When I was a young lad in my late teens, circa 1967, it was commonly understood that one should not trust anyone over the age of 30; and over the years we ‘baby-boomers, as we came to be known, were increasingly lauded and eventually castigated for our abilities to apply work ethic and education towards living well. Through the nineties and the beginning of the current century we were assailed for holding onto the best jobs and bottle-necking the opportunities available to ‘gen-xers’ and the like. This is a discussion whose footprints lead up to our very now. CBC last week reported on the difficulty that up and coming young Canadians experience trying to make their way in life. Shades of 1967 and that ‘generation gap’.
But the absolute truth of the matter is that there has never been a generation gap. It was not extant in 1967 nor does it exist today. What does exist is a series of gaps which are much more tangible and damaging to ALL generations. Even those of us who possess a reasonable amount of grounding in reason understand the concept of ‘divide and conquer’, for Machiavelli was required reading for most of us who attended universities that did not require daily prayer. So why do we deny its existence and insist upon the ‘reality of generation gaps’? It is simply a time-tested ploy to distract us from the real issues.
What we do have is an asshole gap (not to be confused with plumbers’ cleavage), a greed gap, and a power gap. Too many of us are millionaires in waiting and believe that excess economic power over our fellow citizens is a birthright. I have no qualms with honest businessman who produce a needed service or product and who treat employees with fairness and honour; but if you are one of those who accumulate power and wealth at the expense of the rest of the world, you are frankly a worthless piece of anal detritus. You are certainly not a person of religious belief, for none of the religions or beliefs condone your behaviour – in fact they have specific interdictions against it. If you tread the earth with oil-stained boots, buy and sell your nation’s birthright as though you were playing Monopoly, and dull the instruments of democracy, then you will have no respect from me. That we still have these people walking the earth is a testament to the honest morality of the rest of us, and that maybe the Great Spirit has something special planned, perhaps more punishing than an assassin’s projectile.
No. There is no generation gap, but far too many of us still believe there is. The gap is in our belief that those in power have the right to be there, regardless of their thievery, in our timourousness in pushing these people to the wall; and while there is no ‘plumbers’ cleavage’, there is a cleaving – a cleaving of generation against generation, man against woman, class against class.
My mother once expressed concern to my father, in 1967, that I had purchased and was reading Marx’ ‘Das Kapital’ and my father, to his everlasting credit agreed that while Marx was read by would-be communists and disaffected students, it was of the utmost use to men of business.
