Why can;'t Baby boomers accept their flaws along with their strengths.

As a younger boomer I cannot understand this overly sensitive thinking about our generation. We brought alot of good like the internet, social changes, ect.
but, we have serious flaws like carrying our baggage from our 40 year old culture war, approaching rivals with this
the other is evil and must be destroyed thinking. We are materialist to a fault and tend to think in terms of me and I.
we have done alot for society but, also have brought serious problems to this country with our inability to understand what is needed to govern effectively.
Why is it that baby boomers are so overly sensitive and cannot accept the faults along with the strengths. Why do they go all ballistic over a critique.
and this is exactly why we are lousy with governing and leading.

This is for a serious and level headed discussion and not to flame at people.

He did not say this to encouarge discourse. Your Saint Obama merely said this to slam Hilary, because that's his campaign startegy these days, and as such, he says things that are beyond idiocy.

No, I didn't think his comment was directed at me, no I am not currently a Hillary supporter, but yes, this rush to your hero's defense even when he is so very wrong says more about you than anything else.

But you'all are still listening to Led Zep.

people who are in the same rough demographic age-wise do not march in lockstep on everything. They share an age group, but come from all different backgrounds and experiences. Lumping in 43 year olds with 61 year olds and projecting the same motivations to all of them is in itself meaningless. You tacitly acknowledge that by distinguishing yourself as a younger boomer—so that you can criticize older ones, presumably.

Your sweeping generalization about a "lack of ability to govern effectively" is arguable in itself, but to attribute it to one factor alone, age, just sounds to me like the classic generational lament: "you old people have screwed things up, get out of the way and give us a chance." Except you're not exactly a spring chicken, LOL. I really don't understand what you are criticizing here, actually.

Treating people who happen to share one characteristic in common (and as you point out people from 43-61 arguably don't even have age in common) as if they are all the same, ignores their individuality. It is the same problem with making generalizations about people of color, women, Latinos/as, Asian-Americans, people from the South, people from the NorthEast, etc.

I disagree with you. I don't think people of my generation are lousy with governing and leading. I have no idea where you came up with that.

I think Sen Obama was wrong for saying this. I am offended and I think he owes my generation an apology. It appears he doesn't always think before speaking.

has given interviews and written on this theme. The bottom line is that he seems to have deep issues with his parent's generation - the early boomers and pre-boomers.

The reason the OP is trying to mount a defense is because she/he knows of this deep flaw and the OP is trying to create a "nice" reason for his prejudice.

I was excited early on when he was thinking about running. He was going to be my candidate. And then he just turned out to be a jerk. He does not know how he got where he stands.

His parents most definitely weren't, unless they conceived him as 15-year-olds.

block of voters. I love it

I understand it's all politics, and the strategy is for Obama to distinguish himself from Clinton. And the Clintons were the first boomers ("products of the 60s," gasped the GOP) to be in the White House.

To the extent all's fair -- or at least unsurprising -- in politics, it's understandable that his campaign is doing this. It taps into an old negative against the Clintons, and seeks to distinguish Obama as fresh, hopeful, and a candidate for 'change.'

However, it IS divisive, and it's something of a risk if it incites a debate about the "faults" of boomers. (It's also a little odd because Obama is really not far outside the brackets of the boomer years.)

has nothing to do with Clinton. His prejudice pre-dates their rivalry.

in my 50's and I accept my flaws, and there are many of them.

No generation can be characterized as all the same. As in any other demographic, you'll find geniuses and morons; creeps and saints and everything else.

On the other hand, there is an overall zeitgeist of a generation that consists of the dominant and widespread characteristics of a generation.

As a boomer I can accept both my own faults and strengths. I can also see where, as a generation, we've failed and succeeded.

To be honest, I would be absolutely thrilled if the subsequent generation(s) were to show greater wisdom, tolerance, values and otehr qualities than my age group.

But frankly, I don't see that. There have been no great social movements, cultural advances, political improvements or other great leaps forward in the post boomers.

Instead, the young 'uns are basically like my generation. Humans -- both flawed and strong.

In the political context, I really like Obama -- at least the image of Obama. However, on closer scrutiny, I keep coming up with a basic question. Where's the Beef?

The WW2 Generation thought they could engineer their way to Tomorrowland while forgetting that people are not cogs in a machine.

The Korean War Generation (Ted Kennedy, Reid, Pelosi, McCain, etc) thinks everything can be solved by talking, talking, more talking, empty process, and miles and miles of red tape.

The Boomers can't seem to compromise even if their lives depended on it and would rather scream moralistic "take-it-or-leave-it" sound bites on national TV or talk radio then getting anything done.

Many Gen-Xers seem to still be stuck in their signature "whatever" cynicism of everything political.

The Obama flamers make a lot of noise around here lately.

He could have worded it better but I understand what he was trying to say.

The baby boom generation made a lot of mistakes. We chose to ignore the recommendations of Jimmy Carter regarding energy independence. Civil Rights reforms in some cases have caused more damage.

There were many strengths but there were also many flaws.

and their strengths and flaws. Its about as meaningful as the generalizing about people in an age group.
The boomers are not a bloc. There are materialistic boomers and there are non-materialistic boomers.
The only thing that boomers share is living in a common era.

:shrug: