we’re ruled by dangerous old men?

The wizened old gnomes of Zurich have always been talked about in conspiratorial circles, and now that Marina has emerged angry and betrayed after living respectfully for sixty years in the shadow of the Golden Generation – born during the heady days of the 1920’s and coming of age during WWII, when the times were dangerous but terribly exciting – she now believes there is credence in the belief that we are, indeed, ruled by dangerous old men.

“Think of the Pope, the Duke of Edinburgh, George Bush Snr, Fidel Castro, Ian Paisley, Alan Greenspan, Robert Mugabe and the many, many filthy rich warmongering old string-pullers behind the scenes,” says Marina, “and you get an inkling of how this generation still runs the world, even though they stick Boomer puppets like George Bush Jnr out front to bear the flack generated by their decisions.”

“This is the generation that pioneered medical experiments on institutionalized children and adults, and did unspeakable things to animals,” says Marina. “Sure, some advances in medicine came from these horrible experiments but do the ends always justify the means?”

“This is the generation that trashed the environment and had the good life without any censure whatsoever,” says Marina, “and yet it’s the same generation that - behind the scenes using useful idiots as mouthpieces - has imposed every conceivable restriction upon us to screw us over.”

“This is the generation that unleashed the atomic bomb and promoted endless wars that have entrenched it in positions of power, wealth and privilege,” says Marina. “Not a drop of their blood has been spilled since WWII, but their blood lust knows no bounds when it comes to younger generations,”

“I fear that they are unlikely to pass on without unleashing another monumental horror,” says Marina. “When death is knocking at their door and they have nothing to lose – and everything to gain in terms of immortal remembrance, good or bad – I truly fear that they will engineer an absolute catastrophe to ensure that as many people as possible depart the world at the same time they do.”

Read more by Marina on this issue:

golden generation v boomers

life extension on welfare

the gods of war

war hero frauds

dispelling myths

who invented nursing homes?

generational shadows

goodbye WWII

our 1960s or their mid-life crisis?

being young in an old workplace

revered wise elders or frauds?

the spoils of war vs survival

redefining the boomers

Isobel is a retired early Boomer, born 1946, and she loathes being lumped in with mid and late Boomers believing that the difference between 1940s Boomers, 1950s Boomers and 1960s Boomers is so distinct that they should be given special categories over and above their demographic hump.

"We're more than a demographic hump," laughs Isobel. "I realize that the traditional notion of a generation covers 30 years, but now that Gen X (1965+) and Gen Y (1980+) are so much in the news, and in our faces, and have forced a fifteen year generation between themselves, it's ridiculous to call everyone born from 1946 to 1964 a Boomer."

"If we are to accept a fifteen year generation, then the generation before Gen X should start at 1950."

"At 62 I have absolutely nothing in common with a late Boomer of 44 -- and vice versa," says Isobel. "I believe that the Boomers, en masse, are so different -- for reasons I'll explain later -- that they should be split into three distinct waves."

"How about: Early Boomers for those born in the 1940s, Mid Boomers or Boom-Boomers for those born in the 1950s, and Late Boomers or Boom-Boom Boomers for those born in the 1960s?"

"Growing up in the 1950s the idea of distinct generations was alien to me -- and everyone else -- because back then families were huge (it was common to have as much as twenty years separating first and last children) and the age range of parents was massive."

"WW2 disrupted everybody's lives," explains Isobel. "After the war you not only had young parents starting a family but also older couples resuming their families as well as older couples marrying for the first time after their plans were disrupted by the war."

"At school, my friends had mothers born from 1900 to 1930 and fathers born much earlier," says Isobel. "That's a thirty year age range for parents -- you don't see that these days -- and everything in the early 1950s was still overshadowed by the previous war years."

"The early Boomers cannot be lumped into an homogenous blob with mid and late Boomers because those of us born in the 1940s were strongly influenced by the particularly diverse ages of our parents; the war years that preceded our birth; the miserable post-war period; and the music and culture that went with it."

"If the first seven years of our life determine our values for the rest of our lives, then by 1953 -- when I was seven -- I had a very different experience of life to that of a Boom-Boomer born in 1953 who turned seven in 1960, and a Boom-Boom-Boomer born in 1960 who turned seven in 1967."

"In terms of musical influence, that's Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and the Beatles respectively dominating the first seven years of our lives."

"Had it not been for the pill, introduced in the 1960s, the Baby Boom would have continued for decades," laughs Isobel. "And had it not been for the women's lib movement that went with it, women would still be second class citizens -- and we have the pre-Boomer generation, our courageous mothers, to thank for our freedoms."

"Yes, definitely, something did happen to define the post-ww2 generations," says Isobel. "It wasn't just the pill and women's lib -- it was also television."

