by Miles H. Hodges – The Covenant Nation

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 Veteran 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 vulnerability of their own children, the children born of the post-war baby boom (beginning in 1946), in the face of this spreading authoritarianism.  Thus it was that 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 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 naively) 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 (identifying it even as “authoritarianism”) they would be creating what would soon enough come to look to the Vets as young social monsters.

The 1968 Democratic Party's National Covention in Chicago – Boomers demonstrating their opposition to all forms of authoritarianism

The brief but unique “Silent” generation

The impact that this social programming would have on America’s rising generations is demonstrated in the strong differences between the way the young “Silent” generation and the even younger “Boomer” generation developed in America’s post-war period. 

The somewhat older Silents were patriotic in a way still typical of post-World-War-Two America … the Silents having been born just prior to or during the war and thus being too young to have served in the war.  But they were very strongly influenced by the older Vet generation – which was very patriotic, something you would expect of those of a generation that had offered their lives in defense against the horrible dictatorships that threatened the freedoms of the world's many peoples (from Mussolini, to Hitler, to Tojo, to Stalin, to Mao). 

It is therefore very important to note that by the time in the early 1950s when the authoritarian panic hit full blast among the Vets, the social-moral instincts of the young Silents (just entering their teens) were already well in place.  Thus the Silents would be a fully patriotic generation ... like their elders, the Vets.  I know all this very well because I too was a member of this Silent generation (born in 1941)

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, proved to be a very different breed.  They were born just after the war (1946 and after) ... when “the boys came home” from their service overseas, were finally able to get married, and make up for lost time in the years abroad ‒ by bring forth a literal “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 “Boomers.”

The first of these Boomer children were ultimately brought to social maturity in the early years of the 1960s ... having begun their all-important social shaping during the years of the authoritarian panic of the 1950s (especially the early to mid-1950s). 

When the first of the Boomers 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 1950s development.  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 prove to be highly resistant to coming under any social order other 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 that very sense of social order from some place ... from some larger social context. 

And develop that social order deeply they would do indeed.  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! How ironic!

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 the Boomers were called to serve ‒ as generations before them had served the American cause (World War Two and the Korean War).  By the second half of the 1960s it was going full blast ... just as the Boomers were entering the ranks of military draftees.

But 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 latter being the Boomers called to serve in this conflict.

Very quickly the tragic pointlessness of the Vietnam engagement began to register itself deeply among Boomer youth, 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 American post-Christian or Humanist intellectuals − especially its younger group − 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 oppressive 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, homosexuality, 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 rapidly.  But all was not lost.  The TV program “Happy Days” fought back ... portraying the earlier 1950s as indeed offering much happier days. 

Miles Hodges is a writer, historian and political analyst who explores the question of why societies behave as they do ... especially in this matter of their rise and fall.