WI: The Boomers had to deal with a World War?

So I've read a book on the Baby Boomers and their history, and it brought fresh to my mind the divide between the Boomers and their parents. Their parents had gone through a World War and a Depression. They were more conservative, they had grown up with less or nothing and had to save for the war effort and so they saved their money up and planned for the future and tried to be respectable, and nearly every man had gone into the battlefield and served his country and everyone else stayed home and conserved and worked for the war effort. It was their America, right or wrong, you couldn't say a word against America, and you were supposed to spoil your kids.
Meanwhile, the Boomers hadn't gone through a World War or Depression. They were more open to criticizing things and the idea that just because they did didn't mean they hated America. They were spoiled and comforted far more than their parents so they were looser in lifestyle, and they didn't have a World War so they didn't have to save up and conserve, and it wasn't the idea of their parents in WW2 that if they nations calls you up, you go, but rather for Vietnam it was that if they didn't want to go or didn't think it was right, they didn't go. It's just a completely different psychology, and they grew up in two different generations.

So what if the Baby Boomers, like their parents, had to deal with a World War in the 50's or 60's? I have no idea if this will get a single response, but I think it's interesting because it deals with how a generation views something, and that really is to me the most important part of history.
 
Well assuming we`re not taking nuclear out of the picture WW3 is horrific beyond imagination.

It`s easier to imagine them dealing with another great depression and then maybe a large scale war (but not WW3)、it would morph their attitudes completely. But then you`d maybe deal with spoiled 90`s hippies and a similar cultural revolution later. (And same greedy attitude probably).

The thing though is another depression wouldn`t necessarily make them more socialist. A depression in 1960s would require Keynesian methods to fail drastically. Similar to OTL 70s but obviously worse. So I still see them moving to the right of their parents. (Although probably they`d be a more sympathetic bunch).
 
Well assuming we`re not taking nuclear out of the picture WW3 is horrific beyond imagination.

It`s easier to imagine them dealing with another great depression and then maybe a large scale war (but not WW3)、it would morph their attitudes completely. But then you`d maybe deal with spoiled 90`s hippies and a similar cultural revolution later. (And same greedy attitude probably).

The thing though is another depression wouldn`t necessarily make them more socialist. A depression in 1960s would require Keynesian methods to fail drastically. Similar to OTL 70s but obviously worse. So I still see them moving to the right of their parents. (Although probably they`d be a more sympathetic bunch).

Turning rightward may make the 'counterculture' less nice.. :rolleyes:
I'd rather hippes than ubernationalist alt-skinheads, by example...
 
On the other hand, the generation that fought WWI fought a horrifying war, but is remembered as being incredibly libertine.
 
So what if the Baby Boomers, like their parents, had to deal with a World War in the 50's or 60's? I have no idea if this will get a single response, but I think it's interesting because it deals with how a generation views something, and that really is to me the most important part of history.

The vaporisation of at least half the world should remove all these culture war tropes you mention above.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
On the other hand, the generation that fought WWI fought a horrifying war, but is remembered as being incredibly libertine.
Well, they thought things could never get any worse, especially after the prices that even the victors had had to pay. "The War to End All Wars" and all that.

The Boomers and their parents, however, had known that things could always get worse since August 6, 1945.
 
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