Those born in the first two decades of the twentieth century were members of North America’s greatest generation.  Arguing against that statement is hard, bordering on the impossible.  These folks defeated the evil warmongers in Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, and they used their skills and initiative to advance our societies to heights never before imagined.  Our standard of living was improved tenfold.  Our streets, shopping centres, public transit, parks, and neighbourhoods were safe and virtually crime free.  Those returning from World War 2 were starting to have families, and new houses were built by the hundreds of thousands to accommodate them.   Single-family homes were built outside the core of major cities across Canada and the United States.  The Greatest Generation begat the “Baby Boom” generation or the “Baby Boomers.”

The Baby Boomers were members of a generation born from 1946 to 1964. These descendants of the previous generation grew up watching the tremendous increase in their standard of living.  Air travel advanced at lightning speed, making it easy for people to travel from one side of the country to the other in a matter of hours as opposed to the days it took for cars and trains to accomplish the same feat.

The Baby Boomers witnessed the work ethic of their fathers and mothers and used that influence as a guide as to how they should conduct themselves as they entered the workforce.

Members of the Greatest Generation worked extremely hard as jobs of virtually any kind were valued.  Many of these folks were paid a living wage, but they were not wealthy by any means.  They provided for their families as best they could, and few went hungry or thought they were in any way deprived.  Food banks had not as yet made an appearance.

The mid-1940s to the mid-1960s were the years of the Baby Boomers. Those decades were a wonderous time for the “Boomers.”  Television, Elvis Presley, Rock-in-roll, the Beatles, Mustang cars, school dances, pretty girls, and groovy guys. White sports coats and pink carnations! Not a care in the world.

Secondary education was widely available and–of equal importance–affordable. Students were taught by agenda-free professors who were, generally speaking, not followers of Karl Marx and other left-wing utopia promisors.   Many “Boomers” took advantage of obtaining an education, but even if higher education was not in the cards, the opportunities available for hard-working, bright people made success and a high standard of living attainable. It was much easier for the “Boomers” to accumulate wealth and quickly surpass what their parents were able to achieve.

The “Boomers” became our doctors, dentists, lawyers, businessmen and businesswomen, teachers, air traffic controllers, truck drivers, house builders, airline pilots, bus drivers, and any other vocation you could think of.  Jobs were plentiful, and for those willing to grasp success, it was so much easier to attain than it was for their parents.  Life was really good for the vast majority of the baby boomer generation who wanted to work.

While all of this was taking place, the Boomers began having families.  The resulting generation was tagged with the designation “Generation “X” (1965 to 1979), and the subsequent generation became known as the “Millennials” (1980 to 1994).

Admittedly, what follows is a generalization but, I submit, pretty accurate just the same.

By 2010, the Baby Boomers were closing in on retirement, and Generation “X” and the Millennials had by this time entered the workforce but were not as yet in positions of authority.  Then, around 2020, something went terribly wrong. Virtually out of nowhere, the entire world was hit with an extremely infectious virus which became known as Covid 19 (because it was deemed to be politically incorrect to call it after its country of origin). Millions of people worldwide died from the virus.  Those who were elderly, obese, and suffering from other health issues became easy prey to the virus.  Filled with patients, hospitals around the world were beyond their ability to cope with the avalanche of sick humanity.  Businesses were ordered closed.  The wearing of masks became mandatory. Students were sent home to learn via Google and Zoom, with lessons sent to them via their home computers.

This new world order lasted for at least two years and devastated the educational systems in most countries, particularly in the United States. In that country, the National Teacher’s Union (which has become the tail that wags the educational dog in the United States) dictated to governments when schools would open and when they would close, when teachers would show up, and when they would refuse to do so.

All kinds of hideous governmental dictates were put in place by officials who saw an opportunity to use the Covid crisis to exert their power over those they governed.  Logic, justice, and fair play went out the window using Covid as an excuse to throttle free speech and deny civil liberties.

This state of affairs lasted too many months.   Benefiting from overly generous government policies, millions of people were paid to stay at home.  Huge amounts of money borrowed by governments at various levels and paid out to individuals and businesses, resulted in an inflation rate higher than has been experienced since the 1980s.

