The Frivolous Factionalism of ‘Shut Up, Millennial!’ ‘OK, Boomer!’

 

 

By Colby Malsbury

(Author’s note: the following article does not represent individual Boomers or Millennials who are committed Christians – both of whom I count as valuable kith and kin.)

Hey kids!

Did you know that baby boomers are a generation of grubby parasites who had the world handed to them on a silver platter to such an extent that they finagled economic booms and busts to their credit all their working lives, allowing them to take a very early and very cushy retirement, allowing them ample opportunity to globe-hop the world picking up exotic mail order brides and bemoaning the fact that younger folks weren’t picking up extra shifts down at the Apple factory or wherever they’re working these days in order to keep the Social Security gravy train on the rails in perpetuity?

And did you also know that Millennials are the most indolent and disrespectful generation that ever walked God’s green earth, too busy putting charcoal on cereal and gluing their nose to their iDevices all the live long day, refusing to buy houses and Beemers, earning Ivy League university degrees in Turds, and driving the price of Tide Pods up to astronomical levels because they’ve decided that they’re a tasty snack?

And, furthermore, did you know that both of these innate states of reality matter one blue whit as the post-Christian West approaches cataclysm?

Well, there ye be. Three new things you learned today. Good night, sweet friends!

In a previous article, I expounded upon the controlled nature of the Twitter platform, and how the discourse is subtly but forcibly moderated into a Delphi method parameter. It would appear that I must expand upon this categorization and apply it to the rest of social media as well. Facebook has become a veritable pressure cooker these days with the palpable tension that steadily escalates with each typing of that magical two-worded talisman ‘ok boomer’. The catchphrase’s elevation to the pantheon of Meme is undeniable. Facebook pages dedicated to this interesting concessionary statement are legion, running the gamut from the simple yet ingenious Cropped Boomer Memes to the more boomer-as-cosplay-character oriented Garden Hoses & the Olden Days, and every style and frequency of satire in between these two examples of the form. The justifiable anger of Millennials (and, increasingly, Gen-Zers) over their corporate dispossession has thus turned upon the eldest generation likely to be using the internet in any very substantial numbers. Just as misguided revolutionary ardor very quickly deranges discernment between friends and foes, though, so too has this young wrath been visited upon an incorrectly identified hoary head – from Greatest generation-era Clint Eastwood on the upper end of the scale, to guys ten years younger than me (a humble Gen-Xer) on the lower. This might reflect understandable frustration, but does not point to any very profound ideological schism.

For their part, boomers have done remarkably little to combat this cyber-grassfire. Their part in the bloodletting has been to repeat the mantra of boomer solutions for boomer problems in the boomer world that they largely thrived in (‘legal immigration!’ ‘buy a house!’ ‘take multiple copies of your resume with you whenever you go out!’), to post self-aggrandizing selfies of themselves and their brand new gold-digging young Oriental brides (often with their phones clearly reflected in their ubiquitous sunglasses), and proffering general threats of disinheritance and tactfully pointing out that they still have all the money, and he who has the gold makes the rules. So yeah, you can safely say that I find the Millennials’ ‘How dare you!!!’ and the Boomers’ ‘Ha, ha, I got mine!!!’ attitudes equally odious.

Tiresome as this mutual caterwauling has become, it becomes much worse when one considers that it is a mere morph of the Trump/Never-Trump imbroglio, which in its third year of continual screeching might fairly to be said to be getting a trifle stale. In general, the Boomers have taken the side of Orange Man and Millennials that of Schiff, Pelosi, Bette Midler, Sacha Baron Cohen and further disreputable company, but the petty sniping in hopes of the most minuscule of gains (generally, number of ‘likes’ per thread) remains unchanged. Oh sure, sometimes the roles are reversed (commonly in matters pertaining to racism and ‘unconditional support for Israel’) but this amounts to little more than the equivalent of a bad guy WWF wrestler becoming a good guy for a couple of scripted bouts before reverting back to form again. Let us not forget, also, that the Trump/Never Trump fracas itself was just the latest reiteration of the chronic Republican/Democrat charade of 150 years’ extent, slightly updated to meet the needs of a generation reared on sound bites, scroll-through ‘news’ feeds, and GIF-friendly rapid editing techniques. That’s almost as poppin’ fresh as Bernie Sanders’s Nehru jackets.

