Courtesy Thomas Dunne Books
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Q&A With Leonard Steinhorn
By Julia M. Klein, January 2006, January & February 2006
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In The Greater Generation: In Defense of the Baby Boom Legacy, Leonard
Steinhorn, a professor of communications at American University in Washington,
D.C., and a former political speechwriter, argues that Boomers have catalyzed
an ongoing cultural revolution that has changed American society for the
better. We talked to him about his book and about the work still left
undone.
What's your own position in the Baby Boom generation? What were your
causes?
I was born in April 1956. For me, being a Baby Boomer is less being a part
of an age cohort than being part of a sensibility. Personally, I grew up like a
sponge, absorbing all the currents of youth culture and politics and world
events and recent history, and that all had a tremendous effect on who I
became. I grew up like all Boomers in the shadow of the Holocaust and amid the
turmoil of civil rights and the upheavals of Vietnam and the great liberation
movements of the 1960s and '70s…. It gave us a sensibility that the
ideals of our country were superb, but the reality wasn't living up to
it.
What was the inspiration for this book?
This book arose out of the recognition that Boomers have not gotten credit
for all of the changes we've made as a generation. One thing that's
concerned me has been the overwhelming popular image of Boomers simply as
narcissists. That derives from a couple of factors. One is the snarky
journalism that Boomers themselves have created. Two, the battle over the Baby
Boom's image is a proxy for a larger cultural battle, a battle to define
the 1960s. Many conservatives today look at the '60s and look at Boomers as
the worst generation, a generation that has upended their authority, and they
don't like it. So they've created an image of Boomers and the '60s
as a frivolous generation and a frivolous era. I'm troubled that
there's this sort of hidden agenda…to turn back the clock on the
great gains that Boomers have made that have transformed us in fundamental ways
for the better. The bottom line is that the Baby Boom image has suffered, and
people take for granted all that Boomers have done. It's time for the
female basketball player who says she's not a feminist to figure out how
the ball got into her hands.
In addition to a defense of Boomers, there's also an attack in your
book on the so-called Greatest Generation. What were their failings?
I don't attack; I assess. I try to take the rose-colored glasses off the
history. Boomers never fought World War II or suffered through a depression,
but millions of Boomers fought bravely in a pointless and duplicitous war [in
Vietnam] the Greatest Generation bequeathed them, and millions more protested
the pointlessness and duplicity of that war. Boomers have been set up as the
profligate children of these virtuous parents, and I just think that's
wrong. When you strip away the nostalgia for the 1950s, what was life like
then? Women were kept at home, blacks were kept separate, and gays were kept in
the closet, if not imprisoned. These were not pretty times for many Americans.
When the two generations, Boomers and their parents, faced the same America
entering the 1960s, one stuck fiercely to the status quo and the other pushed
for change to make a freer, more equal, more inclusive society.
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Why do you think this generation provoked so much social change? What was
special about them or the times?
There are a number of factors. One is the issue of relationship to
authority. Boomers really grew up as a generation who questioned authority
because they felt they had to question authority. They grew up in a culture
that talked about freedom and equality yet cozied up to segregation; that
talked about democracy but was promoting dictators and sending Boomers to die
for a corrupt government in South Vietnam. Coupled with that is the flip side:
Boomers grew up believing in the ideals they were taught and seeing those
ideals weren't being implemented.
What were some of the signal accomplishments of this generation?
Changing the norms on any number of issues: changing the norms on men and
women and gender equality; changing the norms in terms of creating a more
diverse and inclusive and accepting society; creating a greater sense of
equality and mutual respect among religious and ethnic and racial minorities,
and also among gays and lesbians, for so many years the most reviled of all
Americans; energizing the environmental movement. We've created a greater
cultural freedom: as long as it's not hurting anybody, what's the harm
of anybody leading life the way they like to lead it?
Wasn't it just the older members of the generation, or a minority of
the generation, who accomplished these things?
It's not just what you do when the lights are on—it's what you
do in families and institutions and workplaces. These are the daily heroes of
this generation: men and women who are raising children according to more
egalitarian values, people who sort their recycling every day, those who give
greater attention to issues like child care and ethnic diversity in the
workplace. There's nothing Homeric about these little actions, but they
filter through an entire generation.
Can you explain the seeming paradox between this liberal generation and
our conservative, Republican-dominated politics?
Politics doesn't always reflect culture. It rarely has. Most Americans
really don't pay much attention to politics, let's face it.
Conservatives talk about civil rights, talk about diversity, say they're
pro-environment. They've adopted and acknowledged the changed culture
through their rhetoric and campaigning even if the government doesn't
follow through—because they know most of us don't pay attention to
how people govern.
How much other work is left undone? What are the key challenges that
remain?
Boomers should continue to support their sons and daughters in making
equitable and responsible decisions on how to lead family lives. We should
continue to support the interfaith relationships and friendships our kids are
having and continue to push for greater integration of communities. We're
not perfect environmentally, so we should continue to put our energies there.
Boomers have to continue to push for transparency in government and fight the
seduction of public relations in politics—the seduction of image making
that makes us think that somebody is on our side when, in fact, they're
really not.
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