I was trapped in the chair. There was no polite escape. As I sat there staring at the floor and biting my tongue, my hair stylist went on an extended harangue about the abundance of lazy and unmotivated Millennials and Gen-Xers. Her words issued forth like a stream of shiny mercury, glistening from years of practice and heavy with resentment. I marveled at how so many words could come from so few breaths. Luckily, during this session I was spared the usual lecture on the horrors of COVID masks and vaccination.
She was a blond, attractive 70 year old standing about 5″6″ with bright, lime green glasses. She wore a dark green smock with the hair of many clients on it. As she rambled and snipped at my hair, I withdrew into memories of my childhood in the late 1960’s. Back then, Americans were in a lather from a social step-change that was happening. The continuing Viet Nam War had polarized Americans broadly between two camps- the younger and more liberal antiwar tribe and the large population of older America-love-it-or-leave-it fans of John Wayne.
Prominent among the antiwar group were the hippies. Broadcast news loved to televise rampaging hippies protesting and rioting against the establishment. It made for compelling television. They were often dressed in a provocative way that was unfamiliar to the older generation and, perhaps worst of all, the men had shockingly long hair. Older generations took it as a personal affront to their established social norms. Rightly or not, hippies were notorious for radical beliefs, rampant drug use and moral depravity. They became larger than life in the minds of the older generation.
As a skinny 10 year old growing up along the cornfields of Iowa, I was like a Hobbit isolated from the troubles of the day both in distance and time. Geographically, the nearest center of counter-culture trouble was hours away in Chicago. We were also lagging behind the times culturally. While Iowa may have had leading edge farm implements and thriving agribusiness, we were not at the leading edge of pop culture in the 1960’s. The Lutheran and Baptist adults in my family circle were firmly against the hippie movement and despised communism. Somehow hippies and communism were entangled in their minds. They were fearful of the Domino Theory and strangely quiet about the great loss of American lives in Viet Nam. They would seek reassurance by frequently asking what we kids thought of hippies. Of course, we parroted back that we didn’t like them or their drugs. Today I believe that the “hippie movement” in total was part of a needed and valuable change going into the future.
In my experience as a baby boomer, every generation looks at the younger generations with skepticism. Will they be ready to guide civilization when their turn to lead comes around? Do they have the moral certitude and the grit to do what is necessary? If the question really means, will they continue the older generation’s norms going forward, then I think the answer is no. But if they take the challenge to continue the advance of technology for the benefit of all, then they’ll probably do a good job. Sadly, my Boomer generation is leaving them a fine mess.
As I sat in the chair with all the snipping and the grey hair falling to the floor, I considered suggesting to the stylist that I know plenty of Millennials and Gen-Xers who are righteous and hard-working citizens who make contributions to society every day. My kid is one. I might have gently suggested that her beliefs were based on hazy exaggeration. But, what does arguing with a fool really get you even if you win? I just wasn’t in a crusading mood.
Lamentations on Chemistry 