There’s a touch of Eeyore and Private Frazer – “We’re all doomed, Captain Mainwaring” – about Francis Beckett. His book What Did the Baby Boomers Ever Do For Us? – subtitled Why the Children of the Sixties Lived the Dream and Failed the Future – sticks the boot into the baby boomers. It’s a lively read but depressing in its conclusion that life, the universe and everything is pretty hopeless. Beckett defines the baby boomers as those born between 1945 and 1955 and lumps the blame for modern ills on everyone born within that period. I arrived in 1954, so have a vested interest in hearing what I’m responsible for doing – or failing to do – for this current generation and those who will follow after I am dead and gone.
Beckett skits along with a broad post-war history lesson, suggesting that the seeds for the 21st century’s malaise were sown in the years after 1945 when Britain had to be rebuilt physically, emotionally and economically. Prime Minister after Prime Minister had a go at changing things, some succeeding better than others, but according to Beckett the two who should have used their ’60s grounding in peace, love, understanding and fairness for all, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, failed to translate their ideals and radical thoughts into practical solutions and failed to continue Clement Attlee’s purge on eliminating want, ignorance, disease, squalor and idleness.
This book blames the baby boomers for a generational failure but in reality the people in power, in politics and especially in business, do what powerful people have always done. They manage, manipulate and screw the people as they see fit. Some baby boomers are to blame, of course, but not all of us. History is littered with people who chose the ballot box, the brick, the placard or complacency. We think we count as citizens but we are powerless in the end, whatever our date of birth.
Beckett produces witnesses – such as Greg Dyke, Peter Hitchens and Marianne Faithfull – to support his theories and draws on the lyrics of Bob Dylan, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. It’s a curious selection. There is no room for Louis Armstong’s 1968 hit “What a Wonderful World”.
His premise is that the ’60s gave us bullshit on an industrial scale and enough manure to bury hopes and dreams thereafter. It is partly, but not wholly, true. Beckett’s book is worth reading to get one view of the baby boomer generation but do not expect balance, inspiration – or hope.
