The Vets’ fear of authoritarianism shapes deeply the development of the Boomer generation
Given the high level of anti-Communist hysteria found among a World-War-Two Veterean generation (the “Vets”) that had fought the authoritarianism of German and Japanese Fascism in the 1940s and now found themselves facing that same authoritarian threat from a spreading Communism in the 1950s, it was hardly surprising that the Vets became increasingly concerned about the vulnerabilty of their own children in the face of this spreading authoritarianism. Thus it was as the 1950s developed, the Vets went on a very strong anti-authority campaign … teaching their children not to accept anything on the basis of it having been put before them by someone in authority ‒ even being cautious themselves to to avoid such authoritarianism at home. Instead, their children were taught to “think for themselves” … and thus remain resistant to any form of authoritarianism.
Tragically, it never crossed the minds of these Vets that their children would have to come up with social standards to live by from some kind of source or other. Vets just assumed (most naiively) that social instincts arise simply by nature … for everyone they knew lived and moved under a fairly uniform (Middle American) social order. They did not realize that such uniformity had been shaped by the deep challenges Americans had faced since the onset of the Depression (when the Vets themselves were children and youth) and by the extreme social demands of slugging through World War Two … when everyone served, either in uniform or at home on the “Home Front.” The Vets had developed and served within the context of a highly disciplined social order.
Most unfortunately, in “freeing” their offspring from such social discipline (identifing it even as “authoritarianism”) they would be creating what would soon enough come to look to the Vets as young social monsters.
The deep differences between the “Silent” and “Boomer” generations
The impact that this social programming would have on America’s rising generations is demonstrated in the strong differences between the way the “Silent” generation and the “Boomer” generation developed in America’s post-war period. The Silents were patriotic in a way still typical of post-World-War-Two America … the Silents being too young to have served in the war … but very strongly influenced by the older “Vet” generation (Veterans of World War Two) – which was very patriotic, something you would expect of those of a generation that had given their lives in defense against the horrible dictatorships that threatened the freedoms of the world’s many peoples.
It is therefore very important to note that by the time in the early 1950s when the anti-authoritarian panic hit full blast among the Vets, the socil-moral instincts of the Silents were already well in place. Thus they would themelves be a fully patriotic generation … like their elders (even parents) the Vets. I know all this very well because I too was a member of this Silent generation.
In the 1950s and early 1960s the Silents would evidence the distinct traits of any youthful generation … clothing, music, lifestyle, etc. But they would be solidly American, and unapologetically so. They were a fully patriotic generation … ready to serve the larger American community however possible. This was the generation that in the early 1960s were quick to join the Peace Corps … in order to bring their beloved “American way” to the rest of the world.
Boomer “anti-authoritarianism”
But the Boomers, who were soon to follow the Silents, were a very different breed. They were born just after the war … when “the boys came home” from their servce overseas, were finally able to get married, and make up for lost time in the years abroad ‒ by bring forth an litteral “boom” in babies. Thus the huge number of children birthed during this post-war period came to be known as the Baby-Boomers … or just simply “Blomers.”
These Boomer children were gradually brought to social maturity in the early years of the 1960s … having gone through their vital social development during the years of the authoritarian panic of the mid-1950s.
When they reached early adulthood by the mid-1960s they were ready to have their huge impact on the world around them. And this would register itself in their fervent dedication to anti-authoritarianism … cultivated carefully in their earlier development. With their coming onto the political scene they would bring the anti-authoritarian panic to full force. Mostly however at first this simply registered itself as the social commands they seemed to operate under: to be “free” … to “do your own thing.”
Boomers therefore would supposedly allow themselves to come under noone else’s social order than the one that they shaped for themselves. But what the Boomers (and their Vet parents) did not realize was that the Boomers would have to develop their own sense of social order from some place … from some larger social context. And develop that social order deeply they would doindeed. Being supposedly “non-conformists,” they would amazingly conform … however not to the social order of the American generations that had gone before them. That they were supposed to resist at all costs as an authoritarian inheritance. Instead, they would conform to a social order of non-conformity itself, one designed and well-located among the Boomers themselves … a non-conformity to which they would all conform extensively!