When the shutdowns and sanctions finally eased and things started to return to some semblance of order, it seems that a huge number of Baby Boomers decided to retire and not re-enter the workforce.  Some of their jobs, but certainly not all, were passed on to members of Generation X and Millennials.  Almost immediately, chaos ensued.

Airline flights were scheduled and then cancelled on a regular basis.  Luggage was lost; not misplaced–lost!  Supply lines no longer functioned.  Cargo ships were stacked up by the hundreds outside major North American ports.  Trucks sat idle because they could not access goods sitting on ships waiting for weeks to be unloaded, and there was a serious shortage of baby formula!  And when they finally received their cargo, the price of diesel fuel had skyrocketed making transportation by truck economically impossible with the resulting increased costs fueling an already inflationary environment.

In the United States, the Transportation Secretary, old monkey lip, a proud member of the Millennial class, was nowhere to be found.  He was, it turns out, on maternity leave because he and his partner had adopted twin babies.  This guy had zero qualification to be Secretary of Transportation, but what he did do is check virtually all of the woke boxes–those boxes which had the predicted effect of trumping qualifications!

Services we took for granted in the past no longer worked as they once did.  Dealing with government agencies to access their services became impossible to navigate.  Virtually every place you turned, you were greeted with maddening frustration.  And everyone wondered why–what the hell was going on? Why were things we once took for granted not working any longer?

Airline travel became a dice toss.  Southbound flights got snow-weary travelers to their sun destination, albeit late. And when it was time to board a return flight, they found their flights were unilaterally cancelled.  In one instance, passengers scheduled to be on a flight were left to their own resources, in a foreign country, without comment and little assistance from these airlines.  All the while, The Canadian Transportation Agency members twiddled their bureaucratic thumbs and did nothing to help.  Could it be that these political appointees had qualifications that were suspect? Or were they just members of an inferior generation?

Government services became non-existent as hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats “worked” from home.  It became virtually impossible to get something as basic as a passport.  Trying to talk to a warm body at Service Canada–a misnomer if there ever was one-became a frustrating joke.

Friends of our family, who are retired, arranged to spend several months in Mexico.  At the complex where they were staying were numerous couples from Ottawa who just happened to be Federal Government employees “working from home.”  As I type this, one Federal Government Union is looking for a 47% increase in pay for a cabal of people who have never understood the true meaning of work.  These are our Generation X/Millennial class–a class of people who epitomize the definition of takers.

A little harsh?  Perhaps.  But take a moment and ask members of the Baby Boom generation what they think of those who have succeeded them.  The answers will, I predict, not be very flattering.  The two generations that succeeded the Baby Boomers have been more than disappointing in so many ways, and may very well be responsible for the ultimate demise of our societies as we have known them.  Remember, these people vote, and history will confirm that members of these two generations vote for whoever promises a lot of free stuff, has nice hair, and enjoys the support of the two generations controlling our mainstream media and our universities–the two most dangerous groups civilized societies have ever had to endure.

In the United States, members of the Generation X and Millennial classes were primarily responsible for electing a seriously impaired person to run their country.

Cities across the United States have become cesspools of filth, used drug paraphernalia, and human excrement while being governed primarily by incompetent members of minority groups.  Crime is rampant. Crash-and-grab crimes are commonplace, perpetrated by members of the same minority group as the decision-makers occupying the higher office, who are seized with the responsibility of protecting the public from these anarchists.  Who are these people occupying positions of authority in major US cities?  Well, you guessed it.  These people are members in good standing of the Generation X/Millennial crowd, and they have wreaked havoc on average citizens and continue to do so without fear of punishment, losing at the polls, or being held to account. It is apparent to me that this nonsense cannot last.  At some point, this societal decay must end or society as we know it cannot endure. Unless and until common sense re-enters the minds of decision-makers (and those who vote for them) the chaos we are now witnessing will continue until something happens that forces us to relive the era of the Greatest Generation and that, hopefully, will beget a new era of hope.