Megan McArdle:
To journalists ten or twenty years older than me, this is the long-awaited end to a grand mystery. To people my age or younger, it just doesn't matter that much. Baby boomers, many of whom seem to have trouble accepting the fact that time has passed, often seem incredulous that the major formulating events of their lives simply aren't that interesting to everyone else. Vietnam and Watergate have become the language of public debate, even though both ended over thirty years ago.
Megan and Hewitt (below) both mention this recent Jay Rosen column on Watergate nostalgia. Well worth checking out.
I read something over the weekend that put the Deep Throat revelations into perspective.
Those too young to remember Watergate have same reaction to Deep Throat as we who do remember it would have to new revelations about the Tea Pot Dome scandal. They're both are ancient history that nobody cares about anymore.
Hey, easy hos.
The boomers had to listen to their elders drone on about the depression, etc., thirty years later.
And so it goes with every generation.
I wonder what the currency of debate will be in another 20 to 30 years?
How Europe and almost half of America failed to recognize or willfully refused to acknowledge the greatest threat to freedom since Hitler? The ever increasing politicization of American society? The failure to attempt to fix the problems of medical care and social security when it would have been easier by far?
Ofcourse, they won't be debating this stuff with the unctuous, preachy certitude and hypocracy of the boomers, we will have to wait for many a generation to pass to see the likes of that again. But you can bet your pention or what's left of it on the fact that the youngers will be rolling their eyes then too.
Here's a couple Old Fogey possibilities for our generation:
Enron.
9/11. (If you doubt me look at how much attention Pearl Harbor Day gets nowadays. I don't even think the Washington Post mentioned last December).
You all need to read "Balsamic Dreams" by Joe Queenan.
Watergate, I was in my early 30's at the time, brought us only the four year disaster known as "The Carter Years".
Which reminds me of a true story I heard while living in DC '74-'79.
Billy Carter, trying to create a career seperate from his brother, the President, develops and markets his own product, "Billy Beer".
Jimmy, being a family man first, decides to not only help his brother's career, but ingratiate himself with the Speaker of the House, sends several cases of Billy Beer to Tip O'Neal.
Tip, being nobody's fool, has some questions regarding said unsolicited gift and decides to send to the NIH for testing.
After almost a week the NIH informs Speaker O'Neal his horse has diabetes.
G-d I love that story!
MikeD