"My generation, the early boomers, weren't parked in front of a television in childhood -- we read books, played board games and ran wild on the streets -- and I believe we are mentally richer and far more independent minded than mid and late Boomers because of this experience."

"In this respect, the early boomers are more like earlier generations," explains Isobel. “We weren't raised as infants to accept without question what a man in a box tells us."

"By the 1960s, with the pill, the large families and the huge age ranges of parents died out – and with this came affluence and the generational wars."

"If Gen X are the Pill babies and Gen Y are the Internet babies, then the mid and late Boomers are the TV babies."

"My generation, those born immediately after WWII, are postwar pre-TV babies and defy description really," sighs Isobel. "All I know is that we are nothing like mid and late Boomers and I resent the Boomer term being used to define us."

the gods of war

We see them in old movies when they were young and fighting for freedom, now we see them in veterans’ marches, adorned with medals. At cenotaphs around the world we worship at their altars. Marina’s gods of war are not mythical gods but real life men now well into their 80s and older who fought in WWII - and like to be compared with Olympian gods - and the war they fought in has achieved a reverence similar to that of a religion that previous and later wars never achieved.

“I attribute this religiosity surrounding WWII to the artful manipulation of those who fought in that war, in combat or behind a desk, whose coincidence of birth at a critical time in our history endowed them with spectacular opportunities after the war that they have milked non-stop ever since at our expense,” says Marina. “And, just like the early Christians used Jesus’ death to inspire guilt and line their pockets – he died for us, you see – the gods of war used the death of their fallen mates to do likewise.”

“The gods of war enjoyed unprecedented hero status and respect after WWII,” says Marina. “Their war films, veterans’ marches, war medals and endless stories about the war assured them respect and reverence that it is totally out of proportion to the achievements of earlier and later generations, as if WWII were the only war ever fought or the only war worth remembering.”

“My generation, the Boomers, held the WWII vets in awe, opened doors for them, offered seats for them, called them sir and m’am, never spoke out of turn to them and never questioned their right to the best of everything from our taxpayer dollars,” says Marina. “They deserved it – they fought for our freedoms – or so we were forever told!”

“Compared to the freedoms the gods of war had after the war – no censure on drugs or family size, no politically correct speaking or environmental restrictions – our lives are so circumscribed by their rules and regulations, far more than the simple Ten Commandments they grew up with, that I don’t feel very free at all.”

“WWII was an abomination caused by greedy old men and should not be revered,” says Marina, “and those who fought in it were pawns not gods and should be exposed as such before they wreak even more damage upon us.”

golden generation vs. boomers

The Golden Generation appear to be outliving their Boomer children and now that she is 60, retired and has time to think, Marina has come to the conclusion that her parents’ generation used WWII as emotional blackmail to justify massive exploitation and used her generation as the scapegoats for all of the world’s ills that they, not the Boomers, caused.

“With apologies to the few real war heroes, who truly deserve our respect – like my dad, who returned injured and died before his time -- I want to expose the rest of this generation as undeserving frauds, peddling endless war films and veterans’ marches to glorify themselves at our expense.”

“The Golden Generation never suffered unemployment throughout their lives as we and our children have – there was no globalization, their jobs were protected by tariffs and the union movement – and most important of all, they had very little competition because the world was a smaller place back then and millions of talented people had been wiped out by the war.”

“The Golden Generation never suffered housing or land shortages when they were starting a family. Many were given land grants for free! They built ranches; they had holiday homes, and double garages. They paid off their mortgages early and easily. They had drive-in movies, supermarkets a block long; vast tracks of wilderness to escape to and more recreational facilities per person than we can dream of. They deserved it – they fought for freedom!”

“The Golden Generation never suffered prohibition in their working years – they drank, smoked and did drugs with impunity, on and off the job. They deserved it – they fought for freedom!”

“The Golden Generation never suffered population control or family size worries in their fertile years – they procreated freely and easily, producing the unlucky Baby Boomers, a generation the size of which has never been seen before or since. They deserved it – they fought for freedom!”

“The Golden Generation never suffered racial or religious or other PC prohibitions in their working years – they called a spade a spade, so to speak, and protected their suburbs and borders from outsiders. They deserved it – they fought for freedom!”

“The Golden Generation never suffered environmental prohibitions in their working years – they slashed, mined and burned merrily, destroyed forests, polluted the land, air and waterways, hunted other species to extinction and littered the world with discarded motor vehicles which they still insist on their right to own and drive into dotage. They deserve it – they fought for freedom!”

“In fighting for freedom, are they proud of the overpopulated, under-serviced and horribly polluted world they left us necessitating loss of OUR freedoms?”

silent majorities and protection rackets

According to Melody, the trouble with democracy is that it works on the principle of majority rule but majorities are always silent and sheep-like and the only people who gain from the system are rich minority groups with politicians in their pockets.