Both parties are engaging in vain materialist boastings. Their discourse has come to resemble the refrain in the middle of The Who’s Magic Bus, with Millennials chanting ‘I waaaannit, I waaaaanit, I waaaannnnit’ and Boomers responding with ‘You caaaaaaan’t have it!’ And neither camp has cause to take the moral high ground. Let’s be perfectly frank: had their positions been reversed and each was reared in the conditions of the other, would either have been likely to have improved their perceptions of the societal Telos? Not ruddy likely. We on the Right fully hold to the triumph of Nature over Nurture, and the vagaries of both Plenty and Want have their own unique ways of fostering sin in whichever generation is fortunate or unfortunate enough to reside therein. Their lack of historical reference regarding past generational squabbles further renders their battle royale meaningless. You would think the Boomers, for their part, would remember the fabled ‘generation gap’ that existed between themselves and their Greatest parents, said gap being ensconced in the sociological zeitgeist of the era even more thoroughly than today’s nascent Boomer/Millennial tensions are thanks to a saturated media campaign on the three television networks and limited number of print mediums available then. The fusillade of ‘it’s your fault/no, it’s your fault’ proved to be an excellent means of divide and conquer, and the black militants, Chicano labor agitators, feminist bra-burners, and the Stonewall vanguard of gay liberationists made ample hay out of societal reorganization while debates raged in suburban living rooms over hair length and whatnot.

As for the Millennials, it would behoove them well to consider that Evil did not originate with their Boomer parents. Even the materialist mindset that is stereotypically Boomer cannot be entirely laid at their feet. After all, it was their Greatest parents who insisted that the economic boom of the 50s – which in hindsight turned out to be nothing more than a very temporary fluke, built largely upon the colossal postwar reconstruction of Europe and Asia and the initial frenzy of military overspending in the Cold War’s dawn – was sustainable in perpetuity, as the just due of their inherent Americanism, and who passed on that Pollyannaism to their children. As the Greatests were also definitely one of those ill-fated generations who made an idol out of Work, they also tended to spend an inordinate amount of time in the office or the factory floor or the fields, leaving the raising of their children to the likes of Howdy Doody or the copacetic infrastructures of various Levittowns, as Mother increasingly found her time bound up in bridge games, PTA meetings, chairmanships of women’s committees supporting Governor Nelson Rockefeller for president, and the like.

Can all the blame be laid on the Greatests, then? Nope! After all, they were the children of the Silents, who never met an intrusive socialistic alphabet agency of FDR’s they didn’t immediately fall in love with and who, as the hip ‘flappers’ of the 1920s, first began embracing the tenets of hedonism via free love, abortion on demand (albeit of the back alley variety), and, as Ehud recently documented, frivolous divorce. If it’s ultimate blame we insist on dishing out, I’m afraid we have to go all the way back to our father Adam. And who among us has the moral authority to presume we would have done differently in his fig leaf?

The Scriptures, too, take a dim view of this internecine wrangling. Boomers ought to remember that Paul adjured Timothy to let no man despise his youth (1 Timothy 4:12) and that John commended the young men on their strength which they used, at the urging of the word of God, to overcome the power of Lucifer (1 John 2:13-14). Likewise, Millennials ought to remember that when the insufferable brats mocked Elisha with taunts of ‘Go up, thou bald head’ (the equivalent of ‘ok boomer’ in an epoch bereft of social mediums), a Godly curse from Elisha over their violation of the Fifth Commandment was all it took to turn them into a fast-food lunch for a couple of she-bears who happened to be passing by. (2 Kings 2:23-4) Indeed, while we’re on the subject of Scriptural authority, the past century (and beyond) of generational achievement reads like a litany from the book of Kings:

The Greatests were one and twenty years old when they began to reign.
And they did evil in the sight of the LORD, like unto their fathers, and provoked Him to anger.
The Boomers were five and thirty years old when they began to reign.
And they did evil in the sight of the LORD, like unto their fathers, and provoked Him to anger.
The Gen-Xers were five and fifty years old when they began to reign.
And they did evil in the sight of the LORD, like unto their fathers, and provoked Him to anger.
The Millennials….

Needless to say, neither side has cause to preen at such a track record. What matters it whether the Pharisees or the Sadducees influence the national discourse the most?

