Youth
There are those times when a necessary prejudice becomes an odious one due to the stupidity of those in authority. For example, the general assumption in society that the youth are too young and immature to expect them to act responsibly, or to know how to protect themselves, has some basis in truth, but this rule is applied across the board without exception. They cannot drive, or drink, or work, or make love, etc. until certain ages, regardless of the circumstances or their level of maturity.
Should some tragedy occur such as the school shooting that happened in Springfield, Oregon, the wailing about these “poor innocent little children” is incessant. The kids feel badly enough already about the shooting, but the antics of the adults are both embarrassing to them and considered an insult, even slander. To illustrate, on the one year anniversary of the shooting, the media descended upon the school again to see how they were coping, only to be shocked by having the kids throw rocks at them.
I don’t blame the kids. The sappy emotionalism of the adults is the last thing they need or want. They don’t need blue ribbons tied all over everything and its grandma. They want practical solutions and adults that are capable of facing reality in a calm and rational way. They feel that they are not “little children” but young men and women who are capable of reasoning for themselves. They want the credit for that, and they are right. Was it the act of a child when the young man, already shot through the chest, ran directly at the shooter and tackled him? I don’t think so. It was the act of a man, and a good one. After all, it was young men and women only slightly older than they are who fought and won World War II.
I have two daughters who worked hard and made over $1,000.00 apiece, then pooled their money to buy a car. After they completely overhauled the engine themselves, right down to and including the cam bearings, they drove it for a while, sold it, and used the proceeds to finance a trip alone to Montreal where they spent nine months learning French. They were so successful in this endeavor that they were invited to give an account of their adventures to a religious assemblage of about 2,000 people. They did, in French. This all happened before the oldest was eighteen. Are these the actions of little children?
I have nephews who were as proficient at the ages of 14 and 15 as most grown men in the use of power tools such as welders, chain saws, lathes, and drill presses. They drove and operated heavy equipment including cranes, caterpillar tractors, log skidders, and self loading log trucks --- and did it well. Yet they were not entrusted with driver’s licenses.
My younger brother (Jerry) got his first caterpillar tractor at 13. He was wandering through an old logging show where there was already a young forest growing when he stumbled across an old cat that had been abandoned years before. When he got back to the house he called around to see who did the logging. Upon receiving that information, he called them and asked what they wanted for the cat.
His answer was a peal of laughter. “If you can get that thing out of there, it’s yours!”
He did. Upon getting it home, he overhauled it from the ground up, including the planetary gears (the most inward of all the innards).
Our place was covered with huge Douglas Fir stumps that were left over from it being logged about 25 years previously. Sure enough, the first day he got the cat running, he picked out the largest stump on the place to doze out and went to work. Dad and Doug (our middle brother) stood around and watched for an hour then got tired and went in the house.
Two hours later, they could still hear the cat and figured they had better go see what was going on. Upon getting there, they found a hole in the ground big enough to throw the house itself into, and a young man madder than a wet hen. That stump wasn’t budging.
Dad pulled him over. “Uh --- Jerry --- now, I know this is your cat, but we really could use it for something more than just this one stump.”
Jerry jumped up and down and threw his hat on the ground. “If I had some dynamite I’d get that thing out of there!” He hollered.
Doug brightened. “Dad, if we buy the dynamite, would you show us how to use it?”
So now we have the spectacle of my two brothers, (this was in the late 50’s) going down to the nearest hardware store and buying cases of dynamite and no one thought anything about it. They brought it out to the home place and cleared our 23 acres. Some of those stumps were 6 and 8 feet in diameter. One huge stump was no more than 50 feet from the large plate glass picture window in our living room, but they rolled it out of the ground with no damage whatsoever to the house.
One day when the Doug was about 17, he spotted an ad in the local newspaper about an auction and noted that there was a huge mobile generator mounted on a truck bed up for bid. It was large enough to power a small city, but was worn out and no one wanted it. He bid $100.00 and got it.
Hauling it out into our biggest field, he carefully packed it with about two cases of dynamite and blew it to pieces. Then he went around and picked up all of the copper, hauled it to the scrap yard and got enough money to buy a late model pickup outright.
Now, don’t get the idea that I’m saying that my family is special, for they aren’t. What I am saying is that all youth have this potential, if not greater, but it is stunted by the cloying, stifling sentimentality that forbids them to do almost anything except the most innocuous (and banal) of activities. No wonder they rebel. They are fully aware that they are being forbidden to gain the experience and skills necessary to survive in this dangerous world.
In my book the so-called child and public advocates of today are the dumbest bunch of bloomin’ lunatics with which this poor innocent earth has ever been infested. Their goals are fine. But when they abandon all logic in favor of sentimental prejudices, they themselves become the very cause of the problems they are attempting to fix. I’ll give just one small example here.
Few things set them off quicker than the idea of children gaining access to alcohol. Their sole solution for the problem is the “just say ‘No’ “ approach. It’s dangerous, so they advocate total abstinence, a keeping away from it at all costs, which incidentally, is their answer to any and all things that are dangerous.
Is there danger associated with alcohol? Of course. There is also danger associated with electricity, fire, and water too. Thousands of people have died due to their improper use or a lack of respect for the risks involved. Yet society does not demand that we keep these things out of the home. Those parents who live up to their responsibilities will take the time to instruct their children in their proper use, instead of giving them a lollypop, a pat on the head, parking them in front of the TV, and labeling it “quality time”.
Instead, these so-called “advocates” will tell the youth to avoid alcohol completely and proceed to demonize it far beyond its actual risk, hoping to scare the kids into compliance. They further inform them that only adults should handle such things, and pass laws to enforce it.
And guarantee their own failure by doing so. How?
Have you ever seen a little kid that didn’t want to grow up? How many little boys have tried to shave like their Daddy at the age of 6 or less? How many little girls like to dress up with lipstick and high heels like their Mommies? The idea of doing adult things is nearly irresistible.
In utilizing the above approach, these “advocates” have accomplished four things, and only four things, none of which they wished to do.
a. They have romanticized drink to the nth degree, as now it’s an “adult” activity.
b. They have transformed the use of alcohol into a rite of passage, so much so that even if the young hate its taste (and most do), they will gag it down anyway in order to prove to themselves and their friends that they are now adults.
c. They have guaranteed that those same kids will be more susceptible then usual to alcohol’s dangers, due to the fact that they have refused to train them in its proper use.
d. They’ve reduced their own credibility in the kid’s eyes by their exaggeration of the dangers. The result is that even the advice that is accurate will be discounted.
This in a nutshell is why such programs as D.A.R.E. are such monumental failures, but will the authorities listen? No, thanks to the shortsightedness of the adults involved, based on the underlying prejudice they hold toward the young.
Folks, the emotionalism and shallow thought illustrated above are a prime characteristic of nearly all of the public policy and philosophy originated by the boomers. It has resulted in chaos and we can’t afford much more of it. Especially here.
LoneWolf