Mene, mene, tekel upharsin

Yesterday I had the realization that my generation -- the baby boom generation -- which has always regarded itself as a great gift to humanity because of all the well-meaning revolutionary ideas, sex, drugs and rock and roll it has given the world -- will soon suffer a crushing reversal of its self-image.

Not because it's getting old (my older brother, born in 1945 while the war was still going on, just turned 60) or because of the consequent burden on Social Security. Not because we refuse to get old, seizing on hair-darkening goop, face-lifting surgery, Viagra, and Mustang convertibles to prolong our melting self-images. Not even because we gave the world George Bush.

The baby boom generation is soon going to be known as the worst generation in history because of what it's done to the world.

How quickly the list comes to mind:

• We failed to halt rapidly spreading pollution and urban sprawl. Global warming is almost a fait accompli, and 75 years from now when coastal cities are being abandoned, the world will curse us.
• We paved over every inch we could, turned the rest into golf courses, and cut down forests at a breathtaking rate, resulting in a huge loss of topsoil and fresh water.
• We used huge amounts of resources to raise beef for American hamburgers, and everywhere a "western" lifestyle takes hold, an obesity epidemic breaks out. Obesity is now a growing problem among middle class youth in India.
• We could have used our resources to stop AIDS cold. But we didn't. Now tens of millions of people will die, and the economies of the poorest countries will suffer the most. Tens of millions of children will grow up orphans, ripe for exploitation by slavers or forced induction as child soldiers, leading to massive destabilization of third world economies. Think Somalia -- now think of fifty countries around the world collapsing like that.
• We bought billions of dolars worth of electronic crap and then threw it away. The poorest of the poor who "recycle" it in third world countries -- that is, who take apart, by hand, computers, TVs and the like to salvage valuable metals -- die from toxic exposure. And if that's the way the industry treats the people who work for them, you can imagine how carelessly they dispose of the plastic and metal refuse after anything valuable is extracted.

I could go on, but you get my point. We, the baby boomers, have this wondrous idea of ourselves, that our enlightened ideas will move the planet forward. Fifty years from now, the evidence will show the opposite, and history will curse us.

Oh -- what are the good things we've done? I think the list would include: Really nice upscale coffee shops -- those are a real gift to the world, aren't they? -- rock and roll, the internet (though I think the jury's still out on that)... Frankly, I'm having trouble thinking of any lasting genuine contributions my generation can take credit for.

So I think the score is something like 63 trillion to 5. We have a lot to be sorry for.