So, in summary, all I can say is: a pox on the Boomers.

And a pox on the Millennials.

A pox on Gen-X, as well. Their response to the rift has been typical – to inwardly gloat over it for a time, and then get disgusted and head back over to YouTube to watch commercials from the 80s and grumble about the due glory that was denied them back in the day.

Might as well cast a pox upon the Greatests and the Silents while we’re at it.

Sorry, Gen-Z. Even in the flower of thy youth, you too get a pox.

And were the generations of old so immaculate? I hardly think so. Poxes all around, bartender, if you please.

This whole Boomer/Millennial meme is vainglorious and unedifying, folks. It is an entirely Delphic construction of artificial outrage, which is becoming the norm as the age of online interaction approaches a rather non-stellar middle age. We are all hopelessly fallen – I thought as Calvinists, we understood that. Let us save our precious spiritual ammo for targets besides those within our own ranks who we perceive to be the Other. And let us all, Boomer, Millennial, or otherwise, mull on the words of Proverbs 20:29: ‘The glory of young men is their strength: and the beauty of old men is the gray head.’ Godly might + Godly wisdom = a Godly juggernaut.

8 thoughts on “The Frivolous Factionalism of ‘Shut Up, Millennial!’ ‘OK, Boomer!’

  1. Kurt

    Its a sad day when I can count on one hand all the sources of solid thinking and logic on the internet. But its a blessed day too, because all of the sources are founded on sound doctrine by the grace of the Lord. I pray we all be granted the strength to keep speaking truth, no matter what the world tells us to say. God bless.

  2. Joe Putnam

    A very well balanced piece Colby.
    I loved your line that: “the economic boom of the 50s – which in hindsight turned out to be nothing more than a very temporary fluke, built largely upon the colossal postwar reconstruction of Europe and Asia and the initial frenzy of military overspending in the Cold War’s dawn” is something that most Boomers do not realize. Whether for good or ill (likely ill), that temporary economic boom allowed the Boomer Generation to be economically successful in a way that neither their fathers nor the sons will be able to.
    On an end note, I appreciate that Tribal Theocrat is an explicitly Calvinist site, unlike other nominally Christian websites.

    1. Colby Malsbury

      Thank you, Joe! Personally, I’m beginning to realize the 1950s was a catastrophe every bit as damaging as past tribulations for our people.

  3. Doug

    Colby writes, “For their part, boomers have done remarkably little to combat this cyber-grassfire.” Well you can’t defend what has no defence.

    God judges’ generations (Mat 12:29,45) and the boomers have a lot to answer for. They failed the warning of 1 John 2:15-16, “ Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.” What they should have held to the next verse, “And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

    There have been previous generations of man who embody the “boomer-spirit”. We read in Proverbs 30 of such a generation that is our boomers. A generation that curses tradition, self-righteous yet filthy, arrogant and boisterous, violent and destructive to the weak, demanding and unsatisfied, fighting the death of their aged bodies yet killing the innocent life of new, mocking correction, self absorbed yet not self reflective, self serving yet expecting others to sacrifice, fools devising evil. They will get the due consequence of their wickedness says the Lord.

    In Isaiah 39 we read of foolish and proud Hezekiah holding the “boomer-spirit”. Verses 5-8, “Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the Lord. ‘And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ‘The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good!’ For he said, ‘At least there will be peace and truth in my days’.” This is the boomer exactly.

    The boomers deny death and judgment to hold to their delusion of reality. If they came to know this inevitability of eternity it would vaporize their material idolatry and shatter their self-aggrandizement into uncountable shards of vanity. The boomer lives his life in a delusion, purposed for destruction and protected by Satan. They are ungodly, elder or not. Seeking comfort without the Comforter. They exchanged the Truth of God for the lie and have corrupted the Church, the family, the government, academics, finance, law, the nation, their souls.

