Texas Style Extremism

As we enter the fifth decade of the cultural war pinning the left and right wing Boomers against each other, the new battle lines are being fought over school curriculum.  With legislation such as No Child Left Behind, which will eventually nationalize our school curriculum, both sides of the cultural war want to assure that their point of view is being proselytized to future generations.

Today's battleground is in the state of Texas.  The vastly right wing Board of Education of Texas has voted to change the language in social studies and history text books. And, since Texas purchases the most text books in the country, they dictate what the publishers will print for most other states.

The new text books will alter language regarding many historical events.  For example, instead of referring to the business of bring slaves to the North American continent as the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the new text books will refer to the slave trade as the Atlantic triangular trade.  The most disturbing alteration is in regards to the concept of "separation of church and state".  Wanting to ignore the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the Texas Board of Education points out that the Constitution never actually includes the words"separation of church and state."  They even went as far as removing Thomas Jefferson as an example of an influential political thinker since Jefferson believed in separation of church and state and was not a Christian.

While I do agree somewhat with the frustration of the right regarding the text book language written by the politically correct left, swinging the pendulum so far right and invoking non-factual content, along with omitting critical historical figures, is not the answer.

But, what should we expect from the Boomers.  With such irrational and extremist views, they are not competent enough to rationally eliminate politically motivated curriculum from text books and create factual historical content for which students can analyze and debate. 

This time it is the right wing that is at fault.  But the left wing Boomer zealots are no better.  The text books created by the left wing Boomers had white Americans at fault for seaminly everything.  The left wing text books leave white children sobbing with the realization that their culture is the crux of all the worlds ills even though, most whites in the United States come from as diverse backgrounds as non-whites.

For those of us who study the Boomers, it is no surprise to see what is happening in Texas.  However, we should be concerned that this so called "cultural war" is polluting the education of future generations of Americans.

The Sky is Warming, The Sky is Warming

Hyperbole and Baby Boomers are synonymous. It really doesn't matter the subject matter.  However, when it comes to climate change, the Boomers even outdo themselves in extravagant exaggeration.

In the latest study conducted about climate change, the National Academy of Sciences is calling for even more extreme measures to counter the earth's warming temperatures.  (Now, before, I lose the zealots who are absolutely convinced climate change is happening, I have read climate change studies and do believe that "man" is a major factor that has led to increased earth temperatures.  When you think about it, it is pretty obvious.  The earth's human population has increase substantially in the last hundred years and there are bound to be some affects.)

With that said, some of the foolish exaggeration coming out of these Baby Boomer scientist's mouths are dumbfounding.  Here are some points from the Los Angeles Times article covering the new climate change study:

• Human populations should be shifted from coastal locations. (Seriously?  Should we really start panicking when nothing has happened to demonstrate rising tides)
• The Southwest will inevitably become more arid. (Really? Why can't the Northeast become more arid and the Southwest become more wet?  Where is the data to back this up?...or there isn't any)
• The ocean levels are going to increase by 5 feet by the end of the century. (We can't predict the weather for next week, but we are sure about the ocean level increase in 100 years? Yeah...right.)

From reading past climate change studies, the only thing that can be proved is that the earth has been warming in the last twenty years.  There also seems to be correlation between industry output and warming temperatures.  However, that is where the science stops. The rest of the arguments are typical Baby Boomer exaggerations about a myriad of climate change catastrophes.  With no data to back up their hyperbole, the Boomer scientists studying climate change have very little credibility.

The sad element is that climate change may affect the planet substantially.  However, the Boomer scientists and Boomer politicians like Al Gore are going to exaggerate to the point that we will stop listening to them.

Didn't any of these Boomers read Chicken Little?

Extremism Extremism and More Extremism

Ever since the Baby Boomers came of age and probably even before that, they have looked at life with grand extremism.  The first great example was the comparison of the Beatles versus the Rolling Stones in the 1960's.  For some reason, Boomers could not like both outstanding musical bands.  You were either a Stones fan or a Beatles fan.  Love relationships became extreme as well.  You either believe in free love or monogamy/marriage. The most intense extremist battle revolved around the Vietnam War. You were either part of the silent majority that supported the Vietnam War or you were adamantly against the war. 

The extremism continued into the 1970s.  Disco sucked or you loved disco.  You either accepted Jesus or you will go to hell.  You became physical fitness nut or a drug addict.  You either accept that American business is destroying the planet or you participate in the capitalist markets.

In the 1980's the extremism started to become more political as the Boomers started to enter leadership positions.  Abortion is murder or woman has a right to choose.  You were either for Reagan or for the nuclear freeze movement.  You were either a Democrat or a Republican.  You were either a born again Christian or not a Christian at all.

As the 1990's came about, the Boomers elected their first President.  At this point, the extremism started to become uglier.  Within days of the election of Democrat Bill Clinton, the right wing Boomer extremist spent every last breath to oust the first Boomer President.  The extremist attitudes came to a head when the Republican congress impeached the President for an extra-marital affair (extremist values hotly contested since the 1960's. Free love vs. monogamy). 

Then came the Presidential election of 2000.  Historians for centuries will use this election to demonstrate the extremist attitudes of the American culture in the later part of the twentieth and early part of the twenty first century.  The country became so intensely split in extremist camps that the Presidential election took over a month to resolve.  The end result had a right leaning Supreme Court pick a Republican candidate which brought out vengeance from the left wing zealots.  From the first day of George W. Bush's Presidency to the last, Democrats denied the validity of the 2000 elections outcome.  As the Republicans tried to destroy the Democratic President in the 1990's, the Democrats did the same in the 2000's.

The extremism continued even after Al Qaeda attacked America on 9/11/2001.  The right declared that we must fight terrorists and supplant civil liberties for safety.  The left vehemently disagreed and fought the right at every turn.  Issues such as gay marriage became a new extremist issue.  You either thought marriage was for a man or a woman or you were a sinner.  You thought people should be tolerant toward gay marriage or you were a bigot.

The environmental debate started to heat up as well.  You either believe in global warming or you do not.  Then when Democrat Barack Obama became President in 2008, the extremism of the Boomers hit a new level.  The right literally flipped out.  While President Obama pretty much continued most of the policies of the last Republican President, the right called him a socialist and a Nazi.  I am not sure how you can be both but it did not stop them from saying it.  Many extremist right wing Boomers then questioned the Presidents citizenship. 

So, here we are in 2010 with a nation split into two extremist camps.  It should be no surprise that the country is crippled by two extremist political parties bickering to the end, but one things is for sure, the Boomers are to blame for extremist attitudes that exist today all across the country.