Baby boomer

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A baby boomer is someone who was born during the period of increased birth rates when economic prosperity arose in many countries following World War II. In the United States, the term is iconic and more properly capitalized as Baby Boomers and commonly applied to people with birth years from the span 1946 to 1964, which may comprise more than one generation. The Baby Boom is the iconic term widely used to refer to the American population and culture in particular, as post WW II demographics abroad did not mirror the sustained growth in American families over the same interval.

A large part of this was an after effect of World War II where the bombed out cities and fractured economies required goods and services in unprecendented peacetime amounts, and the Arsenal of Democracy switched gears and started cranking out goods and materials for export, as America supplied the free world with goods to rebuild their own economies. This lead to an unprecedented bubble of vigorous economic growth that didn't slow down until 1958, and the G.I. Bill sent enabled record numbers of individuals to attend college and obtain, perhaps in most cases, the first college degree in their extended families. Levittown showed the way to flee the cities into the outlying suburbs which municipalities also grew at astonishing and unprecedented rates. The only contemporary example that might be somewhat similar is the ongoing rebuilding of New Orleans and around the Gulf Coast in general. So the Baby Boomers grew up in a new world quasi-dominated by American Military might, where the bad guys were known to be socialists and communists, during a cold war where researches lead to today's computer driven world—which if glimpsed then would have been scoffed at as poor science fiction. Moreover, the generation matured for the most part both off the farm and outside of urban crowding when every year brought new wonders, marvelous gadgets and household appliances, and unemployment was virtually nil—provided your family was Caucasian and willing to work.

There are early boomers that the generation is identified by, and late boomers who did not experience the 1960s and were not subject to the military draft. Nonetheless, demographic popularizers have referred to them as a generation for the cultural factors they shared went far deeper than the triviality of a foreign conflict, more people were killed on the nations streets and by-ways in any single year of the conflict, than were lost to enemy action.

Baby boomers presently make up the lion's share of the political, cultural, industrial and academic leadership class in the United States. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, born within sixty days of each other in mid-1946, are the first and second Baby Boomer presidents, and their careers in office illustrate the wide, often diverging spectrum of values and attitudes espoused by this largest American generational group to date.

William Strauss and Neil Howe, in their book Generations, include those conceived by soldiers on leave during the war, putting the generation's birth years at 1943 to 1960. Howe and Strauss argue that persons born between 1961 and 1964 have political and cultural patterns very different from those born between 1955 and 1960 and fit into what those writers term the Thirteenth Generation or Generation X (also known as the Cold War generation) born between 1961 and 1981. As the influence of Strauss and Howe has grown, a smaller number of people still accept Baby Boomers as including those born after 1961, although there are some who put the dates at 1946 to 1963 because of the number of significant "Gen-X" figures born in 1964. There were over 79 million babies born during that generation.

It can be argued that the defining event of early baby boomers was the Vietnam War and the protest over the draft, but it would be certainly correct to say it was the generation of The Beatles, Doobie Brothers, and Rolling Stones. Conscription in the United States ended in 1973 so anyone born after 1955 was not subject. This argues for a ten year range 1946 to 1955 and this would fit the thirtysomething demographic covered by the TV show of the same name. This means that those born in the ten years 1956 to 1965 would be Generation X in the late 1980s and would be twenty something as a response. On the other hand, if the gross number of births were the indicator, there would no reason for 1964 to be the ending year as the number of births did not decline in 1965. The choice of 1964 as the end date may not have been by a demographer but by more popular writers and the source of the 1964 year has not been pinned down yet. The entire controversy over naming and dating between the boomer and the Gen X cohorts could be explained by noting that the boomer years of 1946-64 is too long for a cultural generation yet may still mark a period of increased births while the cultural disaffinities of those born 1957 and after (thereby missing the draft and being too young to be part of the 1960s) could be captured by the Gen X of Douglas Coupland, the term "X" has itself been transformed to cover a later cohort.

