Friday 18 April 2014

Baby Boomers not old fuddy duddies



A letter to the editor in The Sydney Morning Herald on 15 April 2014 shines a light on media misconceptions regarding older Australians:

I’m a bit bemused that there is some surprise that the Nielsen poll shows that those "who would have been expected to be the most enthusiastic" about the reactionary reintroduction of knights and dames – over-55s – have rejected this concept. 
We were the ones who created the Vietnam war moratorium; spoke loudly against the ballot for conscription; struggled for women’s rights through the feminist movement (though that has gone a bit awry through the idea that all mothers must immediately return to the workforce when their child is a babe – it was about choice); and wanted indigenous recognition. 
Why on earth is there this stereotype of "old fuddy duddies" when I happen to think the baby boomers where much more progressive than the subsequent generations?

Wendy Akers Pearce
ACT

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Good point - except that it was only a minority of baby-boomers who were against the Vietnam War , or were feminists ,or in ant way radical or reformist. Most of the baby-boomers were happy to toe the prevailing conservative line , climb the corporate or bureaucratic ladder and look forward to retiring on their super or public service pension . Most over 55's vote LNP . Unfortunately.