blogcutter

Just like Max Frost in Wild in the Streets, I have now been taken down a peg. The Baby Boom generation (to which I belong) is no longer the most populous one in Canada. Instead, it is the Millennials who prevail. I would assume that the situation is similar in the U.S. although I haven't researched it enough to say for sure.
Anyway, back to Max Frost.

Max felt that the world revolved around him and his generation and the world owed him a gold-plated living. Folks over 30 were not to be trusted and were forcibly retired and trucked off to places resembling concentration camps. Meanwhile, Max and his people campaigned to lower the voting age to 14. In the song Fifty-two Percent, they boasted about the great youth-oriented society where all the TV shows are written for them and just about everything else is geared to their wishes and whims. Eventually Max ran for U.S. president and won by a landslide. It's beyond the scope of this entry to speculate as to whether a young or an old U.S. president is better for their country or for the world as a whole but anyway, you can listen to the Wild in the Streets soundtrack here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcN_ivZdpJQFsYSkS_lbyhep1xc7BAfNX

Is it a blessing or a curse to be in the majority? Perhaps it's a mixed blessing. Or a mixed curse, if you're in the "glass half empty" camp.

Even back in 1968 when I was a teenager and we were supposedly a youth-oriented society, there were plenty of people and public- and private-sector institutions who really had no use for young people! If we took too long browsing the magazines at the Little Brick Smokehouse on Elgin Street, the proprietor would sarcastically ask if he could stamp our library cards for us. (Aside: That may be why I eventually became a librarian - so I could stamp my own library card and possibly refuse to issue him a card!) Later, when looking for an apartment to rent while I studied for my librarianship degree, I constantly walked past places with rooms or apartments for rent and the firm statement "No students, please!" on them. Summer and part-time jobs were in short supply because there were so many of us and as for getting a job after graduation? Well, I think we've all heard of the archetypal person with a PhD working as a night-shift janitor or a taxi driver earning below the minimum wage.

Now I'm a senior and society can be quite ageist. But do the Millennials have it any easier? Jobs may be easier to come by, but not necessarily good or secure jobs. Housing is scarce and expensive. I really don't envy the younger generations.

But to end on a more positive note, I do see the progress we've made over the decades. I'm encouraged by some of the intergenerational initiatives I've seen. I think the generation gap is definitely closing. The gender gap too. We're not there yet but I think we are more socially conscious and less classist. I'd love to see the politicians work harder on issues that transcend party politics, like Universal Basic Income and fairness and equality for groups that are marginalized for whatever reason.

Below, here's the StatsCan release that sparked all this:

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/240221/dq240221a-eng.htm

Way back in the 70s, we feminists used to use the word "click" to denote an "Aha!" moment of realization about the sexist world we lived (and perhaps still live) in. Last week in their weekly "Global Voices" column, Craig and Marc Kielburger warned us to think before we click - as in clicking on cutesy or otherwise attention-grabbing images and then forwarding them to a few hundred of our closest friends via social media. Their sage advice to readers? "Memes can be entertaining, insightful ... or toxic."

YESSSS!! was my reaction. And more importantly, how refreshing to hear this from people of their generation, who were practically born with a cyber-spoon implanted in their tastebuds. Or something. (Aside: Is it just a coincidence that we talk about subscribing to "feeds"?) They go on to quote Ottawa-based media consultant Mark Blevis, who says, "Memes replace thoughtful conversation and prevent us from finding common ground between different opinions." And back to the Kielburgers:

"Things that make us laugh can distract from donning our critical-thinking hats. We hit Like and share content without considering the potential harm we're helping to spread."

Now, back to my generational theme. On the same page of the paper as "Global Voices", I read Wanda Morris' weekly column, Grey Matters. Wanda Morris is the VP of Advocacy for CARP, a high-profile Canadian seniors' group of which I am a member. Some people associate elders with wisdom and in fairness, I should say that I generally enjoy reading her column and frequently agree with her. But I think she really missed the boat on this one, dealing with food labelling.

She argues that since so many Canadians are overweight or obese, we need warning symbols on the front of any package containing food high in sugar, salt or saturated fat, an approach favoured by Health Canada. Food industry players, on the other hand, favoured more public education coupled with more detailed nutritional information. Ms. Morris sums it up with the sentence "Rather than simple and expedient packaging changes, industry lobbyists called for a level of nutritional literacy that, based on the current state of our waistlines, is clearly beyond many of us."

Wow. Let's not bother about being intelligent consumers - let's rely on alarmist images (sort of like the aforementioned memes, wouldn't you say?) instead! Clearly she figures we oldsters are all in our dotage and can't possibly be expected to listen to our bodies and make up our own minds and make smart choices.

In my book, there's a big difference between "simple" and simplistic packaging. A food that's (for example) high in sugar might be something that's only used in small quantities at a time. Another product might contain absolutely no sugar (and hence have no warning label) and yet be loaded with carcinogenic or otherwise health-injurious artificial sweetener. And let's not forget that even the so-called experts have changed their views over the years about what nutrients we need in our diets and in what proportion. Should we focus on complex carbohydrates? Omega-3 fatty acids? Proteins? Lots and lots of fruits and vegetables? Or does it depend on the individual and the age and stage of life, the health concerns, allergies and so forth?

Regardless of what generation we belong to, I'd like to think we haven't lost the ability to look before we leap, and think before we click.