From MSNBC: The headline reads “Computers once filled entire rooms. Now they fit in our pockets. How a generation formed our tech landscape,” and the smugness only grows from there; three pages of self-satisfaction and vainglorious pats on the collective back of a generation. Self-described ‘boomer and author of this garbage feature article Stephen Levy (born in ‘51) has found a new way to exploit the success of a few ambitious individuals and attribute it to everyone born between the years 1946 and 1964. After taking credit for everything from economic booms to cultural trends to a rise in our national life expectancy, ‘boomers are now taking credit for the entire history of technological advancement, one which reached a pinnacle in the late ’90s, when the oldest of the bunch were eligible for senior discounts.

Yeah, I guess the premise of the article makes sense. I also guess Mr. Levy will go on assuming the computer is also a member of the baby boomer generation, “growing up in a restrictive environment and going batty as a young adult. Now, like the generation it grew up alongside, the computer has assumed a leadership role, while still maintaining and unruly edge.” Of course, nowhere in his rambling, overly-proud prose does Levy mention that the word “computer” dates back to a time before Jesus, or that Babbage conceptualized a personal computer in the 1800s, or that the first computer to operate digitally was made five years before the first ‘boomer was pathetically squeezed out into a world which has since been devastated by it and its peers.

It’s easy to criticize the baby boomers when one of them uses suggestive word choice in an article about how great it is to be one in their club, because all these articles about how hip it is to be old are brimming with self-satisfaction. It’s an entirely different kind of easy to criticize blunt statements like, “The boomers themselves can take credit for shaping the course of this technology if not the entire direction of the digital revolution.” Holy fucking Christ, guy! Are you going to tell me that 78 million Americans have the right to take credit for the work of handful of enterprising people? What an asshole! I can’t even read this whole article. It’s sickening. The nerve of douchebags like Stephen Levy is beyond me. It’s unconscionable.

Let me ask you something, Mr. Levy. How come you’re not so quick to talk about the negative societal changes that have occurred under “leadership” of baby boomers. Let’s start with…oh, I don’t know…AIDS. Why doesn’t your generation take responsibility for the millions of lives lost due to negligence and selfishness? How about the cultural decline that has occurred since you came to power? I can’t go to a movie theater or listen to FM radio anymore because you replaced quality with prefabricated confections in an attempt to line your pockets. How about the ongoing war? If Bill Gates and George Bush are both boomers, shouldn’t you be “taking credit” for both of their contributions to society? God damn you and your blind consumerism, your dead-end nihilism, and your sense of entitlement. From Volkswagen Beetles to Hummers, from tap water to bottled water, you’ve got a lot of shit you need to explain away before I offer any of you an ounce of respect.

Has anyone in my age bracket ever thought back to middle school or high school history classes? Do you remember the last lesson you covered each school year, just before final exams? My American history classes barely made it to post-World War II America. The irony is not lost on me when I think back on how “history” ended with the introduction of baby boomers.

If you can get through Levy’s article without hating him, try these on for size:
- Boomers: The New America
- Why Bobos Rule

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