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Prominent Boomers

Since this generation is in it's prime years, during a time when lifespans are still increasing the influence of this generation is still burgeoning as the rolls of US Congress and the US Senate are gradually discarding the old guard and filling with Boomers, and the occasional early Generation Xer. So the impact of this generation, while self-evidently strong thus far, is yet a story waiting to be written. It is certain that the individuals on the following list have had an impact on the world, the culture, on history and politics, and will in all likelihood, continue to do so for some time to come. hello

List of Prominent Baby Boomers
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Prospects

The second boomer generation (late boomer, early gen Xer's) are still in their forties, and many have yet to "leave their mark upon history," a desire that drives most leaders of this generation. Patterns of history for Idealist generations suggest that Boomers will have a long tenure of political office and cultural influence, as was true for the Awakeners of Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Adams, the Transcendentals of Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman, and the Missionaries of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and George Catlett Marshall. Strauss and Howe's posited patterns of history indicate that Boomers will occupy the upper echelons of worldly power through a likely Crisis Era that will not end until about 2020. The best Idealist leaders demonstrate vision, decisiveness, and culture that allows them to lead in the best manner in the worst of times.

A caveat applies: the arrogance, selfishness, and ruthlessness that Strauss and Howe attribute to an unusual degree in all prior Idealist generations can lead to factional strife (as during the American Civil War) or to outright despotism. Younger generations may need to rein in these destructive tendencies.

Leaders of this generation tend to reevaluate their lives in midlife, and many focus desperately on the successes and failures of their children. Increasingly, the tendency to "micromanage" the lives of their children is expressed in this generation to a significant degree; and this generation's tendency to regulate personal behavior (as in alcohol and drug use and the content of cultural creations) is arguably more stern than that of the "uptight" adults that Boomers knew during the "Consciousness Revolution" that Boomers experienced around 1970. As an example, Boomers may have not gone so far as Missionaries did in attempting to outlaw alcoholic beverages, they have been in the forefront of efforts to attack the pathologies (drunk driving, domestic abuse) of drunkenness and drug use. Boomer prosecutors have shown unusual willingness to impose severer sentences upon criminal offenders, including "three strikes" laws and the death penalty.

Boomers have played a strong (and surely unforeseen) role in attempts to make America more overtly religious. Many have turned to fundamentalist Christianity as a solution to what they see as social rot. Many prefer religion over science wherever any doctrinal conflict appears; thus one finds a rise in creationist dogma and the promotion of prayer in public schools to an extent not known since the time of the Scopes Trial. If not so religious, Boomers are also the ones who insist upon V-chips in television so that children not see 'adult' content that Boomers could hardly wait to indulge in when children; they are unusually swift to sanitize the culture that children see.

Boomers seek to improve society through children as their Silent next-elders seem to have failed (by Boomer standards) through excessive leniency. Such change will come with mixed blessings, particularly to those who must endure Boomer judgment, which becomes steadily harsher as Boomers supplant older (GI, Silent) adults.

Boomers may have been best known for hippies and other counter-cultural types, but the conservatism that one associates with country music has become more the norm. But like other Idealist generations of the past, Boomers have strong passions for personal and social improvement, and although the expressions of such passion change, the intensity of that passion remains until they age out of prominence.

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Impact on History and Culture

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Government Movers and Shakers

Template:Sect-stub The Boom Generation has as of 2005 had two U.S. Presidents:

It is estimated that the Boom Generation will not hold a plurality in Congress until 2015, the White House until 2021, and will have a majority in the Supreme Court from 2010 to 2030.

Non-U.S. peers of the Boomers include U2 frontman Bono, Daniel Ortega, Charles, Prince of Wales, and former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

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Cultural Influences

Template:Sect-stub Their cultural endowments have included the following:

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United Kingdom Booms

Template:Sect-stub This term is less used in the United Kingdom, partly because the pattern of birth rates was different. There was a sharp post-World War II peak in 1947, when more babies were born than in any year since the post-World War I peak in 1920. There was then a decline, followed by a broader but lower peak in the 1960s. Thus British baby-boomers are younger than their American counterparts, and had not risen to such prominence when the term was coined.

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See also

1950-Willie O. Stewart-Minister

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External links

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