Member-only story
The Loneliest Generation — What’s That All About?
Today, I read a WSJ report on the twenty-first century epidemic of Boomer generation singletons (1946–1964). The reporter submitted a rigorous argument as to why elder isolation is no joke.
Is loneliness different for the Boomers? — or is it just another expression of their privileged malaise?
I’m at the tail end of the new “Lonelies.” I was born in 1958, and fit their description like a lid.
Doctors and social workers cite the sad reasons for the current tsunami of at-risk singletons: their smaller families, ubiquitous divorces, fewer children. There are vague pointers toward unfettered capitalism — you’re useless if you ain’t making money for somebody.
My mind wandered further.
Our generation lost a lot of “family” early on, despite our material gains. We were the kids of epic assassinations — our earliest memories are of JFK, Malcolm, Martin, RFK. It is the first memory I have of my mother, her tears.
We subsequently lost our brothers and cousins to endless wars — in our youth, to Vietnam. The draft was a death sentence in the wings.
Next, not even a decade later, AIDS wiped out entire kindred families. — Gone, in a matter of weeks, months.