They took up a very distinct (“hippie”) attire and, music style (exemplified perfectly in the massive music gathering at Woodstock in 1969) as a critical social identifier.
But most of all, they felt compelled, as some kind of great social crusade, to stand in opposition to virtually everything politically, socially, and culturally, that their parents represented … the Vet social profile now identified as simply another form of fascism, a fascism that Boomers were now dedicated (by way of their most bizarre social development) to oppose on all fronts.
They were not interested in their parents strong social-cultural Christian inheritance. They did not see male-female roles as their parents did. In fact they did not have the family as the heart of American life … but instead their own personal professional development as life’s primary call. Thus church life began its unbroken decline, marriages failed, women eagerly displaced men in traditional roles of leadership, and in fact sexual behavior began to “come out” in all sorts of very non-traditional ways.
The huge social impact of the Vietnam War
But deepening greatly this distancing of the Boomers from their parents’ Vet world was the Vietnam war … to which they were called to serve ‒ as generations before them had served the American cause. By the second half of the 1960s it was going on full blast … just as the Boomers were entering the ranks of military draftees.
But unlike World War Two, this war was distant, abstract … and not seeming to achieve anything ‒ except the horrifying death of a lot of people … both Vietnamese and American (the Bommers called to serve in this conflict).
Very quickly the tragic pointlessness of the Vietnam engagement began to register itself deeply among Boomer youth (and eventually even with President Johnson himself), Boomers taking to the streets (especially on college campuses) to protest against the “imperialism” implicit in this Vietnam war. There was no way they would bring themselves to bow to the “evil” this war represented … no matter how much Washington authorities and an older-generation America considered such patriotic national service a matter of great importance. To the Boomer, this call to patriotism was simply a call to embrace authoritarian fascism.
The Boomer alliance with America’s alienated intellectuals
But the Boomer generation and their revolt against “fascism” posing as patriotism did not stand alone. In this matter Boomers enjoyed the strong support of members of American intellectualdom (especially its younger members) who now saw the opportunity to swing things back against Vet social dominance that had been so painful during the McCarthy years of the early-mid 1950s. Thus young professors were quick to join their Boomer students in burning their draft cards in protest against the oppresive injustice imposed on young America by the older “fascistic” Vets and their Washington, DC government … a political enemy of the Boomers whom they summed up as the evil “Establishment” ‒ the very authoritarian structure they had been long-instructed to fight at all costs.
Thus in college and university campuses across the country, Boomer students, joined by younger professors, took up the call to protest fervently this war conducted by the Establishment … even burning flags as the ultimate symbol of their freedom from oppressive patriotism.
But they were also joined by Hollywood … which began to undertake its own assault on “patriotic” Middle America and all that it stood for. Thus the TV series “All in the Family,” (running from 1971 to 1979) mocked the White male/father Archie Bunker as being the most ridiculous of individuals … absolutely unable to get any kind of social-political thoughts right … especially concerning the issues running hot in the 1970s (sexism, racism, abortion, homosexualty, religion, etc.) The popularity of this program was a clear indicator of how far Bommer-intellectual or “post-Vet” social thought was taking over the position once held by earlier Vet-inspired pro-traditional family TV programming …such as “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” (running from 1952 to 1966).
The Vet programs had been quite humorous … but also very respectful of family roles. But this understanding of things was losing ground rapidlyl
But all was not lost. The TV program “Happy Days” fought back … portraying the earlier 1950s as indeed offering much happier days.
But time was running out for the Vets and their world. The maturing Boomers were entering positions of social importance all across America. And in doing so, they not only rejected any possibilities of returning to the well-tested American social order put in place by earlier generations, they would make sure that their Boomer social values (such as they had) were passed on to their very confused Gen-X offspring, a new generation to come onto the American scene … one that tried to grow up within the confused context of their parents’ (most frequently divorced or separated) Boomer world.