    Colby writes, “As for the Millennials, it would behoove them well to consider that Evil did not originate with their Boomer parents. Even the materialist mindset that is stereotypically Boomer cannot be entirely laid at their feet.” All understand that evil has been of man since Adam, but different eras manifest that evil in different ways and with different levels of significance. The boomers sin focused on self-righteousness, egalitarianism, materialism, hedonism, and narcissism. These qualities are all related essentially. The negative eternal consequences are coming to the boomer, but their earthly cost is sadly delivered only to subsequent generations. The boomers came before and thus situated themselves to develop the environment that the rest of us, including the Millennials, must now suffer with. Not just these latest generations, but $21 trillion worth of generations yet to come. The Millennials didn’t devise the world for the boomer, the boomer destroyed the world for the Millennial. The boomer has nothing to complain about and no one to complain to. The following generations can and do, as they simply look back in time and see the boomer as the immediate cause and benefactor of their current plight and future hopelessness. It is not for a child to teach his parents but the responsibility of the parents to teach their children. It is for the parents to leave an inheritance to their children (Prov 13:22 “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous.”) God says in Ecc 4:13-14 “Better a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who will be admonished no more. For he comes out of prison to be king, although he (the next generation) was born poor in his kingdom.”

    The criticism against the boomers by the Millennials (and everyone else) are justified and these criticisms should be in one direction. If the boomers want to criticize, let him look in a mirror.

    Still, the good news is this:
    1) Death is near, nearer to some
    2) Perfect judgment is coming for everyone
    3) Everyone will bend his knees and acknowledge God is Lord, most while on their way to Hell
    4) The Believer’s home is not earth under Satan’s rule (1 John 5:19)
    5) Believers live for God’s Kingdom and glory not their own
    6) Believers have God’s Promises and thus hope, Glory and thus joy, Truth and thus wisdom, Christ and thus salvation. We need nothing from boomers, Gen-X, Millennials, Gen-Z, or Gen alpha. We have Christ, let them drive their convertibles and fight over their healthcare plans.
    7) Believers heed the words of St. Paul in 2 Cor 10:12-18.

    1. Colby Malsbury

      ‘The boomers sin focused on self-righteousness, egalitarianism, materialism, hedonism, and narcissism.’

      I don’t disagree at all, but again – where did the boomers pick up this mentality from? From their Greatest fathers, who filled the ears of their progeny with wild tales about the ‘unlimited potential’ of Murika they themselves were inured to during their indoctrination sessions in boot camp in their formative years. As the first generation largely raised by a mass communication medium, they also picked up similar sociopathic delusions. Who was in charge of mid 50s television and Hollywood? Greatests. Specifically, (((Greatests))).

      Evil does not befall any one generation in a vacuum. Their parents always share a good deal of the blame in how they turned out. That was the point of this piece.

      1. Doug

        Exactly my point. Millennials have every right to condemn the actions and ideologies of the boomer that lead them to this point in time. Their outrage is not artificial but evidenced and obvious by recorded history. This young wrath been visited upon a correctly identified hoary head. The boomer have only themselves and the corpses of their fathers to complain of, but certainly not subsequent generations. The Millennial charge is properly one way.

        All generations have had exposure to indoctrination, to lies and subversion promoting wickedness. While the boomers may be the first generation raised by mass communication, their media’s intensity pales in comparison to what the Millennials were subjected to. The distinction between them was the boomer chose to believe it and incorporated it into their faith, family and folk. His motivation was not altruistic nor for the prosperity of his progeny, but pleasure seeking in his consideration of himself alone. These worldly boomers are not of our rank, they are of our enemy destroying what God commands us to preserve. The sooner the boomer vanishes, the quicker the Faithful can correct their mistakes.

        And yes, I know 5 million honourable boomers, but I also know 60 million that our land needs to unload.

  4. Colby Malsbury

    Do you speak primarily of the boomers, or the (((boomers)))? That’s a distinction that must always be made. Otherwise, anti-boomer rhetoric can quickly escalate into another manifestation of Marxist class struggle.

    1. Doug

      The “boomer” I refer to are those appropriately aged who easily and wantonly swallow marxist, social justice, feminist, neo-con, zionist, environmental, (((government))) propaganda as truth. Those who have such ignorance and pride that they exchange the Truth of God for the lie of satan, unable to prevent themselves from boasting in their foolishness. Those that know what is wrong with everything and it never involves them. She loves that Botox and he that BMW. Those whose life mantra is “He who die with the most toys wins” or “We are spending our kid’s inheritance”. Those large mass of mindless voters who follow the dictates of ZOG, received from their daily dose of MSM, and deny any original thought in lieu of regurgitating worldly talking points. Those who live to conform, love only themselves, loath Godly purity, and leave those who follow nothing. Those “boomers” gotta go.

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