Rules that the baby boomers rejected - Essay Example

Baby boomer’s protest The term baby boomers was coined after the Second World War when more babies were born in 1946 than ever before (history.com). This began the “baby boom” and from then on, that generation from 1946 to 1960 was characterized as the “baby boomers”. The baby were known as the protest kids, the anti-establishment rioters who are known for their liberalism in the 1960s (Gonyea). Their anti-establishment attitudes were not necessarily bad because it brought permanent changes in our society.

Among the things that the baby boomers protested that brought good change was the protest against the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was one of the costliest war in terms of resources and human loss that America has ever engaged in. Moreso, it was an unnecessary war because America does not have to engage Vietnam in conflict. American involvement in the war was not a matter of security threat but rather an ideological differences with the communist as they attempted to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam to contain communism.

It was viewed by the Vietnamese instead as a colonial takeover instead of ideological containment and fought American soldiers. It was a costly war for America in terms of human lives and resources. Back in the United States, the war also did not have a popular support from the baby boomer dominated population. The liberal and “hippie peace” environment during that time prevailed with the milieu of Beatles song calling for love, peace and equality instead of war. Protest after protest headed and populated by the boomers ensued during the Vietnam War until the government stopped the war and suffered a humiliating loss.

Another meaningful protest that the baby boomers engaged in was the counterculture protest. Counterculture was the rule at that time. As the baby boomers matured, they began to resist the consumerist suburban indulgence. In a way, it was a spiritual age as people tended to root back to the basics and essentials of life. Instead of engaging in mundane endeavors, the baby boomers called on for the “social, economic and political equality and justice for many disadvantaged groups: African-Americans, young people, women, gays and lesbians, American Indians and Hispanics” (history.com 2013). Without the baby boomers counterculture protest movement concept such as womens liberation, American sense of equality and justice, equal pay for equal work, non-discriminatory workplace and others socially important issues would not have prospered to be adopted by the mainstream American society.

Racial discrimination against African American albeit being earlier fought on by Civil Rights activist such as Martin Luther King, Dubois and others, discrimination still persisted. It was the baby boomer’s counterculture protest that pointed out the existence discrimination against the African Americans that brought out policies such as affirmative action, a policy which gives preferential treatment to the minorities to facilitate social justice. The rule of counterculture no longer applies today because the issues that the counterculture was protesting against were already settled.

American as a society is already egalitarian where discrimination no longer or barely exists. Instead, the rules that the baby boomers abhorred is the rule that applies today which is acquisitiveness and indulgence in materialism. Works CitedGonyea, Don. “Baby Boomers Remain Skeptical Of The Establishment”. November 04, 2011 3:41 PM. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2011/11/04/142016986/baby-boomers-remain-skeptical-of-the-establishmentHistory .com. “Baby Boomers”. 2013. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/baby-boomers