"In all governments -- democratic or not -- the deal is this," explains Melody. "We'll take care of you, we'll handle all the tough stuff, trust us. Give us your money and all you have to do is go about your daily life and abide by the laws we make for your good."

"It sounds like a reasonable deal -- a neat social contract -- doesn't it?" laughs Melody. "But it's nothing more than a massive protection racket."

"Very few of the laws governments pass are for our good," says Melody, "and very few of the baddies they are protecting us from are out to get us."

"On the contrary, most of the laws governments pass are for the good of vested interests, not us" says Melody, "and most of the baddies they are protecting us from are out to get these vested interests, not us."

"You only have to look at the situation in Iraq to see the truth of this," says Melody. "Saddam Hussein's regime may have been brutal in comparison to ours, but he kept law and order in a country that doesn't have a silent majority of sheep like ours does."

"The invasion of Iraq was nothing more than a bully boy tactic -- one gang leader moving in on the lucrative turf of another gang leader," says Melody. "On the pretext of weapons of mass destruction -- and then the democratic rights of Iraqi people -- our government fooled our silent majority sheep that Iraq was a danger to us."

"The vested interests like Halliburton and Big Oil have made a killing out of the Iraq invasion," sighs Melody, "and the silent majority sheep still send their children to be slaughtered in a war which never was, and never will be, for our good."

"Our government, led by whatever party and whatever vested interest, has a bloody history of using the silent majority sheep to line the pockets of the rich and powerful," says Melody. "Even the American Revolution was started by the rich tea merchants of Boston. It was easy to whip up hatred for the king and the Westminster parliament among the rag-taggle refugees from mother England, but essentially they just changed one political master for another."

"In 1915, during WWI, a terrible influenza epidemic -- Spanish Flu -- swept around the world and millions dropped dead like flies and yet the war went on regardless," says Melody. "The real enemy -- the real focus of our government -- should have been this bug, but it wasn't. Why? Because governments have always been more concerned about the economic interests of a vested minorities than the health interests of the majority sheep."

"It's tragic that the only system of government -- communism -- that held out any hope for a people rather than a money focused economy was also usurped by the racketeers," sighs Melody. "In it's pure form, a communist community would be living in heaven, not the hell their greedy leaders dumped them in."

"What's happening right now in China, for instance, is scary," says Melody. "In their efforts to catch up with the West, the new economic masters are turning China into a polluted and disease-prone wasteland."

"With globalization, more of our food is coming from parts of the world that have no health regulations," says Melody, "and more of our immigrants are coming -- and going -- from these places, too."

"I'm concerned about our government cutting back on health measures in order to fund its vested interest wars and vested interest causes," says Melody. "I believe another pandemic is coming and our government -- paid by the silent majority to protect it -- is deliberately playing down this threat while stocking up the bunkers that are going to save them, not us."

"I look at all the anti-terror laws the government is passing and wonder whether their real purpose is to erode our freedoms and make us incapable of acting to save ourselves when the crunch comes," says Melody. "Are the security cameras, phone taps, strip searches, background checks and incredible delays in getting anything done or going anywhere really to protect us from terrorists?"

"Terrorists, or freedom-fighters, have been with us since our freedoms were first threatened," says Melody. "No great cause -- be it Christianity, democracy, slavery or whatever -- was achieved without terrorism and bloodshed."

"I don't want to focus my argument entirely on Iraq," says Melody, "because the whole war over there is being used as a smokescreen to hide what's happening here."

"One by one our freedoms are being demolished and the silent sheep like majority are not only being fleeced but led over a precipice," warns Melody. "Right now, apart from the big vested interests, certain minority vested interests are also driving the government. Some things once unacceptable are now acceptable -- such as homosexuality -- and some things once acceptable are now unacceptable -- such as smoking."

"The silent majority go along with whatever the government does because that's the deal, that's the social contract," says Melody. "They hug the homosexuals they once despised, and despise the smokers they once hugged."

"With a change in government, who knows what minority vested interests will next drive the country?" asks Melody. "Will we be hugging Arabs and despising Jews? Kissing paedophiles and spitting at SUV owners or gun owners?"

"The point to be made is that we are being socially engineered -- even genetically modified like Monsanto's food," says Melody, "and if we must be subject to a government run protection racket then why should we remain silent about what we want to be protected from?"

"I believe we have more chance of being killed by a simple flu virus than by trans fat, SUV pollution, global warning, cigarette smoke, a terrorist's bomb or a crazed gun owner," says Melody, "and we should all demand that our taxpayer dollars go into measures designed to stop these bugs getting into our country."