A while back I wrote a bit about how the younger generations are being used to feed anger against the “boomer” generation. It’s still going on, so I want to address it one final time.

I’m again noticing more and more posts against the “boomers” , denigrating their contribution to history, their voting statistics, their lifestyles, their lives, really. And I am here to say, if you are contributing to that trend, you are being USED. Because the truth is, there is NO single entity you can define as “boomers’. Any more than you can lump all younger generations in comfortable boxes. And the ONLY reason for getting you to perceive the world in terms of such labels is that you are being manipulated for someone’s agenda.

The same is true when you use misogyny, racism, homophobia, or xenophobia to divide people, or claim that only by being forced to follow YOUR religion will people be moral… someone is training you in a certain way of believing and feeling.

Why? Because there are really only two kinds of people in the world, and they cross all generations, all ages, all creeds, all genders, all classes, all places:

There are

• givers or takers
• the thoughtful or the thoughtless
• the compassionate or the uncaring
• the kind or the mean-spirited
• the responsible or the irresponsible
• the empathetic or the callous
• those who think of future generations or the selfish
• those who work for a better world for all or or those who see the world as every man for himself
• the honourable or the dishonourable
• the honest or the liars
• those who speak with veracity or those who speak to deceive
• those who feel an obligation to act with decency or those who are vicious
• those who welcome diversity or those who see diversity as something to fear and control
• those who look to a creative future or those who cling to an oppressing past
• the brave or the cowards
• those who speak for the silenced and the oppressed or those who only speak for the powerful and the approved
• those who can accept other beliefs as viable for the believer or those who demand all believe as they do
• those who have hope for all or those who only want themselves to survive
• those who speak for mankind or those who speak for “only us”
• the peacemakers or the violent

Each person tells you, by their words and actions, by what they support and who they vote for, by the ideology they follow or push, the side upon which they stand. You cannot use any other attribute- age, gender, class, place, etc- to know who or what they are.

Which are you?